One thousand apologies for the lack of updates. It’s very rare that I go a whole month without blogging. I hate these entries because so much has happened that it’s hard to remember everything to add into just one blog, but since updating my blog is on my to-do list, I’ll try.

I moved back home to Houston this past Monday. It was a tough 24 hour drive with a quick nap at a hotel in Roanoke, VA. The last month or so at Patuxent were busy busy. Not only was I busy with assignments for the paper, other things were keeping me busy as well. Knowingly moving back to Houston, I put a lot on my plate as far as getting things in order to jump back into the freelance market in Houston, such as self-promotion, contacting editors and such. I got some neat new business cards made as well as a batch of 4×6 promo cards. A few of my coworkers and I drove down to Atlanta and attended the Atlanta Photojournalism Conference. I met a lot of awesome people and had a grand time.

Right before leaving for Atlanta I received my new Canon 5D mark II body. I absolutely love it so far. I’ve done a ton of short mess around clips, shot a few assignments with it and shot a short little mockumentary project with The Firm in Baltimore. I’m still in the editing process of that piece so stay tuned. I’m going to miss all my newly found friends in Baltimore.

I am loving it so far being back home. It’s something about moving back home during the holiday season that makes it extra special. Tuesday was my birthday and about 12 friends and I went to the Rockets game and out for late night food. I am visiting all of my favorite local food joints and even doing a few assignments already for the Chronicle. In fact a shot from an assignment yesterday (see above inset image) ran A-1 main art today!

l’ll admit here that I know OF the sport of cross country, but really have not shot it until coming up here to PPC. I shot one quick race for the first time a few weeks ago that was a little hairy as I did not know how everything was set up. Its also pretty tough for PPC in that we publish 20 different papers in a HUGE coverage area so you have to know every school and all of the all-stars to really get what the editors are looking for. Cross-country meets are always huge deals with several different high schools so it’s always a challenge. I have a cousin out in California who is all about it, but running to a point where you’re almost near-death is pretty ridiculous to me, but props to these kids.

I had an assignment to cover the Maryland State Cross Country Championships on Saturday and it was a challenge, but I think I came out pretty good. I pushed myself, shot a lot of variety, and even tried out some odd remotes that I would usually not have the time to set up. I was getting pretty close to some of the racers after they ran and a few high school kids pleaded for me to “give them privacy” etc, but I knew I was doing my job and that was confirmed when I felt a pat on my back and a “don’t worry about those kids, you’re just doing your job” from an older, wiser shooter. Besides having to park on a sketchy flattened corn field, it was a good day.

**UPDATE**

The series of images shot at the cross-country meet won 1st place in the multiple category during Region 8′s National Press Photographer’s Association monthly clip contest. Click HERE for details.

Its been a while since I’ve posted on this (primary) blog. My music reviews/photos have re-spawned into a new blog called http://whatdoyoumeanimnotonthelist.blogspot.com and given the frequency of live music I’ve witnessed in the past few weeks, that blog has seen more action. It’s mostly a me thing, but hey if I can serve a purpose with it I’m flattered. In all honesty, things have been hectic here. I was offered a staff photo position with PPC and in the end I respectfully declined the offer. I don’t think I’m crazy and I really hope I don’t end up regretting the decision, but I think it was for the best. While I do think a staff photo position would be great at this point in my career / life and while I do think PPC is a great place to start out, the industry and economy is in a tough spot and the offer would mean a significant pay cut with a significant increase in the cost of living, since Houston is an extremely inexpensive place to live with the Baltimore / DC area on the other end of the spectrum. PPC has its ups and downs as does any newspaper or employer really, but as I head into my last month here I am coming to the realization that the feeling of coming (or going) home is going to be somewhat eclipsed by this sadness of leaving the incredible friends I’ve made up here. Math Roth, Drew Smith, Monica Lopposay, Patrick Smith, Nicole, et al. They are all excellent people and even better friends and I am going to miss the hell out of all of them. There are some amazing shooters in Houston that I work with and get advice from, but my Houston life is void of any photographers my age to really socialize and talk to on a level that I do with this group. Enough of the bittersweet symphony here.

