This hasn't happened in a while

Ah, the joys of being a high school coach. I guess this is a sign that I am loved...



You gotta love Halloween.

State playoffs bound

I now have a pretty good idea what it's like for those basketball teams waiting for their bids to the NCAA tournament. The Middle Park HS boys soccer team (which I am an assistant coach for) finished its regular season last week and finished second in their region, thus securing a spot in the state playoffs for the first time in several years. The seeding committee met this morning and finally around 12:30 the bracket was posted. We were seeded 25th in the 32 team field--a little lower than we had hoped, but are looking forward to the opportunity to extend our season. We will be traveling to Hotchkiss on Tuesday to take on a team that went undefeated with record of 11 wins and 4 draws. With just one practice to prepare, we will have to be on our game. Although we like our chances going up against a team that we have no history with, so we have no preconceived idea of what we need to do. We just have to play our best soccer and see how things play out.

goo goo g'joob

One year +

I'm a month late in celebrating my one year anniversary of working for the Sky-Hi Daily News. But I guess that's okay, because my boss just did my annual review today, so I'm not the only one late in marking the occasion.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity that I've had to work for the newspaper. In these times when many newspapers are laying off staff or even folding, I'm thankful for this job and the support I receive from my editor and the rest of the editorial staff. Working for a small community paper does have its advantages and there are also a few disadvantages. We just finished putting together our entries for the state press association contest and I was hard-pressed to find any strong news images from the last year. I had plenty of feature and sports photos to choose from. I guess that will be a challenge for myself in the next year--to produce more news photos.

One other thing I want to do in the next is make this blog more interesting. I think I said that a while back, but I'm now to the point where I like the title and I feel I have a better vision of what I want it to be, so that anyone who actually reads it will have a reason to keep coming back.

So I'll be anxious to see what the next year holds in store for my community, the nation and the world, and what we will be talking about a year from now.

goo goo g'joob

A Weekend in Missouri

I visited my daughter at the University of Missouri over the weekend. It was great to be able to spend some time with her--coming from a high school of 400, then being a part of the largest freshman class in Mizzou history (approx. 5,900 students) has been quite an adjustment. We were able to watch the Missouri women's soccer team defeat my alma mater Iowa Friday night and then go out for a nice dinner.

I shot the Missouri-Buffalo football game on Saturday, then we headed out for dinner in downtown Columbia. You just gotta love the atmosphere of a college town after a football game.

Emily mentioned to me that she had seen a building in downtown Columbia that had our last name on it. We drove by it a couple of times during the weekend, but I didn't get a photo of it until I was on my way out of town Sunday morning:

Apparently in the late 1800s/early 1900s there were two brothers named Hetzler who had some sort of meat packing operation in downtown Columbia. Hetzler isn't a very common name, so it's always interesting to come across things like this.

It was an all too quick couple of days, but well worth it.

NOTE: Shameless plug to follow!

One of the things that made traveling easier for me this time was the purchase of a ThinkTank Airport Security rolling case. I had been reading about them for a long time and talked to other photographers who own this particular case and each of them had nothing but praise for it. I had been using a LowePro Computrekker for many years, it's a good bag, but it was taking a toll on my shoulders and back. The ThinkTank case is carry-on size and I was able to fit everything in it I needed to shoot a football game.

A new title

For the first post on my revised blog, let's start with the obvious question of "what's the deal with the new title of this blog?"

Over the years, I have had to photograph a variety of subject matter and events. I have photographed editorial jobs, commercial jobs, NFL football, college football, high school football, NBA basketball, college basketball, high school basketball, NHL hockey, World Cup skiing, the Winter X Games, Major League baseball, high school baseball, MLS soccer, high school soccer, PGA golf, high school volleyball, high school softball, high school track, rodeos, trail rides, traffic accidents, wildlife, weddings, black tie fundraisers, ground breakings, ribbon cuttings, concerts, craft fairs...you get the idea. Each of these situations often requires blending into the scene, thus the title "I am the Chameleon" and the obvious spoof on the Beatles "I am the Walrus."

Goo goo g'joob, or was it coo coo kachoo?

Rodeo

Unlike many of my photographer friends, colleagues and acquaintances, I am not in Beijing.

I've had a few people ask or comment about some rodeo photos I've been shooting for the paper lately, so I thought I would offer some insight into what I do to get those shots. I have to say that this may not be how every other rodeo shooter does it, but these are the techniques that work for me in the arenas I shoot at.

I have been shooting the rodeos in Grand County off and on over the past 18 years, but in the last five or six years I have shot most of the rodeos in Granby and Fraser each summer. The Granby rodeo series runs from Memorial Day weekend through the Fourth of July. Granby's Flying Heels Arena is big--so big that I shoot most events from inside the arena. Over the years I have had a few close calls with the livestock, but, knock on wood, nothing worse than having to scramble over the fence.

In July the rodeo action in Grand County moves from Granby to Fraser. The rodeo arena in Fraser isn't as big as the one in Granby, so I don't have to be inside the arena (except for mutton busting), which makes it easier not having to think about the traffic in the arena and avoiding getting run over by horses or bulls, so I can focus on shooting.



What the Fraser arena has in common with Granby is that both have terrible lighting. Of course the bull riding happens at the end of the rodeo, so in order to get usable shots I put up several small strobe units to supplement, or more accurately, take control of the lighting. It helps, but it's not perfect, because of the limited options I have for placement of the strobes as shown below:



For comparison, here is what the action looks like without any additional lighting. Keep in mind I did a fair amount of work on the image in Photoshop to get it look like this:



The best action tends to be right in front of the chutes, so that is where I have them aimed. Here are a couple examples of the results of shooting with the strobes:





(Please note: I've been trying to finish this post for a couple of weeks now, but for some reason I was having a terrible time getting the photos added to the post.)

How I spent two hot days in Denver...

I spent the last two days in Denver shooting a benefit golf tournament for the National Sports Center for the Disabled. I have shot this event every year for the past 15 years or so--the last eight years the tournament has been held at The Sanctuary, an incredible private golf course south of Denver. They only host a handful of tournaments each year, so it's quite a privilege to get to see this amazing golf course.




PGA Tour player Jonathan Kaye was on hand the second day to schmooze with the players and did a clinic with some disabled children.



The event raised more than $500,000 for the NSCD.