Thorn's Madness.....

 ......Courtesy of Hank Thorns and the TCU men’s basketball team the madness has started early! For the second time in 9 days the Horned Frogs upset a ranked team at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum in Fort Worth.  On Valentines night the 11^th ranked UNLV Runnin’ Rebels visited and lead by as many as 18 points late in the second half only to have the Thorns led Frogs come back to win in overtime 102-97. The win set off a wild scene at the DMC as TCU students stormed the court and Thorns was carried off on the shoulders of teammate Craig Williams. The emotion late in the game was like nothing I shot before as the TCU reacted after every basket as they headed up court making some sweet images.

This past Saturday night #18 New Mexico came calling and the Frogs answered the bell once again as TCU crushed the Lobos 83-64 in a game that wasn’t really even close in the second half. Steve Alford’s team was shut down in the final 20 minutes as the Frogs outscored the visiting Lobo’s 45-26. Cue the fans! Cue Thorns! Cue another celebration! As the final minutes counted down I asked Brandon Wade, who was shooting for AP if he had a wide angle lens I could use to shoot the celebration. He offered up his fisheye and boy oh boy I gotta get myself one soon! Here’s some Frog’s fisheye fun……

Hoop.....

...there it is!!! Now, that football is over it's time to take to the hardwood and shoot some hoops. Love me some college basketball. Even though I wasn't feeling 100%, because this darn cold won't go away I decide to shoot both the Boise St. at TCU and Denver at North Texas games on Saturday. Although none of the teams are having great seasons I was entertained by two great basketball games.


Boise St. led 50-34 with just under nine minutes remaining and the game pretty much looked over. But someone forgot to tell the Horned Frogs that as they went on a 20-2 run to close out the game and win 54-52 in Fort Worth. I really enjoyed shooting Bronco guard Tre Nichols (#10) a senior from Killeen, TX. He sports dreadlocks and can jump out of the building, a darn fun player to watch. Love the pix of him with one eye closed driving to the basket....ARGG!
Then, it was time to drive up to Denton for a 7pm tip off between the Pioneers and Mean Green and once again I forgot how darn DARK the Super Pit really is. Patrick Green was shooting for U of Denver and had strobes set up. David Minton of the Denton Record-Chronicle was rocking the Nikon SB-whatevers! Me? Crank up the ISO and just shoot, bitches. It still amazes me what 6400 ISO looks like now days on the Mark 4 or 7D. I have to admit the first 10 minutes of the game I was in a fog! The action was fast and furious and I was in the dark. Until you shoot there you have NO idea how dark it is. Strobes or not, it's hard to focus, manual of AF!!!
After moving to the other end of the court during a timeout I seemed to get my act together as it was about a F-stop or two brighter at the other end and I was able to start making images. And I am sure glad I did!!! UNT features freshman Tony Mitchell a 235, 6'8" forward from Dallas, who was a man was among boys scoring 30 points and out muscled Denver inside the paint. The Pioneers featured an outside game hitting on eleven 3-pt baskets. UNT lead by 7 with under a minute remaining but Denver fought back to tied the game at 66 as time expired in regulation. In a wild finish North Texas scored on put back off a miss with one second remaining for the 75-74 OT victory. So two games won by a total of 3 points (2 is the minimum) and a very entertaining day of making images!!! Here's a few....

Football season is...

...over. It's January 9 and tonight the BCS Championship game will be played between LSU and Alabama ending the college football season. There are only 7 NFL games left; none in Texas. Thus, my year of shooting football ended on Saturday with the FCS Championship. (“FCS” what you say? Too confusing to explain so let us leave it at that) The game was played between Sam Houston State and North Dakota State at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, who both advanced thru a “playoff bracket”  (imagine that concept) to the title game.

There was a standing room crowd of over 20,000 packed in to Pizza Hut Park and the stands on the east side were “hunter orange” filled with SHSU Bearkat faithful, while the west side was full with an eye popping neon yellow sported by the Bison fans from NDSU.

The past 5 months I figure I shot over 60 games which included high school, college and NFL action. I never look at any game differently…there were some NFL games that were really boring (Seattle vs. Cowboys), some high school games that were great (Southlake vs. Keller Central) and probably the best game all year was SMU vs. TCU which the Mustangs won in overtime 40-33 over the Horned Frogs.

But there was something really special about the game on Saturday. These aren’t players that are likely to go to the NFL or coaches making millions. These teams are rarely on TV; in fact they played most of their games in front of 6,000 fans of less. These are student athletes that play the game because they love it. But, the main difference Saturday than any other game this season was the fans! Most North Dakota fans traveled 18 hours by bus and car to Frisco to see their team win the NCAA Div I Championship 17-6 over Sam Houston. The passion, the energy and excitement was like no other game I shot all season long.

So when I look back at the fall of 2011 football season, what will I remember most? Will it be shooting LSU’s first victory of the year, the near miss by Keller Central vs. eventual UIL Texas State Champion Southlake, or Case Keenum’s record setting TicketCity Bowl Performance to name a few? Nah, hands down it was Saturday;  Bearkats vs.  Bison, not because of the quality of the game, but because of the excitement fans which made it so much fun to be there! Damn it was fun!!! Can’t wait for late August….

