The Longest Kick

  Buccaneers Field Goal kicker Matt Bryant had hit several field goals at 24-yards out during his NFL career but this one felt like he was standing back in Texas. That's because the day before his game against the Green Bay Packers he was in Texas burrying his three-month-old son Tryson.
  Tryson passed away in his sleep last Wednesday and for this father it was his world. On Sunday the kicker stepped up to the game-winning attempt and did what he was supposed to do. He kicked the field goal that would put his team up against the Packers and win the game.
  For Bryant to make that kick was monumental. I don't know how he was able to put on the uniform and run onto the field Sunday let alone kick the field goal to win the game but he did it. In my eyes Matt is a brave man.
  I couldn't help but get caught up in the story line during the game. I guess that's what I get for being a father. I hope I am never put in the place that Matt Bryant is in these days but if I do I hope I can find his strength.
  I had a lot of conflicting feelings at the game's conclusion. Here I was taking pictures of Matt at a very bad time. Yet I wanted to respect him and document what he was doing as a dad. He loved his son so much that he wanted to properly memorialize him with his performance. Matt's actions for Tryson were commendable.
  Following the game Matt talked about the day. "Today was his day," Bryant said. "It was all about him for me. I talked with him personally in my head throughout the game. I just want to remind him that he's my baby boy and he's with me all the time."
  I couldn't wait to see Benjamin when I got home. I just wanted to hold him in my arms and kiss him. In a way I felt guilty that I could hold my son and Matt was grieving for his little boy. It just makes you appreciate every minute that you have with your children and let them know how much you love them.

Yeah Tori and Me We're Friends

  Every morning after I wake up I walk to my office and check my email to see if I had any clients message me overnight. Usually it's a lot of SPAM and nothing major. This morning however was different. Under my Facebook folder I found a new message waiting to inform me that TV actress and 90210 alum Tori Spelling had accepted my Facebook Friends request. 

  Yes I know I have to turn over my Man Card now but I was truly surprised. I had sent her a request a month ago and thought she probably deleted it. I mean she probably gets a zillion of these every week and just hits the "Ignore" button. But I was friend #647 on her FaceBook page.

  Look I'm a realist and know that she probably has some assistant handle her Facebook page and Friends requests but I was excited. To put it in perspective, I was Friend #5,021 with USF QB Matt Grothe. So for me to be Tori's #647 is kind of up there.

  I also am Friends with Zane Lamprey (host of Three Sheets on the MOJO HD channel) as well as Greg Pitts (of ABC's "Sons and Daughters" but more infamously known as "O-Face" from the movie Office Space.) with whom I attended USF.

  So say what you will about my recent addition but I was grinnin' this morning. And yes I should be off Man probation sometime next month.

A New Association

  As I've alluded to in an earlier post, I am going through and redesigning my business. I'm still working on redesigning my websites. I am also rethinking my brand. 

  So a few weeks ago I applied to and was accepted to join the Wedding Photojournalist Association. WPJA is a professional organization made up of photojournalists and wedding photographers from around the world. They are a resource for brides much like TheKnot.com but made for couples looking for a documentary approach to their wedding album. The other photographers listed on the site fall in line more with my style of wedding photography as well as price point.

  Before I joined WPJA I listed with The Knot as well as another site for wedding vendors. The second one I joined last year in the hopes that it would generate more leads. When my sales rep called me to renew I told him that I wouldn't as the site yielded no leads. 

  So I will have to see how this new direction goes. Now all I have left to do is finish the website and get some new promo albums produced. It never ends.

Hitting the Road with Joe

  Last week while I was transmitting my stuff from game 1 of the Red Sox v Rays series I got a call from my Sports Editor at USA Today. When I asked if I could call him back after I transmitted from the game he said, "Yeah I've got something right up your alley."

  Intrigued I phoned him back while sitting in traffic after the game. (I know go figure. When did you ever think traffic and Rays' game would go together.) I asked David what he had for me. He said they were working on a story about the Ray's Manager Joe Maddon. They wanted me to shoot some pictures of Joe as he headed out on his morning bike ride. 

