Thank You Rays

  As I watched the Philadelphia Phillies close things out in the World Series I felt sad. I was sad that my home town team didn't win the game and bring the Series back home to win it.

  That sadness was short lived. You see my Rays gave me a season that every fan will look back on with great admiration. Kind of like the '79 Bucs who turned things around after going 0-20 went to the NFC Championship. 

  The Rays to this point were looked upon as all of MLB's farm team. It was the team that aging players went to to finish careers and the team up-and-comers played for before hitting it big somewhere else.

  This season I shot more games at the Trop since then their 1998 inaugural season. I shot 15 games in St. Pete which included a great end of the season series against the Red Sox. I spent two nights covered in Champagne inside the Rays lockeroom. I shot an incredible Game 7 and saw my Rays win the Pennant.

  And finally my Rays allowed me to shoot my very first World Series.  Thank you Rays!

Introduction to Democracy

  Today Benjamin learned about what makes this country great. Today he watched Daddy vote in the 2008 Presidential Elections. In Florida we started early voting last Monday and ever since the news has talked about the record turnout at the polls.

  This morning I gave Benjamin a very brief Civics 101 course while he drank his first bottle. I told him about term lengths for our elected officials and why it was important for citizens to participate in the democratic process. He just looked at me and probably wondered why Daddy still had a piece of oatmeal stuck on his cheek.

  I told him how his mother got her undergraduate degree in political science and that she was fascinated with how the U.S. and state governments worked. I also informed him that if he ever had any questions with regards to names of certain Congressmen or Presidents in our nations history he'd better block out a couple weeks if he ever asked Uncle Ron. (It may take a while. TRUST ME!! We all speak from experience.)

  I chose to early vote at the West Oaks Library a few miles from our house. Luckily our neighbor Kelly had decided to take Bella to vote at the same time. This came in handy as it took an hour and a half to make it to a voting booth.

  Once we made it from the parking lot inside the library Benjamin wanted to run around. He couldn't stand being in my arms any longer. So off he went screaming down the stacks. (Apparently the librarians waived the whole no talking policy.)

  So here I was in our little voting booth holding Benjamin in one arm and making sure to bubble in my votes correctly (Let's not revisit the whole hanging chad portion of Florida's history.) with my other arm. He could've cared less who I was voting for in the hotly contested Orange County Soil Conservation race. In fact, he kept grabbing for the partition between us and the gentleman voting next to us.

  We turned in my ballot and got our "I Voted" stickers and headed for the door. I held great pride in showing my son one of our country's highest responsibilities. I can remember going with my mother to the Temple Terrace City Hall and watching her vote. It was a very cool feeling to now be doing it with my son... oh crap he just spit up in the library. Now what did I do with those wipes?

Monkey Business

  Last night was the unveiling of Benjamin's Halloween costume at his Gymboree Halloween Party. Cathy found a great monkey costume for our little monkey on the internet. It's so cute and he looks adorable in it.

  Growing up in Florida I can remember Halloweens were painful if you had a hot costume in which to go Trick-or-Treating. I can remember one particular Halloween going as Casper the Friendly Ghost and sweat pouring down my face underneath that plastic mask.

  So you can imagine my horror putting my son in a thick monkey outfit when it's 78 degrees. Once we got him in the car and blasted the AC he was fine. Plus they won't remember a lot of this stuff later on unless a therapist drags it out of them.

  He had a great time at the party. It was a lot like his regular Gymboree class. They had games and exercises along with a costume parade. His friends were there but I think it throw him off a bit. Benjamin could sense that this wasn't the usual. 

  For starters he must've thought, "What a minute it's not Tuesday. And second why are we here at night?" 

  He played along for most of the hour before finally running out of gas. By the time it parachute time he was ready to check out. He reached for Cathy and wanted just a bottle before falling asleep in his car seat.

  It was nice that we could use his monkey costume more than once on his first Halloween. I just can't wait to see what he'll do Friday night.

PS- Happy 8th Wedding Anniversary, Z! I Love You!!!

