One Game at a Time

Things keep getting worse for the Terps. This evening the Terps fell to regional challenger American University in horrible fashion. The Terps were lackluster in their perfomance and didn't seem to put much energy into the game. American hasn't defeated Maryland in over 80 years of play across 14 games. You can read Anthony's article over at the DC Sports Box along with my photos.

I found a nice compromise for my in-game photos. I'm uncomfortable posting them to my blog due to the NCAA rules and questions about whether blogs are journalistic or commercial creations. To play it safe I stopped posting my NCAA photos on here. I created a flickr account and that allows me to restrict access to certain sets of photos to people that are my "Friends" or "Family." If you'd like to see the high resolution versions of the photos head over to my flickr account and add me as a Friend. I'll then look at your photos and add you as friend of mine and you'll be able to see the photos.

2 games and 2 losses by 3 points in just 3 days. Times are tough for the young Terrapin team. There are quite a few freshmen and sophomores on this team and I think they could really come together down the road but right now they're playing pretty sloppy. I'm sure that's common with a lot of teams in December, but things are going to have to get tighter as we close out the month and head into conference play in January.

We secured a credential to the men's game tonight and our spot was right there on the floor. There were a few more photographers present tonight but not so many that it was really tight. I had room to haul out my 400mm lens in the first half to shoot the Terps on the far side of the court. I love the shots off the 400mm lens - they really blur out the background and draw my subjects into focus.

I looked at some prices on 300mm lenses. The AF-S II looks to go for around $3k used. I was hoping to pick one up for $2k, but it looks like those are AF-I (considerably noisier and slower to focus). Looks like I'll be saving up a bit longer than I had expected! I'm still not convinced I need the 300mm lens. The 400mm is ridiculously tight in basketball, but as you can see from my photos over at the DC Sports Box I'm able to get a few action shots with it. While I could get a ton more with a 300mm I'm having a hard time justifying the cost. I have a feeling I'll stick it out with the 400mm until I see a 300mm AF-S II that is remarkably cheap (sub $2500 range).

Please go give my DC Sports Box article a read and tell all your cool friends about it!

Two local teams faced each other tonight: Morgan State and the University of Maryland. The Terps emerged victorious due in large part to solid ball handling in the second half and 5 3 pointers by Eric Hayes. Vasquez also got back on the scoring side of the fence and hit 17 points. Gist had 18, and Osby banged in 6 field goals and 4 free throws. Please go read my article over on the DC Sports Box.

I had a lot of fun shooting the game this evening. My only regret is that I used my D2H on my short lens, and as a result the quality of my photos is not very good. They're kind of grainy... I think I might try my D200 on my 17-55 lens during the next game for my under-the-basket coverage. It just does better in low light.

Tomorrow night I'll be shooting the women's basketball game at Comcast. The men play their ACC opener on Sunday against Boston College and I have no idea if we'll receive credentials or not. Hopefully we'll at least get reporter credentials and that will allow me to walk around with my 400 lens and shoot from the stadium.

The Terps only had 24 hours to rest before playing the Hampton Roads Pirates. Fortunately we were invited back to cover the event. You can read my writeup of the game over here.

The Terps had James Gist and Landon Milbourne back in the rotation for the game and that certainly helped. They had to sit out the first game of the season for playing in a non-sanctioned game in Ocean City earlier this summer.

Like the last men's basketball game this matchup had a lot of intensity. On the sidelines of soccer you can miss a beat and still know what's going on. That sure is not the case in basketball - if you close your eyes for a second or glance off into the crowd you miss a key play!

The men are so fast when moving up and down the court and you really have to stay on top of them. Fortunately there aren't too many people on the sidelines for these early games and that gives me a little bit of room to place my secondary camera.

It's still tight though. During last night's game an older gentleman and Yuchen got into it because Yuchen inadvertently bumped him. The CSC Staff came and it was a whole big production. It all stemmed from the older gentleman not taking kindly to Yuchen moving around right in front of him and bumping him.

When I headed out to my assigned seat tonight I introduced myself to the gentleman behind me and said that if I was blocking him or crowding him to just let me know and I would do my best to move out of his way. The folks that sit court-side at Maryland Basketball events are the largest benefactors to the University, and they deserve tremendous respect for what they have done for the University. I can definitely scootch an inch or two over it makes a difference for them!

