What a weekend! Thursday I picked up my Astros season credential at Union Station (cant wait for the home opener) and headed then over to Reliant for my NCAA credentials. It was one post and one week or so ago that I was at Reliant and in that week the whole complex, mainly Reliant Stadium, was transformed from rodeo to march madness. The NCAA set up was excellent as far as facilities go. Good food, good accommodations and organized for us photographers, however the actual set-up of the raised floor and seating were kind of sketchy. Its a huge football stadium so transforming it to accommodate a basketball court is strange. It was a feat for sure and I commend those involved, however with the overall seats being so far away from the action and the team benches being off the court itself it just didn’t feel as intimate as it could have been at the Toyota Center. Regardless, my seat was awesome! I was about 5 feet to the right of one of the goals and about 5 more feet from the baseline, which made for some interesting captures. With the two Sweet Sixteen games on Friday and the Elite 8 regional championship on Sunday I was a bit nervous about my gear scenario. I had shot a limited amount of collegiate and pro basketball in the past so I wanted to make sure I was good to go as far as gear went and having a camera at CPS getting a shutter replaced did not help. When I arrived I met Mark Sutton from Nikon and he was so great to loan me a brand spankin new D3 (Nikon’s new full-frame wonder camera), a 14-24mm 2.8 N, a 70-200mm 2.8 VR and a 300mm 2.8VR. Everything was fresh out the plastic new and ready to roll. I shot the two games Friday without incident and Mark even gave me a battery charger so that I could use the gear for my shoots Saturday. I absolutely loved the camera. So many features that I wish I had on my N’s; retouching in camera, dual cf slots, bigger and more accurate screen and viewfinder, full frame, and the most important…the noise. You can crank that sucker to 3200 and the noise looks like my 800 ASA. The image above was taken with the D3 and the 14-24mm lens at Libby’s rollerskating birthday party at Funtime Skating Rink in Clear Lake City, Texas. Our friend Kevin was trying to catch a cupcake in his mouth and failed. Good fun.