I'm not sure what it is about contrails, but they fascinate me.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Catching up, again
Surprise, surprise...way behind on posting, again.
Between work and coaching, it's amazing how fast the past two months have gone by. The Middle Park HS girls soccer team really put together a season to remember. They ended up undefeated in our new league (10-0) and lost just one non-conference game to finish 14-1 overall. We anxiously awaited the state tournament bracket to come out and see where we were seeded. Much to our surprise, we got the 9th seed and would face Aspen HS in our first-ever playoff game, which we would also host.
We came out looking very strong, dominating possession, getting shots, but we couldn't find the back of the net. An unfortunate handball in the penalty area gave Aspen a penalty kick midway through the first half and a 1-0 lead. A second Aspen goal in the second half didn't keep the girls from continuing to shoot. In fact we out-shot Aspen 15-3. We finally scored late in the half to close the gap, but just couldn't find an equalizer. Another frustration for us was hitting the crossbar five times. Just a case of outplaying our opponent, but not being able to score when we needed it.
As a coach, you really feel for your athletes when they have been working so hard all season long, but then their hard work isn't rewarded with a playoff win. This was a special season with a special group of girls. They have set the bar very high for future teams.
A very special thank you to the seniors we will be saying goodbye to at our banquet on Tuesday evening: Emily, Lindsey, Anna, Brittany, Khyla, Shelley, Kristin, and Ryndi.
Between work and coaching, it's amazing how fast the past two months have gone by. The Middle Park HS girls soccer team really put together a season to remember. They ended up undefeated in our new league (10-0) and lost just one non-conference game to finish 14-1 overall. We anxiously awaited the state tournament bracket to come out and see where we were seeded. Much to our surprise, we got the 9th seed and would face Aspen HS in our first-ever playoff game, which we would also host.
We came out looking very strong, dominating possession, getting shots, but we couldn't find the back of the net. An unfortunate handball in the penalty area gave Aspen a penalty kick midway through the first half and a 1-0 lead. A second Aspen goal in the second half didn't keep the girls from continuing to shoot. In fact we out-shot Aspen 15-3. We finally scored late in the half to close the gap, but just couldn't find an equalizer. Another frustration for us was hitting the crossbar five times. Just a case of outplaying our opponent, but not being able to score when we needed it.
As a coach, you really feel for your athletes when they have been working so hard all season long, but then their hard work isn't rewarded with a playoff win. This was a special season with a special group of girls. They have set the bar very high for future teams.
A very special thank you to the seniors we will be saying goodbye to at our banquet on Tuesday evening: Emily, Lindsey, Anna, Brittany, Khyla, Shelley, Kristin, and Ryndi.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Curling and soccer
With the start of the girls high school soccer season and more changes at the newspaper, I haven't had as much time to update as I would like. I continue to make progress post-surgery--the knee feels better every day. I've been able to do low-impact exercise for the last month, but I can't wait for clearance from my doctor to start skiing and running again.
In the last month I have shot an interesting variety of assignments. My favorite was easily the U.S. Olympic Curling Trials. I became fascinated with curling when it became an Olympic sport in 1998 and by the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, I easily watched more curling than any other sport. While it seems as though the sport is the butt of jokes (primarily because people don't understand it), I am fascinated by the strategy and after seeing it in person, the true athleticism of the curlers--those sweepers work up a sweat! I'm hoping to give curling a try by the end of the year and, who knows, maybe I'll be making a run at the 2014 Olympics. In any event, here are a few of my favorites from the women's final:
Another great thing was the start of the Middle Park HS girls soccer season. We have a great group of girls this season and they have been working very hard. Their hard work was rewarded a week ago at the Mesa Ridge Tournament, a tournament we have been going to for five years. Each year we have done a little better and we felt we had the players to win it this year. And sure enough, the girls rose to the occasion and defeated three 4A schools to take first place and win the first-ever trophy for the soccer program at Middle Park. The 3-0 start to the season is the best start we have ever had and the winning continued this weekend with a 7-0 defeat of the Denver School of Science and Technology, our first league game of the season.
In the last month I have shot an interesting variety of assignments. My favorite was easily the U.S. Olympic Curling Trials. I became fascinated with curling when it became an Olympic sport in 1998 and by the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, I easily watched more curling than any other sport. While it seems as though the sport is the butt of jokes (primarily because people don't understand it), I am fascinated by the strategy and after seeing it in person, the true athleticism of the curlers--those sweepers work up a sweat! I'm hoping to give curling a try by the end of the year and, who knows, maybe I'll be making a run at the 2014 Olympics. In any event, here are a few of my favorites from the women's final:
Another great thing was the start of the Middle Park HS girls soccer season. We have a great group of girls this season and they have been working very hard. Their hard work was rewarded a week ago at the Mesa Ridge Tournament, a tournament we have been going to for five years. Each year we have done a little better and we felt we had the players to win it this year. And sure enough, the girls rose to the occasion and defeated three 4A schools to take first place and win the first-ever trophy for the soccer program at Middle Park. The 3-0 start to the season is the best start we have ever had and the winning continued this weekend with a 7-0 defeat of the Denver School of Science and Technology, our first league game of the season.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Under the arthoscope
Two months after tearing the meniscus in my left knee, I finally had surgery. It's sore, but I can already tell that once I have a chance to rehab it, it is going to be like new.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A "new" toy
For the past few years I have wanted to put a remote camera behind the backboard for a high school basketball game. It's not a new idea by any means--if look at the major sports magazines (e.g. Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine), they routinely use backboard camera for their coverage of college and pro basketball. I had gathered all of the equipment I needed make this work and verified with our publisher that, if I went to the trouble of rigging all of this up, I would be covered by our company's liability insurance if something went wrong and any of the rigging fell. The trouble for me was that neither of the high school gyms I shoot in had anything behind the backboards that I could easily clamp the camera onto.
