BOXING: Pavlik-Williams Presser

The on-again, off-again, on-again fight between World Middleweight Champ Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams is official. The two fighters met at the NY York Giants training facility, the state of the art Timex Performance Center in East Rutherford, NJ. The pair will meet on December 5, 2009 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ.

The presser took place in the auditorium where the Giants have their players meetings and while it was a great room, the lighting was very uneven for a photo event.

Someone also kept playing with the lighting during the event, so it changed around quite a bit. Anyway, back to the presser, the fighters conducted some one on one's while HBO's Buzz crew gathered soundbites from all involved, including Giants radio announcer/HBO commentator Bob Papa and New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs.






The fighters were very complimentary of each other, but per usual, both proclaimed they would be the victor come fight night. Each fighter was also presented with a commemorative Giants jersey by Jacobs, Pavlik with the number 12, and Williams with 5, to mark the December 5th date of the fight.


Today's presser took place two year's to the day of Pavlik winning the Middleweight Championship at Boardwalk Hall, and he was presented with a cake in celebration. I had received a call over the weekend from publicist Fred Sternburg looking to get the right's to an image of Pavlik I shot of him winning the title from Jermain Taylor (see below) to use on the cake.


However when I got there, they had gone in another direction and had the cake designed by TLC's "The Cake Boss". On hand to present the cake was Mauro Castano from the show. Would have been cool to see my image on a cake designed by them, but hey no big deal...


After the presentations, it was time for the fighter's to face off in the obligatory staredown...




The fight was delayed from earlier in the year due to a staph infection, which also forced the cancellation of another of Pavlik's fights. His hand still looked like it should be a reason for concern, but all in attendance said everything is on schedule.


In my I just have to do it moment, I snapped a picture with the Giants 3 Super Bowl Trophies...taken by Top Rank photographer Chris Farina


who also forced me to do this one, of course I blending in perfectly with all the other fans on the wall so you couldn't even see me...



Next up the start of the NHL season on Saturday, Devils and Flyers!!!

All images copyright Ed Mulholland. No unauthorized usage permitted.

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NFL: Shooting in the Rain

Shot the red-hot NY Jets third victory in a row (a 24-17 win over the Tennessee Titans) on Sunday in a on and off again rain, that was more annoying than troublesome, but I did get the opportunity to test out my ThinkTank Hydrophobia, but more on that later.

Decided to partake in the press lunch after setting up captions and folders for transmission and skipped shooting any pre-game images. When I got out to the field shortly before kickoff, there was a light but steady rain, and it was very overcast, but in my opinion it made for a very even light on the field, that was easy to shoot in.

Early on it looked like the game might turn into a laugher as the Jets jumped out early, but it settled into a tightly fought contest.

Caught a decent jube shot of New York Jets tight end Ben Hartsock after his TD reception as well as a sequence of Mark Sanchez rushing for one.





Jerricho Cotchery had a nice day, captured a few pics of him that I liked as well, overall I just felt like I was finding better shooting angles. I had a perfect spot for a would be touchdown as well, but the receiver could not keep his feet in, so those images went into the scrap heap, as they were not newsworthy...here's some of Cotchery's day...





I moved around a bit more this weekend then I have the previous few weeks, and I just think more than anything I guessed right more often. Plays just seemed to happen coming at me.



On this one I moved to the back wall next to the TV cameras right before the snap, great guess as Lendale White took it in from 5 yards out...did I say great, I meant lucky guess...



Being a Rutgers grad, and HUGE Rutgers football fan, I was happy to cover former Rutgers standout Kenny Britt who had four catches I believe, here was his longest of the day, again lucky it happened on my side of the field...




Of course a few of the QB's (tough day for Collins as he misfired on his last 14 of the day)


Of course the Jets "D" had a little bit of a hand in that, as well as a couple of dropped balls...



This image below was my favorite image from the game, just liked the setup, the angle almost makes it look like the viewer is the QB...(pass was incomplete by the way...oh well)



A few quick web pubs I found...







