Feliz Navidad!!!

In honor of the family trip to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico tomorrow, I thought I would post a few photos from the trip that I took there two years ago with Kristin, my parents, and some family friends.

If you have never been to Playa, I highly recommend it as it is just a boat ride away from Cozumel and some fine snorkeling while also boasting a bustling strip right down the middle of town with more shops and restaurants than you could shake a stick at.  It is colorful place to take a daily stroll, stopping here and there for a margarita or ice cream along the way.  The town is also somewhat close to ruins and other scenic opportunities.  I can't wait to get back there tomorrow for some down time and some laughs with the entire family!

I hear I'll have a connection to a DSL line down at the house we're staying at, so I'll try to post once or twice while I'm down there.  I'll try to send some warm weather through the web to all of you back home freezing in the snow.

Have a great new year!

-TSB2

I wish I lived year round at this house...

A shopkeeper sweeping before opening...

A colorful wall and rusty gate on the main drag in Playa...

A cowboy on the beach in Playa.

Some beautiful clouds...

A dog at a private residence just off the main drag...

A young boy who was selling newspapers at an intersection one morning...

It's Christmas!

How can you not be happy on this day?  Obviously, you get presents, but even better, you get to watch your friends and family get all psyched when you give them cool stuff! 

BETTER YET,  your brother and sister in law give you and your wife these sweet headlamps and use them to light paint a photo of your tree.  With a little rearranging of the ornaments on the tree, I made sure to represent all three members of our family, one of our colleges (we don't have a CU ornament yet), our engagement date, and just other wintery/x-mas stuff.  Click on the image below to see it larger.  For more on light painting, go to the master's site...Dave Black

Before the jump to the pic...

Top 10 funniest/coolest things I remember from X-mas:

10: My expression of sadness when I was 7 or 8, after my Dad (who was video-taping my brother and I without a microphone on the camera), told us that Santa didn't come.  We had yet to go downstairs and my expression on the video goes from pure joy to complete shock. It's priceless.

9: Snooping around the house just about every year with my brother Chris finding our presents.  Dad thought he was all sneaky hiding presents under the bench cabinet in his study.

8: My parents forgetting to eat the cookies and milk that Chris and I left out on a table for Santa one year.  We have my reaction on videotape.

7: Dad giving Mom a bowling ball and shoes.  You know she got that baby engraved with her initials!

6: Calling my good friend Sarah Burgamy who lived up the block to ask her what she got.  Then calling Dave Watts to ask him the same question.

5: " It's so comfy!  It's so padded mom!" - My brother after he got a new hockey helmet for x-mas.  I repeated these exact words approximately 1 second after my brother said them in hope I'd be as cool as him.  Still hasn't happened.  Chris is 10 times cooler than me.

4:Dad giving Mom tap shoes and lessons.

3: Unwrapping Rhino.  We have my freakout reaction on videotape.

2: Watching Kristin get a little overwhelmed when my family bombarded her with presents 6 days before we got engaged.  Knowing that I was going to propose less than a week later, my entire family loaded it on her during our first x-mas together and she just sat there overwhelmed.  It was hilarious.

1: The feeling I get when I wake up on Christmas Day.  Who doesn't love that?

-TSB2

Our lightpainted tree this year...

The Meatball Factory

Today, Kristin was in charge of making her grandmother Gigi's famous Swedish Meatballs for tomorrow's X-mas dinner at her parents house.  Having never made them before, Kristin and I had no idea how much labor this recipe called for.  After rolling about 140 of these little guys and covering our hands raw meat, (who doesn't love doing that?) K dropped them in the frying pan and Voila! Don't these little suckers look good?  Just ask my Uncle Karl.

T-minus 2.5 hours until X-mas at the Hones!  Will post again later with more from tonight.

-TSB2

That's Grandma Larson's own handwriting on the recipe card in the back...

Habla Barbosa?

Wednesday, I escaped the cold again and headed to Phoenix with my colleague Jamie Schwaberow to assist on a commercial shoot for Qwest with Leandro Barbosa of the Phoenix Suns.

After getting all our bags and the rental car, we checked into the Hyatt, then headed over to US Airways Center for a walk through with everyone involved with the shoot...the art directors (Dave and Becca from 361 Sports Marketing), the video guys from True Story Films and a rep from the Suns who took us through the locker room and the practice court where we'd be shooting.

Now, I haven't been in TONS of pro locker rooms, but I've seen my fair share and MAN,  The Suns have it made!  Nice wood trim, a gigantic flatscreen TV front and center, big lockers, all the free Gatorade, protein shakes, and FANTA you would ever want, etc...  It was awesome!

By the way, the worst locker room I've ever been in?  The Buffalo Bill's visitor locker room...worse than the Raiders'.  They're pretty close though.

Anyway, we finished the walk through in about an hour, then headed to the top of the hotel with Dave and Becca for dinner at the Compass Restaurant.  I was pretty pumped for this since it was my first experience eating at a rooftop restaurant that rotates!  I felt like a little kid in a candy store... Until I sat down.

