UCF Ranked at #24

The University of Central Florida Knights mens basketball team is ranked for the first time ever at #24. This is due to their undefeated season thus far, where they currently sit with a 11-0 record.

No doubt first year Head Coach Donnie Jones has things rolling in the right direction, with HUGE victories against both Florida and Miami.

Marcus Jordan, A.J. Rompza and Keith Clanton are the early team leaders, lets hope they stay in the rankings for the rest of the season and give UCF all the press that they deserve...like this photo of mine that was posted on ESPN!

NUMA Sunglasses

This commercial was shot on Lake Okeechobee by Darren Sheppard on a Panasonic 900 DVC-PRO camera. It features Pro Bass Champion Scott Martin wearing NUMA polarized sunglasses.
The product shots were filmed by me in my studio, here in Orlando.
I edited this in Final Cut Pro with backup help from Tim Baker, as the deadline was the day we received the tapes.

This commercial is currently airing on the VERSUS television network.

Space X Falcon 9 with Dragon

Today SpaceX launched its Dragon spacecraft into low-Earth orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 10:43 AM EST from the Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral. This is a very significant step towards getting the US space program back on its feet after the Space Shuttle program ends.

I was very fortunate to have people like Red Huber and Don Montague guide me in the proper techniques of setting up remote cameras for this launch. I will be forever indebted to them for their patience and expertise.

This was by far one of the coolest setups I have done to date and the space program just blows my mind!

I will be featuring a story on rockets and 'rocket clubs" in the upcoming issue of Orlando Sports Mag right after Christmas. I will keep you posted.

Seminole Nation

Jimbo Fisher took over at the helm this year when Bobby Bowden was let go as head coach of the Florida State Seminoles. The Seminoles football program has not beaten the Florida Gators in the past 7 seasons. That all changed this year when the Gators strolled into Doak Campbell Stadium and it's over capacity crowd. With Tim Tebow out of the picture, John Brantley was forced to try his best at quarterback, but unfortunately, it was not the outcome he was hoping for. The Seminoles blew out the Gators 31-7 on ESPN and are now on their way to the ACC Championship. All in all it was a fun game with a great crowd, no rain and temps in the 40's.

UCF Basketball

This UCF Knights started their season off right against the visiting team from West Florida, by winning 115-61. Marcus Jordan scored a career high 24 points and the defense hustled and impressed first year coach Donnie Jones.

The cool thing about these first three games is that they are played on the same night as the Orlando Magic games, so there are only about 3 photographers on the court to capture the action.

Lets see how tonights "Blackout" game goes against the visiting USF Bulls, the cross State rival of the Knights.

Hooped Up-Haiti

Still pushing the DwightHowardFund video to the masses and just this week we have had over 8,000 loads on the Vimeo site alone.

The cholera epidemic is just now hitting hard and there are over 900 deaths with 12,000 cases confirmed in and around Port-Au-Prince. These people do not deserve this and anything that we can do to help them will be felt, no matter how small.

Say a prayer, send money, or just let others know your thoughts about giving a helping hand. Please re-tweet or spread this video so that others can donate.....thanks.

link: http://vimeo.com/16521946

NASCAR Ending

It just hit me that are only two races left in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series and this is the closest the drivers have been in points in over 5 years. However I am just excited to shoot back at Daytona in a few months because they have been repaving the entire speedway for the past few months. This means everyone of the drivers has a chance to win because A: nobody will have experience on the new surface and B: nobody will know which line to run in February. This will actually make the first race of the season a very fun and exciting on to watch!

Effenheimer Beer

Here's a quick website that was put together using photos I shot in Minneola, Florida.

The brewery is called Effenheimer and these guys are producing some pretty good beer onsite. If you happen to make it down to Central Florida, feel free to stop by and enjoy a "tasting". They are very down to earth fella's who will treat you right.

Eyes of Faith Optical

It suddenly came to me as I was at the eye doctor this week that I had photographed a new line of eyewear called "Eyes of Faith" last year during the Disney Night of Joy weekend. Tim Baker and I were hired to shoot the bands that were performing on the Eyes of Faith sponsored stage that weekend. We shot 8 bands in all and the concerts were amazing!

A few days later we filmed about 40 pair of eyeglasses with pretty cool frames at my small studio in Orlando. I have to tell you, it was harder than you would think...

Eyes of Faith is a Christian company that also has a foundation that pledges to donate a minimum of 10 percent of their gross to children's charities worldwide. Pretty cool eh?

