Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Cinci Rollergirls skate in Challenge Bout
At the ECE back in June... I know this post is incredibly late. I've been dealing with storage problems that I finally got worked out. This was a challenge bout from the Philly tournament. These bouts were exhibition games between teams made up of Rollergirls from various teams. See the whole shoot...
Monday, July 7, 2008
Big win for the Lambs
The Lambs won handily over the Harrisburg B team. Check out the Fallout Femmes' bright green radioactive pants!
Back on Track
The Sheep came back home less than a week after facing Texas and handled the new WFTDA member Harrisburg Area Roller Derby Nuclear Knockouts. This bout was never really in question at all... See the whole shoot...
CRG Gets the Licks in Against one of the Best
In RollerDerby circles the Texas Rollergirls could be akin to the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL, except the Texecutioners are currently as good as it gets in Women's Flat Track. The opportunity for the CRG team to skate against this fantastic RollerDerby program was huge, and the Sheep made their presence known and got some hits in even though they lost by a pretty big margin. They left the track with respect though and for this still new CRG League it bodes well for the future. See the whole shoot...
Rollergirls vs. Grand Raggidy at ECE
Jason and i spent the weekend of June 21 and 22 on the road at the East Coast Extravaganza Rollerderby event. I don't know whether to call it a tournament, or a convention, or what, but this was a whole lotta Derby packed and jammed into two days. This was a serious weekend of Derby. This day the Black Sheep came into the bout as underdogs and won handily 110-73. See the whole shoot...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Lambs lose to NorthStar
Tough night for the Lambs squad. They lost, but, as you can tell, managed to keep their spirits up. The Developmental squad fought hard but lost out to a superior opponent. They'll have their day in the sun again...See the whole North Star shoot here...
Booty Blocking the 'Burgh
Ah, it just rolls of the tongue... "Pittsburgh lost." I love it. I can't say it enough. "Pittsburgh lost... hahaha..." OK that sort of disdain is usually reserved for the Steelers, and this night's "Welcome to Our Jungle" theme set the stage for a good old fashioned Cincy-Burgh brawl that ended with the Black Sheep soundly defeating the RG team from Steel City. As most RollerDerby bouts go, while the play is fierce, the rivalry is left on the track. Pittsburgh had a nice team that's about a half-step behind us in their development and they certainly have a bright future. That bodes well for future rivalries. Someday the match will be like a Bengals-Steelers game... Except hopefully then Cincinnati will win!See the whole 'Burgh shoot here...
Brotherly love does not translate to Sisterly Love on the Track
Another bout against an established RollerDerby machine, the Philadelphia Liberty Belles. Philly's team came in and dominated the proceedings but that's OK, our athletes are learning more every time they take the track against a ranked opponent. This shot is becoming a staple with me. It's Sadistic Sadie banking around a curve on the track. The image is shot from the inside, a rare place for Derby photographers indeed. I'm using a wide angle prime, an f/2.8 24mm in this case, and panning as she skates by. Tracking skaters can be tricky, but, I usually capture a few worth showing...See the whole Philly shoot here...
Why are these RollerGirls so happy?
Because they were in the midst of administering a sound beating to their sisters from across the river, the Black and Bluegrass RollerGirls. The bout was never really in doubt that night...See the whole Black 'n Bluegrass shoot here...
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tough Night in Boston
Another bout under the belt, unfortunately this one didn't turn out so good. Impressively though it didn't take long for the team to start the road back. By Monday Roseanne Scarr started an impressive thread on the CRG message board reviewing the bout and highlighting lessons learned from their 87-42 loss back east., which to me is the mark of a winner. They skate again Saturday night at home in the Cincinnati Gardens...
See the Boston Shoot here...
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Sunday Drive - Louisville Slugger Museum - Louisville, KY
Remember what my profile says about being a random cube dweller with a catcher's mitt? Baseball is my other avocation. I have two. I serve two hobby masters in my personal life, and I often wonder if one doesn't compromise the other. This trip though to the Louisville Slugger Museum got me stoked for baseball this year, so much so that I ran out and bought two new bats for myself (Louisville Slugger, of course), and immediately broke the first one in our first practice, then with the second one, I have used it 5 times, in 5 at-bats, and struck out miserably in each of the 5 times. I have friends offering to throw me BP now... I highly recommend the Louisville Slugger museum though for anyone who cares about baseball. Seeing where and how bats are made is amazing... Note: Because of factory restrictions I was unable to shoot where the bats are actually being made.
Sunday Drive - Schimpffs Confectionary and Candy Museum
One day I was sitting with Missy mindlessly flipping channels. I think it was on a Saturday after I had just gotten up. I usually sleep in on Saturdays. I happened upon this History Channel piece on this little candy store in someplace called Jeffersonville, Indiana. Within minutes I found out that Jeffersonville is about a 90 minute drive from our house. So, we set out to see the place for ourselves. About 6 months later.. But, we set out... Cool place, definitely "as seen on TV", I was like a kid in a candy store. OK, sorry, I couldn't resist that bit of banality... See the whole shoot...
Cincinnati Roller Girls Black Sheep vs. Fort Wayne Bomb Squad
The second bout on the other hand was won decisively by the Cincinnati girls... This is Roseanne in the foreground, and Nik in the back. Roseanne is the subject of some of our best work because, as she puts it, "sits away from the team and is pensive a lot". Here, she's in the penalty box, policed by Nik Jagger, who is standing on a newly healed leg that was broken in a practice earlier this year. See the whole shoot...
