Vegas Baby!!!

Today I’m heading out to Las Vegas. This time I’m going to Vegas for fun we are going down to celebrate Derek’s 21st birthday. This will be my first trip to Vegas after my 21st birthday I’m looking forward to it. This will be fun!

My blog is about pictures so normally I would not write about a trip before I go and get pictures but this trip is for fun my last trip to Vegas was for work and I got my strangest picture once you see it you won’t forget it so be warned that it is kinda sick.

Any way it was an adult softball tournament this was the first time I had shot an adult tournament. I was shooting and there was a play at the plate and I got a good picture of the catcher tagging out the runner at the plate it was a cool shot. The sales were not so great at this tournament so I got sent with my picture and the team picture to try and make some sales. The team loved my picture an were looking at all the other pictures we had taken.

They were looking at the pictures for a while as they were the last game before an afternoon break. Well one of their players asked “If I go take some swings in my jockstrap will you take a picture?” I laughed a little and looked at Ken who responded “If you buy it we will take it.” I thought that would be the end of things well he went to the bathroom. One of his teammates said to me “He is going to do it. He is not joking.” He came out, I grabbed the camera and…

He bought his copy and 5 of his teammates got a copy also. I keep one at the table because it was so funny. Well there were a few people still around when he did this and saw it. Well word got around that I had taken the “shot of the day” so for the rest of the tournament we had people coming over and asking “do you have the shot of the day? Someone told me I had to see it.” That was followed by “OH GOD THAT IS DISGUSTING!” Only in Vegas.

Wild Wild West

This past weekend Sports Imaging went to shoot the Utah War. The Utah War is a cowboy shooting competition, the company did it last year to but I was in Steamboat Springs shooting softball. This year I got to go with Ken, Rina and Kristy. Cowboy shooting is a bunch of people that come together to shoot single action rifles, pistols, and shotguns, and they dress in old fashioned cowboy clothes as they shot.This was my first time ever taking any pictures like this but with all the cool clothes I thought this would be fun and it was. One of the best outfits was a nun outfit I like that a nun is packing all this heat.

The shooting was intense they had a series of targets set up that had to be shot in a certain order. The stage I was shooting on they had 10 pistol rounds then 10 rifle round and then 4 shotgun shots to finish the stage. Each stage had a story to it my stage was about someone burning 50,000 pounds of army supplies for some reason. So the shooter started with two hands on a torch then yelled “burn the wagons!” they would then shoot the pistol, they would than move 6 feet and shoot the rifle and shotgun form this new position. The best time I remember was around 18 seconds without missing a target.

Some shooters were not as serious about the shooting like this woman who gave me a big smile as she loaded her shotgun rounds. I wish I could remember her name because everyone has a cool cowboy name they go by at the shoots such as Wasatch, Sandpatch and Slick Taxes Willy.

Last serious thing I have to say is thanks to Dale (I can’t remember his cowboy name) He was the man in charge and he gave me all the help and information I needed all weekend he was so good to work with not to mention he thought I was the one in charge and that Ken worked for me. What a good guy! Thanks Dale!

On Saturday morning after a cool night of camping (it was 36 degrees) they were scheduled to start shooting at 8 well at 7:30 they started so I rushed over there and as I was shooting a cowboy showed up late and was dressed only in his underwear with an over coat and a top hat sucking on a cigar needless to say I had to get a picture of that.

Final Day Revue

For the last day of the revue I took the 400 up into the balcony and it did not work well at all it did not get much at all I got one shot that was nowhere near as good as the day before.So I decided to go back to the sideline where I could get some stuff but it was a challenge this time I got some different but still cool stuff. In all the Revue was awesome and fun to do, but by the end it starts to get hard because it is a lot of games in not very much time. If I have the chance to shoot it again I will do it again.

5th day of The Revue

Ironic! That is all I have to say about this day at the Revue. After a day off (I have a post coming about that) from the Revue I was back with a new plan I took the 400 mm with me. I had wanted to shoot with the 400 but Lennie had brought the lens to me from the paper and I was glad he did that and I did not want to make him bring the 400 but with the day off I picked it up myself. My plan for the 400 was to go into the stands on the side and get above the play and shoot down on it. Well it was tough the play was too fast to fallow, and the side I was on was not getting much action. So I switch sides and then I could not see the play develop because the camera blocked it well I went back to the first side and just continued to try and get something. Then the Spurs were losing so bad that the Mav’s were not playing strong defense. With less than a minute Keith Langford got off a huge dunk. The kind I was waiting for.
Now why is this Ironic? This is now my favorite picture I have taken. There are a lot of pictures I have taken that I like but a few stick out above the rest. I don’t know how many times I’ve said this but again basketball is not my favorite sport. I don’t know why for sure but I’m just not much of a fan. The shot that always stood out before this one was also a basketball shot. I took this in high school. The camera was a film camera I had to advance myself and a lens I had to focus myself. I entered it in an art contest at Salt Lake Community College (after some encouragement from Tom Szalay the photo teacher) and got an award of merit. Later the yearbook was looking for some more photos and so it was the center picture of the 2004 West High yearbook. Even though I have tones more pictures that are probably better I liked this because of the praise it got and the camera I used it get it. It always reminds me that I don’t have to rely on auto focus or a motor drive I just have to see things coming.

Why would I be so good at shooting a sport I don’t really care for? It’s Ironic.

Day 4 @ The Revue

So it’s another day at the Rocky Mountain Revue, and today I had to try something new as I had told myself the day before. The other day I was looking at where the TV cameras were and that gave me my idea for the day. There was a TV camera on the floor at center court I thought what kind of shots would I get from there? After a little thought I was thinking that is not the best place to be and talking with Lennie about it we thought all you would get is them bringing the ball up the floor then they would have their back to me. Well I decided I would not sit at mid court but I would sit on the side down by the key. I would take a wide angel so I could get the play right in front of me and it worked out well. I got shot of this pass as the Bulls player tried to intercept it.

The only problem was I was not getting any thing for the story so I moved for the second half to make sure I got some useable shots. When I was shooting the second game, of the Spurs vs. 76ers, from the side but I did not get any plays to the side I was sitting on. So I had no shots and had to move so I could get something. I ended up getting a good dunk, and a cool pass.

Now it was time for the Jazz game vs. Kevin Durant, ok not many people were there for the Jazz ether it was a one man show. For the first time during the revue the area was packed. It had brought out all the Sonics fans and longhorn fans to see their star player. To be honest I did not think he would of as played as long as he did, but he played most the game but I was not that impressed with him but I’m not that into basketball so maybe he was better than I thought. Over hearing the writers and some fans they did not seem as impressed ether. Even with his not so impressive game it was cool to see him hear for the revue. He is by far the biggest national star I’ve got to shoot, so far.