It’s been almost two weeks since I started my new job at the Casper Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyoming, the state’s only statewide paper. The benefits of working for a statewide paper cannot be overstated – there is rarely a bad assignment to cover. I managed to find a few in my first week, but most of that is the product of our new chief photographer not starting until April 9th. With just Dan Cepeda and myself to cover the whole state of Wyoming (all 97,812 square miles of it) there isn’t usually someone here in the office to vet some of the assignments that come in. That said, I cannot complain at all about the work I get to do.

So far I’ve made trips to Lander, Torrington, Elk Mountain, Rawlins and Medicine Bow. Some towns are large by Wyoming’s standards (Casper has the second highest population at just over 55,000) and some wouldn’t even register as towns in most other states (Elk Mountain has a population of 191). It’s at least two hours to just about anywhere, and something about that isolation seems to give this state a plethora of unique stories everywhere I go.

I’ve got a few features in the bank we’re waiting for a time to run, but this week I finished up our Winter Player of the Year portraits heading to Torrington to photograph Jason McManamen (who’s feature will run tomorrow) and then back to Casper to shoot Kaylee Johnson who ran today. McManamen’s portrait was a tough one. It was my first time using the light kit we have here (which is a fantastic kit, but completely foreign to me) and I’d never been to Torrington, so I had no idea what I’d use for a backdrop. The standard court logo was my fallback, and we knocked that out pretty quick, but I noticed far atop the home bleachers a painting done by the class of 1956 that made a great backdrop, and after some work and some help from a human light stand in the reporter for the story, Clint Robus, we knocked out a nice image.

The real fun, though, came with Kaylee Johnson’s portrait. I still hadn’t been in Natrona County’s gym here in Casper, but I had a little more of a sense of what I was getting myself into from the file art I’d seen in the archives. Johnson was also really easy to work with, and having figured out the tricks to the lighting kit, it went by with a breeze. We tried three different poses. One came against a backcourt wall where Mustangs & Fillies stretched across the wall perfectly wrapping under Johnson’s arms as I had her do the classic outstretched arms pose Michael Jordan made famous. It looked a bit busy though as Johnson was so tall the cinderblock wall behind her was a major part of the frame. I went to a fallback with the center court NC. It was simple and I was able to spotlight her with a simple split light setup, which just enough of an angle to get a nice loop on her face and eliminate all of the court but the area around the center circle. That photo accidentally ran as the CP on sports today, which isn’t a bad thing, but I would have preferred the third pose we tried.

As I got ready to wrap up, I noticed a unique bleacher storage system Natrona County uses where, instead of the bleachers sliding stacked into the wall, they seem to each independently fold out and up row-by-row. This left the tops of the seats with their individual numbers showing along the wall. The backdrop was different and I decided to try one more pose. You can check it out below.

Johnson’s story is an interesting one. She’s playing her first summer of AAU basketball this year, but is terrified of flying, which she says she’ll learn to like as she goes through the season. That, paired with her impressive wingspan, is why I’m sure we went with the headline, “Learning to Fly,” on the cover of sports today.

Natrona County High School standout Kaylee Johnson is the Star-Tribune's Girls Big School Player of the Year after averaging 21.2 points, 12.3 rebounds and 5.3 blocks per game during her sophomore season. The 6-foot-1 post player has already caught the attention of numerous NCAA Division 1 programs.

My last day at the Evansville Courier & Press I received a phone call from New York. I had applied to a bunch of papers, but none on the East Coast, so I was curious but figured it was probably a wrong number. To my surprise, it was The Huffington Post. My name had been passed on to them by friend Rob Carr in Baltimore when they began looking for shooters to help with a book they were putting together from a larger project on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other complications that exist for soldiers when they come home they started in March of 2011. Beyond the Battlefield focuses on individual soldiers and their stories, but also on the armed forces and the challenges they face at home as well.

