Cold Play

Because I have nothing else better to do than to sit out in the cold, I decided to do so at a soccer game. And the winner is....DeMatha over Archbishop Carroll in a shootout. Hopefully these soccer playoffs end with a DeMatha/Gonzaga game that doesn't involve a tie.

More Gonzaga Soccer

Hey, as long as they keep winning...I'll keep shooting. Their latest victim was the Bishop McNamara Mustangs in the quarterfinals of the playoffs 4-1. As long as I show up, they don't lose. Well maybe because they haven't lost all season...stay tuned. Cold and windy = not fun outdoor shooting conditions, but this Texan braved it like a chump...champ.


Whole lot of jersey and arm grabbing going on.

Raining Hoyas and Bulldogs

I don't know what you were doing last Saturday afternoon (probably something important) but I was shooting high school football. Little did I know it was going to be the great October monsoon here in DC. But I sucked it up and came prepared. I could have just said eff it and kept it movin' to the local bar to watch some games...but I thought it would be cool to shoot raindrops and muddy uniforms. I think I did alright. The Georgetown Prep and St. Albans football teams also had to brave the bad weather...as well as a smattering of parents. Shout out to the St. Albans hockey moms (real talk) who sold me two slices of pizza with no plate and one napkin in the pouring rain.

DeMatha vs. Gonzaga II

This Friday I opted for daytime soccer rather than night time football whose shooting conditions are inferior. A few weeks ago I shot Gonzaga and DeMatha soccer, which netted a 2-2 tie. This match also netted a tie, 3-3. The top two soccer teams in the area have played each other twice and both times a winner has yet to emerge. I'm sure they'll see each other in the playoffs.

Shout out to Penn Camera, where I rented a 300mm lens for the weekend.


This one is hands down one of the best that I've taken in a long time.

Hip Hop Live

I shot the Hip Hop Live Tour stop here in Washington DC at 9:30 Club as you might know from the previous post. The lineup of the show was...Rhythm Root All-Stars (a ten piece band from California), B.O.B. (young rapper/singer/guitar player from ATL), David Banner and Talib Kweli.

Usually I'm not a huge fan of live hip hop shows. To impress me, you've gotta give me a SHOW! And David Banner did just that. His wild man antics on and mostly off stage were something I'd never seen before. From climbing up to the second level of the 9:30 Club, to jumping down from the second level, to standing on the bar, to spraying the crowd with a shaken up Heineken. He was all over the place and showed just how much he loves his fans. In my younger days, I wrote a review about one of his albums. It seems I wasn't a fan then, but I am now.

B.O.B. sounds like a young Andre 3000...and he plays the guitar. Talib Kweli, while boasting impressive lyrics, put on a so-so performance in my very humble opinion. Shout out to BrightestYoungThings.com.

Rhythm Root All-Stars guitarist


B.O.B.
David Banner

Talib Kweli

David Banner - Rapper/Photographer

I shot a show at the 9:30 Club here in Washington DC. During said show, one David Banner reaches for my camera. He grabs it, I let go (In hindsight, it could have been a terrible move for my camera they way he was jumping around on stage and what not). He shoots some frames of himself, I shoot him shooting frames of himself. Here is the result.


He should definitely stick to rapping.

Orange Crush

The last time I checked in with the Coolidge Colts, they were fresh off of a blowout loss to a team from West Virginia. Weeks later, they're ripping through the DC public school league (DCIAA), often hanging 50 on their opponents. I've been playing hooky from Coolidge for two good reasons, 1) I'm still in the process of stacking money to the ceiling (aka busy) and 2) It just gets too dark, too fast for a 7pm start of a high school football game. So last Friday, I just shot some pregame stuff. Shout out to the Colts for going with the orange on orange.

Need a Light?

Once again, those October late afternoon/early evening sporting events do wonders for my photography. The light is low in the sky, nice and golden and not too contrasty.

I first drove to the Gonzaga College High School campus in downtown DC looking for a soccer game. What I found was a gang of football players practicing in purple (obviously). I then find out (from DCSportsFan) that Gonzaga plays their "home" games at an auxiliary field of RFK Stadium. I arrived at 4:20pm (insert weed joke here) only to find out that it was halftime and that the game had started at 3:30pm. Luckily, the better team was coming right into the light. Shout out to my BlackBerry for getting me directions to the game on the fly.

Fanatic

Once again, I know, too many days between posts. Once again, I attribute the lack of Untitled activity to being preoccupied with stacking money to the ceiling (aka just been busy). Last Thursday, I photographed a game between DeMatha and Good Counsel which just so happened to be nationally televised on ESPN2 which in turn brought out a few of the local sports celebrities (Kevin Blackistone, Dave Feldman, Mike Wise, Ralph Friedgen...yes very local).

DeMatha and Good Counsel are two of the best teams in the DC area and have sustained a significant rivalry over the years. So much so that over 4,000 people sold out the stadium days before the matchup. A few of those thousand were goofy teenage fans. The final score was 42-21 in Good Counsel's favor. At one point, Good Counsel was up 28-0 thanks to three rushing touchdowns by one Caleb Porzel (2) who runs the 40-yard-dash in 1.6 seconds (well it seemed like it). Shout out to to leaving at the beginning of the 4th quarter just to beat the traffic.