Carlisle vs. Conway St. Joseph

So, for the first time in almost 2 years, I decided to post another blog entry. Needless to say, having a 4 year old daughter is a challenge as most parents know!!!

I was going through some pix from a game I shot today and thought I'd share them with you all.

For one of the few times this year, I set up both Alien Bee flashes and bounced them off the ceiling at Bison Arena. All shot at ISO 640 at either 3.5 or 4 and 1/250 sec on my 1D Mark II N and 70-200 2.8L. Used Pocketwizard Plus radio slaves. Also used flash white balance. Any time I need to use strobes or flash when shoot basketball, the 1D Mark II N is my go-to camera. When shooting available, I'll use the 7D, which is a heck of a camera in itself and great for HS and college football.

State Tournament

In a Class 2A state tournament game at Carlisle Bison Arena, Hackett beat East Poinsett County 56-54 on a last second shot. Unfortunately, this photo is not it but it the same two people involved in the final play.

I shot this with one Alien Bee B1600 bounced off the ceiling, using at Mark II N and 70-200 2.8.

Long winter

For those of you who actually look at my blog, I'm very sorry for not having posted anything since November. Becoming a first-time father last September has been rewarding, challenging and frightening all at the same time. I've been as busy as usual, covering high school sports and some college sports, including the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2 but figuring out how to use my time wisely has been a challenge.

I thought I would throw in a basketball photo that I took last week. I shot this photo with a Canon EOS 1D Mark II N and a 70-200 2.8L lens. It was lighted using two alien bee strobes with the 7 inch reflectors aimed at the top of the key. I used pocket wizards to trigger the flashes. In Cabot's gym, I'm not able to bounce flash like I can when I shoot at Carlisle's new 1500-seat arena. But I'm extremely happy with this shot.

I'll try to do better in the coming weeks.

Mark

Arkansas Razorback football

It has been a really long time since I've updated my blog and I truly apologize for that, especially to those who actually look at my blog. But my life has been turned upside down since I left for Beijing, China, on Sept. 11, 2009, with my wife Linda and returned home on Sept. 24, 2009, with our daughter, Mary Elisabeth. But things are good. If you want to see some stuff from our trip to China, take a look at our blog at: www.fortheloveofemmy.blogspot.com

On Saturday, I shot the Arkansas-Mississippi State football game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark. It was the first time I've shot a college football game for the newspaper on deadline. It was a lot of fun. It was a big time rush to be able to get my work done and have it appear in our daily newspaper in Fort Smith.

I shot the game with my Canon EOS 40D, 70-200 2.8L and a 1.4 extender. One of these days, I'd love to have a 300 2.8L but since I know have a daughter, that might not happen :( Oh well.

Thanks for looking. Let me know what you think

Updates

As you all may know, I've been extremely busy getting ready for the football season while trying to get ready for a trip to China. If I have some time this weekend, I'll post some pic from the first week of the football season. I had some good shots from scrimmage games last week and had some good stuff from the Cabot-Jacksonville game on Tuesday.

I've got the "Battle of Cabot" on Thursday and Lonoke's season opener with Joe T. Robinson on Friday. This will be the first game without Coach Steelman, who died last May. It will be so different without him on the sidelines, giving me a hard time about everything but I loved that man. He is responsible for me getting married to my wonderful bride and ultimately for me getting a chance to go to China and bring home Mary Elisabeth.

So, for those of you who actually check out my blog, please forgive me. I've had a lot going lately. And if you want to check out the progress of the adoption, check out our family blog at www.fortheloveofemmy.blogspot.com

Mark

We'll be heading to China!!!

These are pictures of my "new" baby Mary Elisabeth.

We got a call from America World Adoption today and we received our referral acceptance...which means we will be going to China in the middle of September to get Mary Elisabeth!!!

We found out on June 5 that we had been matched up with a little girl named An Qingshu. Her nickname is Yin Ping in the orphanage. The following is an email that we sent out to people back in June.

Linda wrote this email earlier this week! Her mom is feeling better now!

"Today we received a message from America World referring to our position with the adoption. The Chinese Government has pre-approved our adoption. This means that we are closer to referral approval. Referral approval is the final step before travel authorization. Once we reach the RA stage, we can send care packages, etc. to our Mary Elisabeth. The time line for the next step is that we can receive our RA anywhere from 1 month to 3 months from our request to adopt (June 5). Of course this time line is not engraved in stone, but it is definitely cause to praise"

As you can see, it will be a wild time for the next month and a half. Please say a prayer for us. We've got a lot left to do in a short amount of time.

Mark and Linda

All-Star Week

For the eighth consecutive year, I was able to attend the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star Games in Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas. All games were played in the best facilities in the Southeastern Conference, except for football, which was played at Bentonville, which is the best high school stadium in the state and possibly the second or third best overall in the state behind Razorback Stadium and War Memorial Stadium. I've mainly include photos of the players I cover on a regular basis from Cabot, Lonoke and Carlisle. All were taken with my 40D and 70-200 2.8. Some were taken with a 1.4 TC or 2.0 TC.