Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs Towson

Baseball's not my favorite sport to shoot, but this afternoon I was longing for Shipley field. I walked outside around 3pm to get something from my car and the weather was so nice. I really looked forward to packing up my laptops and heading down to College Park to shoot a game.

I arrived and found there to be no photographers present. Well actually there was one photographer present: a person from the Diamondback who I've only seen at one other game (the one last night).

I was hoping I'd bump into Greg so we could catch up. I haven't seen him in a few weeks and I've been curious if he's been working a lot on Nationals games in the new stadium. I also wanted to ask him what his plan was for the weekend to see if there was any way we could help him out. But he wasn't there so I guess our catching up will have to wait.

The Terps played Nate Steelman (aka Nathan Steelman, aka Nathaniel Steelman) this evening. He faced 2 batters. The guy from the Sun missed him, and who knows if Steelman will get another shot at pitching this weekend. Hopefully he will and the Sun shooter will get his shot.

Dave Lovell did a good job today with sending out an invite to our entire photos group that details this weekend's activities at Maryland. I set up a schedule a week or so ago in Google Calendar and Dave moved it over into Excel so he could send it out in PDF format. I would've preferred Google Calendar for the collaborative aspect of it, but in the end it probably doesn't matter much with this group of people. They don't seem to be the most technically savvy people I've met and asking them to do collaborative calendaring might be asking a bit much.

The important thing I'm looking for is that people other than me are communicating and doing it in a way that allows the rest of the group to learn. I don't want to create a chain-of-command, or a master-slave relationship at the DC Sports Box. I'm shooting for an informal loosely-knitted group of people that self-organize in ways that are highly transparent. I view the role of the DC Sports Box "editors" to be: provide infrastructure, get out of the way, and help people excel at what they do. The three roles go hand in hand: infrastructure (email lists, IMs, peer-to-peer relationships between photographers and writers) allow the management structure to get out of the way. Management still exists, but it's focus is to make sure that the engine is running efficiently and to make sure we're going in the right direction. Management doesn't necessarily take care of scheduling the timing of the events, who works them, etc ... it just makes sure that the events aren't getting missed. Lastly, we need to just get out of the way and let people excel at what they do best. We should offer some coaching advice when necessary but we need to let photographers go work the crowd, writers to promote their work, and IT people to go wire up new extensions for our site.

All of this is unfolding and will come together in the next few weeks as a business plan for our group. Right now I'm just focusing on putting together thoughts, defining roles, and encouring people to begin thinking of us as a cloud rather than a bunch of individuals. It's a challenge, but hopefully it's one that we can overcome.

In the meantime, please go read about Maryland Baseball's 7-4 win over Towson at the DC Sports Box. Or you can go directly to my Flickr Page that shows pictures of Maryland's 7-4 win over Towson.

Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs UMES

I've had a few days off (maybe a week) to recharge my camera batteries and it's been some welcome time. It was good to get outside and behind the lens again this evening and I'm sure I'll miss it more during the summer as the shooting opportunities become fewer and further in between. I'm completely sure I'll miss the convenience of Maryland Athletics in comparison to Mystics, Freedom, and Nationals games.

There are a lot of events to cover this weekend. I received word on Sunday that the first rounds of both the men's and women's 2008 NCAA Lacrosse Tournament will be played at Maryland. The men descend on Byrd Stadium at 12 noon and the women take over the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex at 1pm on Sunday. Both of these high profile events conflict with other events. On Saturday the Terps host the 2008 ACC Softball Tournament semifinal rounds at noon and 2pm. On Sunday the Terrapin baseball has their senior photos, and the 2008 ACC Softball Tournament championship game is played.

Dave Lovell is lending a hand but we could use some more support. Al has taken a somewhat laid-back approach to this weekend's activities and said "we just can't cover it all." I'd like for us to cover as much of it as possible so I'm reaching out to other photographers I know hoping they can step in and lend a hand.

Greg Fiume will also be caught up in this mix. I've wondered what he plans to do with all the events that will take place at roughly the same time. I hoped to bump into him tonight at the baseball game, but given it was against UMES and on a Tuesday night I gave that a 1 in 10 shot of actually happening. Hopefully he'll be at the game tomorrow evening against Towson.

I asked Al to submit me for credentials for the men and women's LAX games. Hopefully he's taking care of that and I'll hear back soon that I was approved. Al's not very communicative through email or telephone and lots of times photographers (and writers) are left uninformed as to the status of their credentials. Sometimes we don't find out until the day of the event. This presents a lot of scheduling conflicts and introduces an unnecessarily level of stress into an already pretty tense (and fledgling) business. I've tried to encourage everyone at the DC Sports Box to communicate more frequently through email, instant messaging, text messaging, phone calls, etc but it seems to fall on deaf ears for the most part. A few of us instant message each other, but we're by no means a majority. I hope this will improve in the future.

