Photography with media credentials

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Originally uploaded by Les_Stockton

Lastnight's game between the Tulsa Oilers and the Wichita Thunder was the first game I was able to photograph with "full access" via media credentials. I now have a press pass from ProHockeyNews.com. This access allows me to photograph from areas I have not been able to photograph from before, and I can move around inside the arena to shoot from different locations. It is a learning experience though.



In the past, I've typically done my photography from my season ticket location (Section 101). For this game, I was at my seat for the first period. In the second period, I shot from a location on the 3rd level where the press sit, which allowed me to shoot from a vantage point I usually don't have. It was up high, shooting down, and I didn't think about it until later, but shooting down on the ice allows a lot more reflection back to the camera than I'm used to. This meant that the majority of my shots from the second period are a bit over-exposed. I usually have experimented and gotten the settings I wanted, and then just used them from game to game; which was fine, because I was always shooting from the location. Now that I'm moving around, I'm going to need to adjust, and I just didn't think about that this time.

This photo was taken in the first period, from my season ticket seat in Section 101.
I think the exposure is reasonably set, but my shots from the second period, the ones from above, are a bit washed out.

This photo was taken in the 3rd period in the area where the opposing team enters and leaves the ice. This area is just to the right of where I would normally be sitting in my season ticket area. I like it because the glass is not scuffed up as much and the bottom portion of the glass doesn't have an ad banner along the bottom 10 inches or so.

I plan to shoot from other areas in future games (there's another game tonight)(hopefully we'll win this time). Even with the media credentials, I feel a bit timid. I'm not one of those people who can just walk around as if I owned the place. Wearing the press pass still feels foreign to me. I feel more comfortable when I have my friend, who is a long-time writer for Pro Hockey News, is also standing there.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the other adjustments for me is that I don't get to sit down. I stand everywhere, except when I'm up in the press/media area. In addition, I already miss my friends, and I can tell them miss having me there too. I overheard one of them say "it's not the same without Les here." He continued, "There's no one to yell 'Stick lumber in his ear!!!'"

Not Quite a Greeny

I never have thought of myself as a greeny (but then again, I've never seen a complete definition of what a greeny is. Nonetheless, I find myself sympathizing more and more with the "green" side of various topics nowadays. Why is that?

First of all, I should state that I live in the country. My wife and I bought property in a rural area. We moved from the city. We moved to a rural area not to bring the city with us, but to leave it behind. All to often, we are frustrated with people who move nearby and then they talk to the town trustees about getting paved roads, and they want street lights. If they had their way, there'd be sidewalks out here. There'd be stop signs on every corner, cross walks, and lots of city ordinances telling us what we can and cannot do.

We notice people moving from the city that get out here and the first thing they want is to cut down trees. It's wooded in our area. Why would you move here if you don't want trees on your property? This is the woods. Why not buy property where there aren't trees?

Every time we've had any kind of work done on our property, it seems like people almost jump with glee at the chance to break out a chainsaw and cut down trees. Why is that?

I read today that NASA has published that the ratio between human beings on earth and trees, is approximately 1 in 66. So, there are 66 trees for every human being, but consider that there are lots of areas with lots of human beings, where the ratio isn't nearly that. The 1/66 ratio is for the entire earth.
Even at that, it is pointed out that 1/66 isn't enough of a ratio to be adequate for production of oxygen. I have to agree. Although I'm not a card carrying "greeny", at the same time, I have to stress the importance of trees in keeping human beings alive, and the fact that even more than climate change (which trees would play a part in preventing), we should be concerned about not having enough trees, and especially so knowing that so many are being cut down every day so that the land can be "developed".

All too often, hundreds of trees are downed at a time, and the developer plants baby trees after the development is complete, acting as if these few baby trees make up for what was lost. The trees that were gone might be 50 to 100 years old, and certainly produce more oxygen than the few baby trees planted afterwards. It can't be justified.

My wife and I are building on our property. We have cut down a few trees, but we've planted many more than we've downed. I think that in reality, we've only maybe killed one tree. We found a place that was relatively open and that's where we built our current house. We didn't pick a place and cut down trees. We found a clear spot and built there. It costed maybe one tree.

