Photos from Sept. 9-12

After getting to shoot the Razorbacks with Nelson's lens on Sept. 6, I had a variety of assignments the following week. I shot high school football, tennis, volleyball and jr. high football. I also shot some Minor League Baseball. It was just not the same using my 70-200 and a 1.4 extender after using the 300!
I also got a new 430EX flash and it is a big step up from the 420EX and the Sigma flash I was using. The sigma did have manual and the 430EX does as well. You can tell which pics were flashed and I'm trying to the hang of using manual or E-TTL. It is a great flash.


I used the 430EX here and I think I had it on manual and I was too close and it is a big hot but I still think it is my best high school shot this year. The pic is going to run 4 1/2 columns in this week's Carlisle paper


Normally, when I shoot volleyball, I use my Alien Bee B400 flash and the pocketwizards but I didn't have time to set the flash up and tear it down before going to a jr. high football game. So, I shot with with the 430EX and it looks pretty good.


Same as above!

This is Hank Conger of the Arkansas Travelers -- a AA minor league team, which was hosting the Texas League Championship Series on Sept. 10. It was the first baseball I had shot since my mother died on July 28 so I was a bit rusty.

This was shot with the 70-200 2.8 and a 1.4 extender. I enjoy tennis but getting a clean background can be a challenge because of matches going on on other courts and there is no wind screen. Luckily, this match was being played on the end court so you can see cars in the background but they are blurred out pretty well.


I got this shot with the 70-200 and the 430EX flash. Not bad. It is one of the better shots I've taken this year. The defender was called for pass interference but the reciever held on for the ball anyway.

I'm going to try to update with a few new photos each week. That is my goal--at least.

Mark

The Hogs pull one out

The Arkansas Razorbacks rallied from a 24-6 deficit to beat ULM 28-27 on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. I shot the game using a 40D and 20D along with a 300 2.8L USM lens that I borrowed from the greatest photographer in the world -- Nelson Chenault. It was only the second time I had used a 300 and it was the first time I got to use it for more than a quarter. It was difficult to say the least, the learning curve is very high but I had a lot of fun doing it.


40D, 300 2.8L


40D and 70-200 2.8L


40D and 300 2.8L


40D and 300 2.8L (I hate the crown in the field)


40D and 300 2.8L


40D and 300 2.8L

I had to include the band!


40D and 300 2.8L

Thanks again to Nelson for his lens and the use of it. With all that had been going on with my family and the loss of my mom, it was fun to shoot again, especially since I was using Nelson's lens and it was my alma mater.

Mark

Lonoke Season Opener

For the first time since Cabot played in the state title game in 2000, I was able to shoot varsity football in the daytime and it was a pleasure to do so. I would have liked it to have been a little brighter but we, in Arkansas, were getting ready for the remnants of Gustav.

I shot more than 1,100 pics during the game, including pregame and halftime. I used my 1.4 extender during the first half and took it off in the second half when it started getting a bit darker but it was good to not have to worry about a flash. I'm one that if I can get something good at 3,200 ISO, I'll do it and not worry about using a flash.







The Lonoke Jackrabbits played the first game of the Arkansas high school football season on Monday in the Hootens.com kickoff classic at UAPB. The Jackrabbits won 35-20.

All photos were shot with the 40D, 70-200 2.8L and a 1.4 extender. It was fun to finally shoot a real football game.

Mark

Football, volleyball

The high school sports seasons are about to get going in a big way. Last week, I covered three scrimmage football games and a volleyball game.




On Friday night, I shot high school and jr. high football scrimmages. The shot of the receiver catching the ball was from jr. high. I shot it with a 40D, 70-200 2.8L-non IS and a 1.4 extender series I. I was happy with the shot.

The other was taken with the same setup minus the extender and added in a flash on 1/16 manual power. Not bad but I'm out of practice trying to shoot nighttime football with a flash. I hope things get better this week!





I got to the Cabot High School gym and had set up my Alien Bee B400 flash and was going to use my "new" pocketwizards but when I was changing things around in my bags, I forgot to get the cord to connect the PW to the flash. I had time and I called radio shack in Cabot and went and bought one but when I got back to the gym and hooked it up, the dang thing didn't work. I was scared something was wrong with the flash or the PW. Luckily, I hooked it up when I got home and it was all good. I've just got to take that other cord back. So, I had to shoot the pic above with on-camera flash b/c the light in the CHS gym is horrid, or not existant.

