Breast Cancer Awareness 2011
A few years ago, my family lost one of its members to breast cancer.
Ever since all of us have been very committed to the breast cancer awareness movement, my mother more than most. As the varsity cheer coach at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD, she also has one of the best forums to educate those around her. Last year, following the lead of many pro sports teams, my mother provided all of her cheerleaders and some of the football players with pink ribbons for one of the games in October, breast cancer awareness month. Because it was met with such an amazing response, this year she has decided to go even bigger.
On Thursday, Oct. 6, the Blair cheerleaders will be hosting a breast cancer awareness month kick-off game. Cheerleaders and football players will be wearing pink. They will be giving out literature and there will be pay-to-play games with prizes at halftime to help raise money for the cause.
Can’t attend? Donate Here
Heartland Panoramas
A couple panoramas from my roadtrip:
The cascades lobby at the Gaylord National Hotel in Nashville, TN.
The stage at the Grande Ole Opry in Nashville, TN.
The gravestones of Elivs Presley, his mother, father, and grandmother at Graceland in Memphis, TN.
The track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY.
HDR at the 136th Preakness Stakes
In between races at the 136th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore, MD I shot this HDR of the grandstand. It is a combination of 7 pictures each 1/3 of a stop apart.
At the 136th Preakness Stakes
This past Saturday I had the great opportunity to assist Sports Illustrated shooter Bill Frakes at the 136th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore, MD.
Learned A LOT – Met a bunch of awesome togs – and shot a few pictures:
Penn Relays 2011
Penn Relays was AWESOME again this year. Despite being a bit colder and cloudier than usual, the crowd was still rowdy, emotions still ran high, and the races blew me away.
One of my favorite aspects of relays is the baton hand off. Before each 4 x 100 race, the runners go out on the track and count their steps toe to heel. Where should they start from? Where should the runner before them be when they start running? What about hand placement?
In events where the winner is decided by a matter of milliseconds, a bad hand-off can cost you the race, which is why I’ve decided to highlight a few of my favorite hand-off pictures here:
I was also able to use a D300s for the first time. Check out my video of the Championship of America race qualifiers from Montgomery County.
**More images on Gazette.net**
© The Gazette
Images reprinted with permission from The Gazette
All-County Basketball
A few years back in my fashion class at Syracuse University (love you Doc Mason!), I learned about a very cool lighting technique developed by Yousuf Karsh. He was totally down with the slightly overexposed kicker and I fell in love.
This portrait of basketball player of the year Taylor Brown doesn’t have quite the look I was originally going for, but lacking a second light stand and still wanting separation of her head from the floor and background I went with more for a rim-lighting-esque shot and came up with this.
All-County Wrestling
It’s that time of year again! All-county portrait season :) and I’m totally loving it!
This first post is of Prince George’s County heavyweight wrestler Trey Seymour. Trey was an awesome kid and I highly recommend you read the article about him. Trey was recently named All-County Wrestler of the year for his outstanding performance in the state tournament.
Sports Portraits Part 2 – Boys Soccer
This is the second post in a series of portraits for the All-County Players of the Year.
Expressions
My alma mater was big on rules with 3 parts:
- the rule of thirds
- exposure = f/stop + ISO + shutter speed
- a good picture = composition + exposure + waiting for moments
ETC. In the last week or so, though, I’ve noticed that a lot of my “moments” are actually just good expressions, people showing energy and emotion. So this blog is dedicated to that. My fave “moments” from the last two weeks:
LaVita Simpson, owner of event planning firm My Green Apple, in her Capitol Heights, MD office on December 3 2010.
Capitol Heights 12/3/10
Sports Portraits Part 1 – Girls Volleyball
It’s the end of the season and that means (in addition to the playoffs) it’s time for the newspapers to make their All-County and Player of the Year selections. Last year, my newspaper went for the old standard of getting everyone together and taking a “team photo” (ala LifeTouch). You can foresee, perhaps, the obvious problems with this scheme: it’s hard enough to get all the players from ONE school in a team pic much less 20+.
So this year we moved to a new system whereby all of the athletes come in to the office for a mug shot and the Player of the Year gets a larger, more stylized “portrait.”
Here are my first images from Girls Volleyball:
Tamara Leslie Gazette All-County Player of the Year before the county annual senior match at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, MD on November 23, 2010.
Photo Advent – Do you have a ref butt shrinker?
Disclaimer: Refs. Umps. Blues. Call them what you will, they get a pretty raw deal. They go out there and despite how blatant a foul is, half the people aren’t going to like their call. It’s a thankless job and I feel kinda sorry for them. That being said:
Why are they ALWAYS in my way? I mean, I understand that they are of vital importance to the game and all, but sometimes I think they take their job a little too seriously. The running up and down the field ad infinitum. The darned whistle blowing that penetrates even the best earbuds.
And just when you think that you have successfully evaded them, they decide to put their big ref butt right in the middle of your shot. AND IT’S WHITE! IS THERE NO MERCY!?!?!?!
No rear-end has ever irked me more than this one. It was this past fall. October 16. On a 60degree, sunny Saturday, and I had the good fortune as to be assigned Bowie High School’s Homecoming game versus the Raiders of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Snap.
Fade Back.
Pass
Leap.
INTERCEPTION???
Click. click. Click. CLICK CLICK CLICK.
Joy of digital and pressing that playback button.
Utter misery.
Here’s hoping Santa puts a ref butt-shrinker in your stocking. Merry Christmas.
Picture(s) of Defeat – Part 2
A few weeks back I did a series of photos on defeat. On the 20th I had the opportunity to photograph the 4A South Football Championship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Wise High School’s. Despite a last minute touchdown, the Raiders were defeated 13-30 by the Pumas and their play-off journey was cut short. Never before have I seen such agony on the face of a player than on senior wide receiver, Nigel Christian.