Doing Something Else For a Change

  It felt so good yesterday to go out and do something other than shooting a game for a change. I've been looking forward to the Florida Land Rover Club's annual Fall Rally for weeks now. Ever since I did it last year I've been telling Cathy how fun the event is and how she'd like to see what her truck could do while on a trail ride. 

  So we decided to send Benjamin off for the day with Mimi (my mom) while we drove to Lake City and went trail riding with other Rover lovers. Besides Benjamin had a very busy social calendar and I didn't have the energy to keep up with him.

  I did all the driving through the Osceola National Forrest and Cathy watched. She said she found the rally to be very relaxing. We actually had the whole day to just catch up with one another while we climbed over fallen trees, ran up dirt hills and forded waist-deep mud waters. It's the little things that bring romance back into a marriage.

Now We're Even

  Well I have to say that I'm more pleased with the result of last night's game as opposed to how Game 1 ended. The bad part of it was that I spent more time in the workroom than I did out shooting on the field. We just had more images coming in that needed to be uploaded to our editors due to the fact that there was more action during Game 2 than the previous night.

  As for my cold, I felt better than I sounded. A friend of mine told me that if the photography thing didn't work out I could go in to radio with my new, cool voice. It sounded like I had smoked three packs a day for 20 years. And yes I had my hot tea with lemon last night.

  At the end of the game I grabbed a few images of the Rays players celebrating the franchise's first World Series win and scrambled through the crowd to file the jubilation images on the wire before grabbing my two remotes.

  Finally I got something worthwhile on my remotes. A play at the plate involving Tampa Bay's Rocco Baldelli and Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz got me the above image on both my remote cameras. I like how Rocco flew up in the air and decked Ruiz hoping to pop the ball loose and score a run. Ruiz held on but it's still a nice frame.

  My feeling is that they'll come back and play a game 6 where the Rays will win it. (I'm knocking on wood right now like you wouldn't believe.) But for now I have the weekend off for a change and I'm really looking forward to not shooting baseball.

A Night of Running and Hot Tea

  Ugh!! I feel horrible this morning. I got this cold during the ALCS and have been fighting it all week. Well it won last night. I lost my voice right before the start of the World Series which made it difficult for my editors to hear my voice annotations on key images during the game.

  I got to Tropicana Field around 3 pm yesterday and set up my remotes. Once those were locked into place I decided to go find some hot tea in the Press box upstairs. I think I squeezed a whole lemon into that cup but boy did it help. I couldn't talk but it helped sooth my throat.

  During the World Series I drew that up position which meant I was responsible for running back to the photographers' workroom throughout the game to dump cards to our editors in San Francisco and Boston. So after the first inning I began my game-long relationship with the Trop's stairwell. Once back in the workroom I dumped my card and three others from my two shooting mates. Ran over to AP to grab the "pool" card of the pitchers, dumped them and ran back up to the Whitney Bank Suite.

  Stayed there during the third inning to run back to dump more cards. This continued about three more times during Game 1. I will say that the seared ahi tuna was exceptionally good last night.

  By the end of the game I was drained. I forgot how many images I dumped to the editors but for just three shooters I think we held our own against AP, Reuters and Getty who always overstaff these events.

  After packing up our gear Rhona, Matt and I headed to the post game party inside the Batter's Eye Box which is a restaurant in centerfield that gives patrons a great view of the game. We talked about the game over drinks and what the shooting situations were like. I grabbed my commemorative shirt and headed to my car to drive back to my hotel room.

  And now I get to do it all over again. Game 2 here we go!

Ready to Go

  While I'm fighting this cold I picked up during the ALCS (I think it was from the night Cathy had the AC cranked at the hotel after Game 6.) I'm packed and ready to go. I spent this morning thinking about how I wanted to shoot my first World Series and where I wanted my remotes. Last night our staffer in charge of baseball sent out the shooting assignments and I drew the up position which is good and bad. The good is that I like being the up shooter and have a little flexibility to move around during the game. The bad news that I'm responsible for dumping all the card the three of us shoot. 

  I'll try and explain what I'll be doing during the next two nights. We have three photographers, including myself, that'll be covering the games in St. Pete. After the first inning I'll head back to the workroom under the stands to download the compact flash cards to my laptop and then drop them in a FTP folder to our editor in LA. (For those unsure what a FTP folder is it's where I connect to a remote computer and drop and drag the pictures from my laptop to the remote computer.)