The person behind me thanked me for introducing myself and said that he thought it would be fine. I sat in front of him last night for the North Florida game and I did my best to not disturb him. It's difficult because you have a couple of different competing desires going on: 1.) stay out of the way of the referee. 2.) stay out of the way of the players. 3.) stay out of the way of the fan behind you. Sometimes those 3 things don't line up, but you do your best to make them all work out to some reasonable balance.

I think Yuchen got into trouble because he wasn't trying to find the balance. He was just paying attention to #1 and #2 and wasn't doing much for #3 (at least that's what he told me).

I swapped the D200 bodies I used for the game tonight. During the North Florida game I used Al's D200 on my 70-200mm/f2.8 lens and I used my D200 on my 17-55/2.8 DX lens. The colors on my D200 are so much more vibrant and there is considerably less noise. It's very strange.

I checked the image optimizations and we're using the same configuration. I'm not sure what else to check. There's a noticeable difference in the performance of the two bodies - perhaps it's just a firmware issue?

I was pretty quick in my post processing tonight and managed to get my article and photos posted the night of the game. It's always nice to go to bed knowing that my work is finished and I don't have to worry about it the next morning while at work. It's difficult to explicitly take half an hour or an hour off to wrap things up from last night before starting the current day's work. It's much easier to just do it the night of the event!

Things have been going pretty well with the DC Sports Box. It's difficult to stay on top of all the games that are going on this Fall and I hope that we'll find a way to manage our credential process better. Right now it's very informal with Al serving as the central pivot around a bunch of photographers and writers. This has worked reasonably well but there is room for improvement.

Right now I communicate with Al and Al communicates with other people. There isn't very much photographer to writer communication, or communication across the entire organization. We desperately need to improve that. If we plan to incorporate and be a serious entity we need to communicate on a serious level. A reasonable way to start that is via email or instant messenger.

I regularly report on Maryland Athletics, but I need some other folks to get involved in case I get sick or I'm busy covering another event. Al needs to be involved in order to make the credential request, but there should be a team of people who he can draw upon for covering Maryland Athletics who will step up to the plate when someone needs some backup. Right now we kind of rely on Al to dish out the assignments, and it's worked but it could probably be better.

I think we need some kind of scoreboard that shows people's interest in the various teams we support. Al maintains that in his head right now, but it would be nice to get it down in Trac somehow. We could see that Anthony, Chris, and Kirk are the go-to guys for Maryland coverage. Moreover, we could annotate it by saying that Chris is willing to cover the non-revenue games for Maryland. That way when a scheduling conflict comes up (e.g. Volleyball and Men's basketball play at the same time and day) it's very easy to see who should be assigned what: Chris gets volleyball and Kirk and Anthony get men's basketball.

We're just wrestling through some growing pains right now, and they all come as a result of our success, which is great. I'm trying to think of ways that we can capture our recent successes and preserve them in the long run. I'm also trying to find things we can do to make our jobs easier. That includes scheduling, communication, technique sharing, etc...

I'm very pleased with where we are right now, and I'm so impressed with everything Al and the rest of the team is doing. I'm so honored to be a part of the DC Sports Box and excited to think about where it can go over the next year or so, and I'm also happy to be able to use my software and computer experience to help push us forward to the next level. I can't wait to see what we do next...

It was thrilling sitting on the sidelines for a Maryland men's basketball game. It was also exhilarating attending the post-game press conference, getting quotes from Gary Williams, and interviewing some of the players. You can read all about it in my DCSB article here.

For this game I showed up with plenty of time to spare. Earlier in the day I covered the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament when I reported on Maryland's loss to Penn State. I've been working a lot of hours lately covering all kinds of different events, and I've been putting a lot of cycles towards improving my post processing workflow.

In the past I took 800 - 1200 shots per event and then worked through them a few hours after getting back home. I'm now trying to shoot less overall exposures (but still get the shots I want), and I'm trying to do some cursory filtering during the game at half time.

To accomplish this I typically set up my laptop and card reader prior to the first period and have everything ready to go. When half time hits I rush into the media room and load my 2 CF cards (one from my long lens and one from my medium or short lens) and copy the files over to a "processing" directory.