  Apparently Joe likes to bike to help clear his mind which these days is probably filled with many things unlike last season when it was probably thinking about where he wanted to travel to once the season concluded. Now he's got to worry about wether the Rays get the Red or White Sox for the American League Divisional Series.

  I talked to the Rays PR person to make sure everyone was on the same page. I let them know that I wouldn't take away from Joe's personal time but would need him to ride back and forth a few times in order to give my editors a few different looking pictures from which to choose. Not a problem.

  So last Thursday morning I stood in the median along Bayshore Blvd. at a particular intersection and waited for the skipper. Around 11:40 am I looked over and there was Joe on his bike.

  Joe was great and very accommodating for me. He asked what I needed of him and directed him to a certain sport I had scouted earlier and just told him to ride his bike. I think I had Joe for about 3:30 minutes, thanked him for his time and off he went to work out his thoughts.

  This has been an exciting week for me. My baseball team is in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. I shot an interesting series between them and the Red Sox and got some personal time with their manager who I found to be a likable guy. Topped that all off with protective eye wear and a champagne-soaked locker room and you have a magical week.

  If you're curious to see the story it's the cover story of today USA Today's Sports section. More cowbell!!

A Blessed Day

  Yesterday was a very special day in the Livingston house. It was Benjamin's baptism as well as my own. Add on to that we had my Aunt Barbara fly in from Milwaukee to perform both baptisms.

  I really enjoy days like the one we had yesterday. For me to be baptized along with my son gave me a deeper bond with him. Attending St. Paul's Presbyterian over the last year and a half has been a good resource for both Cathy and I especially now as parents. Even when sitting in the crying room I am still able to take life lessons with me from the service.

  Benjamin was so good during the Sunday service. And when it was time for us to go on stag he knew what to do. He definitely loves to be the center of attention and now he was in the spotlight. He gave a smile and a look as if he knew exactly what was expected of him. First though Barbara had to baptize me. I joked with her after and told her if she needed they had pitchers available. It felt as if I had been baptized in the "Jordan" River. (For those who don't know my Aunt Barbara's last name is Jordan.)

  After the service, everyone was invited back to our house for a celebration. It was nice to have such close friends and family. Too bad Benjamin had to take a nap immediately after we got home.

  It's important for Benjamin to know that his family of relatives and friends is large and they are there for him. It's also important for him to know that his faith is also there when he needs help in this world. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend and to those who kept Benjamin in their prayers.

9=8

  When the Tampa Bay Rays reported to Spring Training the motto that Manager Joe Maddon adopted for this season was 9=8. He wanted his players to know that if they played nine hard innings every game they could be one of the eight teams in baseball's post season.

  To say I've been shocked by my hometown Rays all this season would be an understatement. If we didn't have the history of the Cubs we'd be considered the lovable losers of baseball. I always described the Rays as every other teams Triple-A club. 

  I was here when the Rays throw out the teams first pitch in 1998 and tonight had a similar energy. By the seventh inning it was like a giant party inside the Trop. People were cheering as if the game on the field was a mere formality.

  After the final out the team erupted in celebration on the field and I ran after. Apparently I was a stand-in sideline reporter for Fox. My Dad informed me that it looked as if they were focusing on me and the team celebrating at the pitcher's mound. 

  Once the initial field celebration concluded I and the rest of the media pack headed into the clubhouse for the obligatory Champagne/beer spraying pictures. Players were spraying one another and innocent bystanders with the bubbly. I think I caught a secondhand buzz off all the fumes in the locker room. 

  Players went back out to the field to celebrate with the fans and get them wet. I ran around the field getting shots of players high-fiving fans before heading to my computer to transmit. 

  After transmitting my jubilation shots I decided to see what was happening in the locker room. I couldn't believe that the players were still spraying one another as well as family members. Even the players' kids were grabbing beers and shaking the cans before having it explode on one of their friends. 

