It Cuts Both Ways

Well, now that the high school basketball season is over, I thought I'd share my comments on those two net cutting photos from a while back. (Actually, Seth sent a nice reminder because I had forgot.... much like how I've "forgot" to do my laundry to the point that I'm wearing pants and shirts I haven't worn in years)

Anyway...

First photo:


I took this photo, and sometimes photographers defend an image because of what they went through to get it. Photogs will become attached to their picture because they climbed a ladder, or hung off a ledge or something. But I have to keep reminding myself that what you do to get the photo doesn't always mean it's a good photo. I've shot net cuttings a couple times before and never liked what I got. So when this team started cutting the net, I tried to figure out a way to get something different than what I've gotten before. All the other times I've shot this event, I stood right under the net and looked up a the folks cutting the net. So this time, I ran to the team bench, grabbed a chair and placed it just out-of-bounds along the baseline. Then I held my camera "Hail Mary" style above my head. If could have gotten higher, I would have.

So the fact that I got something different than my other net cutting photos made me REALLY like this one. But, to get specific, I like that I have so many aspects of the event in the photo. The head coach, the cheering girls, the happy parents... etc. The only thing missing is the losing team crying in the background.

The only thing I'd do different would maybe take my flash off camera. The light on the net and the coaches face is pretty harsh because my flash is on my camera. And, of course, if I could have gotten higher, I would have.

Second Photo:


Jim Cenac took this picture. And when I first saw it, I didn't like it. It was too busy. The background is really cluttered with rafters and redness. And that really distracts me from the moment. The net gets lost in the rafters. But I'm glad I asked for thoughts on the two images because nobody really said the rafters bothered them. In fact, Erica said something about how the net and the bars work together and that the player is consumed by a net like pattern. I would have never thought that. I just saw the funky light on the rafters with the shadows of the bars and stuff. The rafters and lighting were problems I had during the other times I've shot net cuttings, so I didn't even try this shot.

I got a call from the coach in the first photo. She was asking for a print of another photo I took, but also said that she wished it wasn't her in the photo. She said she wished it had been one of her players. Like any coach, they'll give credit to their team and not themselves. I agree. I picked the coach photo b/c all the elements in that photo fell into place better than the ones I took with the players. That's a good aspect of #2, it's one of the top players cutting down the net.

(Should be noted that the Ellender girls put t-shirts on at the end of every game after this... covering up their numbers... making it really hard to identify who they were when writing cutlines for the photos.)

Another thing to think about is that the image is from a low angle. A low vantage point gives the subject a dominant feeling. Very "manly" for a lack of a better term. The subject is looking down on the viewer, it's powerful. And it's a vertical image which, on a newspaper page, is very powerful. And the Ellender girls were a very dominant and powerful team. Kind of a stretch... but true.

Final Thoughts:

I'm really glad I got some other thoughts on these two images. To be honest, I was a little upset when I saw #2 huge on the front page and mine small on the sports page. It boiled down to me being attached to the image because what I did to get it. And that's not cool. So to hear some thoughts in favor of both was really cool.

Both images are solid shots. And both get the point across of what happened that night. We could go on forever debating the two images. Both have arguments for and against them.

And what we just did there... debating two images... happened almost every night in college. We'd have 4 people at an event and when we got back and pulled up our photos, everybody would just argue for or against different images. It was great. Sure, it got pretty heated sometimes, but once the decision on what photo to use was made, everybody was cool and couldn't wait to do it again the next night. But that's what I love about photography, everybody sees things differently.

sweet.

Ellender Patriots! Clap... Clap... ClapClapClap

In the past three weeks, I've photographed 4 state semi-final tournament games and 3 state championship games. Throw march madness in that mix and you've got yourself (at least I do) One heck of a fun month of basketball.

Two weeks ago, the lady Patriots of Ellender Memorial High School won their 4th or 5th State championship. (can't remember) And last Friday, their male counterparts played for a state title as well. The school was 5 points away from being the first team in Louisiana History to bring home a boys and girls state championship in the same year. I was pulling for them. But the boys lost a heart breaker in overtime to a team they beat by 17 earlier in the season.

But anyway... On Friday, Misty and I headed to Lafayette to shoot two state title games. E.D. White (a Thibodaux team) and Ellender both played. Both teams lost, but misty and I kicked some major photographing butt with the amount and quality of images posted online to houmatoday.com. (feel free to purchase reprints of any of the photos online as well... we just got that up and running too.)

And today, I finally finished up a slide show from the Ellender Girls state championship game. Check it out here... and check out the photo on the cover of my website of a dude doing a flip.

And I'll leave you with a photo that ran on the front page of the Courier the morning after the Ellender boys lost. The image was cropped in the print edition to fit the space provided. So that sucked. But that's why we have other outlets for photos now-days. They cropped the guys celebrating out of the top. Which, to me, is just as important to the image as the sad kid in the front. Oh well, I'll chalk this up to a good example of Print vs Web.

It's partly an expression of my teenage angst...but mostly it's a moocow!