Tonight's game was a quickie: just over 2 hours. That's lightning fast for a baseball game. Of course the Terps played a team they have a 5-45 record overall against so that helps. The stands were nearly empty. There were probably 50 people on hand for the event so it was very easy to move around.

I saw a Baltimore Sun photographer on the field who was there to take pictures of #11 Nathan Steelman. The Sun is doing a feature on him where they highlight his service in the US Army. I recognized the photographer from men's basketball games, but I couldn't remember his name.

We talked about online-only entities vs print media, and I told him that we really embrace the richer content we can deliver online. It was nice to describe to someone the richness of online media (podcasts, video, high resolution imagery, sound, smooth transitions between photos in slideshows, mouseovers, interactive behavior through blogs and comments) and have them actually listen to me. Most of the time when I say we're "online only" I get looks from people like "you're one of those people..."

As always you can find my photos of the game over on my Flickr Account and you can read my article and view my photos that highlight Maryland's 6-0 win over UMES in college baseball.

Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs Georgia Tech (Game 3)

A coworker from my Zenoss gig (Jason Stevens) asked if he could shadow me around for a day of shooting. We hit the softball senior photos first and then headed over to baseball. Jason manned the 300/2.8 lens while I stayed on the 400/2.8.

The game was a little tricky to shoot due to the weather. It rained on and off and the crowds were pretty low and variable. The light changed a few stops a couple of times. It wasn't too difficult to manage but it was a little unusual. High puffy clouds are actually worse because you go from beaming sunlight to a dark field pretty quickly.

My biggest fear during this game was that our equipment would get wet. I know that the bodies and lenses are supposed to be water sealed, but I'd still prefer not to try it out in the field. We wrapped our gear in trash bags before heading out and those trash bags did us well as the day unfolded. When it did look like storm clouds we used the garbage bags as cushions so we could stay dry. When the clouds opened up we were thankful to have them (we wrapped our gear up in them)!

Jason and I actually snapped almost the exact same shot. It was pretty funny to hear both our shutters fire at the same time. Very eery.

Unfortunately the game was called due to rain and the Terps were down at the end of 5. That gave Tech the official victory even though the Terps had the momentum heading into the sixth. By the time the lightning cleared the outfield was underwater and a resumption of play seemed unlikely. Then the lightning resumed and the game was officially called.

I enjoyed shooting with Jason. Hopefully in the future we'll have more opportunities to shoot together.

Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs Georgia Tech (Game 2)

After the women's lacrosse final home game I checked in at the softball stadium to see how Dave Lovell was doing. He had on jeans and a pretty heavy shirt and looked mighty hot carrying all that black Nikon equipment. I grabbed a bottle of water for him and threw down some red gatorade for myself. It was the best gatorade I've ever drank.

A few weekends ago I was smitten with a pretty bad sunburn on a chilly (but sunny) afternoon. Today the sun was really bright, the temperature was in the 80s, and I planned on being outdoors for over 8 hours. I reapplied sunscreen constantly and wore my photography hat and that made a difference. By the time I bumped into Dave at softball I was about 2 hours into my day and was already burning up.

I headed home to do some post-processing. In about 45 minutes I cranked through 400-500 frames, cropped, and did some minor color alterations. There's not much you need to do in post-processing when the lighting conditions are so supreme. I was pleased I got through so much in such a short amount of time. I'm definitely improving in the post-processing department.

Heading back to baseball I wondered what the game had in store. The Terps pulled out a win on Friday evening but Georgia Tech was a good team. Would the Yellow Jackets rally back, or would the Terps overcome the No. 21 ranked team in the country?

The game started to head south midway through and Tech took a 13-5 lead. Some fans decided to leave, but most stayed. Many of the fans are girlfriends or family members of the players on the two teams. It's a 50/50 crowd most of the time between family members of the visiting team and family members of the Terps.

Dave Lovell has walked amongst them for the past several games and has done an excellent job in striking up conversation with them. I had a couple of them ask me if I shot with the DC Sports Box. It was the first time someone else asked me about the DC Sports Box (usually I'm the one telling them about our group). It's a good sign...

A pair of DoD photographers were present. I gave them some pointers in where they could and couldn't go in the stadium. They stuck around for about 3 innings before bailing.

When the game got into the bottom of eigth the Terps turned it around. And by the bottom of the ninth the Terps retook the game. I had positioned myself along the first base line to catch the celebration that ensued. It was great to see the Terps pull one out.

I got some decent post-game shots and did pretty well with my action shots for the game. Please go read my writeup and view my photos of the Maryland Terrapins and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets baseball game over on the DC Sports Box.

Softball: Senior Day

Inclement weather threatened the DC area on Sunday, and the Terrapin baseball game was moved up 54 minutes to accommodate the rain event. I wasn't sure if softball would be moved up, and that event was going to be an important event for the DC Sports Box.