The ThinkTank Hydrophobia

The rain was more of a nuisance than anything else, it did nothing to enhance the images at all, nor really detract from them either. Wearing rain gear was a coin flip, if you wore it, it was hot enough to trap heat and make you sweat, if you didn't you stayed cooler, but got a bit wetter from the steady drizzle...in other words damned if you do, damned if you don't. My Mark III and 300mm however wore it's rain gear, the ThinkTank Hydrophobia.

Over the past couple of years I've picked up several pieces of ThinkTank gear. I use their modular belt system which rocks, I have the Artificial Intelligence "15 for my MacBook, and every time I fly my gear is in my Airport Security bag (I've yet to find a better roller). The Hydrophobia was no exception to their excellence. It was easy to put on, very secure and easy to work with through the arm holes, again as is with their other products everything is very well thought out.

Once the rain subsided for a time in the second half, I rolled it up easily and tucked it away on the lens hood. The rain started again, and I deployed it in seconds and didn't miss a play. Just a great piece of gear, here's hoping the make a version for shorter lenses.

With that I'll say farewell with a two-handed wave from Mark Sanchez and get ready for some upcoming shoots, like the start of the NHL season on Saturday night, Devils-Flyers!!!

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NFL: Patriots at Jets

Covered my first regular season NFL game, and as far as early regular season games go, it was a big one, as the New England Patriots rolled into town to take on the New York Jets in East Rutherford, NJ. Since I'd only done a few preseason games, the first thing that got me was the amount of people on the sidelines compared with the preseason...crazy. Secondly, on the field, it's just plain LOUD! It was a big advantage for the Jets today, as you can see in the main image, Tom Brady had a ton of trouble hearing anything.

Beautiful day at Giants Stadium today, sunny and warm and a clear blue sky...perfect. Set up and headed out to the field to watch a bit of warmups, a few celebs and former athletes on-hand, like Curtis Martin, Wayne Chrebet, Tyson Beckford and the guy in the photo below, actor Michael Douglas.


Snapped a few early pics, Jerricho Cotchery leading the Jets to the sidelines.


One of Mark Sanchez getting loose that I liked the tightness on, and might work for stock down the road.


Caught a nice one of Dustin Keller saying a prayer before the start of the game with a 16-35mm and a tighter one with my 300mm.



I mentioned the blue skies right? Here's one of a jet flyover before the start of the game, kinda blew this shot, had it framed since I knew it was coming, but got caught up with something else and had to grab my wide angle quickly and messed it up...oh well.


Offense was pretty much non-existent in the first half, but managed to get a few decent frames, and a few for stock of key players like Brady, Sanchez, and Thomas Jones.






While the offense stalled, the Jets 'D' was on...here Kerry Rhodes breaks up a potential TD throw to Randy Moss.



After the first half, headed to transmit, ran a bit late and missed the Jets first drive of the 2nd half (of course it was the only TD of the game), most of the photogs were still inside though, it happens.

Here's a few other random snaps from the 2nd half.

Blew the background out on this one, but thought it created a pretty good image of Brady, he kinda pops out...



Jets dynamic duo...


Jets Smash!!!


Here Brady appears to think I'm open and sends one my way, thankfully a Patriots receiver stepped in front of it, but I think I could have pulled it in.



A few necessary NY Jets Flight Team shots (my daughter who is 7 and in her first year of cheerleading makes me bring some of these home to show her, I swear...That's my story and I'm sticking to it)

This first one was great, just happened to be focusing on her when an apparent Jets TD was overturned on video review. She obviously did not agree at all.




Strange and unsettling moment, a NJ State Police/Homeland Security helicopter hovers over the stadium in the 4th quarter, appears the officer has a rifle of some sort, just snapped a quick one.



Just another random snap of an official picking up a flag.



and of course the post game runoff...didn't get the coaches handshake, as Bill Belichick barely acknowledged Rex Ryan after the game, and apparently Brady ran right off as well...



Still feel like I'm finding my way around while shooting football, but at least my first regular season game is out of the way. Of course not without incident, as I lost my 1.4x teleconverter during the game, must have somehow fallen out of my ThinkTank modular belt...sucks...Next week I'll be shooting the Jets-Titans game, so I get right back out there.

Couple of quick web usages...


ESPN.com

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