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PM-R does TV....

I am doing more and more TV commercials and other video projects as of late. Here are two new 15 second TV spots for TVA Credit Union that I shot last week:

Pink-Out at TBA...

Each year women's basketball teams across the country dress in pink to raise awareness for breast cancer. This year's game was tonight and there was an added sadness at the game at the recent loss of coaching great, Kay Yow, from NC State. Pat Summitt wrote a personal check to pay for the T-shirts left on the student section seats. That Lady's stock just keeps going up and up...

For photo geeks, this is shot on a 1D Mark III with an 8mm f/4 EX Sigma fisheye lens. I opened it up in PS4 and did some correction to it but it's still way wide. I'm exited to use this lens for football season at Neyland this year, especially with the 5D MII and it's HD video capabilities...

What do Batman, Evel Knievel, and GI JOE have in Common?

As some of you know, I used to be a newspaper photographer. The last paper I worked for years ago was the Knoxville News-Sentinel where I joined the photography staff in 1989. After I worked there for about a year, a new guy was hired. He was a hot young shooter just having been an intern at the LA times and the Philly Enquirer. I knew him by reputation from the NPPA clip contest, which used to be important for me back then. Anyway, this guy was a good ole' country boy from Kentucky who learned how to shoot at UK up in Lexington and his name was Clay Owen.

Clay was a big guy with a little infectious laugh and we became fast friends. He'd walk in the door and start every sentence with "weeeeel?..." and then tell you what was on hims mind.
For instance, he might say, "weeel pm-r? What's the plan for lunch today?..." but it would be like 8:15am. Or he might be looking over a light table trying to pick an image from his take and say, "Weeel pm-r, Gee (he really used that word, and 'nifty' too), I wonder if you'd take a lookseee here at these images (but he's it would come out 'imuges'). Clay always got me smiling just by the way he spoke.

Other than photography, we also had a love of motorcycles in common, and once we figured that out, we'd talk all the time about bikes and riding. I would talk about new modern bikes and Clay would talk only about the various dirt bikes he had ridden as a kid. Clay loved to jump dirt bikes and pulled monster wheelies all the time. His Dad told me a story the other day about him pulling a wheelie that he rode for 175' down a country road in front of his whole family. For those of you that don't ride, it's hard to understand the draw to something so dangerous but take my word for it, it's awesome for those of us that do. Nothing can get you out of a bad mood faster than hoppin' on a two wheeled machine, firing up the engine, dropping it into first, and letting out the clutch with 100 HP between your legs. Anyway, I digress...

Thing is, Clay gave it all up flat one day. His sweetie Jackie pretty much laid down the law and told Clay that if they were going to be together, then the bikes and riding had to go. As far as I know, he never got on a bike again. I offered him a ride a few times but he always declined. Smiling real big, he said, "Weeeeel pm-r, (hee, hee) it sure would be fun, but I don't think I'd better, "and if Jackie found out, weeeel..."

I've known Clay ever since he and Jackie moved to Knoxville seventeen years ago. We drifted apart when I left the newspaper in 1992, but we were always happy to see each other at UK-UT games and at events with Catholic Charities.

He sent me a message on Facebook the other day. "Hey pm-r, let's get together for lunch, just you and me, so we can catch up and talk about video. - Clay" Clay became addicted to Facebook in recent weeks, and was madly scanning photos of friends and putting them online.

Sadly, he got busy at work the day we were supposed to meet and had to postpone to the next week, and then one thing to another... you know how it is, and so we never really firmed up our meeting. Last Tuesday, Clay got off work, went to work out, and returned home. He walked in the door, complained to Jackie that he had heartburn, and sat down on the couch. Within a short few minutes, God took him home to heaven with Jackie frantic at his side. My heart is broken because Clay's gave out, not that I'm surprised. Clay was a big guy and like most of us, he needed to lose a few pounds, but I think his heart gave out because he worked his more than the rest of us. He was a gentle soul; a ten-year-old kid that never gave up his love of fishing, GI-Joe, Batman, and his boyhood hero, Evel Knievel..

I swear I never heard Clay swear in all the time I've known him. He didn't drink or smoke but the dude had all kinds of fun. While I saw him frustrated from time to time, I never saw him get angry or shout ever. He always had a kind word for people and that big heart of his just gave and gave to all of us till it could give no more.