Dave Lovell was asked to shoot the senior photos for Softball and if rain moved up the start time he might not make it there on time. Jason Stevens (from Zenoss) also planned to shadow me around on Sunday to get a taste of sports photography, so I grabbed him early and we headed over to Softball. The game was originally scheduled to start at 1pm but was moved to 12:30. With the rain it didn't actually begin until later and that gave us some breathing room before the official senior ceremony began.

We all kind of milled about looking for the best angles until we settled in on our spaces. Dave set up near the dugout and shot the players coming up onto the field though a cool set of baseball bats. I shot the players as they hugged the coaching staff and other key players, along with their families. Jason kind of floated around taking different shots from interesting perspectives.

It was a lot of fun and I think we did a good job with our shots.

Please go take a look at the Maryland Terrapins 2008 Softball Senior Class over on my Flickr page.

Women's Lacrosse: Maryland Terrapins vs Virginia Tech

Another season comes to an end at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex. This time the women's lacrosse team said "farewell" to 10 seniors that have tremendous scoring potential. The matchup today was against Virginia Tech, a team that has struggled this year offensively.

I arrived 20 minutes early but even that was not early enough for the senior ceremonies. I rushed through assembling my gear when I realized that my CF wallet was back in my car in my laptop backpack! I raced out to get it and then raced back into the stadium. Fortunately I didn't miss any seniors.

Greg Fiume was there on the field and taking photos. Jackie from the Diamondback was also present. Some DoD guys were back in town on their weeklong sports assignment. It was good to see several people covering the senior day.

I did pretty well with my photos for today. I didn't get much of a chance to chat with Greg though. He had another assignment and had to leave after the first half and we spent most of our time on opposite sides of the field. I thought that the senior celebrations would be pretty emotional for the team and anticipated Virginia Tech taking advantage of the situation. As a result I stayed in the Terrapin defensive zone for 1/2 of the first half to shoot the defense.

My strategy paid off. The Terps were pretty sloppy in the early going and I got some good defense shots. But once they settled down and got into their rhythm it was Terps all the way. When I saw the transition unfold on the field I slid down the field into their attack zone. That's where Greg was set up.

I shot the remainder of the first half in the attack zone and then flip-flopped in the second. I did some shots from midfield and some shots from the corner in the attack zone. I also did some defensive shooting. Please go read my article and take a look at my photo gallery of Maryland vs Virginia Tech in the regular season final game for the Terps over at the DC Sports Box.

After the game the Maryland staff cordoned off the fans and sent them on their way. A memorial ceremony was held for Lauren Cohen, who's father passed away in March in NYC when a crane collapsed. The team planted a team, some parents said some words, the seniors said some words, people smiled and cried... The team videographer was present but no photographers were allowed in. I was honored to be there and thankful that Coach Reese invited me to stay. I tried to balance the distracting noise of my shutter release with the thoughtful condolensces that were offered to the Cohen family.

The post-game shots came out great. I didn't post them to Flickr or anywhere else - they're too private to be published on the Intrawebs. Instead I cut a CD for Sandy Worth that contains some of my pictures of the seniors this week and brought it to her on Sunday. I trust that she'll only distribute it to people that should have access to the content.

It's sad to see another team graduate some seniors and close down their regular season. On the other hand it does open up my schedule a little bit. I've informally started keeping track of the time I spend on my day job and my photography "hobby" and it's starting to approach 50/50. With baseball, softball, and women's and men's lacrosse you can stay quite busy shooting and writing.

Women's Lacrosse: Maryland Terrapins vs Georgetown

My D3 demo arrived on Monday evening and I was looking forward to Wednesday night's game all day Tuesday and Wednesday. The last time I used the D3 I was very impressed with it's high noise ISO capability and I was very much looking forward to trying it out with some new glass.

Along with the D3 came a 14-24mm f/2.8 N lens. It's wide. Hella wide. There's distortion around the edges but very little vignetting. I wanted to take a stab at getting a huddle picture.

Prior to the game Al sent out an email warning DC Sports Box shooters about taking huddle photos without received permission before a game. I wasn't aware of this subtlety and I'm glad that Al made us all aware of it. I noticed I was one of a few people taking photos of huddles in the past and that probably should've triggered something in my brain to say "maybe I shouldn't be doing this." Oh well - chock it up to one more sign of my inexperience.

I spoke with Matt Lynch prior to the game and he gave the go-ahead for the huddle pictures. When I headed out onto the field I was trailed by a Navy photographer, Jackie from the Diamondback, a CSTV or ACC Select videographer, Mr Collins, and another photographer. Lots of media there. Having checked with Matt first gave me a lot of confidence to walk out there to get my shot. I'm not sure if I hadn't headed out there if any of the other photographers would've stepped onto the field. I'm probably wrong...