  Ahh Victory.  And in all the melee I stayed dry as did my camera. But I did celebrate with the team and had a beer. Go Rays!!

Standing Tall

  So I go away for a few days only to come home and see my son now standing confidently on his own. Wow! I feel like if I leave him again I'll come back to him driving a car to his part-time job at Publix.

  OK so it's a little far fetched but that's kind of how I felt as we sat in the living room last night and watched Benjamin pull himself to a stand on the little stool my Aunt Barbara made him. He only stands for a few seconds but it feels like an eternity to a father.

  I have descried watching my son standing as miraculous. Again it's extreme sounding but to me it accurately describes the way I felt the first time Benjamin stood on his own. To see my own child stand under his own power and essentially creating his independence was exhilarating. Someone that only weeks ago couldn't even crawl could now stand under his own power and with such confidence is nothing short of a miracle.

  I know there are many milestones that Cathy and I will observe over the years but I cherish and enjoy watching every one that my son accomplishes. Who knows maybe one day I'll write a blog about the miracle of watching a child of mine become a doctor. I know how big of a miracle would that be?

Don't Tase me Bro!

  Last night I was at a baseball game and a hockey game broke out. No seriously. I was shooting the final game in the series between the Red Sox and the Rays. A lot was at stake in regards to the American League East title not to mention home field advantage during the post-season.

  So as the Rays were pulling away from their second place competition I decided to go up to the main concourse level to shoot something different than all of my colleagues. I lined up along the line from first to second base in order to maybe get a cool infield play or something else. Something else was something I missed by going up.

  In the seventh inning, I noticed the fans a fews section over and in front of me stood up as if a fight was about to break out. Apparently some drunken Red Sox fans (go figure) were talking smack with a bunch of Rays fans. Security was called in to break things up and that's when it got interesting.

  The Sox fan broke the hold of the security guards and made a dash for the top of the Rays' dugout. The guards caught up to the inebriated fan and with the help of an extra guard tried to subdue him. He almost carried the three onto the field when a St. Petersburg Police officer tapped a guard on the shoulder and pulled out his taser gun.

  The officer placed the taser to the back of the fan's head and was able to get the drunk to submit and comply with their orders. He eventually was hauled off in cuffs along with his friend to the cheers of many in the section.

  This series was definitely a memorable one. I saw Boston amass homeruns as if Tampa Bay was pitching batting practice to them. The very next night the Rays won in story book fashion with a bases loaded bottom of the ninth blooper to win. All that capped off the series with a bizzare taser-threatening game that stopped play. Rays games have never been this exciting in September. I can't wait to see what the games will be like in October.

Payback!!!

  Last night's game was one of the better baseball games I've covered this season. Although it would've been nice to have some better action earlier in the game so I didn't have to pull something out of my...hat for my early deadline. 

  I usually like to transmit a few images by 8 o'clock which is typically around the third inning of a night game. This night game was setting up to be a pitcher's dual between Boston's Josh Beckett and Tampa Bay's Andy Sonnanstine by the third inning. In fact Beckett had a no-hitter going until the fifth. Some how I managed to find six pictures to send to Germany in the third.

  As the game progressed you could tell this would come down to the wire. Both teams were battling to put their runners in scoring position but couldn't follow through. We even had some testy moments with Red Sox skipper Terry Francona coming out to talk to the umpire. 

  It became a bit of a gamble in the later innings as I wanted to send a few more images, especially after Sox 1B Kevin Youkilis sent teammate Jacoby Ellsbury home on a sacrifice fly. I made some nice images that would play well if Boston won but they didn't.

  In the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded catcher Dioner Navarro stepped to the plate and hit a dinger into the outfield that sent the entire bench running after him as he rounded first. 

