MSU BBall and why I feel like a traitor

I was assigned an MSU basketball game yesterday. I'm so used to rooting against these guys that I thought it might be weird to shoot, but what I discovered is it doesn't matter much who you root for when you're a photographer. As long as they give you some good shots, they're your team. I've gotten a lot of praise for this shot (mostly because it fit perfectly with the lead of the story) and it was picked up by the AP.

The Chronicle is an amazing paper for  a photographer. Every Sunday, they devote the full backpage of the paper to photos. There are no guidelines, no rules; just whatever the photographer feels like shooting. To make it even sweeter, they also let the shooter design the page themselves. Total creative control! Here are some of my favorites from my viewfinder shoot - old, run-down barns at twilight/night. At the end of the post is the final product that will be in the paper on Sunday. 

Bozeman's Old Navy is going out of business!!

Apparently they told their employees at the first of the year that they had one month left of employment. One employee told us that she just came back from maternity leave to find out she wouldn't have a job much longer. Super lame. On the plus side - massive sales!

Wrestling Tourney

Shot my first wrestling tournament today. It's kind of a tough sport to shoot, especially if one has a "butt rule" like I do (no butt shall be dominate in a photo, see example below) but interesting none the less. 

BAD

BETTER

Wild Art

The Chronicle calls their feature/stand-alone photos "Wild Art." This is very appropriate because the majority of them do involve nature/wildlife. Here's one I shot yesterday while driving Springhill Road.

Semitrailer Fire

Plumes of smoke billowed from this semitrailer Tuesday afternoon near Dead Man's Gulch. Someone had been welding inside the trailer, accidentally igniting a spark which set the whole thing ablaze. 

New Year's Eve with the Montana Highway Patrol

Trooper Patrick McLaughlin provides backup during a DUI stop.

Trooper McLaughlin types up a faulty equipment ticket.

In the well-below freezing weather, Trooper McLaughlin stops to check on a stranded motorist.

A DUI stop on New Year's Eve.

After a man was arrested for driving under the influence, the troopers move the violator's car off the road.

So I spent NYE doing a ride along with Trooper Pat McLaughlin of the Montana Highway Patrol. Overall, it was a quiet night - only one DUI, which we were backup on, and four broken headlights. But the 4.5 hours we spent with him were still very interesting. The scariest point of the night? When Trooper McLaughlin declared that the reporter and I were his backup if "stuff should go bad." He even showed us how to unlock the guns (a shotgun and an M4) in his car (a secret I'm not allowed to reveal). "They're hot, so you just have to pump a round into the chamber," he said. Ya.....okaaay.

So even though I was prepared for the worst, it turned out to be a tame, yet entertaining evening.