My huddle shots came out really well and the D3 did superbly with color richness. It's such a wonderful tool for photographers. I was so pleased with it's performance on the field, and the microphone capability was just perfect. I accidentally left my reporters microphone in my backpack (rather than my photo bag) but my D3 saved the day. Without it I wouldn't have been able to write up my article on the Maryland Terrapins and the Georgetown Hoyas women's lacrosse game.

I learned the importance of sticking around after the game this evening. I stayed for the post-game team huddle and overheard the head coach reminding the team of a ceremony on Saturday to honor a team member who's dad perished in the crane accident in New York City a month or so ago. Afterwards I was given the nod by the coach to attend. Had I not stuck around I wouldn't have found out about that event.

I also interacted with Mr Cowles a lot and afterwards was able to get some great shots of the senior class because the head coach sent them over to Mr Cowles. Unfortuantely for him he only had a 70-200 lens available but I was ready with my 14-24. I got some great shots and had an opportunity to interact with the seniors in the few minutes I had with them after the game. You can check out my post-game photos of the 2008 women's lacrosse senior class over on my Flickr page.

As I've improved on the technical aspects of photography I've begun to focus more on the professional aspects of this hobby. This involves establishing ongoing relationships with sports information directors, trainers, other photographers and writers, and lastly the players themselves. I'm not brown nosing though - I sincerely enjoy talking with many of them. Their dedication to their sport is inspiring and reminds us all how pleasurable it must be to live in a job you love. Every time I interact with Matt Lynch or Kirsten Olsen at Maryland they're always smiling and happy to be on the sidelines at an event. In contrast I walk into my professional job and nearly every day I hear complaints from people about feeling unfulfilled and miserable. It's a joy to put all the negativity of my day-job behind and work with people (even for a few minutes) who, at least on the outside, appear to love their job.

I'm looking forward to the weekend and the events it brings. There are 4 games at Maryland on Saturday and the weather looks to be fabulous. I'm crossing my fingers on some good light and will have all my lithium ion packs charged and my CF cards formatted come Friday night!

Water Polo: Maryland Terrapins vs Michigan

Dave and I headed over to Water Polo before the baseball game ended. It was Dave's first water polo game (and just my third) so it was pretty enjoyable. There were a lot of Terrapin fans there, including some members of the Maryland pep band. Today's matchups were pretty good and put the cap on a great season for the Terps.

We arrived just before the third period and took our position towards the side of the pool where the Terps shot. Dave used his D3 and 300mm while I remained on my D200 and 400mm lens. The reach on the 400mm is great but at times it's just too close for water polo. A 300mm lens (or the full frame sensor on the D3) would make a big difference.

The lighting in the recreation center was great because the sun was still out. At night the light isn't great but it's still workable at ISO 1600. I noticed that Dave went to Auto-ISO for some shots. I like to stay static on my settings and vary my shutter speed if necessary.

The colors from Dave's shots were really vibrant. I think his white balance was off though. I need to do some work to figure out how to correctly adjust my white balance. I just set it to the incandescent pre-set and that works pretty well most of the time. But this afternoon's light was a blend of sunlight through the windows and overhead incandescent light. It'd be good to figure out how to actually do that.

I took a lot of notes using my recorder and they helped in my write-up. UM doesn't provide much of a box score for water polo and the article doesn't give too many details about who scored what and when. Having the recorder was a really great tool.

Please go read my article and view our photos of the Terrapins vs Michigan water polo match.

Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs Virginia (Game 2)

After taking in some soccer I headed over to Shipley Field to shoot some baseball. The sun had emerged from the rainy overcast that moved during the morning hours. I took up position behind home plate and looked around for other photographers and reporters. Nope ... none. Except for Dave Lovell.

Dave's been doing a lot of Maryland games lately and has done a fantastic job. He started off doing softball but has been shooting more and more baseball games. Up until Friday he was limited by his 70-200 lens and as a result softball was a great fit for him. But he faces the same problems I face with long lenses in low light trying to shoot the outfield at Shipley at night. It's almost better to go short in low light situations.

I shot a handful of innings with Dave and chatted with him for awhile about the DC Sports Box. He's noticed a lot of editing mistakes on our written product. I've noticed them too and have fixed them whenever I have a chance. Dave doesn't have access though so all he can do is send an email and ask one of the publishers (me and Al) to fix mistakes.

I would really like for us to formalize our roles at the DC Sports Box. If we define our workflow and the key roles in our reporting process we can start to tap people to fulfill those roles. But if we don't take the first step of documenting the workflow and the roles we can't optimize it. How do you offer to hire someone without first providing a job description?

I'm going to nudge Al to adopt the roles and workflow I wrote up on Google Docs. He bought into it initially. I just think we need final sign off and then we can move forward with building in some publishing redundancy.

My shots from the baseball game were not particularly good. I was mostly there to talk with Dave and get his feedback on how things are going. I took some shots for my personal use but we decided to go with Dave's set for the actual story. Once the article is posted I'll post a link!