The assignment itself was fairly easy. The pieces were being compiled into an e-book and they needed a portrait of a soldier in Evansville. Justin Gourley gradually began to suffer from severe PTSD after returning from the Navy in 2004. The condition is mostly under control now, but it’s been a long road to where he is now. Justin and his wife Shawn were very easy to work with, but the weather didn’t help the day of the shoot.

It was pouring rain in Evansville, and heavy overcast skies.  I didn’t want to light the portrait as we only had the couple’s living room to work with in the middle of the day, and it was a little tight to try and set up lights. Outside wasn’t an option at all though. Luckily the D3s is the best camera I’ve ever used. I pushed the ISO, grabbed some window light and after a few differed positions, I had what I needed.

It was nice getting to see some work I’ve done published again. The seven weeks have been far too long between assignments.

An excerpt from the book can be seen here and the book can be downloaded for $4.99 in the Kindle Book Store here.

Justin and Shawn Gourley pose for a portrait in their home in Evansville, Ind. on Sunday afternoon, December 4, 2011. Justin served in the Navy, and came home in 2004. Since then he has gradually developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but is now receiving treatment.

A week or so ago, I covered my last event at the Ford Center in Downtown Evansville, Ind.  It was the last sporting event I’d get in Evansville at all with my last day on December 2nd.  I ran out in the evening to cover the University of Evansville women’s basketball team playing Ball State followed by the men’s team taking on Alabama State.  The women lost 55-50 in a rather boring game.  They had every opportunity to win, but didn’t make a shot from 7:58 remaining in the game onward.

The men’s team played an equally sloppy first half of their game, when the halftime score of both teams didn’t equal 50 points combined.  Alabama State, who was winless on the season entering the game, and winless exiting it as well, wasn’t doing much to stop shot attempts by the Aces, but the Aces couldn’t get anything to fall either.

I set up an overhead camera with the intention of using a shot from the women’s game from overhead inside and a floor shot from the men’s game on the front of the sports section.  With so little going right for either team, though, I was left with only good photos from above for both, but Larry Fink, being the expert designer that he is, made it work.

I had a fantastic run in Evansville, I loved covering the local teams out there, and I’m definitely going to miss that arena.  Here’s hoping I land somewhere I can still have as much fun.

Evansville's Rokas Cesnulevicius, center, tries to gather an offensive rebound through a group of Alabama State defenders in the first half of their game at the Ford Center on Tuesday night, November 29, 2011.

In the 2009 season, Mater Dei had a chance to run to the state championship when Paoli High School ended their run in their regional game.  Last year Mater Dei made it a step further to a semi-state final against North Putnam High School, but fell short yet again.  So this year, with a home semi-state final against Guerin Catholic and most of their star athletes facing their last chance for a state title, everything was on the line.

Quarterback Dane Maurer and Cody Hess first became starters in 2009, the season the first post-season disappointment struck, and have held their posts since. Things had to start looking awfully familiar then when the Wildcats entered halftime of Saturday’s game down 16-7 with Guerin Catholic having their way for the most part.

I wish I could have been in the locker room for that halftime speech, because something sparked in Mater Dei in the second half and they exposed a week Guerin Catholic team.  After an interception and a fumble recovery brought Mater Dei ahead, they exposed Guerin Catholic’s lack of a vertical game and it finally began to make sense why Guerin had gone for it so many times on 4th down when their punter shanked three kicks into the stands.

A late field goal from Mater Dei soccer star Travis Wannemuehler put the Wildcats up by 11 and forced Guerin Catholic to pass the ball with just over two minutes remaining for any hope.  Mater Dei was ready and forced an interception on the first play and ran out the clock for the win.

Friday’s game will be the first state appearance for the Wildcats since 2001 and will be the final football most of Mater Dei’s seniors ever play. For Hess and Maurer, Mater Dei’s star quarterback and running back, it’s the culmination of their time in the backfield together, and a win would mark perfect ends to their careers in Evansville on the gridiron.

