Sunday, Sunday

Wow, I was tired. I slept all the way up to about 1:30 PM today. Woke up a few times here and there, but was overall very comfortable. I had to get up sooner or later though because Ryan needs his photos in by 4 on Sundays so I made it in around 3 to do my work and finished up around 5:20.

One of the times I woke up this morning, I checked my phone and found that I had 3 missed calls from a random number. The weird part was, it said I missed the calls at 11:57 PM on Sunday the 30th. That's definitely about 15 hours ahead of when I checked my phone. I looked at my phones date settings. Sure enough, it knows exactly what time and date it is today. Somehow, I missed phone calls from the FUTURE!!!!!!!!

I called the number and got Anthony's voicemail, so I assume it was he calling. Haven't heard from him since though. If he calls me three times tonight around 11:57, my phone is going to be hailed by the whole world as a future-telling super-phone that control the entire universe.

By the way, this volleyball picture up here of junior Kristie Berwanger is gonna be one of the photos on the back page of the paper tomorrow. They first said they wanted team libero Kristy Elswick because she was supposed to break a record in career digs on Friday, but she didn't, so Megan from sports desk said Kristie Berwanger or Marina Medic and I went with Kristie. She's my favorite. Every time she kills the ball, she sends like 4 members from the other team like flying in the walls because thats how much she rocks.

For this game, I used a 300 2.8 and probably shot at 1/500th at 1250 ISO, so the image quality isn't all that great if you look close. When I get my 20D I ordered, I bet I'll be able to shoot in Davies Gymnasium, in which the lighting is horrible, and come away with much cleaner shots.

The volleyball team didn't win any games this last weeekend at Missouri State, but Kristie did have double-double-digit stats with 17 digs and 12 kills.

Regarding the photos of the Columbian students, when I first returned from the assignment Danny told me something like 'yeah just use a picture with Pablo' so I worked up lots of photos that had Pablo in them. Today, however, I was told 'yeah we can't use any pictures with Pablo in them because he works for the DE.' So we ended up cropping Pablo and his wife out of the photos, totally ruining their compositions and leaving vertical portrait-style images of these two for tomorrow's paper.
Oh well, no biggie, cept the photos just aren't as good looking as the full ones would have been.

They're also running two football photos tomorrow from the ISU game, one of Anthony's and one of mine. Anthony's is a great shot of an SIU player blocking a pass, which was then picked up and ran in for a touchdown, and mine is a shot of runningback Deji Karim pretty much dancing into the endzone with the ball because no one was there to tackle or stop him.

Other than that, not too much is going on. I don't have any homework to work on, but I bet there's something I could/should be reading for a class or two. Instead I think Ima play Battlefield 2 or Phantasy Star Universe and eat chihps and salsa.

Adios mis amigos.

TB

SIU 72, ISU 10

The Salukis have really outdone themselves this time. Really. Last week they beat the Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions 58-3 at McAndrew Stadium and today scored a whopping 72 points against the Indiana State Sycamores at their home in Terre Haute, IN. Southern Illinois scored 55 of those points in the first half, received 4 interceptions, and held the Sycamores' offense the entire second half.

The Salukis move to 5-0 in the season and will play Youngstown State at McAndrew next Saturday, which is SIU's Homecoming game.

The DE crew attending the game consisted of myself, photographer Anthony Souffle, and sports writers Sean McGahon and Scott. I don't remember Scott's last name. None of us had a decent amount of sleep last night and I must say we all did a little dozing off during the drive, even though I was driving. 3 hour drive. Nothing too horrible. We even got to stop at the Great American Bagel in Effingham for some breakfast sandwiches.

Not too long after we arrived at the stadium, Anthony came around wearing an ISU Football tshirt and claimed that some chick had dumped Sprite all over the shirt he was originally wearing.

It was really hot and bright out, although it wasn't nearly as hot as it was at McAndrew last Saturday. Still felt like we were eggs frying on astroturf. I got pretty sunburned. So did the other three, I think. Maybe not Scott because he sat up in the press box the whole time.

I sent off $427 today to Kyle Robertson of the Columbus Dispatch in Columbus, OH, for the purchase of a nice Canon 20D w/Battery Grip he's had for sale. I wish I could have had it today for the football game as a second body, because all I used was a single 1D between a 400, a 70-200, and a 17-35 and I had to change lenses every time the ball moved down the field. It's okay. I'll probably have it for next week. Can't wait til I get it! (picture below)

I even tried the 400 2.8 with my 2x converter and was able to get some pretty good looking images, even though most the time I was too close. surprise. That, and the autofocus doesn't work quite as smoothly with the 2x on it, and I wish i had a 1.4x of my own to use and see if it would be any better. I'm sure it would. I ought to have one...

