2020 Mount Basketball home-openers amid COVID-19

It was great to get out & cover some Division-One competition last week. Mount Saint Mary's Women's & Men's Basketball were victorious in both their early December home-opening contests. This was my first collegiate game action since March 8th. The Men's game marked 9 months exactly since COVID-19 levied shutdowns. These have affected us all greatly & issued-in dramatic policies that have dismantled NCAA competition, especially for smaller schools. I was eager (to say the least) to get back to action & it was a blast. This is the second season for great new LED lights in the MSM Knott arena. It's exciting to put behind the days of strobing here, my largest indoor field of competition. The lack of fans gave me full rein of the fieldhouse ... just staying 6+ feet away from players. I wanted to shoot tight, elevated mostly, & focus on the benches rather than vacant bleachers. The following week brought some positive cases & some postponements. I hope all are healthy & we can get back on the court in early January. Here are some of my favorites - please visit my photostore info page for image requests. Thanks for looking ...

Franklin & Marshall Senior Athlete Portraits

11/12/20 - Lancaster, PA: Franklin & Marshall requested a photo shoot for all their outgoing seniors across all sports in the 2020-21 academic year. There were some really awesome active captures & they made it really fun. Here are some of my favorites!

McDaniel College 2020-21 dynamic athletic portraits

McDaniel College asked me to once again setup an on-campus portrait studio, this time with social distancing in mind & to photograph every student athlete. All of the student athletes have had their seasons affect by COVID-19. This is an attempt to make some in-uniform memories for them & generate some content for upcoming non-competition publications by the Athletic Communications Department & the school's communications department at-large. This coverage is from days 1 & 2 of five total (to come). Big thank you to Luke Stillson for initiating the project & kudos to him for having the vision to generate such productive work. Thanks Luke!

08.20.20 Right Resources Corporate Portraits

Here are some of my favorites from a corporate portrait shoot this month at Right Resources Staffing, LLC, one of the leading technical recruiting agencies agencies for the federal government in the mid atlantic region. Thanks for looking!

The Year of the Hose

The Year of the Hose ended in late Fall of this year, when the weather was still warm, after shooting dozens of hoses throughout the Midwest & Eastern US. I connected with Swan Hose Co., the leading watering hose company in North American at the end of 2017. Looking for a Lifestyle photographer, I entered in to a photo-niche that I never expected. Although I regularly do portrait & commercial work, never on this scale & with this geographic spread. I guess it's a wonderful thing about this gig, the camera can lead in many directions. It was a wonderful influx of outdoor work, that filled time where there was often a lull (in the summer). It was a great excuse to travel, & nice to use a unique segment of my brain that fires differently than during sports work. Pleasurable as well to integrate my family and first-hand connections into my job. Including nearly all my immediate family; especially my Sister, Mother, & Father who are avid gardeners & who now finally are proud of my work (joke).

So many awesome & solid products. I've found everyone I've worked with loves hoses.
It was a blessing & I look forward to photographing more hoses "in the wild" in 2019.
Here are some of my favorite #hosepix

Making Client webpix - MSM Tennis

04/08/18 - Emmitsburg, MD: Making webpix is a service I do for some clients. The service can build a solid archive of go-to images for web-stories & Institutional content that's ready-at-hand. Additionally, it can save the SID a mountain of time cropping, sizing, & prepping to maximize for web. Mount Saint Mary's University is one client for whom I do such work. Here are some favorites from a recent Tennis double header, during outside competition on a long weekend that was desperately trying to escape winter.

My favorite Sport Photos of 2016

Back off a two year hiatus, I’ve charged through my Top Pix & pulled some favorites. This is simply coverage that I like. Images that may not have seen publication, but are exciting to me: with great emotion, of perilously tight captures & prime light, or just peak action. It’s exciting finding a shot with great jubilation that includes the referee, laying out some narrative.

This is a relatively chronological & “straight out of camera” set witnessing the youthful exuberance of athletic competition makes my work really fun.

Thanks for looking.

McDaniel College Dynamic Athletic Portraits

Hopefully a regular occurrence, here are my recent Athletic portraits for McDaniel's athletic department for marketing & promotion. Here's the full gallery on my photostore.

F&M Rowing on the Susquehanna

10/03/16 - Wrightsville, PA: I went out with F&M's Rowing team for their morning & evening practice sessions. Sometimes when covering competition is challenging, we opt for practice. Though these conditions weren't as ideal as my last session, I was still able to capture some usable content, stock, & some documentation for use when they're writing feature pieces on godiplomats.com

I Need a Caption

09/09/16 - Arlington, VA: Yes, an unusual lack of light for a soccer game at 8:30p. Marymount's stadium lights suddenly turned off, and after some expletives & uncomfortable telephone calls by nearby Admins the lights began to flicker again. This single lamp first, just backlighting the Men as they were stood waiting to defend their goal. Overall it was a nice break for everyone in some thick humidity well into the 1st of two Overtimes at Long Bridge Park.