Gallery: Mater Dei tops Guerin Catholic

Mater Dei quarterback Dane Maurer, right, cries as he hugs running back Cody Hess, left, at the end of Mater Dei's 27-16 win over Guerin Catholic on Saturday afternoon, November 19, 2011. Mater Dei overcame a 16-7 halftime deficit to win the game and advace to the Class 2A state championship game in Indianapolis. "We did it," Maurer said as he hugged Hess. "We finally did it." The duo have come gradually closer to the state finals since both became starters in 2009.

The first two regular season basketball games at the Ford Center were played this past week, and I got to cover both of them.  The city actually held a press conference to announce Butler University, who at the time had just made the elite eight in the NCAA Tournament last spring, would be the first team to visit the arena for a regular season game against Evansville and that they would be followed by Indiana University a few days later. None of that should have come as a huge surprise as Butler, who plays in the Horizon League, is still considered a mid-major program and was honoring the second half of a home-away series with Evansville. Indiana would be gaining star freshman Cody Zeller who’s brother Tyler Zeller convinced the University of North Carolina to play a game in Evansville when he was recruited there.

Nonetheless, at the time the games were seen as huge draws, and when Butler made another appearance in the national title game, the excitement only grew in town.  Tickets sold out for both games shortly after going on sale, and the only empty seats in the Ford Center at either game were in the student section.  Thats not to say UE students don’t support their basketball program, but the school only has 3,000 students, and no school gets 50% of the student body to show up to any single event.

Evansville gave Butler a shock in the opener. After being down 12 points midway through the second half, the team rallied to tie the game when Colt Ryan hit one of two free throws with .9 seconds on the clock at the end of the second half.  The game seemed destined for overtime, but Butler drew up a play that almost worked.  Catching a deep inbounds pass at the basket, center Andrew Smith turned with two men on his back and laid the ball in before time expired.  The team celebrated like they’d finally won a national championship, diving on the floor on each other, but the refs waved the basket off after review, saying Smith was fouled before the shot with .2 seconds remaining.  Now, all Smith had to do was a make a basket, it’s impossible to sink a shot with less than .4 seconds on the clock, but Smith missed both and the Aces never trailed in overtime.

The same didn’t happen against Indiana. The Hoosiers were led by their star freshman who looks as if he’s doubled in size since his senior year at Washington High School where I covered his run to a state title.  I’m willing to bet he’s spent every day in a weight room since graduating bulking up and it showed as he frequently pushed veteran college players off the ball and moved through the paint with little trouble. Indiana jumped out to a 35 point lead in the second half at one point, and that was when I left. More because I had to make deadline, but there wasn’t much to stay for.  Luckily, though, it was the first game at the Ford Center I tried an overhead mount, and it was well worth it.

Gallery: Aces Stun Butler in OT Thriller

Gallery: Aces Can’t Hang with Hoosiers

University of Evansville guard Ned Cox (22) yells to the crowd at the Ford Center as time expires in overtime following his steal in the closing seconds of Evansvilles 80-77 win over Butler on Saturday, November 12, 2011.

Indiana University forwards Cody Zeller, left, and Christian Watford, center go up for a rebound against University of Evansvlle forward Rokas Cesnulevicius, second from left, as guards Kenneth Harris, second from right, and Colt Ryan, right, look on in the second half of a game at the Ford Center on Wednesday, November 16, 2011.

Bob Seger played the first ever concert at the Ford Center on November 9, and in his late 60′s, he’s still got it.  I got the chance to be the guy who shot the first concert at the new arena (so go make your bar bets now) and unlike other concerts I’ve shot, it was probably the best event coverage experience I’ve had.  Unlike most concerts where the event personnel are fairly rigid in the rules and restrictions and you feel extremely rushed in the experience, the Seger shoot was a breeze.  We were initially only allowed two songs, but I talked them into three.  I managed to get a pass to the after party where I met Silver Bullet Band saxophonist Alto Reed, who had a great story about how “Turn the Page” was written.

I give the Ford Center staff credit for really having their stuff together. For the first major event at the arena, everything from a media perspective, went off without a hitch.  I even got out of there with enough time to get the photos in the paper, and get back to catch the end of the show.  Seger went for almost 2.5 hours and sounded just as good at the end as he did at the beginning.

