The Heart Mind and Eye

It's Hot

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:19:00 +0000

It's been just stupid hot outside the past couple weeks. So I busted out the fish tank and went to a summer day camp where kids were swimming in the pool to get some underwater pictures.

Swampland Time Lapse

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:08:00 +0000

I tried my hand at another time lapse tonight. Little more difficult tonight because the light changed a lot during the duration of the time lapse. I also gathered some audio during the game. I just hung out in the dugout for a few innings.

I set my camera to take a picture every 15 seconds. I think it was up there for about 3 hours. It's played back at 15 frames per second and it's 42 seconds long. So you can do the math.

amphibian fatality

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:05:00 +0000

I never wish for anybody to get into a wreck. And I never wish for someone to get hurt in a wreck. But, as a photojournalist who covers many car wrecks, sometimes I hope for a wreck between two vehicles that'll make interesting pictures. Maybe a truck hauling seltzer crashes into a van full of clowns. Or something silly and ironic like that.

Well, no clowns were involved in a wreck today, but I still got something pretty funny from a minor accident this afternoon.

A truck traveling south crashed into a car trying to turn left off a bridge. Everybody involved suffered minor injuries... except for the frogs the guy in the truck had just caught.

RIP Frogs.

Orange caps

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:28:00 +0000

There was a sale on Gatorade and vitamin water at Rouses today.

I went a little nuts...

Close Call

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Ok, so on Saturday I had to go down the bayou to get a photo that showed the vanishing coast line. I knew a couple spots that had some dead trees and water and maybe a fisherman or two. (Just to have a human figure in the frame.) I also wanted a nice sunset in the picture.

I drove down to the spot I had in mind around 5 p.m. to see if anybody was there and maybe make a few frames before the sun started to go down. Nobody was there yet and I just happened to have my fishing pole in my trunk. So I decided to try my luck.

I walked to the edge of the water and stood behind a clump of grass.

After my first cast, I heard a splash right below me in front of the grass. I figured it was a fish jump and was excited that they were active. A couple casts later, I look below me and see this Gator in the water. That splash wasn't quite a fish.

From my best guesses, he was less than his body length away from me when I first walked up to the grass. I'm glad it decided to jump towards the water and not towards me on shore.

phew!

So I took some shots with my wide angle, then ran and grabbed my 400 and got some closer frames. The gator just floated around in the water for a while. Then tried to eat a dead crab that was up against the marsh grass.

The only thing I caught that day was some pictures of a gator and a vanishing coastline photo for Sunday's front page.

Quick change of subject... I finally got around to dumping the photos off my point and shoot camera this morning. Here are some random shots from the past couple weeks.

The attack of the bugs at the New Orleans Zephyrs Game. They didn't bite, they were just all over the place. Good thing it was miniature bat giveaway night. (I've got video I'll post sooner or later)

Shot this while driving to Sulphur for the State Softball Tournament

Shot this at an outdoor music festival in New Orleans.

Name that Skyline! (from my flight back to Louisiana from Kansas in April)

Mardi Gras Indians

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:43:00 +0000

Every Thirty Seconds

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:37:00 +0000

This is what made shooting graduations a little more fun this year. So all in all I shot a photo gallery, video and time lapse from each graduation I covered this year. Made for a long week, but it was a fun challenge. And I'm finished climbing up to the rafters of the civic center for a while now.

500

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:37:00 +0000

I'll start off by saying that today might have been the most frustrating day I've had in quite a while. But I ended it with an awesome run, so everything's fine now.

On Friday, I was assigned to photograph the community band in Thibodaux on Sunday. Normally not a bad assignment, but I really didn't want to have to work on a Sunday, and have to do a video. On Saturday, I was given another Sunday assignment to make a picture of Houma because we were voted "Cleanest City in the State." Then, during the middle of shooting that on Sunday, I get a call to go down the Bayou to shoot fishermen getting ready for Shrimp season, which starts on Monday.

So my day off turned into a full day of work with three assignments.

Oh, and to top it all off, a couple of items in my kitchen cubbard were thrown away because my roommate is super... SUPER clean and has to have everything in order. So I'm out a bag of perfectly fine Wildcat Blend Coffee and Buffalo Chip snack things. (Both of which were Christmas presents from my parents).

One more thing... I missed a BBQ hosted by Emily, the other photograher. She invited the newsroom to her place for some grilled meat.

I didn't break anything or lose my voice yelling... I just rewared myself by going on a run with the new shoes tonight.