  This was definitely an exciting game for Rays fans but a bit nerve-racking for me as I tried to place myself in position to get a storytelling image. I moved over to the third base photo pit in the ninth inning thinking that David Ortiz might hit the game winner but instead I got a nice shot of Navarro heading down the first baseline with his arms out in victory. Go Rays!!

Boston Massacre

  Last night was the first of a three game series that I'm covering between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays. For those who aren't baseball fans or are Pirate fans this means everything in regards to who wins the American League East title. 

  The Rays went to Fenway last week and took 2 of the 3 games and hoped to build on their lead in the division in this week's series with the Sox. Let's just say they looked like the Rays of old when the Red Sox kept hitting them out of the park and beat the Rays 13-5.

  It was so bad I could've left when I finished transmiting in the fifth inning and would not have missed anything noteworthy. Instead I stuck around until the end of the eighth inning and made my hour, 45 minute trek back to Orlando. 

  This year has been amazing for my hometown team. We are no longer the butt of baseball jokes and are relevant in September. Before this year we were usually out of the playoff picture after the All-Star game. Now we're hoping to go deep in the playoffs.

  So here I am again sitting in the media dining room at Tropicana Field banging out a blog, eating bad BBQ and looking forward to just having to drive to Rob's to sleep tonight. I'm exhausted from the last few days of driving to Tampa and driving back late. Ah the thought of not having a wake-up call sound like a crying 10-month is welcomed.

Off The Mark III

  Yesterday during the Falcons game against the Bucs I had the opportunity to try out Canon's flagship sports camera the eos-1D Mark III. Yeah it's a mouthful to say so most photographers just call it the Mark 3. 

  The camera was released in the summer of 2007 and ever since has been nothing but trouble for most of it's owners. There have been many reports of Mark 3's shortcoming when it comes to autofocus. It has issues following the action which it's predecessors never exhibited.

  As you'll remember I also had a chance to shoot with Nikon's equivalent the other weekend and found it to be a great camera. So when my friend Chucky, who is the regional rep for Canon USA, offered me the chance to test out the Mark 3 for the third quarter I jumped. I wanted to be able to see firsthand what all the criticism was about. 

  I was able to fire off 277 images during third quarter and got mixed reviews of the Mark 3. First off it feels better in my hand than the Nikon D3. It can fire off 10 megapixel files at a rate of 10 frames per second and they look beautiful. But the AF is a little lacking in certain situations.

  When subjects were running straight at me the camera averaged about 40% in focus which is unacceptable of a $4,500 camera. If the subjects were moving more laterally it did well at picking it up initially and staying on it as in the picture above.

  I will say that one of the things I admired of the Nikon was it's ability to create clean images in low light situations. So for comparison sake I cranked up the ISO on the Mark 3 to 2000 and found it to have similar results. Unfortunately I don't think the images would hold up with the Nikon at higher ISOs.

  It would be nice to shoot this entire week with the camera to really get a feel for it and get it dialed in to more of my preferences. If I were in a position to buy a camera at this point I'd have to say I would probably wait until the Mark IV.

Chariots of Fire

  This morning Benjamin went on a run with his daddy for the first time and I think he liked it. One of my neighbors Lisa told me she was going for a run and asked if I wanted to tag along. I quickly called our friends Ryan and Kelly to see if I could borrow Bella's super sweet jogging/bike/stroller/Iditarod stroller. Kelly told me it was no problem.

  I was psyched to go running as it was impossible this week with Cathy being out of town and Benjamin's regular stroller just wouldn't handle the four miles.

  The stroller is pretty amazing. It can convert to all the scenarios above and maybe some I haven't yet figured out. It's like the Cadillac Transformer of kiddie carriers. 

  At first Benjamin didn't know what to make of this new chariot. It was far roomer than his and had some neat sun shades and vented sides. Not the open-air ride he's grown accustomed. He did like feeling the wind whip through his hair and watching Lisa huff and puff next to him.

  By the end of the run not only was daddy pooped and thirsty so was Mino. I carried my little guy under the pits to his crib and gave him some juice before letting him fall asleep for his morning nap. 