While the copy takes place I open a Terminal and do "open *" to bring up all the files in Preview. Since I upgraded to Leopard my speed in Preview has shot up remarkably. I'm able to whip through pictures and discard them while the next photo is loaded. It has really cut down on my first-round filtering of my photos.

If I'm lucky I can get through all of my first-half shots during half time and get 300 or so shots down to 50 or 75. If I can do that I head out into the 2nd half comfortable of the progress I made.

When the game concludes the head coach typically remains on the field with the team (or the TV crew) for a little bit. While the coach gives out some sound bites or congratulates the team on their success I rush to the media room and break down my gear. While that happens I also remove my CF cards and start dumping the 2nd half shots to my processing folder.

I always manage to get my gear stored in my Think Tank before my cards are finished copying. I then usually grab my laptop, card reader, cards, and microphone reporter and race to the press conference area.

Some coaches are quick to make it to the press conference room. Others take a bit. Either way works out for me because I simply start going through my photos in Preview while waiting for the coach to arrive. When they do arrive I place my recorder up on the podium to capture some quotes and I retire back to my seat to continue post processing.

If I'm lucky I can get through the first round of post processing by the time the press conference ends. I then half to do my second round of post processing, which involves additional filtering out of photos, rotation, cropping, and lightening. I then export my "vault" (usually 50 or so photos) and then go through a final round of filtering where I reduce my shots to a maximum of 25 exposures I want to publish.

I then caption each photo, and export three versions: 1 full size, 1 800x800, and 1 75x75. Once those 3 versions are complete I can upload my gallery to the DC Sports Box and my photography job is finished.

I typically then head home to write my article. I listen to the tape recorder in the car and gather my thoughts about the game. When I get home I then listen to the tape for quotes and write my article based on the player interviews and the coach's comments. It makes the article flow nicely when you can combine stats, opinions, and quotes seamlessly.

In the best situation I can have all my work finished within an hour of the game concluding. Other times it takes me awhile because I took too many photos or I was distracted in some way (e.g. a friend came up and talked to me during half time or after the game and I was unable to stay focused and work).

The field hockey game this afternoon and the mens' basketball game is an example of optimizing time. I stuck around the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex until Sandy kicked me out (she wanted to lock the gate) and then I headed over to Comcast for the men's basketball game. It was only around 4:30pm and the game didn't start until 8pm but I figured I would have plenty of time to write my article and post my gallery if I just headed straight over there.

Plus if I just hung out in the media room it would give me time to catch up on the blog and other site related work I've been performing. If I go home I'll be distracted with the mail, or the kittys, or something in the back yard that needs attention. Since Julie was occupied with some other activities I figured it wouldn't make much difference if I just stayed at Maryland for the men's game.

The men's game was a lot of fun to shoot and it was pretty tight. The ball hit me twice, and it reinforced my desire to use lens hoods while shooting men's hoops. I think that if I didn't have a hood on my 70-200 the ball would've contacted the UV filter I have over the front element. It probably would not have damaged the glass itself, but I'd still rather have the ball hit a piece of plastic I can easily replace rather than the filter or the glass.

I got a bunch of shots of Bambale Osby dunking. They put me in spot #1 again, but I was just happy to be able to shoot. Boom is really a huge player. It doesn't come out on TV or from up in the stands. When you stand next to him he's definitely intimidating.

At half time I raced in and managed to get through all of my first half shots. I felt good walking out in the 2nd half knowing I had accomplished that goal. Getting through that allows me to get home earlier, and that makes my wife Julie happy.

It's been difficult shooting so much because it takes me away from home. It's fun and exciting to shoot but I think about Julie at home a lot and how I'm not there. I'm lucky she's so supportive of my 2nd job (as a sports reporter), but I have to also be careful not to push my luck.

That's why I try to go home after games as quickly as possible so that I can write from the house. I think it makes a difference for her. Some nights I didn't make it home until really late and I didn't get a chance to say good night to her. That made me pretty sad. So I've been making a bigger effort lately to get home in time and to write from there. At least that way I'm here and I can say good night and tuck her in.

In my last post I mentioned my frustration over our credential situation. In less than 24 hours there was a remarkable turnaround. I'm still confused about what exactly happened to evoke that change, but we were granted a credential on Tuesday for Maryland's men's basketball game against the Concordia Stingers. You can read my article over here.

