Dwight Howard media day

It annoys me when I show up for a shoot and one critical piece of gear is missing or broken....well, it happened to me this past Monday. The Orlando Magic were holding their annual "Media Day" event and the only story in town was that Superstar Dwight Howard had requested a trade from the team! Every sports station, radio, tv , newspaper and magazine was there to see what he had to say. Me, I just needed archive images for Orlando Sports Magazine, if Dwight was actually on his way out of town. (Thanks to Melanie and Joel once again for the access).

So the first thing I did was find my spot on the gym floor to set up, making sure that there was power and plenty of room for those that did not bring their portable lights. Most folks there will hover around the tv guys with their on-board lights and snap stills over their shoulder, unbeknowst to the videographers. Well, as tradition, they have a tendancy to hover around me until the player poses and then multiple flashbulbs blind the athlete until he can no longer see, paparazzi to the fullest...

Anyways, I opened and set my backdrop, set stands and lights and found the necessary power supplies....formatted cards, set camera to Raw/Jpeg and then went to grab the sync cord........um,....the sync cord. Dang, "Now where did I put that?"....I always carry 2 cords just in case one fails.......hmmm.........oh yeah, I was checking lights with my 8 year old a few days back, and we decided to put them back into the Pelican case, not the ThinkTank bag...NOT GOOD! I had the ThinkTank with me now..

Pocket Wizard time, but I only carry one set of these as I hardly ever use them....time to make my own magic.....I was able to put the transmitter on the camera and the only other receiver on my main light....I would just have to let the first light trigger the second light.....with absolutely no back light now......bummed to say the least!!!

The original plan was to set two lights at 90 degrees (aiming directly into the subjects ears) and then front light them with a ring flash much as I did last year. But now that my hotshoe was being used by the PocketWizard, that option was off the table....

My lack of properly preparing my gear came back to bite me in the butt.....

Regardless, you can only do what you can do so I simply pressed on. All of the players themselves were in a good mood it seemed, but the atmosphere was beginning to get tense an hour in, Dwight had not been seen or heard from by anyone.

Then suddenly, like someone had yelled "Fire", everyone moved to the center of the gym and surrounded the basketball logo on the floor. It looked like a giant donut, 5 people deep, with cameras, lights and mic boom poles everywhere. Dwight entered the gym much like Muhammed Ali would have back in the 70's, and after stopping for a brief moment to talk to a coach, he slowly glided across the floor to the buzzing entourage of English/Spanish/Italian? voices all clamoring to ask him about his future.....

......meanwhile, still photographers Fernando, Gary, John and myself all hung WAAAYYYY back and watched as the madness unfolded....scary and funny at the same time.....It sounded like honeybees surrounding the Queen..........had it been me, I probably would have run away!

Then it ended.

Dwight was gone just as quickly as he had arrived, and after about 30 minutes, the gym had a calm, eerie feeling to it. Of the 150 media members that had been in attendance, about 25 remained, not waiting for one-on ones with anyone else....They came, they conquered.......they bolted.

Three hours later the only ones in the gym were us photographers, CEO Alex Martins, and various communications people from the Magic. Almost all were on the phones speaking, texting or twittering.... then out of nowhere, Dwight came in again... He was ALL smiles, jumpy and very much alive...a few hellos to everyone and then it was GAME TIME!!! When he finally made it over to the last station, (mine), he smiled that pearly white smile, gave me a high five and a hug and we talked about our Haiti adventure together....I had seen him a few times over the summer but not as happy or as loose as today......I grabbed some hilarious frames of him acting like a kid, a happy kid, and then he was on his way, one last interview before heading home...

I packed up as quickly as I could, minus sync cord, and was out the back door.

No matter his choice, I sure hope Dwight decides to finish out his career here in Orlando, he is so much more than "just a baskeball player"! He actually gives back through his various charities and events, even those many of us have never heard about.......

