The Game!

Only got time for a quick update, but I wanted to write about the game last weekend.  Mississippi State played Gardner Webb.  As I mentioned earlier, my wife got me media passes and sideline passes for the game.  I rented a lens that I’d been wanting and hit the sidelines about 45 minutes before game time.

I had a blast.  I probably walked 5 miles over the course of the game.  Back and forth, back and forth.  I learned a lot about shooting sports.  The only problem is, by the time I learned some things, it had gotten dark.  That required a higher ISO, so as the night progressed, the shots got better, but they are much granier.  I wound up with about 980 pictures from the night.  It took a while to whittle them down, but I got it down to 30 or so.  Really there are only about 10 true keepers that I got printed out. 

Just wanted to shout out a HUGE thank you to my wife who thought of probably the best gift possible for me.

We’ve also been having more photo shoots of Haley, so be sure to check out the Photography and September photos too!

Happy Birthday / Anniversary

The MS 150 was this past weekend.  The ride is 75 miles from Graceland to Tunica on Saturday and then 75 miles back on Sunday.  The ride on Saturday went fantastic.  We left Graceland at 7:30.  By 12:30 I had already checked my bike in and was on a shuttle bus to my room.  5 hours for the ride including rest stops and lunch.  Not too shabby.  I felt great after the ride, too.  Definitely ready for the next day.  Laura came down on Saturday night and we stayed in Tunica together.  We made our donation to the Grand Casino in the form of roulette bets and then hit the seafood buffet.  We are definitely getting old.  Both of us were ready for bed about 8:30!  We went back and played some more, but it didn’t take too long for us to find our pillows.

The wonderful (cough, cough) thing about the casino is that there is never a lack of smoke.  Unfortunately, we were put in a smoking room.  The smoke smell was so thick you could cut it with a knife.  Laura said I was caughing half the night.  When I woke up on Sunday, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.  My chest was congested and my throat was raw.  Why the casino sponsors an athletic event and then puts those atheletes up in smoking rooms is beyond me. 

I made the decision to ride back with Laura rather than ride the bike back to Memphis.  I was pretty unhappy about the whole thing.  The second day is really a lot more fun than the first day.  I know I could have made it, but I’d have been sick all week.

This week marked our third anniversary (on the 18th) and my 29th birthday (on the 19th).  Quite a time for celebration!  We celebrated our anniversary in Tunica.  For my birthday, I got one of the coolest presents ever.  So if you have read this at all, or are around me much, you know that I’m into photography right now.  I took my camera to the last MSU game with my 500mm lens and got some pretty “decent” shots.  I say decent because for the location I was in when taking them (our seats), they looked pretty good.

Well, after this weekend, we’ll see what I’m made of.  Part of the present my wonderful wife gave me was sideline and media passes to the Mississippi State game this weekend.  I’ll be out on the field with the newspaper guys!  I’m stoked!  I’ll post some pictures once I get back and get through editing them.  I’m like a kid in a candy store right now.  I’m going through my checklist in my head over and over.  Compact flash (check), Monopod (check), lenses (check), batteries (check)…..

Quite possibly the cutest thing you’ve ever seen

Haley’s gotten her first word down. 

Ballgames and Bicycles

Well, Haley is not really a fan of football just yet.  At least not in person.  I’m not sure if it has to do with LSU fans, cowbells, noise levels inside the stadium or just the fact that the Bulldogs stink.  As you can see from the photo, she was less than impressed with the Bulldogs’ performance.  We took her down for the MSU / LSU game last Thursday night.  We ended up leaving around halftime.  Haley spent most of the time on the outside of the stadium.  Every play generated just too much noise for her.

I won’t go into the details of the game, but lets just say the performance was not that great.  The best thing about the game was that we had good seats that were covered.  That helped when the rain started.

I’ve been riding my bike a lot lately.  I’m doing the MS150 next weekend.  Basically a 150 mile ride over the course of two days.  I printed out a cue sheet for a route that was supposed to be about 62 miles this past Saturday.  Unfortunately, the cue sheet was wrong.  I ended up riding 90 miles over the course of about 6 hours.  Surprisingly, I felt pretty good the next day.  I guess I’m ready for the MS150!

I got a chance to play around some more with long exposures this past weekend.  My parents were up for a family reunion.  We had a great time there.  I hated to see them go.