Last week I shot an assignment at Laurel Park which is the second largest horse racing track behind Pimlico (of Preakness fame). It was to be a multimedia piece to supplement a story on the Maryland slots debate, which is a huge issue for the state of Maryland and everyone involved. They put me on the story because they wanted multimedia, but it presented itself as a challenge because it really was not an ideal multimedia story, as there are no slots yet, and the story is on opinions and opinions are hard to make into pictures. I did what I could and put a short piece together using a few of my stills I captured during the day and my quick and dirty audio interviews I did with the players. I limited my editing time on this to force myself into getting better with the workflow of producing a piece in a matter of hours. I think it came out decent.My goal is to keep learning new tricks and to be able to pop these suckers out quickly. I’ve also been spending a lot of time teaching myself more about Final Cut and learning the new CS4 suite, more specifically Flash.

I’m actually listening to The Get Up Kids song named “Hannah Hold On” right now. I thought it was fitting as I was very excited to have Hanna’s might serve as a gateway to some nice moments, images, and maybe more, but alas she was but a fake as I suspected. Last night in the wake of a scurrying about by fellow photographers I thought to myself, “worrying about a hurricane…in New England?!” Everyone was prepared for the worst, but got the least, which in most terms is an acceptable outcome, but a bit disappointing on my end. My day was prepped to be pretty busy with 5 assignments starting with a 10am field hockey game in Columbia. I heard its hard to shoot, but I was up for the challenge since I have never shot it before. Rained out. My next assignment was a studio shoot with a cross-country runner. It went as decently as can be expected. cross-country is a hard sport to squeeze a portrait out of. My next two assignments; a car show and a parade, two events which could have yielded some nice images were of course rained out. With a record of 1/4 I was set up for my last assignment which was to capture the fury of tropical storm Hanna. I was prepared and posted up in the lowest lying areas in Maryland, and after a few hours of mild rain and mild snapping the rain gave way to the sun and I called it a bust. I got a few newspaper safe images and then there are these. I was excited to put together a short multimedia piece on the storm, but since it never materialized, neither did my piece. I did still put it together based on my earlier vision, but it’s incomplete since I only had a limited amount of small video clips. I dug the idea though, but curse Hanna for killing the follow-through. The short (what would have been) video and a small gallery of images I made while waiting the storm out in my car are below.

Today was an early day with 2 assignments prior to our weekly staff photo meetings. The two assignments were rather vague and were definitely far far away, way beyond our coverage area towards the northeast corner of Maryland near PA and the top of the Chesapeake Bay. The area was absolutely beautiful. Its such a difference to live in the city and drive to these rural areas every day. Unknown to me at the time, both assignments were for our directories we publish as well, so the shots were basically for the cover of phone books for the area. That would explain the area, but no one told me the shots HAD to be skinny verticals. These images are two that I pulled from my take. The one on the left is from a newly renovated church. The shot was my only vertical of the dozen I took at the scene. After the church my assignment was to go look for landscapes and horses in the area. The landscapes were beautiful, but for the most part covered in a thick blanket of fog that made navigating the unfamiliar and thin thoroughfares quite interesting. I did happen upon a nice scene of grazing horses and as I stopped the car and got out to take photos of them, they all slowly came over to me and were really friendly. Horses are awesome. This photo is one of the only verticals, but I think it works. I hope it runs on one of the books. Both images are missing that human element, but I think what I pulled out of the take is a lot better than what I thought I was going to have when I got back to the newsroom and found out that the shots needed to be verticals for the cover. After the studio Drew and I had some most excellent bonding time with the rest of the photo staff, namely Matt and Nicole, who are both awesome. We spontaneously went out for a snowball with some famous Baltimore marsh mellow topping courtesy of Nicole and it was actually pretty epic and I don’t even like marshmallows. I’m really glad that there is such a young and cool bunch out here.

Today was a day off for me, so I took care of some grocery shopping and also visited the inner harbor Best Buy to pick up the amazing Fun Run Kit, which is the Best Buy exclusive season 4 DVD set of The Office (aka best show ever) I also did some computer organizing and editing and came across this shot from Nationals Park. Wish I would have taken one during the game with more butts in seats, but I still dug the frame.