Al and I headed to Maryland on Tuesday to pick up our credentials and meet the media folks. We shook hands with everyone in the office, and made a point to talk with the field hockey media relations person, Natalia Ciccone. Natalia was very nice and gave us a form to fill out for credentials for this weekend.

We also introduced ourselves to Doug Dull. We were both happy (and a bit surprised) to hear that Mr Dull contacted other media PRs in the region to ask some questions about us. He told us that they all had very positive things to say about us.

It really made me happy to hear that. I had been down in the dumps a little lately with our credential situation on the sports box. Al keeps reminding me that we've only had a web presence for 6 months now and that's not very much time at all. He's right, but at the same time we do such outstanding reporting. All our photographers have 400mm lenses, multiple camera bodies, and a lot of experience. Our writers put together a ton of wonderful in depth articles.

With Maryland giving us a positive nod it really put some wind back in my sails. Al was also excited as well. His feeling now is that "we've made it" with Maryland. I still have a wait-and-see pessimistic outlook, but that's mostly because I look at things like this from a negative standpoint. I tend to understate the upswing potential and overstate the downside chances. It helps keep me focused on doing a good job and allowed me to be successful.

As a result I'm going to continue to operate as though Maryland will pull our credential at any minute. That means I'm going to attend as many Maryland events as I can and do as much extensive reporting as possible. While we have the credentials I want to use them as much as possible, and if we're lucky Maryland will continue to offer us the credentials.

I was very excited to cover the Maryland men's basketball game against the Concordia Stingers. The game was a preseason exhibition game, but those can offer some of the best shooting opportunities because the teams can be very unequal in skill. If one team dominates the other it can mean a lot of dunks, which make for great photos.

I made a point to arrive at the game with plenty of time to spare. I think I was about an hour early. When I arrived the media room was packed with people. The folks I know in the media were very surprised to see me. I remember the phrases "They let you in?!", "How'd you get in to this game?", and "Dude, are you supposed to be here?". I just smiled, nodded my head, and said we were covering the game tonight. I also showed them my credential to prove it.

I set up my laptop and my card reader and prepared for the game. I extracted all my camera equipment from my Think Tank International and assembled my bodies and lenses. I went with the 70-200/2.8 and the 17-55/2.8 lenses on D200s. Al let me borrow one of his D200s and I was happy to not have to use a D2H.

With everything ready to go I decided to walk out to the court to see where my seating assignment was located. For tight games Maryland assigns seating. I wanted to scout mine out so that I knew where to go when game time started. I figured I would be in the #1 spot (1 out from directly under the basket). It's the "worst" spot according to photographers, but I'm happy to just have a spot. I don't care where the spot is - I'll take anything Maryland is willing to offer me!

While I scouted my spot I took note of the other assignments. WUSA, WJLA, WTTG, US PressWire, AP, Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun were some of the names I recognized. I felt very fortunate to be sitting alongside such huge media organizations. It was very humbling...

When game time approached most of the photographers on my side of the court moved to the opposite side of the court in order to shoot Maryland's offense in the first half. There was a little bit of space on that side and I probably could have headed down there but I didn't want to do anything like that on my first men's basketball shoot.

I elected to stay in my assigned spot and shoot the Maryland defense during the first half. It went fairly well, and I played around with the exposure settings a little bit. I recalled last year that I used 1250 at 1/400th on f2.8 and got decent results. I started out with the same tonight.

I ended up cranking the ISO up to 1600 about half way through the first half. The results looked good on my 2" LCD so I stuck with it. At halftime I checked out the shots and the noise on ISO1600 is very good. The noise level on Al's D200 is a little bit worse than my D200, but I think that might be correctable with a firmware upgrade.

The second half was very exciting with Maryland shooting on my side of the court. Bombale Osbey was a menace on the right hand side of the court. Vasquez kept dishing to him and Boom beat Cecil on like 5 possessions in a row. I caught several of his dunks but I could only use 1 or 2. You can't run 5 shots of Boom dunking, even if each shot looks great.

I also got some decent shots of the other players reaching around the defense. Vasquez has so much emotion that he's a lot of fun to shoot. You can see the passion in his face when he plays the game. He truly loves it.

Gary's also a lot of fun to shoot. He has a lot of emotion too and you can get some good reactions from him. It helps tell the story of the game.

