FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-- A record setting weekend

JACKSON HOLE, WY —

Like the subhead says, I’m back with more words. Let’s see, since we left off, there have been a few things in my life that have happened. My friend Bobo also requested I talk more about photographing NBA games, so I think I’ll do that via a busy day in my life from a gameday this week.

I finished building my desk, and have a decent work set up now at the office which has been nice to have. Biggest quality of life thing at the office is two parallel mini hoops in the middle of the space so I can run some full court when the creative juices aren’t flowing like they should. I also finally have space for my collection of Sports Illustrated magazines I have saved from like 2008 - 2015. I always knew these would be cool, so I held onto nearly all of them, but it’s finally been enough time where they are really fun to look at. Currently trying to brainstorm an interesting photo project I can do with these so I can earn the title creative and not hoarder. Next project is filling my wall with trinkets from travels, test prints, and other random things. My mom’s comment was that it looks ‘messy and sloppy’, but I think that is kinda going to be the point.

This week was quite busy in the world of sports it seemed. Yesterday was the Super Bowl, and my power went out two minutes into the 3rd quarter. I am writing this at 2:21pm on Monday and although I am currently on a plane somewhere over Nebraska, sources say we still do not have power. Hopefully next week I will have a positive update to say our power has returned. But back to the Super Bowl, for the first 2.16 quarters i was enjoying it. I am a pretty neutral NFL fan, but was definitely rooting for the Eagles as I had photographed their Week 2 game earlier this season. There was also the trade deadline which was seemingly the most interesting one we have had in a few years. Couple of big moves that will hopefully make for some fun pictures when the Lakers, Kings, Warriors, and any other team that made a move come to town.

Finally, that leads me to Saturday. Had this one circled on the calendar for quite some time as I had both the 117th Millrose Games, as well as a big Celtics v Knicks game at MSG. Now I have lived in the state of New York for nearly all of my life (sans a pandemic and summer spent in Eugene) but one thing about me is I’m a Celtics fan 😱. Of course I have reasoning — growing up my parents just didn’t really care about the NBA— if you asked them their favorite basketball team they would probably say the Harlem Globetrotters. But my Aunt Helen- shoutout Aunt Helen, who lived in Boston did, and she liked the Celtics. So I’d always go visit her, and we’d watch the Celtics on Comcast. (From a geography standpoint, Boston <> Schenectady <> NYC is equidistant, so it is kind of ok from that perspective as well). But for my whole life, my NBA team has been the Celtics. So as soon as I started planning out my shooting schedule for this year, made sure to take note of when the reigning champs were coming to town.

Anyways, all that to say here’s a day in my life from Saturday, February 8th, 2025. (Recalled from the best of my memory and using context clues from the scraps in my camera roll).

9:05 AM: I awake from my deep slumber.

9:25AM: I make myself some avocado toast and an Americano. Most important meal of the day, breakfast of champions. I eat avo toast nearly every day I remember to eat breakfast, and am traditionally not a coffee guy, but recently acquired a Breville so I feel compelled to drink Americanos. Verdict is still out on how long this behavior will persist for.

10:17AM: Start up my Zwift ride. As a new cyclist, one thing I’m not a fan of is how much an ordeal it is to get started. Like a 20 minute process of preparation before even getting on the bike. Miss when I could throw on some running shoes, do a few fake exercises, and head out the door. Today I hit an hour in Wattopia hard enough to be tired by the end but not hard enough to be too tired for the rest of the day. I call that balance.

1:30PM: Pack camera bag, set up some Capture One sessions, and head to the Armory. Kinda important to do a mental checklist today with having some gear at the office, some at my apartment, and the fact I had back to back events today. I’m already dreading that day I forget gear because it is in the opposite location. I think every year I have lived in NYC I have moved further and further from the Armory. When I was in the Bronx, it was 20 min on the 1 train. When I lived Uptown, 25 min, in Alphabet City, 40 min, and now from Williamsburg, basically an hour.

3:00PM: After some train delays and one train switch, arrive at the Armory, pick up credentials, settle in. I’ve spent a lot of time at the Armory, and Millrose day is always the best of the year. Even though the hallways are absolutely packed, energy is unreal. By the time I had gotten there, the meet was already halfway over but the broadcast window didn’t start until 4pm. I think this has been the first year that I wasn’t there for the start of the meet. Hopped into the media room and ate some snacks and set up some cameras.

4:00PM: TV broadcast window starts and races begin. I unfortunately didn’t get an infield bib this time around, so I’m stuck in a 15-20sqft triangle with about 10 other humans battling for the shot. There are thick blue foam guardrails in place on the outside of the track that are quite inconvenient to take pictures with. Luckily I have spent many hours in this spot so I’m pretty quick to find the angles that work for the types of shots I am going for. While I’m shooting throughout the day, there’s a bunch of photographers around all in this tiny space. Some have flash, some don’t. Some have interesting focal lengths + different cameras. My whole approach throughout the day is how can I make different photos than everyone else. Pretty difficult when we are trapped in that small of a space, but pretty pumped with the outcome of photos I produced. One thing I have learned that really helps me in these scenarios is the relationships I have developed overtime with athletes. In an environment that chaotic and with that many cameras around, sometimes just having a recognizable face or voice can be all the difference in getting the photo you want.