  You know it takes a lot out of you when you go on a run with a Mac Daddy stroller. Afterwards all you want to do is rest. Just ask my son.

Hostess with the Mostest

  This week it was my turn to host Play Date Thursday which was probably not a good idea considering Cathy is up in Ann Arbor, MI this week. In fact looking back what was I thinking?

  So at our play dates it's usually our group from Gymboree and some others. This week I invited my friend Christina to bring her almost five-month-old son Joseph since it's hard for her to socialize with others who don't need a diaper change these days. I also invited Kristen who lives in our neighborhood and has a beautiful one-year-old boy named Michael.

  I decided it would best if I prepared something beforehand that could be refrigerated until everyone showed up. So once Benjamin went down for his morning nap, I grilled some chicken strips and chopped it up to use in some wraps. I have to pat myself on the back as I had both spinach and flour wraps set out along with the chicken and freshly chopped tomatoes, green onion, avocado and some sour cream waiting on the kitchen bar when my guest arrived. 

  Some of the moms brought over some other dishes to help with the lunch. So with the wraps we also had a pasta salad and homemade banana pudding which I still have some left in the fridge. 

  Let me just tell you how exhausted I am from hosting Play Day Thursday. Between serving, getting drinks, making sure my kid wasn't eating rabbit poop, cleaning up, answering client emai... where's Benjamin? I thought I was going to collapse. 

  In the end I know Benjamin enjoys being able to play with his friends outside of class and it helps him develop his social skills. I just wish I could afford a caterer next it's my week.

PS- Today would've been my grandmother Lily's 89th birthday. Happy Birthday Grandma.

USA Today Cover

  A few weeks ago I did a story for USA Today on Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. Wide World has been open for 11 years and caters to all types of amateur athletic tournaments. The story deals with how Disney can attract these tournaments over other venues because it can offer total family entertainment as well as lodging and food. 

  The editor on the story wanted me to photograph the Briuglio family form New Orleans during their son Brandon's little league baseball game in the morning. Then follow them as the went through the Magic Kingdom later that afternoon. 

  In addition to the Briuglios I also needed to capture the complex as a whole. Trying to illustrate how large and diverse of a sporting complex Wide World is. I ran around with my friend Marques who works in Disney's public relations office to shoot every thing from field hockey to volleball to soccer and even high school football. (I felt bad for the team from Columbine (CO) High School playing football in 93-degree swamp weather against Port Charlotte (FL) High School.)

  It turned in to a long day and one that coincided with my birthday. I think I shot something like 1,200 images for the story all of which had to be captioned and process before Fed Exing up to McLean, VA. I also went through a gallon of water while running around Disney property. I'm just glad Marques had access to a golf cart.

PS- Today is also Benjamin's 10-month birthday. Happy 10 months, monkey. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and love you very much.

Taking it to the Next Level

  Today was Benjamin's first day in the Level 3 Class of Gymboree. We started in the Level 2 class at the beginning of June and realized last week that we needed to move up. The Level 2 group was getting younger babies in it and seemed to be geared more to those who were just above tummy time. So Benjamin along with his friends Bella and Parker decided to attend this morning's 3 group.

  I was surprised by what greeted us. This group was way more active and the majority of the babies in 3 were closer to one year and walking all over the room. My little guy crawled around the mat to our exercise stations and did really well considering. Meanwhile all is his new classmates seemed as if they were doing cartwheels and flips around us. I know it's just an exaggeration but what a difference a level makes at Gymboree.

  Benjamin seemed to take it in stride and actually improved from last week by traversing one of the incline obstacle courses. Before he wouldn't climb the wedge let alone crawl over the barrel and get on top of the box but today he did. 

  He seemed to play nice with the other babies especially at the end when we gathered around the parachute. At Level 3 the parachute requires more involvement from the parents than in the 2 class. You have to raise the chute way up high and let it fall over the babies who get a kick out the wind that it generates.