I have to say that the whole experience of shooting men's basketball at Maryland was both exciting and humbling. Maryland has such a strong athletic program, and I have enormous respect for the jobs that the media folks have to perform. I appreciate their need to keep the sidelines clear of riff raft, and I'm very thankful that they've done some research on us and are now looking on us more favorably.

I'm looking forward to covering more Maryland games in the future, and I can only hope that Maryland continues to look fondly on us. If they offer us the shot or the writer's spot I (or someone else from my organization) will be there. I can pretty much guarantee that!

I left Comcast Pavilion and met the CSC staffer right outside the entrance to the Pavilion. I said: "I was just at Volleyball, can I take my bag into Comcast for Madness?" He said: "Sure" and motioned me through. Smiles work again...

I walked down to the elevator and made some more small talk with a CSC staffer who was guarding the elevators. She told me about her 9 kids, and how 5 are older and 4 are younger. Two are "too dumb" for school (haha) but 7 are pretty smart and she's happy about that. Funny how much you can learn about someone while waiting for an elevator.

The elevator dropped me off up on the 3rd floor of Comcast and I exited with my bag and cameras and walked over to see what was going on at Madness. It was around 8:45pm at this point and I didn't know if the women had been announced yet.

I made it just in time. Just as I was walking out into the stands the lights dimmed and the smoke and lasers started. Perfect timing... You can read my full DC Sports Box article on Maryland Madness by clicking here.

And I lucked out with the elevator too. It dropped me off on the far side of the arena that looked directly at where the players would enter. I had a great shot and I took a few sample photos. I made sure to change my folders in order to make post processing easier. I was already on my 3rd event of the night and I was down to about 200 photos left on my cards. So I had to be frugal and sharp in my shot selection.

There were a few fans gathered at the entrance to the section, and the CSC guards hate that. When I attend regular season games the CSC staffers are always shooing fans away from the entrances. I anticipated one would eventually shoe all of us away, but I hoped that he would see my camera and gear and would leave me alone.

My CSC luck continued and he told me that I could stay but everyone else had to go. This was perfect! I had a great view of the women's team entering and very little noise around me because CSC had cleared everyone out! He did ask that I move over to the side so that people don't see me and think they can stand in the entrance ways.

I looked around and I noticed Yuchen was shooting just above me. He had his 400mm lens on his Canon body. I said hello to him but he either didn't hear me or decided to ignore me. My 70-200mm lens was pretty good, but when I saw Yuchen with his 400mm I thought I'd give mine a try.

Unfortunately my monopod was in the car and that meant I had to take a few shots just holding the 400mm on the end of my D200. That worked for about 4 shots before I start weezing in pain from trying to hold that lens up without the assistance of a monopod. I promptly returned the 400mm lens to my bag and went back to the 70-200mm lens!

From where I was shooting I noticed that there seemed to be a wide open section behind the cheerleaders. I wanted to get down closer to get some better shots but I knew I couldn't make it all the way onto the floor. Sitting behind the cheerleaders seemed like a good bet and I didn't see anyone guarding it so after Coach Brenda Friese came out I walked around the arena and headed down the "Maryland Wall" to the lower level.

It was really difficult walking down those steps with my Think Tank International behind me, the D2H with the 17-55/2.8 and SB-800 on one shoulder, and the D200 with 70-200/2.8 with lens hood on the other shoulder. The steps are extremely steep and they're pretty narrow too. There were also a ton of students present cheering on the team.

I made it down the steps and managed to plant myself behind the cheerleaders without the CSC guy at the bottom on the court looking up at me. I was really having a lot of good luck with the CSC staffers today!

It felt so good to sit down and be away from the students and in an open area where I could safely shoot. My timing luck continued too... The women played a 5 minute game and then it was time for the men's team to take the court. It was during those 5 minutes that I moved from the upper section to the lower section so I didn't miss very much action.

The men's basketball team entered from the crowd. I thought about taking some shots but I was too far away and my angle was no good. From where I stood I could only see their upper chest and their face. They were smothered in a crowd of red and white (and they wore red or white). As a result you couldn't immediately look at a photo and say: "Oh, I see that's Greivis Vasquez."