Women's Soccer: Maryland Terrapins vs Penn Quakers

I attended a Maryland Gridiron Network event on Saturday morning. The football team had a practice and MGN members were invited to attend. Following the practice was a lunch in the Gossett Team House. On the way back to our car in parking lot 1 I noticed the scoreboard at Ludwig Field was illuminated and balloons were being delivered. Clearly an event was scheduled this afternoon.

I checked out the UMTerps website and discovered the women's soccer team entertained Penn this afternoon in a Spring schedule. The weather was threatening but I decided to make a go of it and I headed home to grab my pack. I made it back to Ludwig just before faceoff at 3pm.

There weren't any CSC guards and only a sprinkling of fans. No other photographers or reporters were present. I unpacked my gear and rigged up the D200 with the 400mm lens and used the D2H with my 70-200. I bought a lock and used it to attach my bag to a flagpole. I also locked up the contents of the Think Tank bag using their combo lock. It felt good to know that all my spare equipment was safely tucked away.

The game itself was pretty fun to shoot. I enjoy outdoor games because of the abundance of light. It was also fun shooting a soccer team again. I haven't shot them since late October or early November. It was surreal shooting soccer in Spring. I kept thinking about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years rather than Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.

I used my recorder to keep track of the game's progress. I failed to take a picture of the scoreboard because the UM staff turned it off almost immediately after the game concluded. I was really happy that I took close notes on my recorder because Maryland didn't post a box score. They didn't even post an article either, so I recreated everything from memory.

When I got home I posted my photos and wrote up an article for the DC Sports Box. Please read about Maryland's spring women's soccer games and view my photographs over at the DC Sports Box.

Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs Clemson (Game 3)

When I woke up this morning it was sunny and I thought "wow, I really got lucky." They called for rain on Wednesday night, and they also predicted rain on both Saturday and Sunday. So far not a drop!

I wrote up my article for yesterday's baseball game and posted it on the DC Sports Box as well as posted several photos from various shooters. Everybody's keep very busy lately and that's good for us. I have noticed though that the captioning could use some help. Some of the shooters are just getting factual information wrong. For example, two shooters misquoted the final score of a game they attended. It's kind of funny actually that both would incorrectly report the final score in their caption.

It's actually a pretty easy thing to do. In one case I misquoted a score and had to go back and re-caption all the images with the proper game score. I then had to re-post the gallery too, which is a hassle.

I'm going to spend some time writing up some photo and writers guidelines for the DCSB. We need some basic documents we can hand to new shooters that go over the ground rules (e.g. how to submit articles and photos, as well as formatting for the title and caption). Nothing too extravagant... Just the basics..

I saw Greg Fiume at the game today and that was nice. He was in lot 1 assembling his gear when I pulled up. I walked over and said hello and we headed down to the diamond together. He told me he's covering the Nats game tonight and he may even have the opportunity to fly in a Park Police chopper for some shots. That's hella exciting - I just hope he doesn't fall out or drop some glass out the door!

By the time I made it to the Terps game the sun had hidden behind a thin overcast and I was forced to shoot at slower speeds than yesterday. That wasn't too bad though because a cloudy sky produces fewer shadows. The colors don't pop as much and the photos aren't as vibrant, but at the same time I tend to get more eyeballs when it's an overcast sky. When it's overcast it's easier to avoid overexposing and blowing highlights. When it's sunny its' really difficult to do. I think if you turn down the contrast on your shot you can do it. But that then takes away from the shot.

I posted my write up of Maryland's Game 3 loss to Clemson along with my photos. Please go take a look!

Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs Clemson (Game 2)

After shooting a softball game I headed over to Shipley to take in game two of the Tigers vs Terrapins matchup. It was a pretty warm day and there was a good amount of sun available, so I looked forward to this game on the way over.

I bumped into James Lang at the game. He was there on assignment from Greg Fiume while Greg worked the track and field event. Dave had remarked that he would have liked to shot the track and field event. I would have enjoyed that as well but I don't know how to write for track and field. It seems like a lot of it would be just posting of stats from the event, so in that regard it might be pretty straight forward. I wish we had some more Terrapin writers...

The baseball game was pretty good and the Terps turned around a 3-0 deficit to emerge victorious at 5-3. I got all my photos processed last night and wrote my article this morning after waking up. I was knee deep in post processing softball and baseball photos, as well as posting Dave's baseball and softball photos, Al's Nationals photos, and Mike's lacrosse photos. It was a lot of bit-pushing last night!

I scored my first sunburn of 2008 today. I didn't realize I was getting a burn during the day but it definitely came out last night. My lips started pulsing from the burn and my forehead and face caught it pretty badly. Definitely need to add sunscreen to the go-back in my car.

Google News continues to be good to use in so far as our hits on DC Sports Box. We've doubled or tripled our site traffic just by getting into their index. That's great news for us - hopefully it will help with advertising or in cutting deals with people in the future.

