Tag: lacrosse

UNC Lacrosse Project: Freshmen Dinner

Coach Haus’ wife, Mrs. Lisa Haus suggested a new tradition for the team this year: A special dinner at the Haus’ house for each of the four classes. Tonight’s dinner was for the freshman. Next month the sophomore will have their dinner, the juniors in November and the seniors will wrap it up in December.

Before dinner, Coach Haus’ youngest son Grant played a game of paper football with Milton Lyles on a coffee table in the living room. The goal was to take a piece of paper folded up into a triangle and try to slide it across the table, leaving it partially hanging off the side of the table without falling off. If you managed that, you got to shoot a field goal for extra points. No doubt Milton had a lot of experience before tonight playing the game. If Milton ever approaches you to make a bet to play him in paper football, don’t take it. He will beat you handily.

With so many hungry mouths to feed, I was expecting Mrs. Haus to have the dinner catered. But I was impressed to see she was making everything on her own. On the menu tonight was chili available in both beef and chicken.

Michael Burns

Scott Bollert

Bobby McAuley

Billy Bitter

Tim Kaiser

Matt Davie

UNC Lacrosse Project: Weights and Practice

The team both lifted weights and had a practice out on Finley Field today. The practice could not come soon enough for me. The weight lifting routine was for me getting, well, routine. While the strength and conditioning staff does an excellent job of mixing up the sessions with different workouts, I was getting to the point that I felt maxed out creatively on what I could do in there. I knew that would going to be a challenge: To find new angles in a repetitive environment. But I have been pushing myself to come out at least once a week regardless and push myself to find something new to do. The first couple days of weight room I took the machine gun approach and took a ton of photos. Now however, I take way fewer photos — taking them now more deliberately after studying the environment and trying to think outside the box. It’s not unusual now for me to just watch the players do a few reps on an exercise before even picking up the camera.

Today broke up the monotony as it was my first practice to photograph. The team started last week but I missed it while I was out of town. Even without the benefit of a calendar to tell me that outdoor practice had started last week, my olfactory intuition would have clued me in. The locker room typically had a neutral smell to it. But when I walked in today, the equipment and padding worn out to practices brought a certain, well, striking scent to the air.

It was great to see the lacrosse team in lacrosse gear. I was freshing to be in a new environment and feel like a kid in a candy store. So many photo opportunities…so little time. It was also a relief to be away from the terrible lighting in the weight room.

I split my time during practice taking the “sports photographer” approach and the “creative photographer” approach. As the sports photographer I took action photos of them practicing and running drills using a lens with a long focal length. The creative photographer in me took photos with a wider lens and focused on the human aspect rather than the action.

UNC Lacrosse Project: Weight Room and Team Photo

I returned from San Diego yesterday and was ready to get back to the project after being gone for some time, although I wasn’t ready to leave the great weather behind. Returning to North Carolina reminded me of what humidity is — a reminder I could have done without.

After lifting weights the players returned to the locker room to vote for their choice of captain for the upcoming season. I was trying to get a photo of a player filling-out the ballot but they all turned away to vote and voting only took about 5 seconds. But I did get some photos of them dropping off their ballot.

The missed team photo due to rain last week was looking like it would again be missed as clouds loomed over Chapel Hill. No rain fell however and the team photo went on as scheduled. Jeffery Camarati, the UNC staff photographer, would typically do this photo but he was with the football team down in Florida. In his absence I did the photo and I have done many, many team photos in my days starting with my career at Georgetown University. But today had to have been the worst experiences doing a team photo yet. I set up four monolights on tripods to properly light the team. In the course of setting up though, one of the tripods tipped over taking with it a $350 light and a $250 radio. All were smashed and all were broken. To add insult to injury the battery power pack that I was using to power the lights went bad so I had no strobes to use. 

All that said the photos came out fairly well. It would have been a little better with the pop that strobes would have added, but I was overall pleased. Dave Lohse and Jeff had a great idea of having players wear either a blue or white jersey. In general the offense wore blue and the defense white. The players also brought their stick, helmet and gloves and were given the option to hold their stick and helmet however they wanted. It was refreshing and contrary to the usual team photos where players are lined up and stand in a uniform manner. We took multiple set-ups, asking the players to change positions each time.

UNC Lacrosse Project: Carolina Dreams

Former North Carolina lacrosse member Dave Werry started Carolina Dreams at the end of his freshman year. The goal was to partner Carolina student athletes with patients from the North Carolina Children’s Hospital. After been pioneered by Werry, the flame has been passed to Michael Munnelly. Today the lacrosse team hosted a few of the patients. They started with a meet and greet in the Kenan Fieldhouse academic center. Players and patients talked, especially about lacrosse which many of the patients did know know a lot about. Maybe a few UNC lacrosse fans were created today.

The players and patients were recognized on the field before kickoff and enjoyed the game from the bleachers.

Michael Jarvis

Jack Ryan

Dave Lohse

Sean DeLaney

UNC Lacrosse Project: Head Shot Day

The team was scheduled to do head shots and an outdoor team photo today. Until today the area had not received any rain since August 26th. Crops were wilting, lawns were crunchy and gardens required daily waterings to survive the drought we’ve been experiencing. On a day when good weather was needed, we of course picked the first rainy day in weeks to do the team photo outside. That said, given the severe drought we’ve had, I can’t complain too much. We needed rain more than we needed good weather. Given the rain, the team photo was rescheduled to next Friday. Jeff Camarati, the UNC photographer, was suppose to do it, but will be with the football team then. So looks like I’ve been drafted to take the photo in his place. That means no outtakes or behind-the-scenes look at the process.

The head shots were indoors in the team room and did not require good weather obviously. The players however, drenched by the downpour as they poured into the locker room, were soaking wet. Ties, shirts and hair all needed time to dry out. Still, many of the players had their picture taken with wet hair and it wasn’t because they were working out beforehand.

Before players had their head shot take by Jeff, they had to first pass inspection by sports information director Dave Lohse. Culprits with crooked or sloppy ties were stopped at the pass and not allowed to have their photo taken. Some like Chris Hunt with a newly dry cleaned shirt and Bobby McCauley were dressed to impress and passed the “Lohse test” with flying colors. Others like Michael Jarvis and Nick Tintle needed some work before getting a pass.