Since I was low on CF space I didn't shoot very many pictures of the players entering from the stands. Greg got some good shots though, but he was in a much better position than I was. Instead, I focused on the slam dunks. When the players came out they were given a ball and they dribbled it down to either end of the court and slammed.

The people with the spotlights followed them, and there was a spotlight on one of the two baskets every time a player entered. The player was supposed to dunk on the basket that was illuminated, but several times the players went to the wrong side of the court. That made exposure difficult... Lots of sharp light from the spots but not a whole lot of soft light on the basket.

The dunk shots came out pretty well because everything else is dark except for some lasers in the background. The players are well lit in some instances, but in other instances they are dark. I think the shots would have looked great on the 17-55 if I had been under the basket. But at least I was in there taking photos.

I took note of the number of photographers present and it was pretty dismal. Greg was present, as was an AP photographer (I think it's Nick Wass but I could be mistaken). Gail Burton was there for the 10 minute practice session. There were 2 other photographers present, but they had variable aperture lenses. It's a shame we weren't offered a credential for this game - there was plenty of space.

Leaving the arena was a nightmare. I did the worst possible thing by letting all of the students leave first and then walking up the tall flight of stairs. I didn't want to be bounced around by the students as they left so I waited. Normally if you're credentialed you'd retire to the media room to do some post processing and to pack up your gear. You'd wait for 20 minutes maybe and then leave after most of the traffic has left.

But since I wasn't credentialed I decided to just follow the crowd out. Traffic was awful. This happens during the first event of every season and I should have realized it was going to happen tonight. The University Police always fail to streamline traffic during the first game. It's like they have a bunch of rookies at the key traffic points who are making bad decisions and blocking all the traffic.

For instance... There were a ton of cars trying to exit Lot 4 near Comcast and head towards the M circle on main campus. There was a University Police officer at the intersection next to the Farm who was allowing all kinds of north campus traffic to turn in front of the exiting Comcast traffic and head towards the Circle M. She was also letting a lot of traffic coming from the M Circle to turn up to go to north campus.

There's no possible game traffic coming from north campus that needs to leave campus. She should've held back the north campus traffic and the traffic that wanted to turn onto north campus in order to let the Comcast traffic out.

Another foul up took place at the M Circle. There wasn't any traffic coming from route 1 heading onto campus towards the M Circle, but the traffic coming from Comcast towards the M Circle was backed up like crazy. Why? Because all the pedestrians were crossing the street whenever and whereever they wanted to. It caused all the cars to stop to let people pass.

A better solution would have been to have a Police Auxiliary person hold up the crossing pedestrian traffic for a bit to let the cars out. Then, when a good size crowd gathers the officer steps in to block traffic for 30 seconds while everyone crosses. It delays the pedestrians for a minute or two, but it avoids automobile traffic taking 20 minutes to leave campus.

I didn't make it home until around 11:15 and I had a ton of post-processing to do. I went through it all doing a first pass and headed to bed around 2:30am. The next morning I plan on writing my articles and posting my pictures.

Last night Al emailed around 10pm and asked if I was interested in attending the Georgetown Hoyas media day today at 3:30pm. You can read my write up on the DC Sports box page by clicking here.

I told him I'd cover the event. It wasn't too difficult to get out of work early today but I have to be careful with how much I do that this time of year. It's the end of the federal fiscal year and work isn't exactly abundant while we wait for the next budget to be passed by Congress. As a result it's not like I can make up the work another time. The work simply isn't there.

Well, it's there.. But it's not good work. It's work.. So I need to do enough of it to pay the bills and to save some money for the future. But in terms of it being the regular invigorating and exciting effort it has been in the past that's simply not there right now.

So I left work early and headed over to McDonough Arena at Georgetown to see the players. I had to make a pit stop on the way home to pick up some fuel and to adjust my route to a more familiar path. I ended up arriving at Georgetown at 3:30pm and so I missed the team photo in the beginning. But I managed to get there in time to get several shots of the players while they did interviews.

There were 3 or 4 other photographers present and lots of reporters with microphones. WJLA, FOX, and NBC were present shooting video. 3 of the photographers appeared to be from the campus newspaper. They all seemed to know each other and were pretty young. The other photographer appeared to be the team photographer. He knew the media coordinator and other people on the team.

