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/

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?