I came in to the tail end of Reed’s story on the writing of “Turn the Page” at the after party, but it seemed to go something like this: The band had been in the recording studio trying to get a vibe going, but nothing was coming out the way they wanted.  One of the producers decided to paint a picture for Reed to see where it took him.  He said to imagine he was walking out of a bar into a dark alleyway late at night, a single street light illuminating the area as a fog rolled in.  Off in the distance you can hear a sound, what does it sound like?

From there the infamous opening saxophone solo to “Turn the Page” was born as that’s exactly what Reed played to the surprise of those around him in the studio.  I wish I could remember the particulars, but it was definitely awesome to hear stories like that you only ever see on VH1 specials.  That is if they can fit those in between terrible countdown shows.

Gallery: Bob Seger opens the Ford Center

Bob Seger performs "The Fire Down Below," at the Ford Center in Downtown Evansville on Wednesday night, November 9, 2011. The concert was the first at the new arena.

I got to cover history on Sunday night when the IceMen played the first professional sporting event at the new Ford Center in Downtown Evansville.  I’ve covered the arena’s construction a couple times throughout the year I’ve been here and when I found out I wouldn’t be staying on here past December, it was a bit of a blow knowing I wouldn’t get to enjoy the new stadium much.  I did get to cover the IceMen’s home opener though, and I took advantage of the new arena’s amenities, mounting a camera on the catwalk to shoot one of the goals through the game.

The game was delayed by 40 minutes because one of the set-up crew members at the arena slipped on the ice and was knocked unconscious.  The Zamboni also had to be brought out to run the ice again after the man who fell left a pool of blood where he hit his head.  I didn’t see any of this, but the words “pool of blood” were used to describe it to me, and I did arrive as he was loaded onto an ambulance strapped down to the stretcher.

This all amounted to a tighter shooting window for me, with our deadlines at 9pm.  I got some decent stills of the game action from the ice level and kept triggering the remote hoping I was getting good action on the opposite end… Unfortunately the pocket wizard I was using on the body was toasted and only got a few frames, one of which turned out to be the game winning goal when the IceMen went ahead 2-1 in the second period.

After flipping the wizards around and getting a working system, though, I was able to get great action from the position and get them in the gallery online.  Next game, I’ll be ready.

IceMen Beat Komets in Ford Center Debut

Ft. Wayne center Leo Thomas (44) takes a stick to the face from Evansville left wing Josh Beaulieu (20) after taking a shot that glanced off of Evansville goaltender Pier-Olivier Pelletier and past the goal in the third period of Evansville's 3-1 win over Ft. Wayne on Saturday night, November 5, 2011 in their first game at the Ford Center.

Anyone who tries to argue soccer is not a contact sport has no idea what they’re talking about.  Just ask Didier Drogba who might still not be sure where he is after he suffered that concussion against Norwich early this season in the English Premier League.

Indiana Class A soccer isn’t quite the EPL, but while spending my whole Saturday cover both the boys and girls playing a total of four games, there was plenty of contact, and a lot of good soccer to watch.  The girls team won their first semi-state game on Saturday morning after a late foul in the box and a penalty kick placed just outside the reach of the goalkeeper put them ahead 2-1.  They weren’t as lucky in their semi-state final where the game remained tied with just under 4 minutes to play when Providence managed to break the deadlock to win 1-0.

The Mater Dei boys team, on the other hand, wrote the book on how to play high school soccer.  Their first semi-state game ended 6-3, but the score is misleading, it was only close for the first 5 minutes.  Greencastle scored right out the gate, but Travis Wannemuehler, Mater Dei’s wonderkid midfielder, performed a hat trick as Mater Dei scored 6 unanswered goals before Greencastle nabbed a few back in the final minutes.

I didn’t see much of their semi-state final, as the girls game stayed close the whole way through, and they were played at the same time on neighboring fields, but Wannemuehler apparently achieved another hat trick, and there was plenty of contact as three yellow cards and a red were shown.  Most of the fouls seemed to stem from Lawrenceburg’s attacking Wannemuehler.