I dont really have a whole lot else to say cept I'm tired as hell and my face is hot as hell cuz its sunburned, but heres some pictures that I took today. Theyre probably not even the best ones, I haven't been through all of them yet. O well.

Oh and me and Jason, the only roommate that's here this weekend, went and saw The Kingdom last night. It's amazing, it made me almost cry at like 4 different parts and, although it's violent and kinda short, some people could learn a lot from seeing it, and I hope many people do. When I say short, I mean it didn't really get as much storytelling in it as it shouldve. I bet it could be a series or a much longer movie and be much better. Not a stupid ratings-craving series though, like everything you see on TV nowadays, it would have to be better than the movie and have as much emotion in it, with the same actors. Still, the movie has a point. A big one.

That's it for now. I have to go sleep, because I'm running on 3-4 hours from last night and I can barely keep my eyes open.

shukran

TB

These are photos from an interview/meeting with SIU students from Columbia. Pablo, in the middle, is one of our multimedia guys and shoots and puts together videos for the web (www.siude.com). He is also from Columbia. Danny Wenger, reporter and editor for the Daily Egyptian, is doing a series of stories about students from other countries, profiling a different country every week, and talking with those students about how life is different here in southern Illinois compared to life back home.

As it turns out, Danny (of the DE) speaks Spanish. Very fluently. I myself have had a couple semesters of college Spanish and have even attended a Mexican church, but can't really follow along and continue a conversation in Spanish. So, I kinda kept my mouth shut and took pictures like I was supposed to, firing off an occasional flash here and there.

I brought along an old Vivitar 285 flash mounted onto a Bogen Superclamp and wired to a Pocketwizard, to provide a little better light than what was coming through the windows. Luckily for me, all the ceiling and walls were a smooth white, making Pablo's apartment my very own giant softbox. I clamped the flash onto their entertainment system/tv stand/whatever you want to call it and pointed it up at the ceiling.

Also, Pablo has a kitty. That's all I'm really gonna say about Danny's and my trip to Pablo's apartment. They fed us some bread that they made along with cocoa that they put pieces of swiss cheese in. Apparently that's something they do in Columbia.

Didn't really shoot anything today. I turned in my 8-page paper at my 2 o'clock class and we had a class discussion about something I didn't read. The volleyball game tonight is at Mizzou, so I won't be going to that. We will, however, be leaving at 6:30 AM for tomorrow's SIU Football game @ Indiana State! That'll be exciting. Plus I'm driving so I'll get paid like 9 hours for the trip. Saturday night is some kind of cage fighting thing that Pablo was hoping I could help shoot video for, but I'm not sure if we're going to be back in time.

That's it for today. I'm tired, so I'ma take a nap for a little while and then go see THE KINGDOM cuz it's probably gonna be awesome as hell. Adios y buenas noches, mis amigos.

TB

the photos that never were

So I took these photos last week, a couple, here and there. And for some reason or another they've been denied any shot of ever being in the DE, so here they are making their live debut!!

I took this photo of Bob Reed last Thursday when I had mistakenly left for my writing class an extra twenty minutes early and had time to talk to him, whom I found outside the communication building. Who's Bob Reed??? You, mean you dont know? Well, if you were here, you'd be one out of two us at SIU who have no idea who this person is.

Apparently, he's old news and has been in the paper numerous times (hence there being no need for a feature photo of him). He sure is old, but Bob definitely has a story, one I'm sure hasn't been heard by everyone here.

Bob Reed is an elderly man who lives just off of campus. Bob has a disease. of some kind. one of those kinds that make you not walk or talk so good anymore. and Bob raises flags on campus. Nowadays, he only raises about 6 or 7 flags per day, but, according to him, he used to raise many more on a daily basis. He's just got to where he couldn't do so many any more.

An interesting fact is that Bob can't fold the flags. can't. He rides a three-wheel bicycle that has a basket in the rear to hold all the bundled up flags for him to un-wad and hook to the ropes.

I like this photo. I like Bob. According to Phil Greer, retired Tribune photographer/editor and photojournalism instructor at SIUC, there's a photo story in Bob. Also according to Mr. Greer, when the flags aren't on the poles, Bob has all of them laid out on his porch. I would like that photo. I want to do a photo story about Bob Reed.