More Images to view here:

http://alexmenendez.photoshelter.com/gallery/Orlando-Magic-Media-2011/G0000HD4QUs7TteU/

(Hey Dwight....I would take the elephant over the pint!)......better choice

Miguel Cotto Boxing Media Day

Had the unique opportunity to film three time World Champion Miguel Cotto at the KG Boxing Gym in Orlando the other day. The workout was pretty intense for the media event and I was very surprised at the turnout...about 250 folks showed up...

Top Rank Boxing promoter Bob Arum was also in attendance for the display and there was plenty of nervousness surrounding the fact the the December 3 fight against Antonio Margarito may not even happen due to NY State Laws.

It turns out the event is now "ON", can't wait to see how this bout turns out....these two fighters despise each other......

More images here: http://alexmenendez.photoshelter.com

Fall Colors on the interstate

Driving up to Baltimore this week has been an adventure for sure....

My Chevy work van exploded when the oil filter that I had replaced 3 days prior simply "fell off" on I-95 and spewed 6 quarts of smoking oil all over the roadway and every window of the vehicle.....can't wait to go see the QuikLube manager next week!

Then the next morning I was lucky enough to drive 4 hours in the fog...not just your everyday morning fog either, nope, this was MEGA-FOG, the kind you see in haunted movies on TV.....yup, made for some interesting ideas on using a fog filter on some upcoming gigs...

......then, well, then things started to turn for the better...the sky opened up and the leaves on the trees came into focus....the roadway looked like a rustling rainbow! It brought back memories of me growing up on the farm in Upstate New York and the good times I shared with my little brother Dion, the same one who was stuck there on the roadway waiting for the tow truck driver with me....

Yup, things are looking up......

Mr. Cooper

Ran across this image today. Anderson Cooper is the man on CNN who is constantly trekking the world in search of the Breaking News stories. He does a fairly great job in my opinion and he is both fun to watch and not afraid to ask the tough questions....

Just wish he would return to Haiti to see how those folks are doing today..........

......yes, I stopped so he could have his pic taken with me! :-)

NCAA photos of the Week

Did a quick google search for some images of mine tonite and discovered that I had two images featured in this weeks NCAA Football Photos of the Week for Oct. 29, 2011.

Nothing to fancy, but different none the less.....Check back for more.

San Francisco

There is a song by the band "TRAIN" called Save Me San Francisco that I have been listening to an awful lot lately, and it seems quite fitting because I have visited that city a few times in the past months. I am absolutely in LOVE with that town now...not sure if its the water, buildings, atmosphere, mountains, the cool weather or just the people, but I can't seem to get enough.....but i digress!

When I had the opportunity to break away from my video work this past week, I scampered back up to the Marin Headlands to try and shoot the Golden Gate bridge and the city once again....unfortunately, the sun had already sunk beneath the clouds and the wind was kicking at about 50 mph..no lie! I figured, something has to eventually come of this and waiting until the sun was gone....as luck would have it, the fog started to fill in and the lights reflected some pretty cool things....

This was shot in the pure dark, only illumination is from the boats and the bridge lights...

I will post more when I get the chance.

Occupy Orlando

So when this whole "Occupy Wall Street" movement started, people didn't quite know where it would lead. Basically it was a just reported to be a bunch of pissed off hippies and anarchists revolting and rioting over the big banks stealing money from regular, hardworking people.....

flash forward a month and the whole country is starting their own Occupy events....

Well, Orlando had to jump on the bandwagon and I spotted the first meeting on my twitter page one day.....I figured, lemme grab a camera and see what happens...

About 400 locals showed up to the non-violent affair and tried to voice their opinions on whomever would listen...by the end of the rally, they had decided to reorganize and stage a rally on the next Saturday....

I was out of town for the rally, but heard a few hundred folks showed up and protested and even organized a parade through downtown Orlando.....just a few days later, the park where most had tried to camp out, was pretty much deserted.