McDaniel College Dynamic Athletic Portraits

That was fun … McDaniel College asked me to shoot some Dynamic Portraits for for Marketing, Advertising, & Fundraising engagement. Here are some of my favorites from the two day session. And here full galleries from Day One & Day Two.

It's been almost a year since I've regularly blogged. But I've got some new HTML that functions better than the previous slideshow & I hope to be on the photo-blog more frequently when able (including Best-ofs). Please let me know how the slideshow is functioning on your end. Thanks for looking.

Altman & Associates Law Firm

Altman & Associates Law Firm asked me to create some new portraits for promotion as well as some new images of their growing team. Thanks to Gary Altman, Elizabeth Glines, & their team for a smooth & productive shoot. Here are some of my favorites.

2016 Centennial Conference Swim Champs!

02/19-21/2016 - Gettysburg, PA: It was another amazingly wet weekend in Gettysburg covering the Centennial Conference Swimming Championship. This 3 day marathon is certainly the most physically grueling of my work. But with all its challenges it presents us with some fabulous moments. Unlike the formulaic developments of most of my other land-based sports, swimming rivals most with explosive action & emotion, as well as beautiful candid opportunities on the deck. As long as I'm physically able, I hope to be able to get my knees & elbows low on the deck, fight to keep too much water off the elements, and freeze those drops in time - in wonderfully infinite & unique patterns.

Going all-out for the ball ...

10/14/15 - Arlington, VA: Marymount Freshman defender Rodney Ngoh places an aggressive high kick between two Salisbury mid-fielders. The play was deemed a dangerous kick & the Seagulls took control of the ball. The MU Saints went on to tie the Gulls 0-0 in Double overtime during Capital Athletic conference action Wednesday night.

Lancaster Country Day's Cougar Bowl

10/02/15 - Lancaster, PA: It was just another friendly flag football game between staff & students, indoors this year due to a passing monsoon … which made it extra interesting: close-quarters, close metal bleachers, and close cinder-block walls. They kept me on my toes! The stakes were low … it was just for fun, school spirit right? And maybe some Monday morning bragging rights.

It was a wet one today

09.12.15 - Westminster, MD: It was a wet one today. Both I in Westminster, & Ryan in Lancaster were out covering in a real mess as seen here at McDaniel. There was even a rolling lightning delay that stalled mid-day action. But everyone trudged through & it even cleared up in early afternoon ... but not after this Women's game versus York was called for poor field conditions with 19:44 remaining in the 2nd half.
On a side note, I'll be working to increase the frequency of posting, following some technical issues I continue to have with multi-image posts. Stay tuned.

Women's Lax opener

02.18.15 - Gettysburg, PA: It's going to be a weird seasonal transition this week as I move between a snowy Lacrosse & a balmy Swimming Champs, both at Gettysburg. It's weird first because Lacrosse, once the stalwart of my outdoor athletics, has issued three postponements in my first four Lax games due to the prospect of "inclement weather". All already following my Baseball opening day on 2/7. Hopefully, this won't be trend, otherwise I'll need to build a staff of photographers to cover work in an already narrow spring season. And as far as the changing conditions ... weird is interesting right? Credit to Nikon for forging weather-tight gear.

Opening Day Gem

02.07.15 - Marymount U., Barcroft Park, Arlington, VA: Setting a February 7th opening day was a little gutsy here in the mid-atlantic. But the risk paid off with really mild weather (for this time of year), & the second game of the doubleheader was gifted with this sunset over right field. It's good to be outside again.

Gametime! @ Gettysburg

01.13.15 - Gettysburg, PA: It's often a kind of drive-by capture attempt on my end to try to get this shot. I'm crouching holding the body by the vertical grip upside down at my feet, on the floor between someone's legs. Not exactly a time tested method of fine craftsmanship. More often than not I'm out of focus, or unlucky and the center subject has their back to me, or the exposure is blown, or there's a leg in my way, or I'm just too late. But with the Gettysburg Men's Basketball team I've had some good fortune and landed this shot with clarity for a couple of years, and ironically with the same center subject - Senior Captain Joe Emerusabe. I'm glad when it works … & then we're all smiles.

Platinum Milestone

11.09.14 - Winfield, MD: In 1944 as World War II was nearing an end, Ruth & Herb Shipley were married in a county clerks office in rural Maryland. No time for a fancy reception, no dancing, no cake. Seventy years later they & their family are blessed to have had true celebration with a fully grown family, great grandkids, bluegrass music, and a little cake cutting. Well done Shipleys!