After uploading my run to Nike, I saw that I'm only 52 miles away from reaching 500 total miles ran since starting Nike+. So I created a goal to run 52 miles in 8 weeks. Should be pretty simple. Here's my total miles from the past 4 months.

Jan - 21
Feb - 47
Mar - 26
April - 34

(The options on the goal only let me select 4, 8, 12 or 16 months. And I figured 52 miles in a month is a litte much right now. So I went with two months)

So, 25ish miles a month for two months will put me at 500 total miles. Here's the goal I set up.

Now, here are some photos I took this weekend. One from the State Police Open House and the others from the 5k Run for Excellence. (Which I'm dissapointed that I couldn't run this year)

Final thought... I think the judges for the Cleanest City Contest were ether bribed, or didn't get a good view of Houma. I saw the route they took for their judging... never touched the East side of town. I wonder if any of the judges ever asked "Hey, what's on the other side of those two giant bridges? Can we go see?"

13.1 on 10/31

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Ouch

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:33:00 +0000

Over thrown ball stopped by my shin in the sixth inning.

Water

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:03:00 +0000

Post game in downtown Houston.

Sundays game.

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Perfect weather. And the roof is open. We're on the first row of the
upper deck.

It'll take a hell of a foul ball to get up here but it can happen.
And... If it does, I'll make an amazing catch leaning over the railing
and then make sportscenter.

Ha!

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Our view.

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Road trip

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:16:00 +0000

On our way to Arlington.

Post race trash can

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:19:00 +0000

The race was amazing. 20,000 plus runners.

Best part was the brass band at mile three playing the theme to Rocky.

Just awesome.

Gator

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:50:00 +0000

Swamp tour in kramer Louisiana.

Created quite a buzz

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:28:00 +0000

Look who decided to move into 612 Crescent Blvd.

Wasn't quite Canada, but still...

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:17:00 +0000

One summer in High School I went to Canada with the Boy Scouts on a 10-day canoe and camping trip. Probably one of the top 5 highlights of my childhood... and probably life. Just put in the water somewhere, canoe for a while, set up camp, and do it all again the next day. I loved it, and have wanted to do it ever since.

I kind of got my chance this past weekend with the Paddle Bayou Lafourche event. It's hosted by BTNEP. (I know what it stands for but have zero clue how to spell it... google it if you want to).

On Thursday, reporter Robert Zullo and I put our canoe in the water in Donaldsonville and spent four days paddling down the bayou to Lockport. Each night we camped at a different location. First night was a Plantation home, next night was Nicholls State University and the final night was on the lawn of the Chief of the United Houma Nation Indian Tribe.

It wasn't true camping however, since we had our cars with us, and had to drive back to the office each night to get the paper our stories and photos. But it was close enough for me.

In fact, when I packed, I packed thinking "how can I keep all this stuff with me? Pack light and pack water safe since it'll all be in a canoe."

Well stupid me didn't' realize that I'd have my car each day at the finish spot. So I could keep the tent, clothes, sleeping bag... etc in the car. I'm used to packing for camping trips where I have to keep everything with me.

Anyway, it was still awesome, and gave me my fix for paddling a canoe and sleeping in a tent. Hadn't done that since high school. We missed out on each evenings activities because we had to go work, but next year I've promised to only paddle and not work.

We also did a little experiment by posting short updates on what was going on to our website, and having people follow us as we went on our journey. So every so often, I'd pull out my phone and update my Twitter account which would automatically post to a page on our webstie. Check out the page here.

By the end of the trip, we were known as "the courier guys" and we got lots of positive feedback from the paddlers about the stories and photos.

So if anybody wants to come down next year and paddle, I've got a tent, and know a guy who has a canoe. Come on down.

You can see my favorite photos from the trip here.

Shoot!

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Popeye

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:52:00 +0000

Where I'm at

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:32:00 +0000

I'm taking a quick break from my drive home inside that blue circle.

I'm still pretty exhausted after yesterdays race... And sore too. I've
been moving at one speed, slow. Even after sleeping for 12 hours last
night. 8:30-8:30. It felt great.

One of these days I'll make it to Clerence (seen on lower left of
map) when that BBQ place is open. They're closed on Mondays. And were
closed for the holidays the last time I passed through.

Shoes

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:25:00 +0000

What shoes look like after an adventure race.

They were soaking wet after getting into and out of the lake during
the boating portion of the race.

My trophy

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:42:00 +0000

We didn't place high enough in the race to get a prize.

So I awarded my self with some taco bell and Mt. Dew.

Mmmmmmm

Hitting the road.

noreply@blogger.com (stamey) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Got the bike loaded and I'm taking off.