I ain't as good as I once was......

After two hours of basketball today, for the first time in years, I came face to face with a few facts. I'm nowhere near the athlete I once was.

Now, I was never a GREAT basketball player, let's put that out there right now. But I always enjoyed the game and I was far from the worst guy on the court.

I'm still one of the fastest guys on the court, hoop to hoop, and I'm still agile. My defense is still able to hold its own too.

But my offense......

Offensive. Let's just say I'm a lot more of a team player now. I can drain threes a bit still, and layups I'm still all over, but man.....I was missing that hoop like nobody's business today.

And, yeah, I can spout a ton of excuses, I'm 35, it's in the high 80s-low 90s and really humid, there was no shade, blah, blah, blah.

Truth is, I've just not been keeping up with the necessary skills to remain truly competitive. Damn life getting in the way, or maybe I've just been lazy.

Now, I suppose, the question is......what am I going to do about it??? ;)

Grand Prix, Part the First

I'm slowly editing my way through photos from the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg this weekend, and I am up to the end of the IICS (Izod IndyCar Series) morning practice.

I'm going to apologize to both Monica Hilton (her awesome blog is linked on the left as The_Race_gIRL) and Lindy Thackston (Pit road reporter and Versus IICS coverage Presenter extraordinaire) for repeating here things they heard me mention at the race, as well as those few of you that follow me on twitter and may have read them, since I WAS tweeting throughout the day ;)

The morning started off before dawn, when I got up and hit the streets to head over across the bay to hit St Pete. I wanted to be sure to be on scene before the gates opened.

I got there by 740am, and, while waiting for the gate guards to open up, got to say hello to Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sebastia(e)ns Bourdais and Saavedra, and shake hands with Tony Kanaan as they arrived at the track. Roger Penske nearly got waved away by security, who, per her own admission, didn't know anything about racing, before the 15-20 of us standing there all told her, almost as one, that he was Roger FREAKING Penske, owner of half the cars in the field!

I also got a text from Monica making sure I remembered to come and see her. We'd missed each other at the race last year, and had been talking over the interwebs for the past year since.

Finally, the gates opened, and I headed in, shooting the sunrise over the pedestrian bridge as I walked towards the paddock.



Even before I got there, I was shooting the cars being towed out for morning practice, and almost literally ran into Pippa Mann, a standout driver who spent last year in the Firestone Indy Lights series, and whose fanclub i am unabashedly among the members of, who was at the race trying to secure an IICS ride. If any team owners read this.......call Pippa.
(And, if any owners DO read this....call me too....I'll do any job in the series :) )



I chatted with her for a few moments before it became apparent that she was on a mission, and I wished her well and wandered into the paddock, where I walked right past Monica before my brain kicked in and told me I had passed her. We talked for a couple of moments before she had to head to pit road, and I headed for my seats to do some shooting.

I didn't stay in my seat long, indeed, I wandered around the track shooting various angles. Below are a pair of shots from well above my seats in Turn 10.


James Jakes follows Vitor Meira into the corner

Simona rolls into the corner.

I then walked towards the pits, getting THIS shot of Raphael Matos tracking Charlie Kimball through turn 1. This was taken THROUGH the fencing.


TK, Tony Kanaan, rolls through Turn 1


This is one of my fave shots of morning practice. Ryan Briscoe creates contrails as he roars down the front straight.

After coming down off the grandstands at Turn 1, I ended up talking to Lindy for a few moments. Thackston and I have been bumping into each other, off and on, at the race for the past five years or so, and one of the first things out of my mouth was an apology for nearly running her over during the deluge last year when Steve and I were heading into the Paddock to get out of the rain.

So, I had been at the track about half an hour and already talked with three of the four people I wanted to run into at the race. The day was certainly looking up!


More later....for now....I'm headed to bed!

Busy Busy B

Pardon the recent relative silence.......But it's about to get noisy. My "Busy Season" is about to kick into high gear.

Later today I'll likely be hitting up Vulcan Events to end off my weekend.

M-F every week will be work, obviously, hopefully with the return of my truck any damned day now. So, here are my next few weekends in a nutshell:

March 5-6: Next weekend I have "Festivals of Speed" up in Howey in the Hills on Sunday and a date with a redhead (Ferrari F40) on Saturday.