The Picture(s) of DEFEAT
It’s that time of year again. Yep, it’s the play-offs; when a a kick or a foul could mean the last soccer/football/volleyball/::insert-your-sport-of-choice-here:: of an 18 year-old’s career.
As you might imagine, emotions are at an all-season high and while most photogs and spectators are enjoying the happy faces of young athletes who have just achieved a brief slice of heaven, the past few weeks I’ve taken a break from my usual Mark-Ellen Mark-free photog-ing to focus on the “losers:”
Season of Soccer
A conglomeration of different images I’ve shot this season so far:
Undefeated Suitland
Suitland High School in District Heights is the team to beat this season. They beat Oxon Hill 27-8 this past week to continue their winning streak and ranked 17th according to the WaPo’s All-Met standings (which I really wouldn’t put much stock in as they have Douglass ranked 4th and they lost to Gwynn Park!). Anyway, their passing game is pretty rockin’ and they have the awesome offensive line which actually creates holes when they run the ball up the middle! but how long can they keep it up?
Backup Plan
A couple of weeks ago, a former WaPo photographer told me I should find a new career …because mine would no longer exist in a few years. Kind of a downer but I saw a bit of his point and have thus been searching for a back-up plan. Right now my current ploy is to become an athletic field consultant, not on grass or anything but on the actual position of the field so that photographers and (because you know those won’t matter in a few years) fans will have optimal viewing sunlight :D
^SO GRAPHIC <3
Seeing Pink
It seems like everyone has been affected by Breast Cancer in one way or another. For me, it was a cousin who, at the age of 29, died after a long fight. So for myself, my family, and many others, Friday was not just the start of October, but also the beginning of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
One of my favorite ways people participate is by wearing pink at athletic events. (Major shout-out to the pink cleats worn by the Skins this week in Philly!) But it’s not just the pros. Here are some photos of high school athletes (at my alma mater Montgomery Blair) doing their part to find a cure:
Patriots, Pumas, and Browns – OH MY!
fine fine. It’s one soccer pic and a lot of football but that’s just the way to cookie crumbled this week (tangent: I’m not a big fan of crumbly cookies – more of a chewy Chips Ahoy! type a girl myself – moving on…) I chose one or two of my favorites from each game.
There’s Friendly v Gwynn Park up top:
Then Saturday it was Wise High School defeating Eleanor Roosevelt in Upper Marlboro:
**More images of Roosevelt @ Wise**
Sunday was a special treat; John Reid, the official photographer for the Cleveland Browns asked me to assist him at their game versus the Ravens in Baltimore after finding my images on SportsShooter. Some of what I shot while I was side line:
**More images from the Browns @ Ravens**
What did I learn from this experience? NFL players are bigger and faster, but more organized. It’s like the difference between DI and DIII lacrosse. Same game but the ball spends a lot less time on the ground being unproductive. I also forgot how crowded the sidelines can be (all those video cameras and sound guys and security and extra referees!). An 80-200 is fine for H.S. but anything more intense requires longer glass.
…and we’re back to the question of whether I have $6k to spare.
Football: Week 1
…I’m calling it Week 1 at least. I missed last week (the official kick-off of the high school season) because I was in Buffalo for a wedding but I did shoot a pre-season game the week before that of a WCAC school but it was at night (I heart PG County Athletics because they play on Saturday afternoons when the light is RIGHT!)
This was my favorite shot from the day:
Bowie’s Jarard Stewart picks up the ball after it is fumbled by Duval’s Chris Sharper and runs for a 45 yard touchdown in the fourth quarter at Duval High School in Lanham, MD on September 11, 2010. The Bulldogs beat the Tigers 21-7.
I felt it really captured the overall spirit of the day, told a story: the Duval player ‘dropped the ball’ and there was a sea of Bowie players to capitalize on it.
I took three other photos that I really enjoyed because of their layers; people in the foreground of background that added to the depth and storytelling of the image. They’re not my standard, clean, circles of confusion types but I like them for a certain je ne sais quoi they posses.
Check out more images from the game on my SportsShooter.
Cheer Seniors 2011
I have a confession to make: I… was a high school cheerleader. Yes! it’s true! and I wore my spanky pants with pride! So you can go ahead and hate but those 24 girls were like my family. And thus every year I go back to my alma mater and shoot the senior photo.
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2011!
(p.s. spanky pants are a nickname for the bloomers you wear under the flyaway skirts)
State Softball Semi-Finals
Sometimes you think shooting into the sun is the worst thing ever. Then you get a shot like this:
Aryn Johnston, of Bowie High School, tags out Sherwood’s Rachel D’Amato during the softball state semi-final game at Bachman Park in Glen Burnie, MD on May 25, 2010.
But how many shots of first base with that dust can you really get? That’s when you read the booklet and realize your special little bracelet gets you INSIDE the fence. WAHOO!!!!!
Bowie’s Kristina Hill is safe at second despite the best efforts of Sherwood’s Amanda Nardone during the softball state semi-final game at Bachman Park in Glen Burnie, MD on May 25, 2010.
Glen Burnie 5/25/10
The moral of this story is unclear. Where is Aesop when you need him?
PG County Baseball & Softball Championships
Last week, Prince George’s County held a Championship game for the winners of the regular season at Cosca Regional Park in Clinton, MD. In baseball, Roosevelt High School routed Surrattsville 22-1 and in softball Gwynn Park rose above their 2A ranking to beat C.H. Flowers 2-0. Regional playoffs are currently underway.
Roosevelt’s Blake Wyatt tags Surrattsville’s Josh Powell out at second base during the County Championship game at Cosca Regional Park in Clinton, MD on May 12, 2010.
Clinton 05/12/10
