Last Saturday I had a rather unusual assignment to cover the 2010 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships hosted by my Alma-mater, the University of Houston. As I prepared for the event I realized that out of all the things I have shot in the past and out of all the sports I have shot in the past, I had never shot a swim meet or competition diving. For years I had seen great swim meet photos from local newspaper photographers all the way up to the Olympics, but never had I shot it myself.

So I called some friends for some inspiration.

A few told me that it would be dark and damp (it was) and that I should bring in some lights to light the place up. I would have, but there was little time and the Campus Recreation Center where the meet was being held was a little hard to navigate. Since the competition pool is sandwiched between the dive pool and a training pool, angles for shooting are pretty slim. Even though the conditions were not ideal for photographs I enjoyed myself. I must say, I have complete respect for someone who can swim 66 non-stop laps in an Olympic-sized pool, not to mention one who wins that heat.

After I had made plenty of proper (and identifiable) images of swimmers leaving the block, celebrating, etc, I decided to play around a bit and shoot some more abstract stuff from the venue. With the obligation of identifying the schools and individual swimmers behind me, I felt inspired to follow my instincts and shoot a series of images that played with the color of the water and the natural motion of the event.

What a great few weeks. This is my first Fall back in Houston in 3 years. Fall internships have kept me away and its great to be home during this time. I have certainly missed the days when the Houston weather starts to get mild(er) and more importantly I get to cover my hometown Houston Texans and my alma mater, The University of Houston Cougars. I haven’t covered the teams since 2006 so its great to finally get back on the field. I enjoy shooting sports, but its especially exciting when you are shooting a team you root for.

While I was in Florida a few weeks back, my Cougars were beating a then 5th ranked OSU in Oklahoma to propel them to their first AP ranking in about 20 years. The upsets in our bye-week pushed us from 21st to 17th. Everything all week has been building up to Saturday night’s matchup against Big 12 rivals Texas Tech. The atmosphere in and around Robertson Stadium was unlike I have seen since the 2006 CUSA championship game. Former and famed alumni Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler showed up and hung out for the game as well. We had our ranking and we wanted our team to prove it wasn’t a fluke winner and could hang with the big boys.

The game was great with lots of game action and like many other college games, lots of other things to shoot other than the game action. I didn’t get a lot of feature(y) stuff prior to the game, but I highlighted a few of my favorites over on my SportsShooter member page. It is actually featured on their front page as of this morning.

After an incredible 29-28 Houston win and an on field celebration via rushing the field, we were up in the press box editing and transmitting at 12:30am. I left Robertson at 1:30am or so and after celebrating with a few friends, was in bed at about 4:30am.

I woke up 5 hours later to shoot the Texans, Jaguars game.

With high hopes and the meat of our schedule behind us, UH is now ranked 12th in the nation according to this week’s AP poll.

Go Coogs!

I’ve had an extra exciting week. Thursday I did an assignment for the Chron at Moody Garden’s on the relatives of the Titanic survivors. Friday I flew in a helicopter over Galveston and Bolivar for our upcoming movie, The Messenger. Friday, I photographed the amazing guys in Bayside. Saturday was a full day of UH spring football, Astros baseball (and Pence bobble head) and a get together at Kevin’s. Sunday was an epic Saves the Day show. Some great times with great friends. All the while I’m pushing myself to see differently. I think it may just be working.

Above image: Karen Little, 7, stares at a scale model of the Titanic through a glass case, Thursday, April 10, 2008 during an event held at Galveston’s Moody Gardens Titanic exhibit. Karen’s great grandmother, Karen Marie Abelseth was a survivor of the Titanic disaster. April 10th also marks the 96th anniversary of Titanic’s maiden voyage.

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: 2006 University of Houston: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Annual Report
PUBLICATION DATE: 2007
LINK: http://www.egr.uh.edu/ECE/
NOTES: This has quite a few of my images I made while working in the communications department for the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston, my alma-mater. I did several shoots in local testing labs as well as several on location environmental portraits at various locales in and around the Houston area. Here is the cover which showcases a few of my macro images as well as one of the inside pages with one of the portraits.