4:38PM: Men’s 3000m goes off - this was the race I am most excited for. Have a bunch of homies in it and Grant v Cole is a great matchup.

4:46PM: Grant - 7:22.91. World Record. wow - for people not deep in the track world, 7:22 in the 3k converts to running two miles in 7:58.34. One of the best races I have ever watched IRL.

5:50PM: Men’s Wanamaker Mile goes off - another one at the top of the list, the Wanamaker seemingly always has World Record potential, but hasn’t been set in this race in like 7 years.

5:54PM: Yared sets world record - 3:46.63

6:03PM: I make it to 168th train station and catch the A train. At this point I haven’t imported anything, but based off what I have seen on the back of the camera screen feeling pretty good about what I got today.

Photos from Millrose Games were shot for TEMPO Journal and the galleries are live here and here.

6:45PM: Make it to MSG. Honestly should’ve been a quicker ride but we hit a bunch of train delays so took longer than usual. Once I’m at the stadium, I go through security and pick up my credential and summit the mountain of stairs to get to the 6th floor. From there is a media entrance to the tunnel onto the floor where players are warming up. I’m always super interested in the underbelly of stadiums; one cool part of the job is I get to see how all the of the operations there work.

7:05PM: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown come out of the locker room for warmups. Pre game before any spectators are allowed players come out one by one or pairs and get one last workout in with their position specific coach before official warmups and the game starts.

7:45PM: I find some dinner. I usually stick to my guns and get something from the nachos concession but that one had a massive line so went to the meatball stand and ordered the menu item called ‘The One Pounder’. Not sure what I was getting entirely but it turned out to be just a 1lb meatball and some garlic bread. Performance fuel.

8:30PM: Tip off - usually games are at 7:30 but luckily this one was a big game and on ESPN so it started a little later due to the national broadcast. Worked out perfectly for me as in the lead up I assumed the Wanamaker was gonna be special so didn’t want to have to skip it. Pre game I can be on the floor, but during the game there is super limited media availability so I get put in a section on the concourse behind the Knicks bench. Not ideal, but allows me to make some frames that you wouldn’t usually see.

10:57PM: Game ends, Celtics won big. Players head to locker room.

11:03PM: Post game press conference with Joe Mazzula. I’m usually the only photographer at the pressers but I still like to go. As a fan fun to hear what the coaches say and sometimes makes for an interesting portrait moment. One thing that surprised me is how small these rooms really are - always look massive in person can barely fit 10 chairs

11:10PM: Import photos into CaptureOne

11:28PM: Leave MSG, snowing / sleeting pretty hard out hop on A train

11:41PM: Make it to 14th St, intend to hop on the L train but learn it is down for maintennce past Union Square. Hop up onto the street and check Uber. $60 to go 4 blocks. Not doing that. Begin my ½ mile pilgrimmage across 14th steet through 6 inches of NYC snow sludge. Stumbled into a snowball fight of kids pelting people off their balcony which was pretty funny.

11:53PM: Make it to the L train.

12:05AM: Get home, chug water, Hit my pillow and pass out.

A lot of words to breakdown this day but hopefully it is interesting. I rarely do anything this busy lol so this is not an accurate look into what my life actually looks like on a Saturday but this one works out nice to posture for the newsletter. I spent Sunday literally 9-5 locked in on the couch in CaptureOne editing everything as fast as possible. One thing about working in sports is timing matters so much. Every hour longer it takes to get the photos out, people care less and less. Especially when there is something in the calendar like the Super Bowl the next day.

Switching gears, I got a fantastic idea for a sponsorship model for this newsletter. I’m all for unconventional sponsorship models. (before I get ahead of myself, if any conventional sponsors are reading this and want to throw some coin my way for a slick ad placement, let’s do that instead 🤝). Right now, as of writing this, we have a grand audience of 201 people. My good friend Mike Hennelly (off IG so a link to the Strava will have to do) asked if he could sponsor the newsletter. I think this is a fantastic idea. So for the future, I think i will allow my friends to sponsor my email blast and I will sing their high praises to this growing audience in exchange for them copping me lunch (we’ll call my initial rate $20). If I know you well, I will write a lot about you and if I don’t really know you I’ll do the best internet research I can and go off that, but expect a subpar writeup. Anyways send a note my way if you’re interested in sponsoring and corporate will find time to get you a scheduled slot.

That’s all for this issue of FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—. As always, questions, comments, concerns, gifts, suggestions, all welcomed. You know where to find me.