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.

Since the lady leaves tomorrow for Houston, we decided to pick up a few pumpkins at the Fells Point Safeway. I feel guilty buying them from Safeway given the fact that I’ve covered countless events at local farms that feature fresh pumpkin patches, but I like to think I just bought them from the retailer instead of the wholesaler. They are (hopefully) local, farm-fresh pumpkins! Either way we drug them up here to my temporary 3rd floor room and carved away. We had visions of elaborate designs, but in the end decided on a simpler theme. She usually beats me as far as speed and overall design goes, but I may have her this year (don’t tell her that) We had a grand old time. I slapped the trusty G9 on the 1 second time-lapse setting and let it fly during the process. The following video is the result. Nothing too crazy, just a little view into the event, complete with a cameo by my old Persian cat, TT, who awoke from his perpetual slumber and dawned his curiosity cap.

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.

So yesterday was the magically Internet hook-up day for me at my new Baltimore City place. It was a long time coming as life is frustrating when you are in a new place, away from friends and family, without Internet. Ive been working at Patuxent Publishing Company for a week now and it has been a ride so far. Ive shot a variety of assignments all over the state of Maryland. There’s such a difference from the inner city, where I live in a turn of the century row home in a great area called Butcher’s Hill where there is so much diversity and a lot of the rural towns I have assignments in. Its pretty nice to be able to experience the fast-paced city life at home and be able to have assignments out in rural Maryland. Doing work like this really enables you to experience an area of the country more than say an engineer working temporarily working a 9-5 in a cubicle, as I’m pretty sure cubicles in New England look similar to ones in Texas. They’ve given me a bunch of great assignments and lots of sports as well. I shot a triathlon for the first time last Sunday too. These sample photos are a few that I dug from my first week. The frequency of my blogs will increase exponentially now that I have my Internet back up and running.

Cutline for above image: “Catonsville High School varsity quarterback Erick Foster takes a drink from the water fountain after a long practice. Foster, who spent most of the 2007 season as a defensive end, hopes to take the reigns and drive the Comets to another playoff berth.”