Not knowing any better, I sat on the side of the table that wasn't facing the direction we were going.  For those of you are who are still rotating-restaurant virgins, I highly recommend sitting at the table facing the direction that the restaurant is moving.  While I think I have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to the motion-sitting combination, it definitely took a good twenty or thirty minutes to overcome the threat level orange feelings of nausea that haunted me erratically.  After dinner, I had a couple beers with Jamie and Dave, then called it a night so we could get some sleep before the big shoot on Thursday.

For a project such as this, we usually over-prepare by bringing way too much equipment, then end up using about half of it.  Not this time though!  We used just about every piece of lighting that we brought with us.  The shoot went smoothly, but did end up taking the entire 4 hours that we had with Leandro.  He did show up 45 minutes late which definitely didn't help, but he was very nice and professional the entire time.  We alternated with the video guys while shooting in our various setups which helped us move things along throughout the day.  Some of the stuff we shot required extras (in this case, kids) because part of Qwest's campaign is to show how they are reaching out to the community through youth programs they sponsor.

We finished the shoot right around 5, then went to the airport to get back home for Christmas!!!  I'll post next on Monday when Kristin and I head to her brother's house for Christmas Eve.  In the meantime, I need to go find Kristin a present....Rrrriiiiiiiiight......

Enjoy the pics,

TSB2

Me at the Phoenix airport with all the bags...making the call to The Wife.

The walkthrough...

Jamie (left), Art Director David (middle) and Leandro looking at some hot photos of me...

David and video guru Cari looking at his shot... 

Sitting in for Cari for some last minute lighting adjustments...

The hot photos of me...

Leandro acting like he is yappin' on the phone...

Jamie shooting the scene in the practice court with the kids and Leandro

2 Days, 2400 Miles and 8 hours of sleep...

On Friday, I left behind the light snowfall that had descended upon Denver and made my way to Florence, Alabama via Nashville for the Division II Football Championship that took place on Saturday.  Now most of you will never go to Florence and I don't fault you for that.  There isn't a whole lot to this quiet little town, but once a year the kind folks at the University of Northern Alabama serve up one of the best sporting events you'll ever witness.

The DII Football Championship isn't your average game.  It's a right of passage for these kids and their fans.  Making it to Florence is the equivalent of College Baseball teams making it to Omaha.   I've been lucky enough to cover this game two out of the past three years, and once again, it didn't disappoint.  Valdosta State pulled off the upset, shocking Northwest Missouri State by a score of 25-20.  As usual, the fans stormed the field to celebrate.  And as usual, I made the idiotic decision to spend one of my nine lives by heading right into the thick of that mess.  It was entirely worth it though, even if it meant having my toes shattered by the cleats of 5000lb lineman as they jumped up and down in celebration.  I got some great photos of the celebration and better yet, it only started to rain in the 4th quarter despite every forecast saying it was going to pour all day.  After transmitting my photos from the game, I headed back up to Nashville to take in some of the best that Music Row has to offer.

When I first made this trip two years ago, my good friend Brian Mankwitz told me that I couldn't miss Robert's Western World, a bar on Broadway in the heart of Nashville.  Man, did he hit the nail right on the head!  The Don Kelley Band has been a mainstay at the joint for years and will blow you away.  They seem to know just about every song on the planet and you can't beat the atmosphere.  The beers are cheap and the music is outstanding.  While there are several bars like it with excellent music, this was my favorite.  Check it out if you're ever there.  And make sure you don't miss the pork shoulder sandwich two doors down at Jack's BBQ.  I watched this guy pull an entire pork roast out of the smoker, hit it a few times with a butcher knife and it just fell apart!  Some of the most tender and flavorful BBQ I've ever had.

In closing, as I was walking to my car last night, I saw a fella playing the mandolin on the sidewalk.  I stopped and talked with him for about 15 minutes and he even played a tune for me.  Despite some rough times in his life, he's always had music to turn to and it is reflected in one lyric from his song...

"Scatter my ashes on the street that music made"

Enjoy the pics.  It was a great trip...time for a nap.

Thanks for lookin',

TSB2

Planes after de-icing heading to the runway for takeoff...

NFL Running Back prospect Xavier Omon of NW Missouri State...

Valdosta wins...and me spending one of my nine lives while shooting it...

A Classic Wurlitzer in a bar in Nashville...

Don Kelley rockin' out at Robert's Western World in Nashville...

Mandolin Mike...

Mandolin Mike's weathered fingertips...

Welcome!

Welcome to my Blog!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to photograph the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship in College Station, Texas. It was a great trip and I came away with some great pics. USC won the title for the first time in school history. These girls can RUN! Man, there were some speedy girls out there who would beat me any day in a foot race...well, that isn't saying much since speed was never my game when I was playing sports. But they play very hard and the semifinals were full of action. The finals were a little less exciting until the celebration. Got a great pic of the coach getting doused with water.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Division II Football Championship in Florence, Alabama. I'll post some stuff from that when I get a chance.

See ya next time!

-TSB2

Fans in the Stands...

Notre Dame warms up before playing Florida State...

These girls play rough!...

Nothin' like an ice cold water bath...