If you ask me, they have a long way to go and need to be more committed if they plan on changing anything here.......get it together folks!

CBS picked up this image of mine from the first meeting....

GRAIL moonshot launch

Shot the GRAIL moonshot Atlas launch this past weekend....well, actually I didn't.

Let me explain. I set my remote camera's out on Wednesday so that they would capture the launch on Thursday morning at 8:33. We are allowed to set cameras up the day before and have to leave them out until about 3 hours after the actual launch. NASA has to clear the pad and make sure the surrounding area is "Safe" before they let us back out to retrieve our gear.

Well, Thursday night it rained as hard as it has all year, and the gear got totally drenched.

I went out to the Press Site to shoot the launch with my 400 2.8 and a 70-200 on a Bogen Magic Arm... the weather didn't cooperate though and the launch was scrubbed due to high winds about 3 miles up in the sky. NO GO!!

I was planning on going back out to shoot the launch Thursday morning but that was cancelled on Wednesday evening at 10:40.....and it rained as well.

Luckily I go a bit overboard and cover all of my gear with protective bags and such, due to the rain and dew.

Well, Friday came and a few of us, (those hanging in the media area) were allowed back out to check our remotes and clean our lenses.. Mine was ok but there were some cameras that didn't fare too well.....the rain had damaged a few lenses and bodies.

Saturday came and the launch was expected to go at around 8:30 but that too was scrubbed due to weather. Though the sky was blue, those danged winds just wouldn't quit, the second launch window was in jeopardy....

meanwhile, back in Orlando I was preparing to shoot my 400 on a cropped body with a 2x extender from my front porch. All in all it's about 50 miles from my house and I wasn't sure if I could even see the rocket through the building clouds.

Now, let me explain, I had made a deal with Alan Walters and Paul Hennessey to pick my gear up if I couldn't make it to the actual launch on Saturday. I have been travelling a lot lately and needed to spend some time with my family. I decided to miss the launch with a backup plan in place......it seems to have worked.

Though I would have loved to have shot the launch in person, I gambled and took the chance that the remotes would cover me! I don't recommend this to others who are on assignment, but in this case, I was over the moon!

To see more: log onto www.apimages.com and search Grail Moonshot

American Flags

Today is the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States. A piece of history that most would like to forget. All of the wire services, newspapers, magazines and television shows on today are about that dreadful day. It didn't ever occur to me until I was shooting the UCF football game last night just how beautiful the American flag really is!.....Think about it, how proud are you when you know that this is our symbol of pride and freedom...............?

I am proud to be an American and live where I do, it is a privelege to be here......cherish your family and friends today and thank God for all that you have.....

Mason Foster fined by NFL for Ochocinco Hit

Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie linebacker Mason Foster was fined $20,000 today for this illegal hit on New England Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco. Foster hasn't even collected his first professional paycheck yet and is already in the red.

I shot this image during the game and haven't seen any other still photos of the hit on any of the wires or in print.

Chad Ochocinco is offering to pay the fine for the rookie after calling the hit "clean".

Lets see what the league says about that.....

Non Disclosure

So I just returned from a trip where I filmed for 3 days. I only have 25 more shoot days left in the schedule for a job that I can not openly discuss.....these are the times we live in.

Check back in a year and I will show you both the videos and the stills.....!

I know this is not what most write in their blog to drum up business and keep their "peeps" in the loop, but this is all I can offer at this point. Sorry

Please log back on here in a week. I will update for sure.

Juno/Atlas V Jupiter trip

I filmed the Juno/Atlas V rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Friday. It was a "blast"......sorry, I know, really bad pun! You can punch me the next time you see me....

Anyways, I set out 2 remote triggers (thanks Alan Walters for your loaner) with the hopes that at least one would fire this time, and boy did I get lucky.....