March 12-13: Airshow season kicks off with a bang! On Saturday I'll be in Ft Myers for Red Sox v Marlins with my dad and possibly a special guest ;)
Sunday I'll be out shooting the TICO Warbirds airshow out in Titusville.

March 19-20: Muscle Car City auto show in Punta Gorda

March 26-27: Grand Prix of St Pete!!

April 2-3: the Mustang Meet AND Sun n Fun Fly in

April 9-10: All Chevy Show in Plant City and Exotic Car Festival in Celebration

April 16: Mustang Birthday Bash in Ft Myers.

Somewhere in there I'm also plotting with a friend to squeeze in my first shoot for a human, not for machinery. That one will take priority, because, as you know, favors for friends do!

So expect LOOOOTS of updates, a few photos, and an exhausted Bri, lol

Favorite things

There are certain things that everyone who knows me....and most people that have even met me in passing, would be able to say I am passionate about.
However, having started a new job, I am starting to notice that I get the confused look when i wear a different sport/team jersey to work every Friday, lol.
So, here we go, a little list of my favorite things!
The things I am passionate about:
1. My friends/family
2. Music - fave bands include
Bon Jovi
The Monkees
Journey
LL Cool J
Halestorm
Pearl Jam
Public Enemy
Anthrax
Rammstein
N*E*R*D*
Tim McGraw
Fourplay
3. Photography
4. Aviation. Particularly Military aviation and Aviation History
5. Automotive. I love cars, especially 60s muscle and European Exotics.
6. Sports. I LOOOOVE sports. Including, and generally in this order:
Racing- Track and Field, Cross Country. I may not be able to compete any more, but I still love to watch.
Auto Racing- F1, IRL, Grand Am, LeMans Series, WRC
American Football: NFL-Denver Broncos LFL-Tampa Breeze
Basketball: San Antonio Spurs and will also watch the Boston Celtics
Soccer: any I can catch ;)
Baseball: Boston Red Sox
7. Modelling. The plastic type. Wait...that's still confusing. The kits you buy and build. I'm more comfortable behind the lens when it comes to the other kind.
8, Reading. You name it, I'll read it.

Aaaand now the Rolex 24 broadcast is about to be back on. Enjoy your weekends, people! And Welcome to February in a couple days!

One of my new fave sports, the LFL

As most of you know, I have never exactly been the type to “keep it between the lines”, and love to go my own way whenever I can.

No surprise then that I have that most of my close friends also think that way, and that I have always admired people that look at the mass of followers that say “You can’t do that”, and just say, “oh yeah….watch me!”

It surprises no one that some of my idols, if you will, are James Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, Eugene Bullard, Chuck Yeager, Larry Bird, John Elway, and Lance Armstrong. (Feel free to look up those you don’t recognize…or just ask ;) )

Some, however, look at my personal library and are surprised that I also consider Amelia Earhart, Lydia Litvayak, Jackie Cochran, Lyn St James, Patty Wagstaff, Hanna Reitsch, and Sarah Fisher pioneers and idols as well.

I like strong personalities, and I love women. Put the two together, and the fact that, while maybe not a feminist, I love strong women, shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

Don’t get me wrong about the “not a feminist” thing. I think women are every bit as good as any man, and need to have the same chances. I just hate labels and don’t conform well to putting them on myself.

“Geek” is about as far as I go that way, and it’s a rather broad term.

Everyone also knows I love any sport that has to do with running and jumping, and will play or watch them whenever I can. I’m not a bad athlete myself, and have played Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Volleyball, and Rugby at various levels, and have had some success in Track and Cross Country.

It should come as no surprise, then, that I love the LFL, which combines the two things I mentioned above.

I am fortunate enough to call one of the ladies of the Tampa Breeze LFL team, Carie Small, a friend. She is the one that introduced me to the LFL and ended up inviting me to my first game, ironically, AFTER she was no longer an active player. More on that later.

Carie and I goofing around pre-game

Let me give you a little background on the league:
The LFL, which stands for Lingerie Football League, though no one calls it that, started as a gimmick to go opposite the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Models dressed up in lingerie and “played” football.

It was the epitome of the term “Powder Puff Football” when it started.
Then, in 2009, that gimmick expanded into a league.

The models disappeared, and were replaced with athletes. (However, many of these women are very easily more attractive than your typical model. Thought that is a personal observation, as I have always enjoyed healthy, in shape women over the anorexic starving waif look that seems to be popular lately.)

