I recently started working for BU Photo Services, a great group of photographers who keep their lenses trained on University life for a range of publications. I will be covering hockey action for the next few weeks as the Beanpot approaches, and who knows what after that. In the meantime, I’ve loved the opportunity to get back into Walter Brown Arena and Agganis, this time with proper equipment, to cover men’s and women’s hockey.
The creative director, Melody Ko, has a great vision for taking sports (and all) coverage to the next level. She’s encouraged me to take advantage of my access to place remote cameras and experiment, which is the best thing a photographer can possibly hear. It’s great to have such a publication behind you when you push for access.
This weekend was Wintefest 2012, a huge alumni/student gathering with ice sculpting, Quidditch (appropriate, as I just started reading the Harry Potter series start-to-finish), rock climbing, concerts and of course, hockey. I shot both Agganis games with D3 bodies and the exceptional 200-400 ƒ/4 VR. I’m considering investing in scratch-off tickets to finance a switch to Nikon…
After 1,900+ .NEF frames and 11 hours of shooting, I went home to edit for another three hours before getting up and going in to BU Photo to edit more and hand my files over. All in all, it was a great weekend and a fun reintroduction to shooting hockey and remotes. Here’s to more great shooting!
One of the many things I love about photojournalism is meeting new people. On a feature hunt for the Boston Herald yesterday, I drove through Saugus and came across a man putting up Christmas lights on his house. From across the street it made a nice, graphic image, and I went to go and talk to him. He invited me into his house and told me some of his story. He’s an unemployed Merchant Marine who survived an April 14, 2009 pirate attack off of the coast of Somalia. He had been robbed in August and lost most of his possessions. Through and through, he seemed a kind person. We talked politics and life for a little bit, and we went our separate ways. All in a day’s work.
In other news, I’ve spent some time at the Occupy Boston encampment. Tensions are rising and wouldn’t be surprised if in coming weeks there is a D.C./NYC/L.A. style eviction or confrontation. Yikes.
The media scene was crazy. There were more hail-marys, more pushes and shoves and more confrontations than usual. As I had no publication I was shooting for, I didn’t go all-out to make my photos. However, for those on deadline, sometimes the crowd pushed back.
I will end with this adorable photo of a girl running through a Christmas tree farm. She went from gleeful smile to a look of absolute contempt as she saw me taking her picture. Her parents and I cracked up, but the girl was furious. Still, I think it made for a nice moment, while it lasted.
Here’s a collection of some of my work from the past few weeks. I made some self-portraits with a relay setup on my Pocketwizards, covered Shaq signing his memoir at the Harvard Bookstore, documented musician John Grant and author Jodi Picoult on World AIDS Day, had adventures in New Hampshire with my family, spent Thanksgiving at the Occupy Boston encampment at Dewey Square, and covered the aftermath of one stabbing. It’s a mixed bag, but that’s freelancing.
I just returned from a 14-day cruise in the Mediterranean with a past professor of mine and legendary character Gerry Powers. He’s traveled all over the world and as is his motto, “you can’t take it with you,” invited me along on this journey to Greece, Sicily and Italy on board a 350-passenger ship, the Aegean Odyssey.
The average age on the ship was 68. At 23, I was 70 years younger than the oldest passenger. It was a great experience, even if I did miss Boston and my social life. It was staggering to walk among 2000-year-old ruins from an advanced civilization whose way of life we can only extrapolate from chips of stone.
My new Nikon S9100 performed wonderfully. Its outrageous 25-450mm range came in very handy, as did its built-in panorama mode. It’s the perfect travel camera. My only qualm is that there is no manual exposure or focus, and the ƒ/5.9 aperture on the long end sometimes has trouble locking on. Nonetheless, I was able to make any image I saw, no matter the situation or focal length.
Everywhere I turned I was drawn to geometric figures and juxtapositions made all the better by amazing light. Here are some of my favorite images from the trip.
I’m writing this at the end of my last shift at the Moline Dispatch & Rock Island Argus. After seven days on, I’m ready for a break, but I know soon I’ll wake up and instinctively reach for my phone to double check my day’s assignments only to find none.
It’s been a wild ride until the end when I covered the Rock Island Grand Prix, one of the world’s largest kart races on public streets. Screaming karts filled a winding course made entirely of 90* turns with only air-filled plastic barriers and hay bales between rider and concrete. I’ve shot NASCAR before, but this was another experience entirely. NASCAR involves a 600 ƒ/4 and a 1.4x extender. KART involves a 70-200 and extender. You’re feet from the action, and the action is fast.
Here is a collection of my favorite images from qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday. Thanks for looking.