This weekend, Misty got a craving. Not for cheese balls or pizza rolls. But a craving to do some painting.

She hit up the local arts and craft store and came home with some paint, all sorts of brushes, and some canvas things.

So tonight, after watching Desperate Housewives, the two of us sat down at the kitchen table and did some art.

It was the first time for both of us to paint on canvas like that. We drew a line down the middle and each took a side. (Misty on the left, Matt on the right)

This is what we ended up with. It's now hanging in Misty's kitchen above her freezer.



Then, Taylor wanted in on the art action. So Misty hooked her up with some kids paint, a few brushes and a blank piece of paper and let her go to town.



Her legs and hand ended up with just as much paint as the paper, but that's why they have kids paint.



I don't think you'll be seeing the Mona Lisa from the three of us anytime soon. But we're sure going to have fun trying.

Ellender Patriots... State Champs

Congrats to the Ellender Patriots... 2007 class 5A Girls State Basketball Champions.

(Also the high school misty graduated from)

They beat the #1 team in the state 37-32 tonight in Hammond Louisiana

Good game... Lots of Jube after the buzzer. I love shooting that more than sad, crying stuff.

Number 12 was the Game/Tourney MVP... she was hurt early in the first quarter. Cool

35 seconds

If anybody happens to watch some college basketball this weekend and accidentally comes across the KSU vs. Oklahoma game.... keep an eye open for the 35-second shot clock operator. It's my mom.

She's been doing the 30-second clock for the KSU women's games for a few years now. And this will be her first Men's game. And it happens to be nationally televised. (I think.. it's on ABC, but not sure how far away from Kansas it'll go)

I, on the other hand, will be photographing a Doggie Fashion Show at the local PETCO. How lucky am I?

Have a good weekend.

all y'all

Couple quick things...

1: I've finished my audio slideshow from Mardi Gras. It's posted on my website. So check it out if you get the chance. (click the "Mardi Gras" link)

2: My finger is a lot better. I still can't bend it all the way. But the swelling is going down.

3: I'm going to get you guys my thoughts on those two photos pretty quick... I promise.

4: I'll be shooting the Girls State Basketball Championship game on Friday. So that should be fun.

I think that's about it for now. I'm off to eat some pizza rolls.

This little piggy... swelled up like a baloon.

Have you ever thought about how often you use your left pinkie finger? It's quite a bit. And you really don't know how often until you can't use it at all.

On Friday, my left pinkie started to swell up a little bit, and by Friday afternoon, it spread to the back of my hand. So Misty and I went to the Doctor to get it checked out. He said it was probably some sort of infected spider bite. (or infected ingrown hair.. but I'm going to sick with spider bite because it sounds cooler)

He hooked me up with some meds and sent me home.

On Saturday, the swelling spread almost to my wrist and I couldn't move my left pinkie and ring finger at all. I could only pinch using my index finger and thumb. It hurt to hang my arm by my side. So for the past four days, I've walked around with my left hand in the air like a doctor after washing his hands before surgery waiting to have the rubber gloves put on. (if that makes any sense)

So I was minus a left hand... but still managed to shoot a state soccer championship game. (See photo here)

Funny Side Story: South Louisiana had bad thunder storms all over the place Saturday night. We were in Tornado warnings and all that good stuff. So at the game, I decked out in my rain pants and coat. I wrapped my big lens and flash in trash bags. And not a single drop of rain fell. Ah well.

Sunday morning, I woke up and could see my ring finger knuckle and was able to bend my pinkie a little bit. So it's getting better.

The swelling kind of made a triangle from my middle, ring and pinkie fingers with the point of the triangle at my wrist. The blue line on my hand marks where the swelling was on Friday afternoon. It pretty much doubled before starting to go down.

Now it's Monday night and most of the redness is gone, but I still can't bend it as much as I should be able to. And it really sucks when I accidentally bump it into things.





So there you go... Back to work on my Mardi Gras Slideshow.

You Make the Call

Anybody remember a TV or Radio show back in the day that would give a situation in a baseball game then would ask "You Make the Call."

I think it was part of "This Week In Baseball."

Anyway, I'm going to give you guys a chance to make the call on a couple photos. Which one would you hang on your wall? Which one would enter in a contest? Which one would you wish you'd have taken.

Here's the two photos...

The Vandebilt Girls basketball team won a playoff game to advance to the "Ladies Top 28" (The sweet 16 of Louisiana High School Basketball). It's their first trip there since 1988. The team and coach cut down the net after their win last night. Here's the image from that celebration.



Across town, The Ellender Girls basketball team also won their playoff game to advance to "Top 28" (However, they are in a different class from Vandebilt). Ellenders' last trip to the "Top 28" was 2002. Also a very exciting win for the girls and worthy of a net cutting ceremony. Here's the image from that game.



Which one would you use and why? Defend your decision, give specific reasons or just pick one. I love this kind of debate because nobody is right or wrong.

SIDE NOTE: This isn't a complaint about what actually happened, but rather just a chance to hear what other people see in pictures.

