With doing the NHRA tour this year I have had the opportunity to visit several tracks for the first time. Brainerd, Minnesota would be the final track on the season that I had never been to so I was looking forward to checking the track out as well as making my first visit to the infamous “Zoo” at the tracks campground. It would end up being quite the fun and interesting weekend.
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The major league baseball season is about a quarter of the way over already so I figured I would do a post highlighting some of my favorite images from the season thus far.
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My schedule this year had prevented me from covering Arizona State football games all season, thankfully I had a free day which enabled by to cover their last game of the season against home state rival University of Arizona. It is always their biggest game of the year so that plus the fact the stadium is only 10 minutes from my house had me pretty excited for the shoot.
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After a few years of not shooting NASCAR at Charlotte I decided I wanted to cover the fall chase race at the Lowes Motor Speedway. It is a great track to shoot at and usually is an action packed race. The one thing I wasn’t expecting though was the low temperatures (40s) or the high ISO’s (6400).
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After shooting random press conferences and practices leading up to the first season of the United Football League (UFL) it was finally time for the real thing. The UFL really hadn’t done much in regards to marketing and promotion for the season so nobody knew what to expect as kick off time approached at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. The only thing that was for sure was that it would be a game of firsts!
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I had planned on spending the weekend in San Diego shooting drag boat racing on Mission Bay with Jennifer and some friends but as things tend to go in my crazy life as a sports photographer, the original plan took a back seat to a last second shoot. That last second shoot was a college football game in Utah. Initially I wasn’t very excited about the change of plans but once I found out the game had a late afternoon start with the chances of great light I somewhat warmed up to the idea.
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Last Friday, less than 24 hours after getting home from Amsterdam I was sitting at Chilis relaxing and working on some photos when I got a call to see if I would be available to fly up to Seattle to cover the season opener for the Washington Huskies where they would be taking on football powerhouse LSU. I had planned on a nice relaxing weekend at home where I would shoot Arizona State opening their season against Idaho State. I took a few seconds to think about it, sure the ASU game is 15 minutes from my house and would make for a much easier weekend, but the chance to go up to Seattle (where I spent my last few years in the Navy and have several friends still there) was too much to pass up.
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As a photographer who works between 50-60 hours a week one thing that gets tough is taking the extra time to try unique shots. Sure sometimes it can produce something wonderful that makes it worth the extra time and effort but more often than not it doesn’t work as planned and leaves you pissed off for taking all the extra time instead of just doing the normal thing everyone else does. But in these economic times with photographers being laid off and freelance budgets drying up it is imperative to be different from the norm to survive as a photographer. Continue reading to see how hard work can sometimes pay off!
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The race I look forward to more than any other is the Daytona 500 every February in Florida. Typically it is one of the most exciting races of the year and is always great with photo sales. During the first 8 days of Daytona it did not rain once. Of course on race day it would all change and make for a dreary and disappointing day for myself, the 100 thousand plus fans in attendance and millions watching on TV around the world.
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One of the joys of being a photographer is the random shoot that comes up out of nowhere and you go from a Thanksgiving you thought you’d be spending at home on the couch to a big football game in Dallas as the Cowboys were matched up against the Seattle Seahawks. The last time I shot the Seahawks they were a first place playoff team. This year…..not so much. To see how this match up turned out continue reading.
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