Dwight Howard has left the building!

After the past year of will he stay or will he go, Dwight Howard has officially left the building....while most are glad to see him leave, I am not.

Dwight brought credibility to the "City Beautiful", and with his loss, the entire city is back to being tagged as a non sports town. Sure we have the Orlando City soccer team (minor league), and the Solar Bears Ice Hockey team starting up, but what else is there? The Predators indoor football.....puhleeze....? (You can surely hear my bellowing as I laugh so hard I almost pass out)...

 Sure, a lot of prominent athletes come from here, but the tiny city of Clermont has more pro athletes training there (NTC) than in all of Orange county now. 

I am not afraid to say that the same owner that built up the Magic has on the surface, successfully torn it apart. Sure, you own the team and can do as you wish, but for the love of God, think about others and how they have supported you and backed you for so long.......selfishness is an ugly beast....and you will see when you realize that the ticket sales are slipping and that new arena you built is only going to survive on concerts that tour the area.

To let Dwight go is like giving up on the dream you have been holding onto of for so long....this was handled in as bad a way as could have been handled.......the MAGIC did not try......if I worked for you I would quit as well....hell, I couldn't leave soon enough, no matter how much green was thrown my way....

I first realized there was an issue when I was invited by Dwights team to go and tour Haiti after the enormous earthquake that rocked that poor island.  The entire trip was to be taken by myself, Dwight, Shiyana, Adonal Foyle, Rodney the bodyguard and Kevin, Dwights manager.... This trip was NOT supported in any way by the NBA or the Magic themselves...in fact, I believe that they were actually against it.....this may not be true, but my gut tells me so, and I believe myself over ANYONE else!

Regardless, Dwight went to Haiti and witnessed the devastation first hand, even into Cite Solei, one of the 5 most dangerous places in the world...and what did he do you ask....well, he smiled and hugged every kid and played ball for 3 hours at a time...on top of donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school for salaries, backpacks, food and shelter.....           but you never even heard a peep about this trip did you? Nope, nobody knew.......guess what, when we tried to leave the island, American Airlines cancelled our flight, so we spent the entire night in the airport, with the rats....Dwight bought thousands of dollars worth of food for everyone that was stuck, the volunteers and mission workers included, and he even signed autographs and posed for photos...all evening....

Its the little things that go unnoticed or unreported that makes a man who he is...and Dwight has far surpassed these measures...........dont think the city and the little ones that he has helped support all these years won't miss him........I just hope the Magic will fill the gaps that these large footprints have left....?

Good luck Dwight, you held on as long as you could here, and nobody blames you for going to L.A......at least they shouldn't if they one day think honestly about the situation..

I'm proud to know you!

USA-Scotland Soccer

I am a HUGE soccer fan and even played goalkeeper in high school. The sport is no doubt one of the hardest games to try to photograph, and I have been extremely lucky to have had access over the years to film some of the best teams in the world. Last night was another example when the Scotland international team visited Jacksonville, Florida to take on the US mens team. This was the largest crowd ever to witness a soccer match in the State of Florida with over 44,000 in attendance, almost more than the NFL Jaguars get in their own stadium....

No doubt, Landon Donovan is the best player the U.S. has ever had on its team, and boy did he show up last night, he scored a hat trick (3 goals) as well as 1 assist in the 5-1 trouncing of the "Tartan Army", and the crowd really let him have it after the game with a rowdy standing ovation that seemed like it was fit for a king......he deserved every clap and chant he heard....

I met some really cool people and need to thank photographer Gray Quetti for his Southern hospitality once again, he saved me a seat in the photo work room, hooked me up with a computer lock and even told me how to get to the top of the stadium for the massive view of the crowd!    I will be editing these images later today before the tropical storm rolls in.......

But........I really have to say I was blown away before leaving the stadium when I checked online to read the story of the game.......I was very blessed to have the lead images on both ESPN and Sports Illustrated....at the same time, just after the victory........(funny though, SI credited me as Alan Menendez/Getty Images?)!

Never in a million years, NO, make that a trillion years,  did I think something like this would occur, EVAH, its funny what happens when you put your head down and just do your job isn't it? 

anywho.....Have a safe Memorial Day ya'll, and thanks for reading. Up Next- The Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony in Canasota, New York.......fun times ahead!

Time Magazine

A few weeks back I was suppose to film a Delta rocket launching from Cape Canaveral but due to scheduling issues, I was unable to attend. So whats a photographer to do?

Well, just shoot it from the front yard as it will surely be bright enough to see from 45 miles away. These rockets are usually pretty cool to watch during the daytime when the smoke trail rises and spreads across the sky, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect after sunset.

I grabbed my son Blaze, age 8, who is a master at the Canon 30D. He set up shop under our palm tree by the streetlight. Using a remote trigger, we set the camera up on the bulb setting and I instructed him to use the trigger when the ship was aloft.

Here is the result of one of his grabs.......not too shabby.

Unfortunately, he can't get access to the launch pad until he turns 18.....!

Ryon McKenzie 10-0

I have been working on a documentary that has to do with the sport of boxing. I won't get into the details here because I don't want anyone to steal the idea, you'll just have to wait until August.

However, I just returned from a photo shoot with one of the principal fighters to be featured in the film. His name is Ryon McKenzie and he is from the Caribbean. This young man is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, unless you are across the ring from him and planning to scrap....

He won his 10th fight in a row this past Saturday in New York, his 9th knockout in his young pro career.

Memorize his name, he will be a force in the 175 weight class.....and remember you saw him here first!