In College, I had a professor (Bradley) who would put two photos on the screen and the class would spend the entire hour debating the two images. It was a GREAT way to learn about photography.

One of the best learning experiences I've had, in terms of photography, was watching the Pictures of the Year judging a while back. I was in a dark room with a huge screen. There were five judges in front of the screen. In the first round, an image would pop up and the judges would vote In or Out. If an image got a majority "in" vote, it'd go to the next round.

In the second round, the judges would talk a little about their decision to keep that image in the contest.

Then, after a few hours, they had the 1,000 or so images narrowed down to about 10. And they'd spend another hour or so just debating what image was the best.

I loved it. An image that i thought was amazing might have been shot down. Then I'd hear their reason why. Sometimes I'd agree, other times I wouldn't. But that's what makes photography so great. It's art and everybody sees things differently.

Now, when I shoot different events, sometimes I'll think..."well, maybe I should try something else with this picture because during the contest judging, they said that this type of image is a Dime a Dozen." (well, maybe it's not that cheesy sounding, but you get the idea)

I'll give you my thoughts on the two above images in a later post. I just want to hear what others think.

Floats and beads and pizza rolls

Well it was a pretty darn good Mardi Gras.

Started with my entire family coming down for the weekend and ended with Misty riding in the final parade and throwing me cheese and crackers from the float. Who could ask for anything more?

I'm working on a multimedia project from Mardi Gras. I've got some good interviews and cool photos to go along with them. That should be done soon.

So here are a couple photos from Fat Tuesday. (The rest of my good ones will be in the slideshow)

A view of Downtown Houma as the Krewe of Houmas rolls through.




And a couple of "ladies" wait for the parade to start. (I just thought this was really funny.)



Oh, and the pizza rolls... that's what I had for dinner tonight so they were fresh on my mind.

Thank you Mrs. Glen Jenkins

Back in Aug. of 1977, Mrs Glen Jenkins was trying to think of something nice to get her husband for his birthday. So she took a trip to Montgomery Ward and came across a 12 pound brown bowling ball for $34.99. She took a few more steps and saw a matching leather case for $19.99. And it was her lucky day because "The Ward" was offering free engraving that afternoon. So she had her husbands last name etched permanently in the ball right above the finger holes. She wasn't positive her husband would like this very thoughtful gift so she stuck the signed credit card receipt in the small inside pocket of the bowling bag.

The years went by, and sure glen bowled a few games with the boys every now and then. But he never joined the league like he talked about. He never started up the weekly bowling trips with the wife and friends. Before too long, he was too old to bowl and the very thoughtful present of a bowling ball and bag, that totaled $57.18 with tax, found it's way to the deepest corner of the Jenkins' garage.

***Fast Forward to 2004***

After the very sad passing of both Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, the surviving family decided to auction off what the loving couple had left behind. A couch, some chairs, a cabinet and the almost like new brown bowling ball.

The morning of the auction, a young couple entered the room in search of a bargen. They had recently moved in together and were hoping to find something for their new home. After bidding a few times, but winning nothing, they spot "Jenkins" the bowling ball. They decided to go for it and bid to win the ball for a younger brother.

They listen to the dude rattle off some prices, they flash their auction card and before they could say something really fast like those auction dudes do... they had won "Jenkins"

Now, if you calculate for inflation between 1977 dollars and 2004 dollars and look at the average price of Bowling Balls and Bags, I'd say they got one heck of a deal. Final selling price for the ball and bag: $1

They proudly brought it home and delivered it to the eager young bowling brother who welcomed "Jenkins" with open arms and dreams of a 300.

***Fast Forward to 2006-2007***

"Jenkins" now had a life. He's being used on a regular basis. He's still never been a part of a league, but he and the boys had a Thursday night game a few summers ago. And he is currently getting rolled every Monday for a few games. He even got the owner a personal best of 203 the other night.

The only thing holding "Jenkins" back was the bag. It was a top of the line bag in 1977, but this is a new century and "Jenkins" needed something safe and reliable to be transported in. The owners girlfriend couldn't stand the sight of "Jenkins" traveling in such filth. She wasn't having it.

So last night, she took matters into her own hands. And gave "Jenkins" a new transport unit. This new unit has the look and feel of the old 70's looking bag, but the freshness and dependability of a bag made this century. In addition to the bag, she even tossed in a new (used) pair of matching leather bowling shoes.

"I couldn't believe it," The Owner said. "How could someone be this thoughtful? I guess the kind caring heart of Mrs. Glen Jenkins has been passed down through the years. Amazing, simply amazing. Thank You."

Now everybody is happy. The girlfriend can now be seen comfortably with her boyfriend while walking through the bowling ally. "Jenkins" is trilled because he now had a nice, clean place to pass the time between games. And, most important, Mrs. Glen Jenkins is finally getting to see the gift she put so much thought into getting used.



This is "Jenkins" sitting proudly between to the old bag (left) and his new unit. He's even become quite the Saints fan in the past few years, making this bag that much more meaningful to him.

(Thank you Misty!)