  After doing that I have to obtain the "pool" images of the starting pitchers. Usually one of the wire photographers is allowed behind home plate during the first inning to get straight on shots of each team's starting pitcher and then make them available to everyone. (Look for it tonight in the first if you're watching the game.) After transmitting those images I'll have to check to see if the our photogs sent any more cards back and move those. 

  Then if there's time I'll go back to my position and shoot for another inning only to return to the workroom and continue making the donuts (and by that I don't mean Dunkin' Donuts I mean taking disks and dumping them to the editor.).

  Around the 8th inning I'll head back out to the up position and finish shooting the game. Then all three of us will return to the workroom and move a few images each from the end of the game.

  I plan to stretch before the game so I don't pull anything. I'm very anxious about shooting my first World Series. I shot my first National Championship a few years ago down at the Orange Bowl when USC won the BCS but this is a pro championship. A little different but in the end it's still just a baseball game.  Go Rays!!

Back with Barak

  So with 3 1/2 hours of sleep I rolled back from the ALCS to cover Barak Obama in Orlando. I first had to drop off a camera I borrowed at Rob's house before picking up Benjamin at my in-laws. 

  After I got back to the house I had just enough time to download my stuff from the weekend and pack the necessary gear for the rally before dropping off Benjamin at a neighbor's house.    On the radio I learned more details about the political event at Amway Arena. For starters it was going to be outside of the Magic's home arena on the North side. Secondly I found out they were expecting 40,000 to show up (50,000 actually showed up.) for the 6pm event.

  Everything kind of fell my way. I drove to the arena through the Parramore part of town which isn't really the safest way but I figured it was the quickest. Once there I asked a police officer where media was parking and showed him my credential. He told me to go on through and pull in to the lot directly behind him which was adjacent to the entrance. Once through security I scoped out the positions. They had the standard two camera platforms with much of it was reserved for the traveling press corps.

  I found a spot that was open and immediately marked it for myself with a Sharpie. It was on the "cut-away" platform and utilize the stairs leading up to the entrance of the arena as its main backdrop. I knew the stairs would fill with people helping to illustrate the size of the crowd.

  By the time Senators Obama and Clinton took the stage the light was really nice. The auxiliary lighting the campaign brought in really complimented the ambient.

  I was able to move around to the various positions, including the buffer area around the stage, to get different shots of the Democratic Nominee. It was nice to be able to make a variety of images during the 45-minute rally.

  As Barak made his obligatory hand shaking tour of the crowd I got my pictures and ran back to my car to get ahead of the crowd. I remember what traffic is like after a sold out Magic game so doubling that I didn't want to get caught. Besides I had to get home to transmit as the campaign didn't offer wireless internet access which was unlike my previous experiences on the campaign trail.

  I got home and rushed to my office to transmit. luckily I had already downloaded the pictures off the cards and onto my laptop while driving home from the rally.

  After moving 12 images to EPA I grabbed a glass of Merlot and took a long, hot shower to relax. I was finally home and could sleep in my own bed for a change.

World Series Bound

  I'm still in disbelief that my hometown Rays are not only the AL Champs but they are going to the World Series. More importantly I'll be on the field with them Wednesday as they host the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. Wow I'm shooting the World Series!

  Before the game last night I could feel a buzz around Tropicana Field. The problem was I couldn't tell if it was a buzz that the Rays would win or if the Red Sox would hold the momentum and not let it swing back to Tampa Bay. We all felt anxious for an end to this grueling series and knew that these two teams would take it to the end.

  I made the decision yesterday that I was going to help my Rays win this by throwing all of my photo support to the Sox. Yes you heard me I was going to set myself up to shoot great images of the defending Champs which meant that I was actually jinxing myself and not the Rays.

  As I mentioned in yesterday's blog entry I adjusted remotes for game 7 after Saturday night's game. I decided I wanted to set up a Red Sox "high-five" cam right next to the dugout where Francona stands to get images of Red Sox players returning to the dugout after scoring. I thought it would be a win-win situation because I would either have some cool wide angle shots of jubilation that the other photographers wouldn't have or I'd get nothing but a trip the World Series. My jinx worked.