Sorry the layout isn't the greatest either. I'm trying to get more creative with the blog and it isn't working! I'll continue to work on it.

Real football...almost

The Cabot Panthers, the No. 2 in Class 7A in Arkansas, hosted Lake Hamilton in a scrimmage game on Monday. It was fun to finally watch and shoot "real" football and not practice.

This was shot with a 40D, 70-200 2.8L and a 1.4 series I extender. All football games should be played in the daytime or at least with good lights.

Getting back to work

I finally went back to work on Friday after taking some time off following the passing and funeral of my mom-coworker-boss-best friend, Rose Mary.

It is taking some time and I'm still very emotional, especially when something comes up where I'd normally get on the phone and call Mom. I know it will get better. I just hope it comes soon.

This is a pic from Carlisle's football practice on Friday. It isn't much but it was good to shoot something for the first time in two weeks.

Mom column

This is a column that I wrote for the Cabot Star-Herald, Lonoke Democrat and Carlisle Independent this week. It is about my mother.

My mom was/ a special person

By Mark Buffalo
sports editor

As I sit here typing away at the computer, I’m full of mixed emotions when it comes to my mother. All of you all know her as Rose Mary Buffalo. Some of you know her as a friend or as the editor of the newspaper, as as the face of the newspaper and the town of Carlisle.
But to me, Mom is more than that. She is my hero, the one who took care of me when I was young and sick. Mom was the one I could always talk to even when I knew she might be disappointed or mad at me. Mom is the one I could always count on all my life.
I’m writing this on July 13. Most of you all know that Mom was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. This has been a difficult time for our family. Work was difficult for me and my brother and sister. We’ve always been a close family but they lived about two hours away but always wanted to move back closer to Carlisle and Central Arkansas. In fact, as most of you know, my brother Jonathan moved back to Carlisle where he is a coach at our alma mater.
Mom was a homemaker until going to work at Wal-Mart in Lonoke in 1986. She worked her way up to assistant manager then wanted to take a step back. I had interned at the newspapers in Cabot, Lonoke and Carlisle during the summers of 1992 and 1994 and my mentor and editor Bill Rutherford hired me fulltime in the summer of 1995 but that was three months after they hired my mom as editor/salesperson/office manager/general flunkie for the Carlisle Independent. When owner Cone Magie asked Mom if she had a degree in journalism, she said, “I paid for one,” referring to my college degree.
So, For the past 13 years, I’ve been able to work with Mom but that almost came to an end in 1996 when I decided newspaper work wasn’t for me and I turned in my letter of resignation. But I had a change of heart and asked the Magies if I could work parttime and they agreed. A year later, our sports editor for the Cabot and Lonoke papers left and the Magies offered me the job. After waiting a bit while working as the interim sports editor, I took the job fulltime. That afforded me the chance to continue to work with Mom.
Slowly, she and I did all the paper together. Back then, I would draw out what the front page would look like and our composition director Wes Kyle would put it together using wax and a paste-up board. In 1999, our newspapers went to designing pages on the computer and that gave us more control of how the paper should look. Mom had a feel for what the people of Carlisle wanted in a newspaper and the types of stories that would interest a majority of our town.
During our work together, we even delivered the paper around town to the various businesses. When Mom got sick last year, that burden fell upon me totallly until our new owners, Stephens Media, allowed our circulation manager Gary Ford to hire a carrier around Thanksgiving 2007.
The paper was printed in Cabot until the fall of 2006. During the time it was printed in Cabot, Mom would be always standing by the press, making sure the paper looked as good as possible before telling our pressmen that it was okay to save copies. That was especially handy after we started running process color on a regular basis. She wanted to make sure that the people of Carlisle had the absolute best product possible. She took pride in what she did.
I’m working on this column again on July 27 and two days ago, it was decided to have Mom use hospice care. I don’t want to go into this too much because I’m sure Mom will see this story and let me know about it in the future. I’m counting on it.
I just want to tell everyone that my Mom loved her job and the people of Carlisle even if, at one point, she was an outsider but she married a Carlisle boy, had three Carlisle children and eventually became a Carlisle HIgh School Honorary Alumnus. That was one of her biggest honors. She deserved it.
So, please, remember my mother fondly. When you think about her, I hope a smile comes to your face. Even through the tears right now, thinking about my Mom brings a smile to mine!