A Little G in a Big D

Hey all:

I was given the opportunity to shoot the Dallas Cowboys home season opener at the new Cowboys Stadium yesterday. Despite the embarrassing loss to the Giants (Dallas practically gift-wrapped this one, and on a pretty historic night, no less), I had a great time at the gig.

I was assigned to shoot from above at the TV decks. Unfortunately, I had some serious transmission issues (pretty hard to get a good cell signal when the 101,000+ people around you are all trying to do the same thing) and had to bail at the third quarter to run down to the photo workroom and send. Accordingly I wasn’t able to shoot any dejection, etc. stuff, but that’s OK. If the ‘Boys keep it up, I’ll have plenty more opportunities for those type of shots this season.

Here’s a selection of my favorite photos from the game, as well as pre-game stuff. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for looking.

- gerry -

Hi all:

Been back to shooting for about a week now and it’s been great. I was given the opportunity to shoot the Rangers-Mariners series this weekend, and while it sure was interesting (to say the least), it was a beating.

A pretty large — and, at times severe — series of storms pretty much sat over the DFW Metroplex all weekend long; still raining, in fact. As one can imagine, that wreaked some serious havoc on what was supposed to be a three-game series. Instead, we got one rain out Friday (forced a double-header Sunday), a “technical game” Saturday (enough innings were played before it, too, was called due to rain), and then the aforementioned double-header, the start of which was delayed four hours.

If my math is right, I spent about 21 and-a-half hours at the ballpark during the series (not including the half-hour drive each way for me), and was actually shooting (rain features and game action) less than half the time (about 10.5 hours, give or take). Pretty nutty.

It was brutal, but I had a good time … when I wasn’t soaked to the bone … which actually was like almost all my shooting time. But really, fun experience. Pretty much every Rangers game I’ve photographed this season has been either delayed or rained out, and it’s actually garnered me an amusing nickname from my colleagues — Rainman.

Anyway, here’s a selection of images from the series, rain and all. Sorry about the demo — still haven’t upgraded to the full version of Soundslides Plus. And also, pardon the lack of cutline information. Had planned to do that, but the “Save for Web” deal that’s part of my blog photo action wiped all that stuff. Here’s some info to help those who didn’t watch the series and/or don’t know much about baseball …

- Again, first game a rain out. No ball played at all.
- Japanese guy I shot is Seattle right fielder Ichiro Suzuki. He broke a record while he was here, getting 200 hits for the ninth consecutive season in a row. On a side note, Suzuki had a HUGE gang of Japanese journalists following him to document the milestone. About 16 of them were photographers. Made for some cramped photo wells and VERY slow internet connection. But they were all really nice and easy to work with.
- First pitcher is Kevin Millwood. Supposed to be this great player — paid rather well — and he had a complete meltdown.
- Old white guy is team president Nolan Ryan, a childhood hero of mine. He actually went out to walk the field Sunday to make sure it was good to play on. A lot of us didn’t think it was, but they did it anyway. Luckily no one was hurt out there.
- Rangers lost the first game (Saturday), won the first of the double-header with some conviction and then were totally smoked in the second. They’re in the running for a wild card to the playoffs, and after this weekend, they don’t look so good.

Anyway, shutting up now. On to the photos. Thanks for looking …

- gerry -

Hi all:

Long time no post. More than a month, in fact. I’ve been working on the night desk as part of a new rotation at work. I wrap up in another week.

Sunday, I had my first shoot in about five weeks. I’ve been doing some stuff on my own (medium format film stuff … fun!), but this is basically the first daily assignment I’ve had in more than a month. Felt great to get back in the grind.

Good story to start with, too. Here’s the skinny:

North Texas’ oldest African American United Methodist Church, St. Paul UMC, is renovating it’s downtown Dallas facility. The project will take more than a year to complete. In that time, they had nowhere to worship.

That is, until the folks at Cochran Chapel UMC — the oldest Methodist Church in north Texas, and also happens to be predominantly white — stepped in and offered space at their campus.

While they normally hold separate services, they came together this week to celebrate St. Paul’s 136th anniversary Sunday. The folks from Cocharn Chapel were treated to a traditional, African American service, complete with live music and a whole lot of passion. Following the service, they shared an ENORMOUS potluck super.

It was such a privilege to be there with them. I love stories like this; anything that challenges how we see race, especially in an area as segregated as north Texas is.

Anyway, here are my 10 favorite photos. Shot a ton out there, and did a little audio, too. You can see a slideshow here — http://www.dallasnews.com/video/index.html?nvid=393837

Thanks for looking. Hope to have more content soon! In the meantime, back to the desk …

- gerry -

PS — that slideshow is in color, BTW. Just wasn’t feelin’ it when I posted. B&W felt like a better fit for the blog. No idea why …