The mission itself is an incredible dream, to send a rocket to Jupiter to try and find out some really cool stuff about the planet and other info that is way above my pay grade, all in all it will take 5 years to discover cool things before it suicide bombs itself into the planet....never to be seen or heard from again....

Let me say, the fact that scientists can determine how to get this ship there in the first place is downright incredible, but to get it off of the ground in the first place in mindblowing. This sucker fired off after about 50 minutes in delays but when it did the earth seemed to stand still. The power of this beast can not be shared, you had to see it to believe it....and I did, along with other photographers from the top of the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC. What a day!

The images you see here are what I shot and I can't wait to go back and shoot every type of rocket NASA puts up, it truly is inspiring and dramatic at the same time and the imagery is spectacular....When the smoke clears and the shadow of the trailing smoke highlights the sky, you realize just how lucky we are to see such sights. I am very thankful to the volunteers and NASA workers who allow us to snap memories everytime one launches.......

Until next time, enjoy.

Just returned from a mind-blowing time in Las Vegas! Tired, worn out and dry.....yup, dry! There is no humidity there whatsoever and stepping off the plane in Florida reminded me what I had missed the past 5 days.

How one can miss that wet sheen of the Florida night is hard to comprehend, but it does happen....

Anyways, I am back home and the usual afternoon showers/thunderstorms made it to my neighborhood, right on schedule. I quickly decided to break out my new lightning trigger that I bought 2 weeks ago for the shuttle Atlantis launch, and placed it right in the back seat of my Ford F-150 to test the trigger. The above image is the first lightning that made it to the CF card.

The rest of this summer should be fun, just need to find the right location for some more fascinating lightning images......send me your ideas!

Shuttle Atlantis landing

So here I sit in my hotel room, the Mandalay Bay, in Las Vegas waiting to finish the video edit for a client of mine. It has been a hectic 3 days so far and though they are very pleased with what I have captured so far, my mind is mush.....

The space shuttle Atlantis lands in a few hours back in Florida and I don't leave Vegas until tomorrow afternoon. Safe to say that I won't make it to the landing pad....and there is no "next time" to get the desired images......guess what....life goes on. There are times when you really want to be there and unfortunately there are times when you just can't. This is the way the photo industry works, and the sooner you figure that out, the less stressed you will be. Trust Me!

To all of my colleagues who will be there, I wish you nothing but the best. Get the exposure right and make history, you've obviously put in the time and deserve to capture beautiful images. Make us proud.

I just came across a cool shot of mine that got picked up today: cool slideshow here-

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2011/07/20/slideshow-nasas-space-shuttle-program/#23

Trevor Bayne is on FIRE!!!

Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 this past February but has not placed very well since that race. He has suffered health problems as well as sponsorship issues during this years NASCAR season.

Today, he returned to Daytona International Speedway with hopes of repeating his miraculous victory. However, he had a rough start when his car caught fire after his first practice session today, lets hope he can recover quickly and get the Woods Brothers team back to victory lane...!

Images available at www.APImages.com, look under Coke Zero 400.

Dwight Howard Bowling in SI

Dwight Howard brought his D12Foundation to the Altamonte Springs AMF bowling alley this past weekend. There were plenty of kids there and they had a blast with Dwight and other members of the Orlando Magic family.

The media was out in full force and they did their best to try and ask Dwight about the upcoming NBA lockout, he would have none of that however, stating that he had 2 new jobs in mind if the lockout happened. He would (1) raise chickens and give them steroids for bigger bodies, or he would (2) move to Canada to take up the Olympic sport of curling.......?

Whatever he decides to do will be just fine with me, as long as he keeps his head on straight and continues to help the kids that look up to him!

For more info log onto www.D12Foundation.com

Image published in the lastest Sports Illustrated online photo gallery.

Thanks for looking.

QR reader

Just got my first QR reader stamp.

Check it out, will be going on my business cards and probably on all photos that I post to the web.

Getcha one!