Bryn Renda snags a catch in warmups

The games are set up on the same rules and groundwork as some of the old Indoor Football league, with 7 on 7 for 17minute halves, and many of the women play iron man, being on both Offense and Defense.

Passion Breaking a Run

Quick Screen Pass

Getting Ready to Go

Run it down their throats

Handing off

It is a gimmick no longer, although, unfortunately, it is still being marketed as if it were one.

The thought of watching scantily clad women play sports lures people in to the game……and unfortunately endangers the players, as well as putting preconceptions in some people’s minds.

The LFL’s image actually hurts it in terms of being taken seriously as a sport in some ways. The uniforms are called Lingerie……but they aren’t. It’s more of a sports bra and short shorts, or bikini, type outfit. As you can well see for yourself.

Split WRs

Breeze head onto the field

In the trenches

The sport isn’t really well marketed, and tends to rely on word of mouth to get butts in seats, and then MTV2 really doesn’t do the game justice, showing chopped versions of the games late at night and one or two weeks later.

It needs to be seen live, full length, and maybe even on ESPN. I mean, really, ESPN shows poker, spelling bees, and billiards, none of which are sports (the first and last are GAMES people), but they don’t show real athletes playing a real sport.

And trust me, these women are real athletes. They train, promote, and play hard for a sport they love to play.

And that is one HUGE difference between the LFL and NFL, in my mind.

The players play for the love of the game in the LFL, something that, sadly, has been missing in recent years from the NFL.

Hence the pending lockout. Don’t get me started.

If Tom Brady played QB, for, say, the Miami Caliente, wearing just the uniform they wear (which is a thought that will haunt my nightmares. Brady in a bikini. AAARRRGGGH. My mind….my miiiiiiiinnnnnddddd. Though, in fairness, he has longer hair than some of the women I know ;) ), he would not be getting up after taking the kind of hit these women deliver. Let’s face it. Brady is probably the Princess of The league as far as QBs are concerned. I don't dislike the guy....not a fan of his BS though.

Maybe he was a bad example, but, pound for pound, these ladies could go toe to toe with most NFL players their size….and I’d put odds on the women.

They don’t play around, and the amount of injuries these athletes sustain will attest to that.

There def has to be more thought given to player protection, I mean, those women hit HARD (And this is from an ex rugby player), and the hockey helmets don’t really do much for protection from that. These women only have shoulder pads, but NONE of the collisions really seem to happen at shoulder height or above.

Injured Breeze on the sidelines

As Carie and I have discussed, most of the hits are well below the pads they wear, and hitting that artificial turf doesn’t help matters either. Back to my friend Carie, she is one of the several injuries that have been sustained this season by the Breeze, the local team here in Tampa. Her ankle got shattered and her leg broken in a practice, badly enough that she is now, as she jokingly calls herself, a Cyborg.

In my first LFL game, where the Breeze played the Miami Caliente, two other women were seriously injured and didn’t finish the game, and in the second game, versus the Passion, while no one was injured out of the match, more than a few of the girls were sporting large turf burns due to the impractical, if attractive, uniforms. And with the teams playing both sides of the ball, the opportunities for injury are even larger.

Touchdown Coming Up....

Reciever in motion

Pregame warmups - Philly Passion

In the middle of that scrum is the ball carrier

WR, meet the Breeze DB

But I don’t think, unfortunately, that the LFL is marketing towards safety minded sports fans just at the moment. Just look at some of the team names and you can see what direction they are marketing towards. Orlando Fantasy. Philly Passion. L.A. Temptation. Chicago Bliss. You get the idea.

Safety doesn’t get butts in the seats, even though if the ladies were able to wear NFL style uniforms (face it, the NFL boys wear stretch pants with pads), with obvious modifications to the upper body padding, they would still be attractive AND protected.

However, I don’t see that happening any time soon, at least until they have a larger league and more games, which in turn brings in more funding. Safety and protection don’t put butts in seats in the world we live in.

Innuendo and skin do. Which, sadly, is just a reflection of the world we live in.

Of course, would I be saying this if I didn’t personally know someone on the team?

Well, it’s me, so, yeah, probably.

Either way…….I’ll be at all the Breeze home games I can manage!

If you are a true sports fan, do yourself a favor….look past the trappings and go to an LFL game if you have a team in your city.

Believe me, you’ll be hooked. Everyone I have ever brought to a game is now an LFL fan, both men AND women!