Tonight, the first night, I ran in the 5k Filthy Mud Run, which was MUCH harder than anticipated. I was sorely disappointed when I arrived at the final mud pit and it was closed off due to an injured competitor. I had to run around it.

Fortunately, I had better luck with my photography. I decided to shoot the finals in the Ultimate Air Dog (Catch It).

Here are the shots I was able to capture. Since I managed to get quite a few, I put them into a simple slideshow from Flickr. You can see me shots on flickr here…

Get up before the sunrise, travel somewhere, take sunrise shots
Come back, sleep, get up for lunch
Travel somewhere for some afternoon shots
Grab an early dinner
Find a location for sunset shots
Come back at night, download photos, take a quick peek at them
Go to bed
Wake up and do it all over again.

Here is a quick slideshow of photos from my past trips…

I try to post shots on the road. If not, I am sure I will have many, many new photos to share.

I found myself drawn immediately and almost entirely to the “Glass Tower” sculpture that is part of the Hans Godo Frabel glass display going on right now throughout the gardens.  With my tripod set up, here is what I got…

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Fringed Tulip

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Under the Tulip

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Orchid from inside the Conservatory

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Yellow Tulips Kissed by the Sun

So, I decided to spend the early part of Easter Sunday morning photographing the spring flowers and some of the glass work by Frabel.

Check back often for more photos of the “Million Blooms of 2010″ and Frabel’s sculptures.

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Daffodil Gardens

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Rows of Tulips

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Sun Drenched Daffodils

Some of the Glass Work by Hans Godo Frabel

This first photo is a part of his “Botanical Series” and is in the Conservatory.  These are botanically-correct renditions of many flowers found within LGBG.

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Also located in the conservatory are “Masks”.  This is by far my favorite of them.

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A large sculpture just inside the front doors of the conservatory, this is “Cavorting Clown Fountain”.

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Finally, just beyond the main entrance to the gardens is this beautiful tower, so I climbed on the concrete fountain surrounding the sculpture and got some great shots of the conservatory reflected in the glass artwork entitled “Tower”.

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Continue to check out the Lewis Ginter Frabel Gallery on my site for more photos of this exhibit.

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For my first official post I decided to write a little about returning courtside for the first time this year and photographing the VCU Women’s Basketball team when they took on UDEL at home on January 20th.  Despite it being well into the season, this was the first game I attended with my camera. Because of my work in the athletic department, I get the chance to sit on the sideline at a lot of VCU athletic events. And since I know most of the athletes on the court/field/etc., my photographing them during the competition often goes unnoticed.  They appreciate it when I send them shots of them in action.

I chose this game because of the appearance of one Elena Della Donne, who two years ago was the #1 women’s basketball recruit and committed to UCONN. However, she left UCONN before the school year started and found herself at UDEL playing on the Women’s Volleyball team. Having never played volleyball at a competitive level, she quickly picked up the game and helped propel the UDEL Lady Hen’s to the 2008 CAA Tournament Champions. Now, she is the leading scorer for the women’s basketball team. I wanted to see her in action.

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While I was impressed with Della Donne’s ability, I quickly realized that someone else had come to play, #44 Courtney Hurt.  In the first half, “Churt” came to play and was instrumental in holding Della Donne scoreless in the first 10 minutes of the game and keeping her to 10 of her game high 27 points in the first half.

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The ladies played a hard fought game in the second half with a key steal by #4 Kita Waller late in the game and some good offensive shots.  In the end, senior #24 D’Andra Moss nailed a 3-pointer with 0:00.4 of a second left to propel the ladies to a 60-59 win.  One of the challenges I have photography VCU sports is that I get too “into” the game and become a fan.  I was so entrenced with the final play of the game that my camera when unused and my perfectly angled seat on the floor produced no dramatic shot!

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Since it was my first game, I was a bit rusty!  I mostly shot with my 70-300 f/4-5.6 (as I have yet to convenice my wife to allow me to purchase a 70-200 IS f/2.8).  The shot of the team huddle and the shot above of #4 Courtney shooting the ball we taken with my wide angle 17-24 f/4.  To give you an example of my rust, I missed an awesome shot in the first half of #24 D’Andra taking a charge!  It was completely out of focus, I wasn’t ready…

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Last but not least, I was able to get a great 3-shot series of #1 Jennifer Lane on a fast break open layup.  So, I decided to turn it into a tripic.  She did make the shot and was fouled.

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Thanks for reading.  Until next time…

Click Below for the Slideshow:

Thanks.

Scott C. Quarforth, Photographer Extraordinaire