The school photographers didn't have any flash equipment with them. The team photographer did, but he didn't use it very much. He was shooting a 80-200 AF-D for most of the event, but went wide on a few occasions.

I picked up an 18-55/f2.8 DX lens this week and broke my own "anti-DX" rule. In the past I've stuck to purchasing full frame glass with the thought that one day Nikon will release a full frame sensor. That day is coming in November when the D3 is released, but I have a feeling it will be a long while before I get a D3! In the meantime I could definitely use an 18-55/f2.8, and there isn't a full frame version of that yet. The closest you could get is 17-35/2.8 and a 35-70/2.8.

When I shoot basketball I want the 70-200mm or I'd like a 300mm prime on one camera, and on the other I want to have roughly 18-70mm of range. There aren't any f2.8 lenses that shoot that range, so that means you either have to go with 18-55/f2.8 DX or you have to compromise on your zoom range and either do 17-35/f2.8 or 35-70/f2.8. It's a tough call...

Since Nikon is building in DX compatibility into the D3 everyone's DX lenses will still work on the D3. So it's not like you need to sell your DX glass when you upgrade to a D3. You can still use your DX glass you'll just get a smaller photo than if you shot with full frame glass.

Also, glass holds it's value remarkably well. I've heard several stories from photographers who've purchased glass for $N, held it, and then sold it 3-5 years later for 90% of $N. They basically lost 10% of the value after 3-5 years of use. That's incredible!

So in summary, I didn't want to get the DX glass, but after thinking about it from an economic and practical standpoint I decided to go with the 18-55/f2.8 DX lens. I also decided to buy this lens new because I've heard 3 separate photographers complain that they've had to send this lens back to Nikon for servicing. I didn't want to buy used and save $100 only to have to send in a broken focus motor a year from now and spend $300 for a repair.

I also picked up an SB-800 speedlight on CraigsList earlier this week. A gentleman was selling it for $260 and they go for $330+ new. He used it for 1 or 2 shoots a month ago and hasn't used it since. It's practically brand new, and he never registered it with Nikon. I think I did pretty well on the purchase.

With the 18-55/f2.8 DX and the SB-800 in hand I looked forward to this shoot. I love using the 70-200mm/f2.8 VR lens because you can get in really close, but there are also some great shots you can get when you shoot wide.

Tonight I got a chance to experiment a little bit with shooting wide and I'm liking it. I definitely suck at it, but I think I can get better. I took a few shots that came out pretty well. One shot shows the head coach answering some reporter's questions while sitting underneath an "NCAA Champions: 1984" banner. It looks pretty cool.

I also got a shot of a player answering reporter questions while standing up and all the reporters arms are feeding into him from my position. I flashed and so the exposure isn't that great but the wide effect is definitely interesting.

I tossed 90% of the shots I took on the D2H. Low light and my D2H don't get along well. The D200 works so well. I even tried putting the 18-55/f2.8 DX lens on the D2H and the SB-800 and the shots didn't come out too well. It's weird... That camera is great in sunlight and outdoors. But inside and in the dark I just can't seem to get a good shot with it! I don't get it...

Unfortunately I missed the Maryland Media Day for men's basketball today. I wasn't aware it was happening. If I had known I would've gone and asked Al to find someone else to go to Georgetown. I'm glad I went to Georgetown because it helps our chances for getting credentials for games this season, but at the same time I really am focused on Maryland Athletics.

We still haven't heard a response to the credential request we sent in on Monday for Friday night's Maryland Madness. Al is going to send in a follow-up tomorrow to ask where things stand. I'm going to keep my opinions to myself on Maryland's delay in responding to us.

Tomorrow should be a busy day. I'm working during the day but I'm heading over to Maryland by 5pm for a field hockey game. I'm not sure how that game will go from a light standpoint. It's late in the day during the golden hour, but there are a lot of trees around their field. I have feeling that it's going to be dark. Hopefully it won't be tho.

After the field hockey game there's a volleyball game at 7pm. I had a lot of fun at those games the last time I shot them and I'm looking forward to them. I wish it was brighter in the gym but I guess you don't have much control over that as a photographer.

And lastly I may be heading to Maryland Madness. I have my doubts though - we missed Media Day today and Maryland hasn't been kind to us so far. I have a feeling they're going to decline our request for Maryland Madness and further decline our other requests for credentials for games like Soccer.