Jeff Lautenberger

Missouri tailback DeVion Moore breaks a tackle and looks for a hole to run.

Missouri linebacker Sean Weatherspoon salutes Texas players as both teams exit the field.

Click on for a photo slideshow from the game. » Continue Reading…

Tony Hawk soars above a vert ramp during a demo at the Columbia Skate Park in the Cosmopolitan Recreation Area.

Almost everyone seems to be tweeting these days, or at least knows what Twitter is. Tony Hawk has taken twittering to new heights.

For the past several months, in a new-media marketing blitz dubbed the “Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt,” or, in TwitterSpeak, “#THTH,” Hawk has been leaving prizes and freebies all over the world for his Twitter followers to find through location clues revealed on his Twitter page. I’m by no means the first person to blog or write about this, and I’m not going to go into a whole lot of details, so if you’re interested, Google it or follow him yourself @tonyhawk.

Hawk’s appearance in Columbia was also announced via Twitter clues. Even though I wasn’t following him at the time, I quickly found out through another friend’s tweet. Gotta love social networking. Officially, Hawk’s stop in Columbia was the first of the new “Birdhouse Live From the Road” tour, all in promotion of Birdhouse skaters and Tony Hawk’s new video game Tony Hawk Ride.

Click on for a photo slideshow. » Continue Reading…

Black beat Gold, 9-5, to win the Mizzou Fall World Series three games to one.

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea who this pitcher is. There is no No. 13 on any current MU roster, and there was no box score for the game. I’m posting it here simply because I think it’s cool, but for all practical (read: portfolio) purposes, the photo is useless if I can’t caption it. This is one of those instances where quality of light absolutely makes a photo work. Pitchers wind up and go through this motion about a combined 250 times each game. Normally, I won’t even shoot the windup, and instead focus on getting a frame of the pitcher with the ball just coming off his fingertips. I tried that here too, but with this light, by the time Mystery Pitcher released the ball, his entire body was dark and in shadow.

Leaves of all colors bask in afternoon light on trees near the Hinkson Creek recreation area in Columbia.

Hot air balloons rise over the Columbia as foliage turns at Gustin Golf Course.

Between innings of the Fall World Series (see next post), I got bored and started shooting trees. I put my D700 on the “Vivid” picture setting (I usually shoot “Standard”) to bring out the most of the color in the autumn leaves. Taylor Stadium is located at one of the highest elevations in the area, and there are several vistas around the stadium. I used a couple different lenses, but both of these were taken with a 400mm f/2.8 — hardly a typical landscape lens. I really like the compression effect, and it obviously brings things closer to the eye. In the first shot, those trees are probably a quarter mile away, and in the second, I would guess the balloons are at least a mile away.