Fortunately Middle Park High School here in Granby had been working on a new gym during the last year. A few weeks ago when I took a peak at it as it neared completion I was thrilled to see they had installed a completely different type of support system for the backboards which would allow me to attach my camera without too much trouble and the light in the gym was significantly brighter than the old gym (this would allow me to shoot available light and not have to figure out how to rig the camera to work with the strobes I normally use--it's a long story and I won't get into it now, maybe another time when I solve that problem). I immediately checked with the school's athletic director to see if he had any issues with what I was hoping to do. He gave me the go ahead.
The school was scheduled to play its first games in the new gym last week, so I wanted to give this a try right away. The day before the game I went in to check the exposure, options on exactly where to place the camera and, most importantly, see if there was a ladder I could use. Luckily one of the contractors still finishing up some work on the gym had a 12-foot ladder he was happy to let me use. One of the issues with doing a remote of this type is that it needs to be in place before the players start warming up and, because this was my first attempt, I wanted to have enough time to make sure everything was working and be able to deal with any problems, which meant getting to the gym early enough before the first game, which was a JV game scheduled to tip-off at 4:00, so I was there at 2:45, even though I wouldn't really be using the camera until the varsity girls game at 5:30 and varsity boys at 7:00.
I think it took me about 45 minutes to get everything set up and secure, and to where I felt comfortable that I might be able to make a decent image. I checked and re-checked the focus, exposure and framing until I finally said, "If it doesn't work this time, there is always the next game," and climbed down from the ladder and got ready to shoot the games. I would occasionally fire the remote during the JV game to make sure it was working and felt like I was keeping one eye on it to make sure it wasn't coming loose or about to fall.
I used the remote some during the girls game, but the action didn't really fit with where it was set up. The action in the boys game was much more dynamic and there were several times where I felt I might have captured what I was after, but I wouldn't know until the game was over when I climbed back up the ladder to retrieve the camera.
A shot from this angle is really a crap shoot. There are a lot of factors which have to come together to make the image work and fortunately I believe I was able to capture at least one good frame from my first attempt:
This photo was made with a Canon 20D, 16-35/2.8 set at 16mm, exposure was 1/500 at 2.8, ISO 1600.
Middle Park faces their county rivals, West Grand, on Tuesday and I hope to try the set-up again. For the next 24 hours I will debate in my head what I may do differently this time, do I set the camera for vertical again, or do I try horizontal? should I raise it up a little higher?
Goo, goo, g'joob.
Fortunately Middle Park High School here in Granby had been working on a new gym during the last year. A few weeks ago when I took a peak at it as it neared completion I was thrilled to see they had installed a completely different type of support system for the backboards which would allow me to attach my camera without too much trouble and the light in the gym was significantly brighter than the old gym (this would allow me to shoot available light and not have to figure out how to rig the camera to work with the strobes I normally use--it's a long story and I won't get into it now, maybe another time when I solve that problem). I immediately checked with the school's athletic director to see if he had any issues with what I was hoping to do. He gave me the go ahead.
The school was scheduled to play its first games in the new gym last week, so I wanted to give this a try right away. The day before the game I went in to check the exposure, options on exactly where to place the camera and, most importantly, see if there was a ladder I could use. Luckily one of the contractors still finishing up some work on the gym had a 12-foot ladder he was happy to let me use. One of the issues with doing a remote of this type is that it needs to be in place before the players start warming up and, because this was my first attempt, I wanted to have enough time to make sure everything was working and be able to deal with any problems, which meant getting to the gym early enough before the first game, which was a JV game scheduled to tip-off at 4:00, so I was there at 2:45, even though I wouldn't really be using the camera until the varsity girls game at 5:30 and varsity boys at 7:00.
I think it took me about 45 minutes to get everything set up and secure, and to where I felt comfortable that I might be able to make a decent image. I checked and re-checked the focus, exposure and framing until I finally said, "If it doesn't work this time, there is always the next game," and climbed down from the ladder and got ready to shoot the games. I would occasionally fire the remote during the JV game to make sure it was working and felt like I was keeping one eye on it to make sure it wasn't coming loose or about to fall.
I used the remote some during the girls game, but the action didn't really fit with where it was set up. The action in the boys game was much more dynamic and there were several times where I felt I might have captured what I was after, but I wouldn't know until the game was over when I climbed back up the ladder to retrieve the camera.
A shot from this angle is really a crap shoot. There are a lot of factors which have to come together to make the image work and fortunately I believe I was able to capture at least one good frame from my first attempt:
This photo was made with a Canon 20D, 16-35/2.8 set at 16mm, exposure was 1/500 at 2.8, ISO 1600.Middle Park faces their county rivals, West Grand, on Tuesday and I hope to try the set-up again. For the next 24 hours I will debate in my head what I may do differently this time, do I set the camera for vertical again, or do I try horizontal? should I raise it up a little higher?
Goo, goo, g'joob.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Where were you?
I think Tuesday's presidential inauguration will be one of those events where people will remember where they were when Barack Obama was sworn in. I was in the eighth grade classroom of East Grand Middle School social studies teacher Abby Loberg. These three students seem genuinely interested in the inauguration. The rest of the class had our reporter surrounded giving their opinions why John McCain would have been a better president.
Then I hurried down to a local cafe to capture adults listening to Obama's inauguration address.
Then I hurried down to a local cafe to capture adults listening to Obama's inauguration address.
Friday, January 16, 2009
"If you're good at something, never do it for free." --The Joker
I'm always on lookout for good arguments to use when someone asks me to let them use a photo for free. I think I will just send them the link to this video from now on:
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