This past weekend I was in Houston, Texas shooting NHRA Spring Nationals. NHRA is by far becoming my favorite sport to photograph besides football. It pushes all your senses to the max, with the loud cars going 300 MPH, the Nitrous Oxide burning your eyes and nose and the feeling of getting blown away from the starting line as the cars launch down the track.
The day has finally come! The Toledo Mud Hens will host the Louisville Bats to open the 2013 season in downtown Toledo! Just like any city with a MLB team, the whole city basically shuts down and heads downtown to to bars to drink with friends to kick off the summer!
A few months ago the NCAA announced they would be having a regional hockey game at the Huntington Center. Spending the last 5 month shooting the Walleye and getting familiar with hockey I wanted to see if the spend of the game changed from college to minor leagues.
The Toledo Walleye are in the 2013 Kelly Cup Playoffs looking to bring home the cup, and I wanted to share some of my favorite images I have captured during the regular season!
I have been shooting professional for six years now, and I have never enjoyed shooting hockey. It’s usually hard to get around the arena, the photo holes suck, the lighting sucks, the list goes on and on. But having the opportunity to be the team photographer for the Toledo Walleye changed my perspective on hockey and pushed me to create images that people have never seen before.
From February 24th thru March 4th was the busiest week at The Huntington Center since it’s opened. I was talking with Mike McCall who is the Events Service Manager at the arena and he said the staff would be working extremely long hours to switch the arena from hockey to concerts back to hockey.
So I wanted to document this, but the I would actually be going on vacation. With the help of my friend Jeremy Allen we made this happen. On the 24th, we arrived at the arena to start setting up. I would be using a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition.
After meeting Gator John over at Wootens, he invited Stacy and I over to Gator Adventures to watch him wrestle alligators. It’s actually not wresting its more of handling and training. I asked Gator John, if I could strap by GoPro Hero 3 to his head while he is handling them and he jumped at the opportunity! I figured it would add a unique angle.
This is our fifth day in Marco Island and the weather has been absolute crap! It’s been in the 60s and rainy & cloudy 70% of the time. We have only laid out by the pool one day, so I have the weakest Florida tan ever!
Stacy and I bundled up and head out to the pier to do a little fishing! We were bored so we attached my Go Pro Hero 3 to end of a long stick so we could get photos of the fish we caught as we reeled them in!
Day 5 of vacation was a super cloudy and crappy day so Stacy and I decided to drive down to Wootens in the Everglades. Wootens has been around since 1953 giving all kinds of airboat and swamp buggy rides.
Day three of vacation started out cloudy and ended very wet! Stacy and I woke up and head over to the only Starbucks on the island for a little coffee and breakfast before we started out the day! When we were driving around Naples on Monday, we drove past the Naples Zoo and we thought it would be fun to check out and today was the perfect rainy day to do so!
Finally a vacation! I have basically worked for the last two years with out taking a vacation and the time has finally come! Stacy and I headed to Marco Island, FL to spend 10 days in the sun! I have been going to Marco Island where my grandparents own a condo since I was a little kid.
We arrived in Florida on Monday morning and Stacy wanted to go to a few outlet malls to do a little shopping. Before heading to Marco Island we stopped in Naples, FL to see the suset! Above, the sunset with the Naples Pier to the left.
