Woodberry Forest Football

This past weekend marked my first visit to the Woodberry Forrest School in Orange. For this blue-collar kid raised outside Philly, it was certainly a different school atmosphere. For instance, I didn't see bars across the windows and there was a lack of police presence at the game. I wonder if the ties are some sort of gang symbol? Anyway, I couldn't stay for the entire game. I had to head back to Cville for the UVa game, life is rough. Reading the article, proved I missed a lot of excitement towards the end of the game.

Here is another photo from the game that didn't make it into the Progress.

Foxfield Races gone to the Dogs

If only all weekends could be this good. Every once in a while the stars and planets align to deliver a gem that you swear will never happen again. Until it does. Most people would be very upset about working a weekend, not this intrepid photojournalist. Saturday was great, but I want to share a few more pictures from Foxfield . The fall races benefited Service Dogs of Virginia. Things started pretty spectacularly with a skydiver trailing the flag. I couldn't stay for all the races but during the fifth race a horse threw its jockey and decided to finish the race without him. The jockey appeared un-harmed thankfully and the horse had a little fun dodging the handlers.

Thanks for taking a look.

-Matt

New Video: Tattoo Removal

Today's Daily Progress (09/23/07) features a new video on the increased popularity of laser tattoo removal. You can check out the video here.
You can read teh article by Bryan McKenzie here.

-Matt

Get Outside, Now!

Pick a road, any road. Just in case you haven't noticed, the weather has been phenomenal. The air is so clear and crisp. The Blue Ridge Mountains look as if they moved several miles closer to C'ville. Get out there and enjoy it. As you will read in Tuesday's Progress, I went out to Afton Mountain to do a little bird watching. I want to say thanks to the volunteers from Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch. They really helped me out. I don't know a Broad-winged Hawk from a Turkey Vulture. Ultimately, I turned my camera on them and the watchers became the watched. Thanks guys.

Now with 100% more YouTube.

Have you been dying to see the slideshow of Crabtree Falls again, or perhaps revisit an old Confederate Cemetery narrated by Devin Miller? Well now you can. I am slowly but surely uploading all of our old SoundSlides presentations and videos to YouTube. There will also be a small selection of some of my favorites in the sidebar. If you want to see all of the available videos and audio slideshows, visit our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/dailyprogress.

-Matt

FUMA Football

Last Saturday was a long, hot day. Started out walking the parking lots around Scott Stadium looking for tailgaters and their opinions on Coach Groh. If you read the story in Sunday's paper you know what they had to say. I only got to stay for the first quarter and a half of the game. When I left things were going well for the Cavs. It sounds like the third quarter blues struck again. Maybe it's me. I promise I will try to stay for the whole game against Georgia Tech. I had to leave for Fork Union and cover the FUMA vs. STAB football game. In the hot sun I got bored real quick with the game. That's when I saw Lt. Brian Zitterkopf with 10 year old die hard fan and cheerleader Kendra Wright. It was an odd combination to see all those serious looking uniformed boys cheering with a miniature Sally Starr in a cowboy hat. It made the day infinitely more interesting.

-Matt

Louisa Lions

I spent yesterday hanging out with the Louisa Lions. Practicing hard under the setting evening sun, a sense of purpose is evident on the field. At the helm is Coach Fischer, an imminently likeable person who is tough but fair with his kids. He offers praise when due and makes firm corrections. The players hustle during drills with coaches making constant adjustments. The Lions lost most of last year's starting players, but they haven't lost the bond that makes them a team.

-Matt

Sportraits

Sportrait is a term that many photogs use to describe the endless amount of athletic portraits we do. This one of Monticello HS senior Daniel Lieb ran nice and big a few days, er maybe, weeks ago. Time flies here at the Progress. Most people are content with taking a photo with the built in flash on their camera. Getting the flash off the camera is probably the single biggest thing you can do to improve your portraits. If you want to check out sportraits taken to the extreme, check out Kyle Green's site. Click the link for sports and then navigate to "Superheroes of Timesland". Hope you enjoy.