  As the Rays dugout ran onto the field to pile on relief pitcher David Price and catcher Dioner Navarro I followed. After a few moments of celebration pictures I headed to the clubhouse for the obligatory Champagne spraying images.

  I didn't have to wait long in my poncho with a camera inside an underwater housing. The players streamed in to the locker room and almost instantly had corks popping before shaking and spraying. I didn't care I had all my gear protected and a change of clothes... bring it on!

  At one point Fernando Perez sprayed me with the bubbly and got some in my eye which burned. I ran over to a counter where the clubhouse manager had set out Nike swim goggles to put on to protect our eyes. So here I was soaked in Champagne running around a locker room taking pictures with an underwater rig of baseball players spraying each other. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

  I got back to my hotel room this morning around 3 and slept for a few hours. Now I've got to get some things taken care of, pickup Benjamin at his grandparents in Kissimmee, drop him off with a neighbor and head to Amway Arena to photograph Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. 

  I'm exhilarated and exhausted. I'm looking at some long days ahead of me this week but it doesn't matter. I'M GOING TO THE FRICKIN' WORLD SERIES!!!!!

One More Game

  It now officially feels like Groundhog's Day. The days definitely run together and feel alike. I get to Tropicana Field around 3:30 pm and have my bags sniffed by a yellow lab. Then head to the photo workroom down the hall from the Red Sox clubhouse.

  After setting up my laptop and making sure all the settings for transmitting are working I head out to the field and try to feel my remotes. By that I mean that I try and take what I got from their positions the previous game and adjust taking in to consideration what might happen in the next game. 

  Yesterday I had trouble with the remote camera set to fire at home plate in from the back of the visitor's dugout. For some reason it couldn't receive the signal to fire when I was in my field position but if I were in the Whitney Bank Suite it fired all the time. So after I was done transmitting last night/early this morning I moved the dugout remote in front of the TBS cameras and tested it. It worked.

  In addition to the home plate camera, I also rigged a remote tonight near the hole of the Red Sox dugout to get Terry Francona or other players high-fiving teammates as they come back to the dugout after scoring a homerun.

  I have to say that if my post season ride ends tonight it has been a fun one. I've covered NFL and NBA playoffs previously and this was interestingly different. It came with it's own unique obstacles that challenged me. All that's left for me to do is to go out tonight and have a good game. Go Rays!

Benjamin's first Bulls Game

  Cathy and I took Benjamin to this afternoon's homecoming game between USF and Syracuse to show him what the Bull Nation is all about. Cathy and He sat up in the third deck with her Delta Gamma sisters while I shot the first half of the game for my stock.

  I dropped the two of them off for a little tailgating before the game and headed in to the stadium to set up my gear. From what I heard all of the DG sisters loved the newest Lambda Chi legacy.

  I packed my gear up after transmitting at halftime and made the trek up to Section 338 at Raymond James. Cathy said that Mino ate a whole hot dog and grabbed for a nearby beer. Sounds like he's learned the finer points of college football watching.

  I guess the first half wasn't interesting to our little Bull or he did too much tailgating beforehand because he slept most of the half Cathy said. But when he saw Daddy come walking up the stairs I could see his eyes light up and those little teeth smile at me.

  As we walked back to the car (and btw he loves escalators) I told Benjamin that he would probably see more games over the years but this was his first and I was glad I could share in this day.

Howard's Back!

  Last week I received my weekly XM bulletin in my Inbox and noticed that I could now subscribe to the Best of Sirius with my XM subscription. Nice!!! After all this merger talk I could now get Howard on my XM. How cool?

  I was an avid listener of the Howard Stern Show when he was on terrestrial radio but had already subscribed to the competing satellite radio service well before he decided to go exclusively with Sirius some three years ago.

  Over the last few years I've had rental cars that came with Sirius and was able to catch up with Howard and the Whack Pack. It was always fun to hear how Howard carried out his show without the oversight of the FCC.

  Almost immediately after reading the XM bulletin I called up their customer service line and subscribed to the new package. So now I can hear Howard as well as all the NFL games, Martha Stewart (not interested) and NASCAR. Not to mention hearing Bubba the Love Sponge in the afternoons.