Please cruise over to the DC Sports Box and read my article on Maryland's 5-3 victory over the Clemson Tigers at Shipley Field. The story sucks, but I don't pretend to be a writer.

Softball: Maryland Terrapins vs Virginia Tech (Game 1)

Dave Lovell recently joined the DC Sports Box and has volunteered to take on some Maryland shoots. I was really happy to hear that because it meant I had some backup on days where there were multiple games going on simultaneously. Today was one of those days...

Dave had an event that didn't end until around 2:30pm so I decided to take Game of the Maryland Terrapins and Virginia Tech Hokies in softball. I enjoy shooting at the softball stadium because the field is small, the crowd is friendly, and the players are loud and boisterous. It also helps that the stadium isn't very tall because the sun stays up longer and lights up more of the field longer.

Today's game was pretty fun and I enjoyed taking the pictures. It was sunny and fairly warm (mid 50s) and the logistics of the shoot went pretty well. I'm really careful these days after cracking my UV filter over at the baseball stadium. Today was no different.

Towards the end of the game Dave showed up and we got a chance to shoot together and talk. I'm glad we had some overlap because we got a chance to talk about shooting at Maryland as well as doing some Nationals games later on this Spring and Summer. Dave hasn't shot much as a credentialed photographer, so he's in the same boat I was about a year ago. I was more than happy to give him some pointers about what to do and what not to do.

It was pretty interesting to talk with him because he has many of the same fears I had last year: I don't want to screw up the game, I don't want to get us banned from the arena, I don't want to do a bad job, etc... I had a tough time mentally in learning the ropes and asked a lot of strangers a lot of questions. So I was glad that I was able to talk with him and tell him about the ground rules they have at the various facilities. Hopefully he'll be able to learn from what I picked up over the last year.

We're going to do a single article for the Virginia Tech series and post 3 galleries. Since we're only through 2 of the games I can't link you over to the DC Sports Box article yet. But when it's up I'll come back around and post. In the meantime you can look at my Flickr account for photos of the Maryland vs Virginia Tech Softball Game 1.

Women's Lacrosse: Maryland Terrapins vs Towson

Not a whole lot to say tonight other than ... I hate Ludwig Field. The lighting is awful. It's so sharp and from the sides. It's so difficult to shoot at night at Ludwig because the light is pretty much from one direction. You can't shoot from the sideline because 1/2 the players faces are dark when they look at you, and you can't really shoot from the sidelines either because the players backs are towards you because they are looking at the goal. The only possible players you can shoot are on the far side but you can't get them because the lights behind you can't reach them. Ugh...

I drove past the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex on the way to the game tonight and wished that the match was being placed in that facility. It's smaller but the lighting is so much better. Oh well...

I worked the 2008 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament first and second round at Comcast Center this weekend. Unfortunately we didn't obtain photo credentials due to an NCAA regulation that prohibits online-only entities from taking photographs. Mr Dull at Maryland explained the rule to us and basically said the matter was out of his hands. It's unfortunate both for us and for the NCAA because there were very few (a handful at most) photographers covering the games. Both the NCAA and the DC Sports Box would have benefitted from photographic credentials because it would have generated more publicity for the league and better content for our group. But the rules are the rules, and we opted for file photos for the Duke and Maryland games and the NCAA Basketball logo for all the other games. It's hokey but at least we didn't break any rules.

There's been a lot of interest in our group lately and we have a few photographers and writers we've brought on board. It's exciting to see our group grow and succeed and I'm looking forward to being able to take more of a back seat with respect to covering games. I'd like to still be involved in order to help drive our group forward but I need to take a step back at times in order to regain my health and sanity. I've been sick a large number of times this winter and there's no doubt in my mind that it's a direct result of late nights up writing, editing, and processing photos, exposure to arenas with lots of people in them that are also sick, and also just the stress of trying to start up a new business. Having some other people shoulder the burdon will be very welcome.

The game tonight was pretty exciting. Lots of shooting and scoring and that is always good from a photography standpoint. You don't want to get lacrosse players just passing the ball and orbiting the goal. You want them bashing each other, flicking shots, and chasing down loose balls. I was pretty happy with my shots tonight, but my interest waned as the sun set and I switched my white balance over to stadium lights. Most of the shots I ended up using for the sight are from the early game. Please go read my article and view the photos I took of the Maryland vs Towson women's lacrosse game at Ludwig Field in College Park.

I ran into a new Diamondback shooter tonight. I didn't speak with her but I did notice that it was a new person. Maybe she's Yuchen's replacement. I also saw the photographer from the PG Sentinel. I keep meaning to ask her name since I see her at a lot of events and talk with her, but I always forget... Maybe next time. I also bumped into the CSC guard that worked next to me at the NCAA games this weekend. Most of the CSC guards I've met are personable and friendly people and this guy was very warm hearted. We chatted about the student section and the crowd and how successful Maryland has become in the past few years. It's nice getting to know the people you work with even if you only see them a few hours every other week.