  By the time the class ended I told Bella's mom Kelly that it felt like more of a workout for us than for our kids. In fact, when we got home both Benjamin and Daddy had to take a nap. It's tough being a baby. 

Glad I shot this Guy

  To all of my Patriot fans, my deepest sympathies. When I saw the video of your future Hall-of-Fame quarterback go down with a blown knee I cringed for New Englanders. Seeing Tom Brady wincing in pain while lying on the field yesterday made me think that my Bucs might have a shot at the Super this year.

  I had the chance to shoot the Patriots last month when they played a preseason game in Tampa. Brady, who was still nursing a nagging injury from last season, didn't even travel to Florida. His absence gave his backup Matt Cassel some quality playing time. It foreshadowed what the Patriots offense would look like this season.

  I'm just glad I shot the otherwise throw away game. Because I got have stock pictures of Cassel actually playing in a game I have an edge on other photographers who only have Brady. Now that it's official that Brady's injury ends his season there aren't that many images of the Patriots' new leader in game action. This may get me some additional sales to the magazines looking for photos to go with Cassel stories. 

  If anything it teaches you that you never know what's going to happen and that you have to be prepared.

Not Even Close

  Now I know what you're thinking. This entry is about how South Florida's football team is so much better than Central Florida. While that observation is correct it isn't the point of this entry is about the Nikon D3 digital SLR camera that I shot last night compared to my four-year-old Canon.

  A friend of mine used a D3 last weekend and told me about his findings when using the camera for indoor baseball. I had seen some of the reviews online and knew about it's high ISO prowess but was curious to find out firsthand what this camera could do.

  I had the chance to test one out during the USF v UCF game last night at Brighthouse Networks Field. I normally shoot with my Canon and a 400mm f/2.8 rig set to 1000 ISO. With the D3 I was able to get better image quality set at 2000 ISO and used a lighter, smaller rig.

  The images I captured with the Nikon were unbelievable to say the least. Nikon has definitely pushed the envelope as of late with it's digital camera. The fact that you don't have to buy the heavy and expensive fast glass anymore is amazing. Don't get me wrong you still need to invest in quality glass but not f/2.8 lenses.

  There were many times last night that I was surprised at what I could get with the Nikon rig which had almost the same reach as my Canon gear. The image above was from overtime right before South Florida QB Matt Grothe threw it to Taurus Johnson on the very next play to win the game. I thought this was a more dramatic image.

  I just hope that Canon's announcement this week is a camera that can compete with the Nikons or I just might have to start listing some stuff on eBay.

The Power of Blogging

  On the heels of my last entry, I have another that deals with our AV system. The last few weeks I've been having intermittent problems with our Samsung DVD recorder/player. For some reason it wouldn't read our movies when we wanted to watch one and then it would. No rhyme or reason.

  So when I was installing the Yamaha I couldn't get any of the DVDs to play on the Samsung and eventually just unhooked it from the entertainment center.
When I called 800-Samsung I got a very helpful customer service rep who told me that 90% of the time the problem is resolved by using a DVD lens cleaning disk. Not a problem I thought. I'll go pick one up while running errands.
  So today I got back to the house with what I though would be my troubleshooter. The player read the cleaning disk and proceeded to cycle through the process. I did as the Samsung CSR instructed and ran the cleaner through three times but when I placed Talladega Nights in the tray and his play I got nothing... again!
  I called back to 800-Samsung and got another CSR who read over my incident report and offered a couple more suggestions to resolve this issue. The first was to try another $15 cleaning disk and the second was to buy a can of compressed air to shoot in the slot. I told the CSR that I wasn't going to invest too much more in to this player and that I thought it had something to do with the unit.
  I informed the rep that I had my old DVD player which was almost ten-years-old and it was able to still play as good as it did when we bought in Pittsburgh. The reasons I bought the Samsung was I liked the idea of upgrading our viewing experience as well as being able to record shows we saved on the DVR.
  His response was,"Well players can get quite dusty and aren't meant for a lot of wear and tear."
  "But we only use it a couple of times a month. And it's only two-years-old," I said. I guess I thought I was buying a quality product that wouldn't need to be replaced in 26 months.
When I told the rep that if I had to replace this unit I would probably go with Panasonic, LG or Sony and know that my money was safe. He responded, "Well that's a decision you'll have to make."
  It wasn't until I said, "Well I guess one of the things this Samsung DVD player has done for me is give me fodder for my blog." And with that his tune changed.
"Well try the canned air and if it doesn't work call us back. Maybe we could extend you a service call."
  Funny how companies now feel threatened when someone mentions writing in their blog or on Facebook about a bad experience.