President orders attack on Osama Bin Laden

I had no idea what this photo would mean when I took it on Friday.

I was hoping to photograph President Barack Obama when he visited the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center after the announced scrub of Endeavour's STS-134 launch. The first lady and his daughters were with the President to watch the launch and to speak for a few moments with Gabby Giffords, the Congresswoman who was shot in Arizona and the wife of shuttle Endeavour Commander Kelly.

The motorcade arrived about 30 minutes after 5 helicopters began hovering around the property, and it was past us in about 10 seconds. Of course Barack was on the opposite side of us and Michelle waved as their cars drove by.

About an hour later, we all hoped the motorcade would leave in the same direction and they did....I pressed the button on the camera and nailed the image we see here!

Today, just two days later, I learned that just hours after these images were taken, President Obama would approve a military strike in Pakistan on Osama Bin Laden which would result in the death of the terrorist and mastermind of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.

Sitting here typing this, I admit it feels weird to think of all the problems Obama has to deal with on a daily basis. Perhaps I should feel lucky with how much pressure I don't have to endure every hour that I am awake.....photography doesn't seem that hard anymore.

More pics here: http://alexmenendez.photoshelter.com/

Image taken on April 29, 2011. (Photo Credit: Alex Menendez)

NFL Draft on ESPN

The NFL draft airs tonite on ESPN and nobody has a clue who the first pick will be and if he will even have the opportunity to play this season. The courts will decide what happens with the lockout....

Anyways, not to carry on, but I had an assignment a few weeks back from ESPN. Bill Parcells was in Orlando at Full Center University and was taping a show called "Bill Parcells Draft Confidential", where the old ballcoach rated the current draftees and his guesses on their draft order. I was hired to shoot behind the scenes for distribution and marketing. Everyone was fun to hang with and I have to say, shooting for ESPN is always a good time!

Orlando City Lions

The Orlando City Lions of the United Soccer League have officially begun their season and I think this is just what the Orlando market needs to draw new blood to the sport.

The Lions are in their first season here and have assembled a pretty good team to boot!

I had the opportunity to shoot the match against visiting Puerto Rico and the fan support and game action was better than expected. Look for a feature in the next issue of Orlando Sports Mag!

More game images can be found here:

http://alexmenendez.photoshelter.com/gallery/Orlando-City-Soccer/G0000gvtWCBL2lM4/

Rock Climbing NC

Family took a trip to Chimney Rock, North Carolina a few weeks back. Rainy weather with the temps in the high 30's. Not exactly what I had planned for Spring Break weather but you know what, my phone didn't work there and that was alright with me. My boys, ages 6 and 7, regularly climb at the indoor rock wall in Longwood and get a kick out of it. We decided that for this trip we would try to climb real rocks....game on!!

We hired Fox Mountain Guides and were on our way. Blaze and Zane had a blast climbing, even though it was so foggy and we were so high up that they couldn't exactly see where it was that they were climbing to....

Fun, never the less.

Shuttle Endeavour Roll Out

Shuttle Endeavour rolled out last night from the Vehicle Assembly Building and headed over to Launch Pad 39A. This is mission STS-134 and is scheduled to blast off on April 19, 2011. I had the really cool chance to photograph this from inside the VAB and was so glad that I drove all the way to Kennedy Space Center and did it. I love the way the shuttle lights up with the Xenon lights hitting it and couldn't get over how big the building and the Endeavour actually are.

The space program at KSC seems to be winding down, (which sucks), and this is the last ever launch of Endeavour, so I will put out as many remote cameras as I can and pray for a successful mission.

Thanks to all who helped me at the VAB and to all of the folks at NASA.

Shuttle Discovery Final Flight

I had the coolest time shooting the final liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery this past week. With all the hype and worry surrounding the NASA shuttle program, this was indeed one cool shoot that I am very appreciative of being able to cover. Not everyone gets the chance to stand this close to a rocket and I will never forget the feeling of it taking off.