There are a few events this weekend and I'll probably attend them. It all depends on the weather though. If it's rainy I'll probably stay in. But if it's sunny it should be a fun time!

Baseball: Maryland Terrapins vs North Carolina

I avoided some out-of-travel this weekend in order to spend some more time at home. Earlier today Julie and I went up to her brother's house for our niece's 2nd birthday party. I was looking forward to taking pictures of the kids because they're so animated and lively. They find excitement in almost everything they do and as a result they make for excellent subjects in photography.

I played around with using motion to isolate my subjects and liked how it turned out.

After Cassidy's birthday I headed home and did some post processing. I've been growing more and more frustrated at my laptop's performance as of late. I recently installed Time Machine and despite claims from Apple that it "only runs in the background" I've found that backups frequently zap my computer of any responsive behavior. I constantly get the rainbow spinny ball while the Time Machine runs and my kernel waits on I/O.

Aperture has also frustrated me lately. I upgraded to version 2.0 and my Automator script I use to caption everything has gone from taking about 30 seconds for 30 photos to taking over 20 minutes. It seems to apply each individual IPTC tag on each image as a separate transaction rather than doing a bulk update. I adapted by using the Lift and Stamp tool in Aperture but come on Apple - please don't give me the finger after I paid you $200 for Aperture. I'd like my v1.5 Automator script to function with the same (if not better) performance after an upgrade to v2.0. Is that so unreasonable?

Aperture itself has irritated me as well. They have made some good performance upgrades and fortunately it no longer takes me 5 minutes to start up the application and get to work. But the import is still extremely clunky as are copies/moves of masters and versions from one album to another. I copied one set of photos from Album A to Album B and was able to delete the photos in Album A without any change to Album B. Then I came along and did the same thing but found the photos in Album B were gone. Fortunately I had a backup but still... Stop giving me the finger Apple - I gave you $200.

I went to the Maryland baseball game this afternoon to get a few shots for my own personal use. Dave Lovell was there on a DCSB assignment so I got to just enjoy myself and shoot and not pay much attention to what was going on from a reporter standpoint. It was very refreshing and I can definitely get used to it. I got a LOT of action photos from the game today and I was very pleased with my results. Oddly enough I caught 3 or 4 players with their eyes closed in the middle of an action shot.

Usually I don't quite catch the exact moment of an event because my timing isn't very sharp and I only use a D200 or D2H. But today I caught the exact moment where a player swung on a pitch, an outfielder caught a fly ball, or a first basemen reached out and caught a ball to record an out. In many of those photos the player has his eyes shut. It was really odd to see!

I can't link you all over to a DC Sports Box article just yet because we're waiting for Game 3 to be played tomorrow before we post our story. But once it's up I'll come back and update my post with a new link.

I also started taking photos for Julie's blog tonight. She'd like some more pictures to use in it so I offered to be the photographer she can use for free. Well maybe not free... I did ask her to bring me up a Coke from the basement as payment for tonight's piggy bank photo.

Women's Lacrosse: Maryland Terrapins vs Richmond Panthers

After notarizing our refinance application I headed over to the women's lacrosse game. I was looking forward to seeing how the D3 would perform in the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex. The lighting in there is the best outdoor lighting on campus but I figured that putting the D3 through a true outdoor low light test (even if it was the best lighting on campus) would be an interesting experiment.

I started off at low ISOs (1600) and gradually worked my way up until I was shooting around 3600 or 4000. The noise looks great on the photos and you can hardly tell that I shot at such high ISOs. Even better I didn't have to lighten in Aperture at all!

They charged admission for the game tonight and I was able to sneak in next to my friend who works in the Athletic department. He was on his way there to help someone and we were chatting while we walked in. I need to get on Al to get me a season credential for the LAX and baseball games.

I had fun shooting the Lacrosse game and I took a lot of notes on my voice recorder. I practically filled the thing up recording notes on how the different goals played out. Terps scored 17 goals and took something like 42 shots during the game.

I finished post processing my photos and published my story over on the DC Sports Box. Please go take a read about the Maryland Terrapin women's lacrosse team and how they defeated Richmond 17-9.

Softball: Maryland Terrapins vs Pittsburgh Panthers

Work at Zenoss was really busy today. We were pushing out a release and when that happens the entire team gets involved to help build, test, deploy, and push out all the new files to the rest of the world. As a result I didn't make it to the start of Game 1 but I did make it by the top of the 6th inning.

I spoke with Al earlier in the day and he informed me that another photographer and reporter would be covering the game with us. I was happy to hear we have another writer. Writing is not my strong point and it's really time consuming. It's a lot of work to photograph, post-process, analyze the game, and write a meaningful article.