Everyday, as I'm walking to class, if I were to count how many students I see picking up or carrying or reading copies of the Daily Egyptian, I'd probably die. . . from. . . counting. . . a lot. It's that much of a part of life at SIUC. Everyone reads it.

BUT YOU KNOW, the DE has competition here on campus, those damn MONTHLY NEWS MAGAZINE PROGRAMS such as "alt.news 26:46" that want to steal away all of our non-paying student customers with their PBS SHOWS, so there's no way the Daily Egyptian can run a feature photo showing the alt.news crew filming on campus. WHO CARES if they just got nominated for 11 Regional Emmy Awards? That ain't news, thats competition! That'd give them way too much publicity and all our 25,000 readers would go watch PBS every month instead of reading our daily paper.

SERIOUSLY.

I'm not mad about it though, I love the DE and everyone that works there. I just like the photos and need to rant about them if I'm going to put them on my blog.

Okay, thats it for today. I haven't played a video game in forever and I think I'ma go play some Battlefield 2 before I go to bed.

TB

This cow picture from about a month ago is what I've decided I'm going to put in my blogs whenever I didn't really take any pictures that day. Kinda like today. I was all psyched to shoot with my digital rebel and manual 50mm, but after finding out I had nothing running in tomorrow's paper I came home and started reading this book I have to write an 8-page paper on by 4:30 Friday for my PRE-MODERN EAST ASIA TO 1600 class. I procrastinate a little, I know. It's an ancient Chinese mystery novel that's been translated to English, called The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. Judges back then (ca. 750 AD) were like detectives, that figured out crimes and then tortured and killed criminals and suspects. I'm only about two thirds of the way through it so I ought to go finish it. Then of course tomorrow I'm going to have to write 8 pages about it. Might not do a whole lot of shooting tomorrow either.

Hopefully something.

BTW, check out the two trailers for the upcoming film by Scott Kesterson and David Leeson "at war" shot entirely by Scott Kesterson while embedded in Afghanistan last year. You can see them at www.atwarfilm.com.

k, back to reading.

TB

Featuring Today

I worked a lot today. One of my three Tues-Thurs classes was even canceled so I had more opportunity to work. I keep pounding the thought into my head, 'feature, feature, feature!' Gone are the days when I would walk about or drive somewhere without at least one camera on my shoulder/in my front seat. If I walk to class, I have a camera. If I drive to Moe's to have a burrito, I have a camera. If I walk down 3 flights of stairs to check the mail, I have a camera. Fortunately, today the camera wielding proved delightfully fruitful.
I parked my car in the mostly vacant SIU Arena/Abe Martin Field lots with all intentions of walking towards the baseball field and instead turned towards a spirited group of SIU marching saluki color guard members, otherwise known as the Saluki Silks. I was able to get a few images like this one of captain Jaci McDole leading the squad in various routines. Happy with the fruits, I turned towards my original destination, Abe Martin Field.

While trekking across a deserted driving range towards the practicing baseball team, of one of whom I needed a photo, I found myself pointing my 70-200 (with a 2x) at a furry animal crawling across the grass. It was some kind of groundhog! or wombat! or kangaroo! One of those! I got just close enough to scare it into a drainage pipe near the road but still got a cute shot of its face poking out one end of the pipe.

Moving on to baseball practice, I was happy with my feature photos but was somewhat worried that Aaron Roberts, the outfielder whom I was there to photograph, would again not be at practice today. I had been to the field yesterday, a much sunnier day, to get a few shots, but he had gone home before I had arrived. Today I approached the batting cage and asked the player swinging at balls on tees if he could tell me which player was Aaron and he holds his hands up as if to say 'you're looking at him, dumbass.' Of course, he has no idea who I am or that the Daily Egyptian is even doing any kind of story about him, but still has no problem letting me take a few of him hitting off the tee. I was happy to find him in the batting cage instead of the outfield, because I was able to take the quality-hindering teleconverter off my 70-200 and get a shot of him swinging at good old 2.8.

I returned to the DE newsroom to edit my shoots for the day, only to find that both the assignments I had needed to work on had both been pushed to a later date and did not need to be put in today. Still, I edited and chatted with the photo room full of photographers and graphics people and even went in on some Hot 'n' Readys from Little Caesar's with editor Ryan Rendleman and Graphics guru Michelle. It was then that the Managing Editor came in and asked which one of us would like to go to this conference kind of thing tonight and get shots of someone speaking. After lots of silence and looking around, I volunteered.