Upgrading the Heart of a System

 For my birthday Cathy and my mom went in a joint gift for me. One they knew I would be thrilled about. They bought me a new surround sound receiver a Yamaha RX-V663. I've been wanting to upgrade our receiver ever since we purchased our HDTV two years ago because our old Kenwood couldn't handle the hi-def signal. More importantly the Kenwood would send a loud pop to our subwoofer if we changed the channel, muted the sound, switched it to the radio, turned it on, turned it off or just wanted to do anything different.
  So I spent the last year doing my research on which receiver would fit our system best. One of the features of the 663 that I knew would sell the wife was the fact that it does HDMI switching. Translation: I could get rid of a lot of cables and wires by just running a single cable from the DVD player and one from the cable box and plug it in to the 663. This would replace running three cables for the HD video and another cable for the surround sound audio. 
  Because you input all the components of your home theatre (HD cable TV, DVD, XM, iTunes, Playstation) in to the receiver you don't have to remember if you plugged those components in to S-Video port 1 or HDMI 2. The receiver switches the video and audio to the component you wish to watch. Something else I knew Cathy would like. That way I don't get that call while at an NFL game asking me, "Hey how do I set up the TV so I can play a Baby Einstein movie for Benjamin?"
  I had to change out the receivers the day after my birthday as I got home late Friday and was tired from an all-day shoot. For anyone who has ever tried to accomplish this upgrade or set up their own home theatre system they know that you have to think it through in order to do it right. Yes it's a matter of unplugging some wires and plugging in some new ones but there has to be an order or you'll just end up back tracking.
  So my system not only handles the living room but four remote rooms. I had to run a standard RCA line from the 663's Zone 2 outputs over to my secondary amp to drive the speakers in my office, bedroom, bathroom and lanai. I then had to figure out how to connect the PS 2, XM and iTunes. 
  The one grip that I have from the install is that Yamaha placed the S-Video jacks on the other side of the receiver from the analog audio jacks. This made it impossible for me to use the PS2's combined cable in to the VCR portion of inputs. Instead I had to run the cable under the 663 and connect it to the AUX front jacks. Not too difficult but I like a clean looking install with my AV equipment.
  Then came the good stuff. I ran HDMI cables from the DVD player and cable box to the 663 and one HDMI to the TV. Now no matter what video source I'm running to the 663 the Yamaha will process it and upgrade it to HD. And let me tell you what a difference the 663 made on our viewing experience.
  For starters we now can watch movies on Showtime HD. Before the old component cables, for some mysterious reason, would not allow us to view the channel to which we subscribe. The cable company sent people out but couldn't resolve the issue. Doesn't matter now.
  One of the other features of the Yamaha receiver is that it comes with the YPOA. The YPOA is a small microphone that plugs in to the front of the 663 and customizes the speaker set up to your living room. All I had to do was position the microphone to the point where our ears would typically be and press start on the remote. The receiver went through some tonal signals and adjusted each of our five speakers and the subwoofer as if an audio engineer came in and tuned it. Unreal. The sound is incredible and the subwoofer never pops.
  Cathy was wowed by what my birthday gift could do. So much so that her response was, "Now this means we won't have to buy another receiver ever again, right?" Women are so cute some times.