-Matt

Its Just Pretty.

There are places left in this world that, if we allow ourselves to wonder, can transport the mind. When I walked into the machine shop at E. A. Clore Son in Madison County, I knew it was such a place. The smell of sawdust and a creak in the floor flung my thoughts back several generations. I took this photograph thinking that if I had walked here a hundred years ago, the same image would have welcomed me to the shop.

-Matt

On the Road Again.

This image, you may remember, was from a Sunday centerpiece we did on Brad Yoder. Yoder was hit by a truck along Earlysville Road while riding his bicycle and was severely injured. I covered portions of Brad's rehabilitation at ACAC. I am amazed everyday that people let us do what we do. He was going to let me document his life at home, but we decided we didn't have the time for that. For the main image in the package I wanted an up close picture of Brad riding his bike.

Brad rides with a few friends during his lunch break and this presented a prime opportunity. He takes bicycling very seriously. His very nice bike probably weighs a total of five pounds in my guestimation. It also cost a significant percentage of my yearly income. For this shot, I probably strapped 6 pounds worth of equipment to his handlebars. I used a couple special camera supports to attach my camera to his bike. I wanted the sky to be nice and saturated so I underexposed a bit. Underexposing the sky also underexposed Brad so a flash was added to bring him back to the proper level. Then a radio trigger was taped to all of this so I could drive at a safe distance and tell the camera to fire. Simple shot, lengthy execution.

-Matt

My Momma Always Said.....

"If you are by the pool you are going to get wet." My mother would tell this to my sister while she was standing near the pool getting splashed by me.

Sunday was one of those days. Sunday was the last of the Charlottesville Triathlon series and it started at 7:30am. I wanted to get there in time to convince race officials and lifeguards that I needed to be on a boat up close to the action. I woke up at 5:30am. Maneuvering a canoe, trying not to hit racers, and most importantly trying to make pictures is very difficult. I got one frame I kinda liked.
After all that, there was still the foot and bicycle portions to photograph. Some of those photos were published in Monday's Progress. Then it was back to the paper at 10am to edit, then home for a nap at noon. Next up was the Sunset Regatta at 5:30pm. This was an absolute bast. Keith was nice enough to let me shoot from a chase boat. I got soaked. My gear got soaked (it survived). It was great. Enjoy!


-Matt

So you want to be a Photojournalist.

You want to be in the endzone when Virginia scores a TD, under the net when Singletary sinks a game winning three, or at the latest crime scene in the thick of the action. Well, welcome to the unglamorous side. You also have to spend hours hiking in the heat carying gear looking for ragweed to illustrate an allergy story. Only to not find any, realize you are never going to find it. Because you are looking for it. Tomorrow you will sneeze and find yourself surrounded by it. But you needed it yesterday. Welcome to the other side. I still wouldn't want to do anything else.

-Matt

Joseph Campbell

We recently ran an article on incoming UVa professors. The article was about the University's initiative to expand its scientific portfolio. I was assigned to photograph Professor Joseph Campbell after being interviewed by DP reporter Brian McNeil. I wanted to photograph Campbell in the main hall which has flags from several countries. The paper decided to run just a headshot of all the professors included in the article. So here is the portrait of Joseph Campbell. I tried lighting the background more but I didnt have enough time to really work the backgorund lighting to my liking. I used ambient light by dragging the shutter a tad to fill in the background.
-Matt

Summer Time Heat

Growing up, running through the sprinkler was favorite way to keep cool. Even though we had a nice pool, the sprinkler provided hours of fun. Chloe and Tristen seemed to think it was an ideal way to beat the heat as well. -Matt

Under Construction

This will be the new home of the Daily Progress' photo staff blog. Pardon our dust as we build the site and share some of our favorite photos. -Matt