One Game at a Time

The Terps participated in the Inaugural Big Ten/ACC Women's Challenge this evening by facing off against the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Buckeyes were ranked #19 and the Terps are currently ranked #3, so this promised to be a close game. Strangely it was not. The Terps blew the Buckeyes out of the water this evening and really looked sharp. I was over at soccer earlier shooting and it took me quite awhile to make it over to Comcast in time for the jumpball, but I made it in time. The usual folks were there, along with several other photographers I haven't seen before. The game was televised on ESPN2 I believe and as a result it's no surprise there were more photographers present. Anthony Amobi did the game writeup and shot the photos. You can view them up on the DC Sports Box.

On Thursday evening the Maryland men's soccer team took on regional challenger Loyola in their first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. It was pretty cold this evening, but I had a few people to talk with. Al showed up for the first half, and Greg was there for the entire game. The Terps played Loyola to a 0-0 tie in regulation, and the match went into double overtime. Still blanked after 2 overtimes the two teams went to penalty shots to determine the victor. The Terps got by on a 4-2 score on penalty shots to advance to the sweet sixteen. We decided to go with Al's shots from the game and I wrote the article. Please go take a look!

Wow what a game. 9 lead changes and 8 ties in the first half, only 10 fouls on Maryland and 16 on Illinois, 4 three pointers by Hayes, 10 assists by Vasquez, and some powerful dunks by freshman Cliff Tucker. Terps basketball is exciting to say the least. We were fortunate enough to be offered a credential for this evening's game, and I was extremely surprised to find that we were able to get a photo coverage as well! ESPN covered the game and there were a lot of media people milling all about. I'm very happy we were able to cover this game and report on it. Please go take a look at my article and photographs over on the DC Sports Box.

The Lady Terps took to the court tonight for the 6th time in 11 days, or the 9th time in 18 games depending on how you look at it. Laura Harper crossed the 1,000 point plateau and Kristi Toliver closed to within 23 points of it. Crystal Langhorne returned to home court off of a 5 game ankle injury and scored a double-double. It was lots of fun shooting on the baseline and from the Terp Wall with my 400mm lens. Please head over to the DC Sports Box and read my article and view the photos I shot at the game.

The Terps held their senior day for Beth Gillming and Jade Brown this afternoon at Comcast Pavilion and upset the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 3-2. It was a pretty fun game to shoot because it was very tight. Greg was there and I chatted with him for a bit before he had to head over and adjust his strobes for basketball. The match went into 5 games so it took awhile to shoot. I was pretty good about deleting bad photos during the event and as a result my post processing was very quick. Please go read my article on the DC Sports Box page and take a look at my photos. I used ISO 1600 for the most part and 1/320th or 1/400th of a second on f2.8.

I have a nasty cold, but I'm not infectious (no temperature and no green gunk). If I take a lot of Robitussin I can keep my cough under control. My name was on the credential list for UM tonight, and I wanted to help Greg with his mail problem, so I headed to the game against the advice of my wife. It felt good to get out of the house after working from home in the same room all day, and I'm glad I went. I pulled out my 400/2.8 lens and shot most of the game with it. I used my 70-200/2.8 for the other shots. Emery Wallace had a great return game, and Drey Mingo continued to shine. Kristi Toliver was fantastic as usual, and Marah Strickland, Laura Harper, and Marissa Coleman helped finish out the Terps in double figures. You can read more about the game, and view my photos, over on the DC Sports Box.

When I started photography my blog was my only vehicle for publishing my work. I'd shoot an event and post my experience and photos up on this blogsite. There's no advertising on the blog, and it was never a commercial venture. It was a simple way I could post my photos and to document my experience learning sports photography.

When I approached Al I was lucky enough that he gave me a shot with a few assignments, and that has turned into a more steady ongoing relationship between myself and the DC Sports Box. The DC Sports Box is my primary publishing vehicle, and I'm posting all my photos and game articles over on our website. Please check us out at: http://www.dcsportsbox.com/

We've recently been awarded game by game credentials to a few Maryland sporting events. Maryland's a very prominent Division I NCAA school, and there are lots of complicated restrictions associated with photographic material of student athletes. If used for commercial purposes and not sanctioned by the NCAA, commercial use of photographic material of student athletes can result in player ineligibility.

Nobody knows this better than Kirk Irwin, who stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy at Syracuse University. Kirk is a Sports Shooter and posted several of the photos he took as a credentialed photographer on SportsShooter.com. At the time it was unclear how the NCAA viewed SportsShooter.com - is it editorial, or is it commercial?

After a lot of discussions by various NCAA officials and members of the athletics staff, the group settled on the decision that SportsShooter.com is an editorial site, and thus game photos of student athletes can be posted without jeopardizing eligibility. You can read more about this decision here.

Given the controversy that erupted at Syracuse, along with our recent successes in obtaining Maryland credentials, and my publishing vehicle at the DC Sports Box, I've decided to voluntarily stop publishing game photos of collegiate athletes on my blog. Even though I don't receive a dime off my blog from advertising, nor do I receive any paid work as a result of maintaining this blog, nor do I sell prints of any of the athletes I shoot, I don't want to create any reason for any organization to complain about the content on this site. I also do not want to cause any problems for the DC Sports Box in obtaining additional credentials to any sporting event.

As a result, my future posting will simply be a paragraph summary of the event and will contain a link to the DC Sports Box for the full article and photo gallery. I think that by doing this I avoid any potential complications or conflicts of interest that might arise.

Thanks for your understanding!