Fantasy Surf

The next time you visit Orlando and want to go surfing but are afraid of sharks or whatever lurks below the surface of the water, relax and know that there is a new attraction that you can ride, and its indoors. Fantasy Surf opened its doors, literally, this past weekend and the attraction allows you to ride a board on a man-made wave, all inside a building. My buddy over at Keene-Ideas hired me to shoot promo stills for the billboards, print and website. I have to admit, I lost 5 pounds shooting this because the room itself was warm and humid, but I didn't get bit by anything....

Discovery pushed

The Space Shuttle Discovery was scheduled to launch this week but there were a few setbacks including the rainy weather and a hydrogen gas leak.

Liftoff has been set for November 30 and I will be back there setting up remote cameras the day before. Check back for the images that should feature the shuttle launching at night!

DHFundQuick

Orlando Titans done!

The Orlando Titans, a professional lacrosse team, pretty much folded after making it to the final 4 in the league this year. They were here for a total of 1 season and recently announced that they were going on hiatus for next year in hopes of returning again the following year.....good luck with that. The game itself was somewhat amusing to watch, especially when the teams didn't like each other, but the line changes and rules took some getting use to. Lets see what happens in a year with the old Amway Arena and if anyone we be back to play there.....

Google yourself!

Have you ever tried to google yourself? I did a search yesterday to see who was using my photos and to see if I had any images out there that I was unaware of. I found a few interesting sites using my photos...like this one from FanNation of a NBA game I shot 2 years ago.

Keep everyone in check by patrolling the web, nobody else will do it for you.

Good luck and send those invoices as soon as you see a problem.

ESPN Rise magazine

ESPN has a magazine called "Rise" that features high school athletes who are highly sought after by NCAA colleges across the U.S..

Recently, the network featured a nationally televised football game between South Lake, Florida and Apopka, Florida. I was contracted to provide photos for the website as well as the magazine. The job itself was fun to shoot and I am glad that they brought in extra lights to illuminate the stadium, when you are use to shooting in NCAA and NFL stadiums, we photographers get spoiled I guess.

The game was fun and I can't wait to shoot more for the magazine.

Super Bowl XLIV

Last year I was in Miami to shoot my second NFL Super Bowl. This matchup featured the New Orleans Saints against the Indianapolis Colts, with the Colts being the odds on favorites to win another Super Bowl. Drew Brees however decided the State of Louisiana had been through enough heartache and was not going to let his people down.. The Saints 31-17 victory over the Colts was watched by over 106 million people and surpassed the 1983 finale of M.A.S.H. to become the most watched program in U.S. television history. I forgot about these images as they were only used for my magazine and have not seen the light of day until now. Shot with Canon MarkIII, 400 f2.8 with 1.4 extender, or the shift-tilt 24mm.

UCF Media Day/Basketball

Had the unique pleasure of shooting the University of Central Florida Knight mens and womens basketball teams this afternoon for their yearly media day event. Everyone from the players to the directors and media reps were really cool and the event went off without a hitch. I used the same lighting scheme that I used for the Orlando Magic media day but had more time with each of the players which was very nice. All in all I am pretty pleased with the images and will have a week or so before I need to finish them.

The two players featured in this shot are Marcus Jordan (5) and his brother Jeff (13). Yes, they are the sons of NBA legend Michael Jordan. Marcus will play this season while Jeff has to wait until next year due to NCAA rules on player transfers. I can't wait for this season to begin!

Dwight Howard Fund

I recently traveled with NBA Superstars Dwight Howard and Adonal Foyle to Haiti to document their time meeting with school children and charitable organizations in the area. The website GlobalGrind.com picked up on the story and featured a bunch of the images I took while on the trip. Keep checking back here for an update with the latest photos and info on the upcoming video for the website www.DwightHowardFund.com.

A-Rod misses 600

Shot for the European Pressphoto Agency when the Yankees and Alex Rodriguez came to Tampa for a MLB baseball game. A-Rod was chasing his 600th home run and I was hired to document it if he so happened to hit it. Unfortunately, Alex did not start the game and the sold out crowd was pretty upset. Before the 7th inning began I sauntered over to the first base dugout and was the only shooter in position when Manager Joe Girardi announced A-Rod was entering the game.

After being called out on a close pitch, Alex argued briefly with the home plate umpire and I captured this image. It ran both on-line and in print the next day in the New York Times.

Orlando Magic media day

Okay, so I finally remembered my password to this blog account. Lets see how often I make it back to this page. Anywho....here is a quick pic I shot at the Orlando Magic media day event last week. Dwight Howard and my first day with the new Orbis ringflash. More coming up on this shoot in the near future, as well as some shots from my time in Haiti with the Dwight Howard Fund....