CRG Silent Lambs vs. Fort Wayne Flying Squirrels
Back at the Gardens for RollerDerby Bouting, both Cincinnati teams skated against both Fort Wayne teams. This is the first set from that night with the Silent Lambs team losing a hard fought bout to the Bomb Squad. See the whole shoot...
Back to RollerDerby... Cincinnati Roller Girls at Naptown - March 22, 2008
Sportin' the new very cool uniforms, the CRG all-star team took to the rink for their first bout of the 2008 season at Indianapolis's Toyota Pavilion on the Fairgrounds. Easily, this ended up being my most viewed shoot, and this shot for whatever reason is the most popular of the set... by far... CRG ended up winning the night decisively. See the whole shoot...
Sunday Drive - Clifton Gorge
The Sunday Drive series continues in January of this year with a hike in the cold, and the rain, out in the woods. We found Clifton Gorge after a search on the web for Ohio Parks. I've spent most of my life near the Little Miami River, and having a shot at the headwaters of the Little Miami on this day seemed like the perfect Sunday Drive destination. See the whole shoot...
One More Girl on a Stage, January 19, 2008, Southgate House, Newport, Kentucky
A little technical blurb in this post. This shoot was saved, hands down, by DxO Optics Pro... Someday, when I have a lot of free time on my hands, I will start some technical discussions here, but, for now, the point is, these images were nearly unusable coming out of the camera. I ran them through DxO, which upped and balanced the exposure, and more importantly for this shoot put me in the Adobe workflow where I took advantage of Lightroom. I ended up with something that was worth posting, including this shot, which was nothing until I pushed it a little with a Selenium Toning preset, and a tweak here and there of some highlights. This is Kelly Thomas. The next day, she had it posted on her MySpace page. Very cool. See the whole shoot...
Screaming Mimes, Tragedy Comic CD Release Party
Time for truth. Most of my photo opps come courtesy of my good friend Jason Bechtel... I've known Jason for almost 10 years now. We worked together for a time, and I've since moved on. But we continue to share this web space, and he continues to hook me up with shooting opportunities that lead to some of my most satisfying photography experiences. And that doesn't even say a word about the people I have met through Jason, many of whom I consider good friends and people I can't imagine life without.
This night we would be shooting the local Cincinnati band, the Screaming Mimes, as they celebrated the release of their latest CD. See the whole shoot...
San Francisco Neon, Fall of 2007
While walking the streets in San Francisco late at night with a friend I became interested, no, obsessed with the neon signage that is all over the city. Neon signs have a cultural significance in our cities, and San Francisco has some of the best... See the whole shoot...
San Francisco, Fall of 2007
This image was short-listed by Schmap.com for inclusion in their summer 2008 Travel Guide for California. I didn't think much of it when I shot it, actually. I thought it to be too contrasty, and my eye tends to want to goose colors a bit, so I worried about that too. The composition wasn't perfect either, but, as with many things in life, you can think about them too much sometimes. And that's generally how it goes when I do a shoot. Rarely do I see anything I feel strongly about immediately. There was a time when I was disappointed with everything in the short term, so I started letting them sit a few weeks, or maybe even months, so I can review them more objectively. See the set of one of my favorite cities ever...
Downtown Cincinnati, A Different Perspective
There is no shortage of photographs from Downtown Cincinnati. The skyline contains such a breadth of architectural representation, from the Art Deco early 20th Century Centerpieces, the PNC and Carew Towers, to the more modern structures that surround them. Then there are the bridges, the river, and the stadiums. This night I wanted something different. Shot on Halloween night with a sky I thought would be disappointing, I set up under the Taylor Southgate Bridge, which ended up blocking out some fairly boring space. I'm breaking rules here, in a way. The rule of thirds I threw out the door by blocking out an entire sector of the top third of the frame, then using the horizon to position the skyline itself. It works though because the shapes rendered are interesting as triangles, and they end up framing the subject matter. It doesn't hurt that the light-play in the sky was exceptional, and the reflections on the river after the long exposures worked well too. This shoot is smaller than most, click here to see it...
Friday, May 2, 2008
CRG Dames of Destruction vs. Full Metal Corsets, From September 8, 2007
This would be the last time the RollerGirls Cincinnati teams would skate against each other as the Full Metal Corsets and Dames of Destruction. The Corsets are in black and gold, the Dames are in the Air Force Blue. Cool unis on both sides. This set features a little bit of everyone, and has plenty of intimate shots on both sides. This shoot would end up being very productive as I because many of the images hanging at the Southgate House show Jason and I did came from this bout. See the whole shoot...
Gem City at CRG at the Cincinnati Gardens from August 25, 2007
This effort was better. A rematch between Cincinnati and Gem City from last August, again at the Cincinnati Gardens. The Gardens continues to be a challenge to shoot because of its size and relative lack of light, especially compared to other venues, but the colors are popping a little better in this set. See the whole shoot...
Cincinnati Roller Girls vs. Bleeding Heartland, from August 25, 2007
This bout was not my best effort for sure. Some of the pictures are a bit noisy, which results from trying to get by without using a mondo flash unit. Jason and I are available light guys, and these noisy shots represent my first foray into Lightroom. My misuse of that tool led to the noise, but, these images needed to get out the door. See the whole shoot...