  So for the last week I've been hearing about Howard's recent wedding as well as Robin's take on the news. I've laughed my butt off at Artie's comments and think Fred's drops are always timely. Ah it so nice hearing old friends.

First Day of School

  Since Cathy and I learned that we we're expecting we started a discussion about what we would do about child care. We both felt it was important to utilize my working out of the house as the primary means of childcare for the first year supplemented by having Sergio or my mother watch him in cases where I had a job. 

  A month ago our friend Kelly heard that the First Presbyterian Church of Orlando had a program for toddlers at their Little School two days a week for Benjamin and her daughter Bella. The class would be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays and last from 9-2 which was perfect for us. 

  Until FPCO's Little School we had done some research and found that there weren't any part time day cares in Orlando. Or let me clarify. You could send him part time but you were still paying for full time. Ouch!!

  When FPCO's Little School came our way we knew we had an opportunity we couldn't pass up. For starters it only costs us (for all my friends with toddlers or little ones in daycare don't throw anything.) $195 a month. I know! How could we NOT pass it up. Not to mention we hold a priority slot for there very popular 2-3 year-old class for which all the Winter Park parents clamor.

  So Kelly and I carpooled Bella and Benjamin to their first day of class. We were both anxious about how they would react to the new surroundings and new people. We decided that for the first day we would hang out with them for 90 minutes to help stem the anxiety (more for us and not the kids).

  So around 10:45 we left our two 11-month-olds and met with the school administrator to turn in all the required paperwork and checks.  We got our photos taken for the issued security badges to access the classrooms. (As a side note: FPCO has a lot of security measures in place from access controlled hallways to guards around the church's campus. It felt very reassuring to me.)

  When we returned to the nursery room Benjamin was crying out of exhaustion. It's tough for him to calm down for a nap in a new place. I wanted to go in and try some of my proven techniques but knew I needed to not involve myself in order for him to accept his new routine. It was difficult but Kelly and I walked to Starbuck's to get some coffee and give Benjamin and Bella some time without us.

  When we returned Benjamin was asleep in a crib snoring while Bella was trying to fall asleep in a swing. I felt better about leaving him and thought that he'd adjusted. In fact I felt guilty to wake him and take him home so I suggested to Kelly we have her husband Ryan, who's firm is next to the church, meet us for lunch. I hadn't had an adult mid-week lunch where I wasn't working since Benjamin was born. It was refreshing.

  Lunch didn't last long as we had to haul butt to make it for our weekly Gymboree class. Yes we were shuttling kids from one thing to the next. Kiddie cab already. 

  Gymboree was laborious as always. By the end of it I felt like I had put in my cardio time for the day. Benjamin was somehow still awake after school and Gymbo. Meanwhile I just wanted to nap like Rip Van Winkle.

  Overall it was a very big day for Benjamin but he's so adaptable and resilient. My little man impressed his teachers with his abilities to walk and traverse obstacles in the nursery. They admired how happy he was and couldn't get over his speed. 

  I'm pleased that I was able to care for my son as long as I did. I think he will be better because of the close time we had together while he was little. This is an exciting time for our family and I can't wait to see what this new opportunity will bring us. 

Completing the Trifecta

  Ok last week I talked about shooting three games in 30 hours. Well I decided to do it again this week with two ALCS baseball games and an NFL game. What the hell was I thinking?

  Friday night I shot Game 1 and got to bed around 2:30 am and was able to sleep in a bit before getting in a run. I followed that up with a marathon game the next night that went 11 innings and into the next day. I didn't get to bed until close to 4 am Sunday morning.

  Five hours later I was up and heading to the Bucs' game at Raymond James Stadium. What was I doing? It's one thing to shoot back to back games in air conditioning but it's another to go shoot a game that had field temperatures in the triple digits. 

  I decided to only stay for three quarters in order to beat the traffic and get home safely. It was freakin' hot. I mean at one point I asked one of my colleagues if it was still August because it sure didn't feel like October.

  The Bucs beat the stuffing out of the Carolina Panthers which made me feel better about leaving early. I was able to get several different images for my stock before heading out.