I got lucky enough to get this shot from the girls field, through a group of spectators lined up along the fence when I peaked over to see the score and noticed players setting up in the box for a free kick.

Gallery: Mater Dei rolls Greencastle

Gallery: Mater Dei defeats Lawrenceburg

Gallery: Mater Dei Girls edge Lawrenceburg

Gallery: Mater Dei Girls fall to Providence

Mater Dei's Andy Hamilton (4) collides with Lawrenceburg goalkeeper Michael Lynch, right, as Mater Dei midfielder Brennan Murphy (12) and Lawrenceburg forward Mick Murphy, left, also crash in on the play as they all attempt to reach the ball off of a free kick in the first half of Mater Dei's 4-0 win over Lawrenceburg in their semi-state final on Saturday evening, October 22, 2011.

After jumping through more hoops than I ever expected, I got credentialed to cover the Ravens again this past weekend, this time playing the St. Louis Rams.  It was of course awesome to cover my home town team again, but having never been to St. Louis, it was even cooler to see a new stadium and new city for the first time.  The prospect of being inside a dome shooting while the elements outside consisted of cold rain and wind made it even better.

The Ravens didn’t disappoint me this week.  They jumped out early on three long touchdown passes to rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith who’s first three career receptions in the NFL all went for scores, an NFL record.  While it was certainly a lot more fun shooting a Ravens win, it made my job a little tougher since I was there to ever the Rams.  The Rams didn’t just lose, they looked terrible.  Sam Bradford looked like a college freshman, not an NFL sophomore.

Probably the coolest part of the game came afterward.  I got a little fist bump from Ray Lewis as he ran off the field past me, and had a full conversation with Ravens wide receiver LaQuan Williams on his way to the team bus after the game.

For all the hoops I had to jump through to get the credential for the game, I’d do it again.  St. Louis was a great time and I’ve definitely got to get back out to the city and have a little fun.  It’s a shame the O’s aren’t playing the Cardinals next year… though I supposed there is always the World Series…

Ravens vs Rams Gallery

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis (52) and defensive end Haloti Ngata (92) converge on St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford (8) as he slides at the end of a scrambling run in the first quarter of the Rams' 37-7 loss to Baltimore on Sunday, September 25, 2011 in St. Louis.

I got a chance to cross something off of my bucket list today: Cover a Baltimore Ravens football game. While it wasn’t at M&T Bank Stadium, and it wasn’t a win, it was still an awesome experience.  Forget getting to stand on the same sideline as my childhood heroes. Forget getting paid to do what most people would gladly give a paycheck to do.  Forget getting to work with two photographers (Gene Sweeney Jr. and Karl Merton Ferron from the Baltimore Sun) who’s work I’ve admired since I was a kid.  This was just flat out awesome.  I only with the outcome of the game had been different.

From a fan’s perspective, the Ravens just sucked today.  From a journalist’s perspective, the Ravens just sucked today.

The team had no rhythm in the first half, completely abandoning their game plan against the Steelers in which they lit them up through the air and struck early, instead opting for a much more conservative approach on the ground.  The Titans reminded everyone in Nashville that they were one of the best teams in the league just three years ago and looked like it today.  They lit the Ravens up through the air and ripped off a few big runs in the second half with back-up Javon Ringer.

The Titans were not, by any stretch of the imagination, supposed to win this game after losing to a rebuilding Jaguars team in week one while the Ravens rolled over rival Pittsburgh.  Tennessee, though, fed off of a sellout crowd in their home opener and with an experienced quarterback at the helm in Matt Hasselbeck, probably caught the Ravens underestimating them. They took full advantage of it.

Regardless, this was a great experience for me and I hope I get to repeat it next week in St. Louis when the Ravens travel out to play the Rams.  Hopefully, I’m covering a Ravens win then.

Full Ravens and Titans Gallery

Ravens running back Ray Rice breaks through the tackling attempt of Titans safety Michael Griffin on his way to the Ravens only touchdown of the game off of a screen pass in the second quarter.