mOcean Volleyball Club’s 2015 17U team at the California Kickoff

After just four practices, mOcean’s 17U team fared well in their first time playing competitively as a group, ending the tournament with a 12-3 mark. (The girls usually play against each other as they are from seven different high schools in California and Southern Oregon, but this is their first time working together.) They have two local tournaments to iron out some kinks before heading south again for the President’s Day weekend tourney in San Mateo next month where they will likely face some of the same (mostly SF Bay Area) teams.

January 19th, 2015 | Tags: AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED lens, mOcean VC, Nikon D750, sports photography, volleyball | Category: outside of ashland, people | Comments Off on 3rd place out of 35 teams

mOcean Volleyball Club 17U @ California Kickoff (Santa Clara)

No team has been able to beat mOcean yet. Stiffer competition awaits as only eight teams remain. Next game is at 11:30.

January 18th, 2015 | Tags: mOcean VC, Nikon 85mm f/1.8 g lens, Nikon D750, sports photography, volleyball | Category: outside of ashland, people | Comments Off on mOcean volleyball 17U advances to Elite Eight

17U mOcean Volleyball Club at California Kickoff 2015 (Santa Clara)

@NCVAVolleyball

No word yet on tomorrow’s brackets, but the mOcean 17U team got through pool play without a loss today. The #2 seed lost to mOcean twice so mOcean should be one of the top seeds in the top bracket for Sunday’s double elimination tournament.

January 17th, 2015 | Tags: AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED lens, mOcean VC, Nikon D750, sports photography, volleyball | Category: outside of ashland | Comments Off on mOcean VC goes 8-0 in first day of tournament

Maya Angelou will be honored in this year’s program on Monday, January 19 at noon in the Ashland Armory. There will be a choir from John Muir Elementary, students from Ashland High School’s Change Project, Intention Dance, Samba do Coração, Rogue Valley Gospel Group and other performers. Seats are usually gone by about 11:45 so get there early.

For more photos from prior years click here.

January 16th, 2015 | Tags: Ashland Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration, danceworks, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D600 | Category: only in ashland, people | Comments Off on Ashland’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Celebration 2015

Sammich‘s “melt my heart away” (Ashland, Oregon)

@sammichashland @TravelOregon

So good. So good.

Sammich’s specials board

January 15th, 2015 | Tags: food, Nikon 85mm f/1.8 g lens, Nikon D750, sammich | Category: only in ashland | Comments Off on Sammich’s “melt my heart away”

SOU men’s basketball – Jordan West

@SOURaiders

Cue the Ozzy…

Saturday the Raiders will head over to Klamath Falls to take on Oregon Tech. The SOU men are ranked #10 and the women are #14. While neither OIT team is in the rankings, they aren’t far out and are never easy to beat on their home court.

Meanwhile, I’ll be heading over a different mountain on Friday, the Siskiyou Pass, as the mOcean volleyball club 17U team gets its first taste of competition in the California Kickoff Tournament in Santa Clara.

Ellie Case of the mOcean Volleyball Club

January 15th, 2015 | Tags: basketball, ellie, sports photography, volleyball | Category: people | Comments Off on Over the mountain

We had a spectacular sunrise this morning. However, I was too lazy to get a shot of it. Today’s photo is from last Friday morning when the fog was still lingering over town and the sun was about to rise in the southeast.

January 14th, 2015 | Tags: clouds, fog, Nikon AF‑S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G lens, Nikon D750, sunrise | Category: nature, only in ashland | Comments Off on Another Ashland sunrise

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football

Piles of coffee table books documenting the 2014 SOU football team’s season arrived in the mail today. I decided to go captionless with the format rather than have words clutter up the pages. The only words are on the front and rear covers.

There are two versions of this book. The regular version is 33 full-color pages in length (plus front and rear cover photos) and includes about 40 different photos, most photos being in a large 8″ x 11″ format. Some of the photos have not been published anywhere before (or even been seen by anyone but me). Others are favorites that have been well received on the internet already (but many people haven’t seen them on anything other than their phones). These photos look much better in large print on high quality paper than on a small smart phone screen. The photos come from seven of the games during the Raiders 13-2 championship season and a few are from other events (like the parade in Ashland and activities in Daytona Beach).

The deluxe version is 43 full-color pages in length plus the front and rear covers. The deluxe version is a hard cover book which includes all of the photos from the regular version plus 10 more.

All profits from the sale of these books will go toward the SOU football program. Championship t-shirts are available through the link here.

P.S. Lots of you are emailing me asking to reserve books for you. I’m not selling the books. SOU is selling the books. Details here. Note that the regular version has sold out. There are a few deluxe versions left (as many more of them were ordered).

January 13th, 2015 | Tags: football, NAIA National Championship Game Daytona Florida, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography | Category: people, photography | Comments Off on 2014 NAIA National Football Champions photo book

SOU women’s basketball – Alexi Smith

Alexi Smith leads the Raiders with an average of more than 13 points per game to go along with more than 8 rebounds per game.

January 13th, 2015 | Tags: Alexi Smith, basketball, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, Tamron SP 24-70mm Di VC USD | Category: only in ashland, people | Comments Off on Raiders move up to #14 in rankings