Week's Work (4-14-14)

This week was pretty exciting. I shot my first MLB game which was also my first assignment for USA Today Sports Images, I shot horse racing for the first time and I won second place for Student Photographer of the Year in the Illinois Press Photographer Association's student competition (among other placements).

I have been working as a freelance picture desk editor for USA Today Sports Images for about four months now, but I haven't been assigned to shoot anything until this past week. I was given the series opener of the Red Sox vs White Sox game at U.S. Cellular field. They must know that the only way I would ever go to a White Sox game (that wasn't at Wrigley Field) was if I was getting paid to be there.

I was pretty nervous about it all, but after I talked with a few guys before the game, Scott Strazzante and Andrew Nelles, I thought I would be all set to go! I was pretty wrong about that. Chicago Associated Press staffer Charlie Arbogast and freelancer David Banks (for Getty that night) guided me throughout the night so I could keep my head on straight.

I finished off the week by deciding to skip all of the great speakers at the Midwest Photo Summit. Sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it? Well I have never been to a horse race before and I'm going to be shooting the Kentucky Derby for Eclipse Sportswire so I need a little bit of practice. I headed out to Hawthorne Racecourse and was there for all 9 of the races that day. It took a while to adjust to it but I'm glad I did it because I'm more comfortable about the Derby. The most exciting part of being able to be there is that I will be in Kentucky for 8 days, from Friday evening the week before it up until the Sunday morning after the Derby.

 Below are my favorites from this past week. The next post will probably Friday night or Saturday night with an image or two from Kentucky.

Random fact. The date of this week's work is the same backwards!