Turns out, it's the Smart Women Smart Money symposium at City Hall. Turns out, theres hundred of people there. Turns out, the Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (at right) was coming to speak about financial stuff and something. The event's huge. There's a big catered meal, there's local vendors selling things, there's a live band playing called Loose Gravel, and a whole slew of speakers there to talk about money and women handling their money, all introduced by some annoying 'I'm from TV' ABC anchor lady who looks 'pretty' and tells lame jokes.

So I met the State Treasurer wearing my 'I'm Effing Awesome" T-Shirt and shorts almost dragging on the floor because every pocket's filled with camera equipment. He still shook my hand and talked to me about things though. Probably the most exciting part of my trip was when I talked to this older lady from a company she started called EcoQuest Healthy Living Technologies. She showed me cool water purifying keg things, air purifiers that you could hang around your neck, and this extremely bright lamp thing that simulates sunlight and supposedly gives you a daily dose if you sit in front of it for 30 minutes a day. It's meant to prevent S.A.D., the depression people get from not having enough sunlight.
It was kinda funny when the treasurer first arrived because this one lady was taking forever to finish talking and Martha Rohlfing from the treasurer office was holding up her 'time to close' card for probably 10 minutes waiting for the lady to finish. I was sure to get a shot of her, I found the moment amusing. Another member of the treasurer's office, obviously the designated photographer, with a Canon Digital Rebel, was snapping pop-up flash photos all over the place and somewhat inspired me to get out my own Digital Rebel, to turn away from the heavier pro bodies for a day and try working with it. So tomorrow, I've decided, I'm going to shoot with nothing but my 2.5 fps Digital Rebel and manual focus 50mm 1.4 lens and see what kind of images I can come up with. I'll probably let you know how it goes and maybe post a shot on here if I like it enough.


That was today. Busy. Lots of shooting, lots of editing and newsrooming. Newsrooming. That could be a new verb that means working in the newsroom and usually involves stressful situations finding information and putting things where they're supposed to be, all by deadline.
I like it. Not so much the newsrooming itself, just the word.

That's all.

TB

welcome to me

I'm not entirely convinced I'll be able to keep the DAILY TOM a daily 'publication', but what the hell, I bet I spend enough time everyday doing something stupid that could be used to type my thoughts and post my pictures into the internet! So, here goes!

I think 9 out of 10 of the people that know me don't actually know me and 9 out of 10 of the people that meet me don't actually meet me. Why? I believe the reason hardly anybody knows me the way I know me is because 1. I don't act like myself around people I don't know and 2. I look like an asshole. Seriously. Every time I talk to someone for the first time who I've been around plenty but never actually talked to, i.e. in a class with but never spoken to, they're like "wow, I always thought you were some angry guy who hates everything because you always look like youre mad" and they're totally surprised that I have any kind of personality whatsoever.

I think the main reason for that is I never smile. I smile when I laugh. at stuff. and things. and I love things that are funny, but I dont really smile when I see people and if I did I'd be faking it and it would probably look worse than my regular face, so I don't, so I think people see me and think omg I dont want to talk to him because he must be some kinda asshole. Well, I'm not really. In fact, I'm quite the opposite. I love people and I'm nice to everyone. I'd never hurt anyone or lie to anyone or take something that's not mine, so.. now that that's out of the way..

Here's me:
I'm a photojournalism student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
I'm a photographer for the schools paper, The Daily Egyptian.
I'm in love with a wonderful woman and will be until the day I die.
I'm a Christian who believes God put me here to do wonderful things for his people.
I'm 21 years old, I like alcohol in moderation, but I don't party.
I want to be a journalist because I think telling the stories of others is a wonderful thing that saves the world everyday, and there's not many greater professions.
I'm not rich, I've never been rich, and I'll never be rich.
I have no respect for people who care more about how they look than how they act.
I love video games and will play them all my life, no matter what anyone says.
I play guitar, violin, drums, and piano, but am not amazingly awesome at any of them.
I can speak a lot of English, a little Spanish, and hope to someday learn modern Arabic.
My dad died almost 2 years ago, and my sister died over 6 years ago, so I am perfectly aware of how mortal people are.
My parents divorced when I was 9. or 10. one of those.
I'm scared of large insects.

That's the basics of Tomology. Thanks for reading and I hope I can continue to update this page with my ever-interesting thoughts and/or rants and/or photos. Even if no one reads or looks at it, I'll probably feel better because I can vent stress or anger or humor or sadness and imagery out of my mind and cameras and loosen up the tightly bound knot that is everyday.

TB