I'm not saying that my wife and I are better than anyone else, and I'm trying not to be arrogant about it, but I am saying that we practice what we preach. We have tried to avoid cutting down trees. We have built around what was here, but in anticipation of the need for more trees, we started planting in our pasture years ago. Some of those trees are now big enough to provide decent shade in the summer.

I would hope that as housing developments continue, that there'd be an effort to build around trees, rather than to doze the land and build, and then re-planting afterwards. That replanting takes decades to return to the production of oxygen that existed before the development. We can't keep cutting down trees and lowering the ratio as far as oxygen producing trees and human beings. We've got to start being a little more careful about how we develop, rather than just going for a quick fix to the problem of urban sprawl.

Why Work So Hard?

I'm really beginning to question if I'm losing the will to work.  During the time that I took off for a couple of months, we tightened our belt
and were able to live off my wife's salary with no perks.  We were fine.  I got a lot of progress on our house project.  Now that
I'm working, little progress is being made on the house, and I'm looking at the political climate as far as prospects of being taxed
more for working hard.  I'm starting to think that the stress of work is too much.  Why work if the government is just
going to steal what little reward I get, so that they can give it to someone that doesn't work as hard as I do?

I had been thinking about taking a second job to get some extra money, but then that makes little sense if it's just going to allow
them to steal more from me.  Why do it?

And as far as the investments I have, I'd rather pull it out of stocks and just keep it in money markets; which don't pay as much
but are more secure (relatively speaking).  So what if not investing in stocks means fewer jobs.  So what.  If the
government doesn't care and the 30% out there that don't pay taxes don't care, then why should I care?

My new job is more stressful than the last.  I'm being paid a little more, but I'm stressed a whole lot more.  I'm
starting to feel like the stress is too much and the rewards aren't going to be worth it in an Obama economy.

I'll flat out tell you that I'm frustrated with the bailouts.  This last bailout protected a number of US corporations from
stock shorting; but all that did was make those guys find new companies to short, like the companies I have a little bit of stock
in.  So the bailouts took money out of my pocket to give to the execs that drove Wall Street into the ground, and so they
can continue to give bonuses (how are bonuses awarded in a company that virtually went bankrupt?).  They took money from
me and made what I had left in my pocket less valuable.  And now those companies are protected from stock shorting, but my
companies are not.  Guess what, my companies, who looked promising before, now are virtually worthless.

So why work?

I don't believe Obama for a second when he says he'll only tax the rich (those that make more than $250,000 a year). 
His website says $200,000.  Which is it?

Joe Biden says $150,000.  SO which one of those figures is it?

Bill Clinton told us the same thing when he was campaigning, and in the end, his protecting the middle class hit my wife and I
with the biggest tax increase I can remember.  I have no reason to trust Obama.  I have no reason to trust Biden.

I don't know if I can trust McCain, but at least he isn't promising a tax increase with a moving threshhold.  Maybe he'd
raise my taxes too.  I just don't trust Obama when he says that he wont.  And the idea of working and sacrificing like
my wife and I have been doing these last few years, seems fruitless if it's just going to be stolen from us to give to people
that wont work and wont sacrifice.

And give me a break when you want to suggest that those folks out there are going to get 'their fair share' from the rest of us,
have been sacrificing.  I don't know any that work two jobs.  And I remember when my little company couldn't make
payroll and when we were issuing stock to employees instead of payment.  I remember when we tried to give some of these
potential opportunities to people (poor people) and they wouldn't take them.  They wanted cold hard cash, with no risk
on their part.  I took the risk and sacrificed.  And now that it's about to pay off, they want to share in the rewards. 
Pardon the expression, but that's bullshit.  That's not their fair share.  That's Marxism and it's flat out wrong.

So under an Obama Administration, I do not intend to work hard.  I do not intend to sacrifice or invest.  I intend to
hold onto what little my wife and I have.  If jobs suffer because of it, I think those 30% of the freeloaders that voted
so that they could get "their fair share' can just whallow in it.  They got it and now they'll suffer the most, because it'll
be their jobs that will go first.