Eli for Point 3 Basketball

I recently worked with the apparel company Point 3 Basketball on a social media campaign for the brand. Using the hashtag #OnlyBallersKnow we illustrated scenarios that you'd only know if you hooped on the regular. Here are a few of my favorites. Shout out to the Point 3 team! Looking forward to doing it again!

Wale x Houston x House Of Blues

Last Thursday, I ran into an old DC friend of mine who goes by the name of Wale Folarin at the House of Blues in Houston. By friend of mine, I mean we simultaneously lived in the same tri-state area at one time in our lives. And by ran into, I mean I took pictures of him while he performed for several hundred other people in attendance.

I've been periodically shooting portraits and documentary stuff of the homey and Houston rapper Roosh Williams for a story/spotlight that might not ever see the light of day. Roosh was one of the openers for Wale and a got a text from him a few hours before the show asking me if I wanted to shoot it. Well, why the hell not? Got to the venue, shot Roosh (killed it, so did he), and waited a couple hours while a bunch of other cats I've never heard of performed. To his credit, Folarin came out before 10pm, rocking the Fragment Jordan 1 and then the crowd. I only stayed for the 3 songs I could shoot then drove my old ass home.

Shout out to Audio Push, those two dudes are ENERGETIC!

Clear Lake Falcon Football

Spent the afternoon with the Clear Lake Falcon high school football team in September. Not much more to say about that.

Basketball, Nostalgia and A Pseudo Self Portrait

Anyone that knows me well would be able to tell you that I'm a huge sports fan, but that I love basketball. Like, LOVE basketball. Playing, watching, coaching, fantasy...you name it. As much as I don’t want this to sound like a “back in my day” kind of post...it might. My first hoop, that I can remember, was one of those height adjustable orange and blue 'little tikes' joints. I don't know the acceptable maximum age to playing on those things, but at about 11 or 12 years old, my friends and I had duct taped, manipulated and modified that hard plastic hoop to about 6 feet tall. We eventually destroyed it and graduated to milk crates nailed to trees or intricately tied with string to the chain link fence of the community tennis court. The apartment complex where we lived wasn't too excited about that, though.

After all of our basketball playing schemes had been thwarted by the complex's property management, it was time to move on. At 13 years old and with permission from my mom, I hopped on my bike with a basketball cradled under my left arm and pedaled the half mile to Alief Amity Park. The Big Time. From about 1996 until 2003, I was there for the majority of the summer days. I watched, played and learned the game of basketball on that slick slab of concrete. And every evening when I rode my bike home, I looked forward to going back the next day. I met a lot of characters there, a lot of really good basketball players and a lot of people who were great at running their mouths. Marathons of unsolicited but well intentioned advice came from strangers who didn't really know my name but knew my face. I loved that place. I loved it so much that when applying to colleges as a high school senior, guess what my essay was about? It was pretty damn good too.

Anyway, thanks for indulging the trip down memory lane but let me get to the point of this post. I have a 15 year-old-nephew, Eli, that creeps into my photography blog every now and then. A couple of weeks ago, I was scheduled to photograph a few football players at Texas A&M University and I thought it would be a good idea to bring him along. He's still on summer break, loves college football and as a rising 10th grader syllabi and student loans are right around the corner. A college visit could serve as an inspiration. Well, the shoot was postponed at the last minute so I had to think of another plan. Eli now lives near where I grew up so (light bulb!) a little one-on-one at Amity is a perfect opportunity for a trip down memory lane. The little guy, who is actually  taller than I am, claims to be a baller of epic proportions. We'll play, and if he emerges victorious or runs me ragged, (he definitely did neither), I can explain to him the complex relationship between aperture and shutter speed to regain my superiority.

After getting past the initial nostalgia of being back at Amity, I started concocting a photo story about a kid going to the park alone, shooting around and generally working on his game. This was something I did a lot in the hours I spent there. Living vicariously through my nephew, I basically photographed a 15-year-old me at one of my favorite places of all time doing things that I was doing 15 years ago. Walking up the hill towards the court, engaging in 1-on-1 battles until enough people showed up for a game, waiting for next, exhaustion and dejection. How’s that for a skewed version of the self portrait? Ideally, I’d like my nephew to enjoy the fruits of a summer routine that involves hoops at Amity. But that would mean convincing him to a) ride a bike and b) ride it 6 miles round trip. I know it’s not much but, kids these days...right?

A Day in the Life of Eric Winston for ESPN.com

Eric Winston is a right tackle in the NFL and newly minted president of the NFLPA. He played his high school football at Lee High in Midland along with Cedric Benson where the team won three consecutive Texas state championships. He then went on to play his college ball at The U aka University of Miami where he was converted from a tight end to an offensive tackle. Upon graduation, he was drafted by the Houston Texans where he played for six years. A year in Kansas City  and a year in Arizona brings us to 2014. That's a whole lotta football.

I worked on a shoot for ESPN.com following Winston and documenting a day in the life of an NFL player during the off-season. You're probably thinking there was a Ferrari race down the highways with his buddies followed by 36 holes of golf followed by an expensive steak dinner and ending with a night of popping "mike-sized" champagne bottles. But I'll let you see for yourself.

Click the image to see the rest of the gallery!

Katy High School Football

Earlier this year and late in the summer, I was working on a Houston high school football story that ultimately was killed. It was pretty cool for me because I was creating pretty much the same work that I'd started with Coolidge and continued with Monterey Trail. This time, for an actual story and this time in my good ole hometown of Houston.

If you don't know anything about the small town of Katy 30 miles west of downtown Houston, let me school you. They do high school football very well. There are seven high schools in the suburb but only one stands as the crown jewel of the gridiron: The Katy Tigers. They had only been to the state finals twice between the years of 1959 and 1994 but soon went on a roll. 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2013. They took home the championship 7 times of those 13 years. Talk about Friday night lights. The program, the fan base and the support are unlike anything I've seen and trust me, I've been around a lot of high school football.

I spent a handful of days photographing the team at practice and during a 37-14 win against The Woodlands. Here are some highlights. 

CHECK OUT MORE IMAGES HERE!