Did I mention the Bison hats that looked like something out of a Fred Flintstone cartoon? Here's 15..... 

Gary, Gary, Gary.........

 ......Gary Patterson!!! Hands down in my opinion one of the best college football coaches in the country and luckily enough I get to shoot him almost every week in the fall strolling the TCU sidelines. Catching Coach Patterson with a "smile" is a different story. After coming off a Rose Bowl victory last season with a senior laden offense, the Horned Frogs started this season slow with a loss to Baylor. Along with a loss weeks later to crosstown rival SMU. A win at Boise St. in November turned the season around, and along with an invitation in October to join the Big 12, coupled with a newly renovated Amon G. Carter Stadium (to be completed next season) and a possible BCS berth once again this year there is reason to smile in Fort Worth! Here's 3 from Saturday.......

WEEEEEEEEE........

.............well once again another year of PGA golf is complete in the DFW area....I find it a bit strange and sad that over the course of 11 days in May two tournaments; The Colonial in Forth Worth and The Byron Nelson in Irving are played in such a short amount of time. One kinda gets golfed out during this period of time, but as a photographer or fan if you don't get your fill you have to wait another 350 some days! Thursday was great weather day at the "Nelson" with highs in the 80's as friend & photographer Holly Paulson joined me on the course making images and editing as we focused on Jordan Spieth, Sergio, KJ Choi and Dustin Johnson. Saturday was hot and miserable and to make matters worse I tried to do way, way too much and paid the price walking close to 10 miles on the day. Today was awesome, I hung out with Claire most of the day as we camped out on 5 different holes 2, 9, 11, 17 and 18 waiting for the pro's to come to us! The tournament was won on the first playoff hole by tour rookie Keegan Bradley over Ryan Palmer, who sunk a birdie putt to force the playoff....As always here's 3!!!!

Greetings.....

....from fabulous Las Vegas!!! Got here a couple of days early for March Madness and have been shooting the Mountain West Conference Tournament the past few days....Had a classic game in the women's semi-finals as Utah came back from 11 down late in the game to defeat BYU 50-49 on a last second buzzer beater. But the last five minutes of shooting that game I was on fire! Some really nice images. Tonight on tap on the men's side it's New Mexico vs BYU and SDSU vs. UNLV from the Shark Tank on the campus of UNLV. 6 games down and 4 left; than the fun will begin! Here's a few from the closing moments....

Basketball....

.....playoffs begin tomorrow night for the boy's and I will be shooting Keller vs Lewisville up at Denton Guyer not a bad local for a basketball game, but will I shoot a winner? I give it 50/50 chance...just give me a good game like the one I had Friday night!!!  Fossil Ridge played Northwest for the 4th playoff spot from District 7-5A  and with the Panthers winning 51-46 in double overtime, in what was probably the best game I was able to shot all year. Lot's of emotion, two overtimes and a nearly full gym. Well, off to Denton tomorrow night in what probably will be my last high school basketball game of the year, darn! And KISD, please buy some new lights!!!

J-I-M-M-E-R!!!!!!

........Saturday afternoon Jimmer Fredette and the BYU Cougars were in Fort Worth to play TCU and the Danial-Meyer Coliseum with a capacity of around 7,500 was sold out for the first time since 2004. Not because of TCU that fans came out to see the 6th ranked Cougars and possible player of the year Fredette, but because of the 5,000 or so BYU fans that made the DMC their home for 2 1/2 hours on this February afternoon. It was a rockstar, cult like following for BYU and their star player Fredette with signs, jerseys and more kiddos under the age of 5 that I have ever seen at a basketball game in my life. BYU won 79-56 in an uneventful game, but this is the shape of things to come in Fort Worth as TCU joins the Big East in one season the likes of Syracuse, Georgetown, Pitt, Villanova, Louisville and St John's will be visiting every winter...Wow real good basketball is on the horizon...Here's 3....

PLAYOFFS!!!!!

.....Well once again the Keller teams I shoot come up short in playoff action! The past two nights it's been high school girls basketball with Keller losing last night 80-53 to Lewisville and tonight Timber Creek was defeated by Western Hills 57-46. So my streak continues as I haven't shot a playoff win in about 3 years now....It was  pretty fun game to game with fast pace and very athletic action by Western Hills provided  with some decent images. It looks like one more high school hoops game on the schedule for the season as Keller boys will opne the playoffs next Monday or Tuesday night....Should I stay home? And personally like never before I am high school hooped out!!! Here's 3....

Great.....

......hockey game tonight in Dallas! The Stanley Cup Champion and my home town Chicago Blackhawks were in action tonight against the Dallas Stars. Added to the fun was long time Stars goalie Marty Turco was in net for the visitors. The Hawks got out to a first period 3-0 lead in front of the sell-out crowd and it seemed it might become a laughter...no such luck for 30 percent of fans that were sporting their Indian Heads proudly on their chest! The Stars came back to tie the game on a speculator Brendon Morrow goal half way thru the third period. After a scoreless over time Dallas prevailed 3-1 on penalty shots to win the game 4-3. Probably was the most exciting hockey game I have shot in a long time!!! Here's my take!