  In all I had a busy week but I was glad to get home and see my family. Benjamin just smiled when I walked through the door as if I had only run out to Publix for a gallon of milk. I guess I should be grateful that he recognized my exhausted face.

Oh What A Night

  Game 2 is the reason why I hate how MLB panders to primetime TV. I mean who in their right mind if they aren't a diehard fan of either team would stay up until almost 2 a.m. EDT to watch a baseball game?

  Last night's ALCS started half an hour earlier than Game 1 but finished two hours later. I didn't walk out of Tropicana Field until 3:30 this morning and didn't get to bed until 4:30 am. That's crazy. I haven't done that since college.

  I will say this though that I felt like I shot a better game last night than I did Friday. Partly because it wasn't a pitchers' duel. It was also a result of several lead changes during the game.

  I started at my first base position and lasted until the third inning when I thought I needed to change things up a bit. I walked over to our other shooting position which is directly behind the Red Sox batting circle. From there I was able to get Pedroia's homer as well as some stuff of "Big Papi".

  Then I needed a snack so I headed up to the Whitney Bank Suite to.. ugh... shoot. Yeah that was my main reason for going up there. To shoot. And of course grab some of the Ahi tuna. 

  I don't know if it was the tuna or not but I started getting some nice action images from up there and the Rays started showing they had some life left in them during this ALCS.

  By the seventh inning I went back to my original spot behind first base to shoot the remainder of the game. Had I know that meant another four innings I might have walked around a little more. 

  The photographers sitting next to me and I couldn't believe we were still shooting a baseball game at 1 in the morning. It seemed like it wouldn't ever end. So by the time BJ Upton hit his sacrifice fly in the 11th to win the game I was ready for bed. Unfortunately I still had to download 1500 images to my external drive, grab my remotes and pack everything up.

  When my head hit the pillow this morning at 4:30 am all I could think about was getting back up in a few hours to roll to the Bucs' game. And so Groundhog's Day continues.

Well That was Fun, Not!

  Last night's Game 1 of the ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays was a pitchers duel. In other words, I got no action pictures. With Dice-K pitching a no-hitter into the seventh inning there were little opportunities to get action shots with the exception of the Sox scoring a couple uneventful, old-school style runs.

  The Rays had their chances but couldn't capitalize to put them over. Not to mention Matsuzaka was able to keep his cool and pitch himself out of multiple jams before leaving the game in the eighth inning.

  I have to admit it was kind of cool to be shooting the ALCS and I am looking forward to tonight's game. I just hope this time the game has more action to it than what I had to shoot last night which was a lot of Rays striking out or looking sad along the dugout rail. 

  Apparently I was on the TBS broadcast during the second inning when a foul ball came my way. I got a couple of text messages and Facebook comments which I read on my phone in between inning. 

  For anyone who thinks I've got the best seat in the house let me burst your bubble. The view is the best you could imagine. I mean I'm on the playing field. The realty of it is that I get to sit on a poorly made bench that we have to tilt on it side in order to see over the block of concrete they poured to protect us from foul balls. By the end of last night's game my back was killing me.

  Tonight I might have to walk around to my Whitney Bank Club spot and grab some Ahi tuna and ice cold Dasani water. The only thing I ask is, "Come on Rays frickin' win one at home!"

Changing the Oil

  Yesterday I showed Benjamin how to change the oil in a car. I've been chaning the oil in my trucks for 12 years and feel that I have a better understanding of my vehicles because of it. Not to mention I'm able to do it at my convenience.

  I know some of you out there are think, "But I just take it to Jiffy Lube and it's done in 15-30 minutes." Sure but what about the time it takes to get ready (If you have a baby you know I'm talking about.), drive down to the Lube, wait until they can get your in and then drive home. Shoot by then I've already changed the oil and filter, checked my fluids and air filter, and taken a shower. Not to mention saved about $15.

  So now it was time for Benjamin to watch me change the oil. He'd seen me change the spark plugs earlier this summer and knows that it's a bitch to try and change the ignition wires on a Rover. (Damn Brits had to put the coil pack behind the motor tightly against the firewall!)