I set a Canon 7d remote camera set up in the swamps facing a waterway with a sound trigger to activate the camera upon liftoff. The trigger turns the camera on from its sleep mode about 10 minutes before the scheduled liftoff time. The "awake" camera automatically starts snapping images when the sound trigger hears a loud noise. The shuttle is loud when the boosters fire up and this starts the image capture.

I have a lot of people to thank in helping me learn the ropes on this type of shooting but I want to put a big shout out to Don Montague and Red Huber. They know what they are doing and are not afraid or too stuck up to share their knowledge!

By the way, we went to retrieve our camera's at about 10p.m. in the pitch black and we encountered monster mosquitos and a rather large alligator in the water keeping watch on my tripod. It's always an adventure here in Florida.

More pics: http://alexmenendez.photoshelter.com/

2011 Daytona 500 NASCAR race

Twenty year old Trevor Bayne won the 2011 Daytona 500 in one of the wildest races in ages. The kid who had no major sponsor the day before the race and who last week couldn't get anyone to speak to him at the NASCAR media day, silenced everyone!

He won the race in the last lap with no help from his teammates and held off Carl Edwards for his first Sprint Cup victory in only his second Cup race.

This God loving dude laid down the pedal when it mattered and hasn't stopped smiling since, I guarantee you his jaws are hurting right now.....anyways, Congrats young man and thanks for making the weekend a good time for all!

Images found here: http://alexmenendez.photoshelter.com/.

Capital One VISIGOTHS

I shot over 1000 images for a promo with the Capital One Visigoths yesterday. You, know, the "viking" looking guys who wreak havoc in whatever city they decide to invade. This was without a doubt one of the funnest shoots that I have had in years. I laughed my butt off for about 7 straight hours and gasped for air everytime they got around a good looking girl.

This was an assignment for Cap One and Kohls.

I am sending images to them when they return to L.A. and can't wait to work with them again...

Thanks Guys

Jadeveon Clowney picks SC

Jadeveon Clowney, the number one high school player in the nation picked South Carolina as his school to play football at this season. There was much speculation as to who he would pick as his school. I shot him as he practiced for the Under Armour All American football game last month. CBS sports picked up the story and ran my image today on their site. Pretty cool and I am pleased that my assignment paid off.

More images can be found on my www.alexmenendez.photoshelter.com website.

Magic dominate Clippers

The Orlando Magic had a pretty good night against Blake Griffin and the LA Clippers last night. Dwight was suppose to wear goggles to protect his scratched eyeball but he decided that he couldn't see through them very well and played on without them.

The new arena is a bit more difficult to shoot in than the old Amway arena. The crowd sits back more from the floor and there are some lighting fixtures that cause massive flares when you are shooting wide. It will take a while to get use to them I suppose.

Anyway, lets hope the Magic can get back on track and make another successful run at the playoffs......off to shoot the UCF Knights Mens basketball team tonite.....putting in my earplugs as I type.

Busiest month in years....

This month has been the busiest month that I have had in years. Not sure how everyone remembered my phone number, but thanks. Everyone has been great and 2011 is looking to be a spectacular year for shooting and editing.

I just started the Florida Scenic Highways program this month and shot this beauty tonite. YOU SHOULD SEE THE VIDEO SHOT WITH 15MM, 24 SHIFT TILT, 24-70 AND THE 70-200. I will keep you posted when it goes up on VIMEO, until then, keep calling and get out there and shoot, will ya????

Under Armour All America Football 2011

Maxwell Club President Ron Jaworski today announced that Jeff Driskel, from Hagerty High School, Oviedo, Florida, has been selected as the Player of the Year. I recently shot Jeff and ESPN Rise Magazine number one overall recruit Jadeveon Clowney as they practiced for the 2011 Under Armour All America Football game.

Pretty good players for sure...check more images here http://alexmenendez.photoshelter.com/