Early tomorrow morning, I will climb on my trusty steed before dawn, and make my way North on I-75 into the Bluegrass state, hang a left in Lexington, and ride on to Louisville, where Clay's family and his many friends will celebrate his life in the context of a memorial service, and lay him to rest. I'm not sure if the ride there will be easier or harder than the ride back, but I'm riding no matter what. I will pray in thanksgiving for all the time I got to spend with him, all the laughs we shared together, and thank God that he was a part of my life. I will invite him to join me in the pre-dawn hours. We'll watch the sunrise together, coming up through the old mountains as we'll trace the path he knew so well: back home to Kentucky and beyond, one last time.

Call a friend today you know you should. Don't pass that person as you scroll through your contacts on your phone this week. Reach out and touch the people that have touched you this week because you never know when one of us will get a case of heartburn.

Last, if you have a spare minute when you read this, please offer up a prayer for Jackie who has her plate full trying to cope, understand, grieve, and figure out what to do with all that love she has for Clay who is gone for a while. Pray also for Clay's Mom and Dad. Parents aren't supposed to bury their kids and so keep Clay Sr. and Betty in your prayers as well. - pm-r

Pat Head Summitt: 1000 Wins since 1974. GO LADY VOLS!

Since 1974, Pat Head Summitt has been building an amazing list of achievements as the Head Coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols. Tonight many of us got to see something special as Pat reached her 1000th win since her start at UTK in 1974. Her record now stands at 1000-187. Think about that! 1000-187. Whew. In that time, she has won the NCAA Final Four 8 times. It's significant to recognize that no coach, man or woman, has ever reached 1000 victories in their career. I've been to many of these Final Four appearances and have shot hundreds of games since moving to Knoxville in 1989. But one achievement reigns supreme in my book even higher than all the trophies and championships: Her 100 % graduation rate of all her players. It's difficult to really see the "amateur" in big time D1 sports these days, but not in Knoxville, Tennessee where we are proud to Call Pat Summitt our coach...

"The Sophster," and the new 5D Mark II

This image was shot with the new Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera body and a 135mm f/2L lens at my daughter Sophie's basketball game last Friday night. She is the tall kid on the left side of the frame boxing out her opponent (in blue) with her friend Emily Kiser (at far right). The exposure was 1/500th @ f/2 @ 2000 ISO. The new cameras from Nikon and Canon both offer unheard of film speeds and unbelievable quality in almost any light. And the new 5D Mark II makes pretty awesome 1080i video, too, which is really cool!

It's important for me at times to pick up a camera and just shoot something that I'm not being paid for. I chuckle when people that receive my photos from Sophie's games say things like, "wow, it looks like Sports Illustrated or something!" Anymore, I don't bother to explain that it's what I used to do, I just enjoy making other parents happy as well all enjoy watching our kids have fun at sports.

Sophie is a great kid, the tallest in her 8th grade class. She just made her very first 4.0 in school, and that's with playing tennis in the Fall and basketball in the Spring. We couldn't be more proud of her!

With sadness a great coach and friend will depart...

I've never gotten a good answer for UT Head Coach Fulmer about why he said yes to give all access to a total stranger back in 1998, but I'm glad he did. What I signed on for was supposed to be for a year's worth of games and ended up to likely be the most important relationship of my post Sports Illustrated career as a photographer. I grew on Phillip and he on me. It's not often that you actually get to know a "great man" in life. You mostly read about them and admire them from afar. Like him or not as a football coach, his retractors would never accuse him of being a bad husband, father, friend, or mentor to hundreds of young men. Never have I seen him not offer a prayer of thanksgiving, win or lose, in the locker rooms from Gainesville to Southern California. The man and his family are just all class.
Sixteen years ago last June, I took the plunge and quit my job at the paper here in Knoxville to live out a dream of being a self-employed freelance photographer. Within a few months I was hopping on planes to shoot assignments for SI, ESPN, the NBA, and Upper Deck, and a whole bunch of magazines that you never heard of. Fulmer took the reins of UT football in the same year and began his climb towards the big "phat" ring he wears on his right hand. I will miss him next season and wish him well in whatever is next for the "big man" from Winchester, Tennessee. Thanks for the access, your trust in me, all those wins, the memories I will share with my son and daughter, and for showing me how to be a standup guy in all things.

If you make it to the KY game this weekend, you'll get to see two things, the end of an era at UT as Phillip coaches his last game of 2008, and a two minute slide show of some of my photos which will be shown on the JumboTron in the stadium. They span his career as Head Coach, and in a quiet more subtle way, my own career as a photographer shooting what I love most: Tennessee Football!

Phillip, may God richly bless you, Vicky, Courtney and Robert, Brittany, Allison, and "the boys": Phillip Jr. and JP...