  At first Benjamin just wanted to play with the toys I put in his pack-n-play with him. He occasionally would look up to see what I was doing under the truck. By the time I got to pouring the new oil in the engine he was getting bored and hot in the garage. "I'm so over this dad," was what it sounded like to me. 

  As he grows up I want to show him how to do things for himself in order to give him a better understanding of how things work. Being able to wire my own houses for multimedia as well as doing some finish carpentry along with vehicle maintenance has been a source of pride for me. I think it also has made me a more rounded individual and able to carry on conversations in different situations as an adult. And these are traits I want to pass on to Benjamin.

  "Mino can you hand daddy the 5/8" socket wrench for the drain plug?"

No Stopping Now

  For the last week Benjamin has been teasing us with walking. He strolls effortlessly along the sofa as if he thinks he's fine walking as long as he touches the couch. All that changed today when we were playing in the living room. He walked along the ottoman and stumbled towards me almost falling in my lap but it took him a couple steps before he fell.

  I quickly grabbed the video camera and hit record as I wanted to show Cathy his first real steps. Boy did he take some steps. I just kept moving away from him for as long as he would stay up on his stumbling little legs. He just smiled and laughed as he walked towards my arms.

  I was so proud of him. He's worked so hard to get to this point in his development. I just feel blessed to be able to witness this milestone.

30 Hours, 3 Games

  This week could've been rougher than it turned out to be if not for the help of my mother and in-laws. You see Cathy was in Ocean City, MD working with a bank while I juggled Gymboree classes and shoots.

  All this culminated at the end of the week when I had to shoot Games 1 & 2 of the ALDS as well as USF's Thursday night game against Pitt. Luckily with some help of the grandparents I was able to make sure Benjamin was left in good hands while I was away working.

  For the first time in franchise history the Tampa Bay Rays were playing in a MLB playoff game when they hosted the Chicago White Sox for Game 1 Thursday afternoon at Tropicana Field in St. Pete. The game was electric. Fans were crazy with their cowbells.

  The Rays didn't disappoint either as they beat the Sox 6-4. It allowed me to get 22 images moved to my client before packing up and driving across the Howard Franklin Bridge to shoot the Pitt v USF game in Tampa.

  I missed the Bulls first touchdown but wouldn't of mind missing the rest of the lackluster performance against the Panthers. It seemed like the Bulls thought they could just mail this one in. Too bad Pitt came to win. And win they did 26-21.

  After Thursday's long day it was back to the Residence Inn to fall asleep watching the rebroadcast of the VP nominee debate. "Do ya mind if I call ya Joe?"

  Five hours of sleep later I was in the hotel's gym doing 8.5 miles on the bike and 3.5 on the treadmill before heading over to the Trop to help resolve a technical issue on a friends overhead remote. (BTW the very top of the Trop is scary. I stood on the catwalk 210' above the baseball field and thought briefly, "What the heck am I doing up here?")

  Later Friday night the Rays played game 2 and they came to command the series. I was able to get some good images out by the second inning before venturing to a new "up" position to shoot the action on the field. 

  My friend Gary told me about how he shot a couple inning up in the Whitney Bank loge during Game 1. Apparently our photographer credential gets us in to the loge section. So during fifth inning I went up to see what it was all about. 

  Wow! It was a pretty good angle from which to shoot. Not to mention there were several buffet bars easily accessible from my position. I spent the 5th-7th innings up in the Whitney Bank loge and got some nice images but the best part was when I left. I grabbed a macadamia nut cookie and a bratwurst. I might have to shoot from the loge for the rest of the post season.

  With a full tummy I headed back down to the field to complete my coverage with images of the Rays celebrating their second straight victory and head to Chicago to close things out against the Sox.

  As I was driving home drinking a Monster energy drink and nibbling on some beef jerky I was just content with the thought of being able to sleep in my bed. I also looked forward to having a few days off. Not to mention the fact that Cathy was home.

  It was a busy week for the Livingston house. Benjamin was exhausted from entertaining his grandparents. Cathy was tired from working with a bank in Maryland and not being able to see her little boy. And I was wiped from running around stadiums shooting three games in 30 hours. But in the end I couldn't have been happier.