I arrived at the game and didn't look for Al or our new reporter. Instead I headed straight down to behind home plate to get some photos of Meredith Nelles pitching. Pitcher photos are always your go-to shot if all other shots fail. There's always action in the pitcher's area.

I was a little by an fEE message from my 400mm f/2.8 AF-S I lens. I connected it to the D3 and got the error and initially panicked thinking that I had somehow broken the D3. I then tried the 400 out with my D2H and got the same error message. I tried my 70-200 f/2.8 on both bodies and it worked fine. I then adjusted the aperture ring to f/22 and the lens started working again. It's very strange...

Eventually I bumped into Al and we chatted for a little bit. He asked if I was going to head over to Lacrosse later on and I nodded my head. Julie and I are refinancing our second home in North Carolina and we had to have some things notarized this evening. I called Julie and got her to agree to get the notary stuff done earlier so I could work the Lacrosse game.

As a result I don't have very many photos of the Softball game. You can view the photos of the Maryland Terrapins and Pittsburgh Panthers softball game over on my Flickr account.

Softball: Maryland Terrapins vs Columbia Lions

On Sunday I feverishly wrote up an article on the ACC Wrestling Tournament outcome. I worked really hard on Saturday to post process as many of my photos as possible and by the time I went to sleep I had captioned all of the photos from the first round and selected my photos from the semifinals and finals. I knew I needed to caption the semifinals and finals as well as write my article but I was simply too tired to get it all finished the day of the event.

On Saturday morning I woke up around 5:30am. I've essentially been working 2 jobs the past couple of weeks: my day job as a software engineer, and my night job as a photojournalist. I've gotten accustomed to 5-6 hours of sleep for the past week. On Friday I received a D3 to demo and I was extremely excited about using it on Saturday. Either it was my excitement or my body naturally waking me up after 6 hours of sleep but I was up at 5:30 on Saturday.

My laryngitis kicked into full swing on Saturday and by Saturday evening I barely had any voice. Fortunately it came back today on Sunday but it made working on Saturday very challenging. I was looking forward to today's softball game under the full sun because I would have a chance to work alone (and not speak with anyone) and test out the D3 under supreme lighting conditions.

The D3 performed remarkably. The colors are rich and the focus is sharp as a tack. I can't complain about a single aspect of the camera - it is wonderful in every regard.

My shots came out well and I was able to get all of them posted up on our website. Before the game I shot a bunch of warmup photos I can potentially use for file photo purposes.

And by the end of tonight I posted everything. All told it was 3 wrestling duals and 3 softball games. But I spent time on the side posting Yuchen's articles and photos for LAX as well as his Wizards gallery. This second job is really a lot of work!

Please help us out by reading my article and photos on the Terrapins 2-0 shut out of the Columbia Lions in the 2008 Maryland Invitational.

Softball: Maryland Terrapins vs Seton Hall

During the consolation wrestling matches I snuck out to the softball stadium to take a look at the Terrapins game against Seton Hall. I grabbed my coat, a hat, and my gloves on my way out to the stadium while Greg just headed out. The weather was extremely variable and the sun was going in and out of the clouds. There were also rain clouds in the air.

I got in about an inning or so before the weather really opened up. Since I had the D3 (a $5000 camera) I was being extremely cautious with the rain. As soon as I saw the first drop I headed for the media area. I really sprinted once I reached the top of the bleachers and fortunately made it into the media area before the rain started in earnest.

To my surprise it started hailing shortly after the rain came in. I was amazed to see it hailing so hard - the pellets practically covered the infield. About 20 minutes later it all let up and we were able to resume the game.

I got another 3 innings in before it started raining solidly and I was forced to pack it in. I covered up my lens and body with my jacket but eventually it was raining so hard that I had to call it quits. I was kind of happy about it because I didn't want to stick around outside and risk getting sick(er).

Al was at the softball game and we talked for a little bit. He headed home though because of the weather.

Please go over to the DC Sports Box and read about Maryland's 3-2 victory over Seton Hall.

Wrestling: 2008 ACC Tournament

On Friday I got together with a Nikon Professional Services representative and he offered me a D3 to demo this weekend and for a little bit this upcoming week. I was very excited to take advantage of the offer especially given the subject matter I planned to photograph this weekend: wrestling.

The 2008 ACC Tournament for wrestling was held in College Park and I was looking forward to being a part of it. I've gone to a few duals at Maryland this winter and have had trouble working with the light. Greg shoots a D3 and he reports you can get very good performance at high ISOs.

I was very impressed with the D3. I was able to shoot 1/500th of a second at ISO 4000 and not have to do any lightening in my post processing. I used auto white balance and the shots came out a little weird. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's saturation though...

I had a great time shooting the D3 on my 70-200mm lens. It was sharp as a tack at 200mm and I was very happy with it. During the consolation games I snuck out and did a softball game. The 400mm performance on the D3 was incredible.

Please go read my article that reports on the 2008 ACC tournament results and includes photos of all the matches.