The following are posts related to specific shoots. And other things that I cannot stop myself from writing about.
The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Evanston Wildkits 51-36 to win the Chipotle Clash of Champions. Michael O’Brien and the Chicago Sun-Times has the Rams ranked #1—the best high school basketball in Northern Illinois.
I will do a story about the game for Inside Publications and publish it here as well later in the week.
I hope you like the photos. Not my best work but never enjoyed a game more.
The DePaul Prep girls varsity basketball team took on Providence Catholic Saturday afternoon on Senior Day. The young Rams only have one senior on the squad, point guard Eva Budziszewski.
The story on the game will follow. There will be a preview of my Inside article later in the week. For now, I hope you like the photos. It was great to get back to doing girls’ games. This weird COVID season has limited my availability. I should be able to get at least one more in before basketball comes to screeching halt.
As always, Go Rams!
The DePaul Prep Rams traveled to Oak Park Friday to take on Fenwick. The Rams fell to the Friars 66-56.
The Lincoln Park High School Lions boys varsity team had its home opener on Mar. 3, against North Lawndale in another down-to-the-wire affair. This time it was the visiting North Lawndale Pheonix that would edge the home team for a 61-58 victory.
No opening game jitters in this one. Both teams came out running and scoring. Lincoln Park jumped out to a 23-12 first quarter lead largely by senior center Sincere Malone controlling the boards.
Lincoln Park lead 42-35 at the half.
North Lawndale battled back in the second half eventually taking a 57-56 lead with 4:24 left in the fourth quarter.
“In the second half, we ran into a little foul trouble with our big fellow [senior center Sincere Malone] in the first half,” said new Lincoln Park head coach Antwon Jennings.
“We adjusted. We went from playing man-to-man to zone, just trying to give them a different look,” Jennings added. “We were just out of position. [North Lawndale’s] second chance shots killed us.”
Even after losing its lead the Lions battled the Phoenix in back-and-forth action late in the fourth.
Lincoln Park was in position to tie several times late in the game only done three in the last minute. The Lions had two open looks to tie late but two three pointers missed. A turned over by Lincoln Park with 15 seconds remaining sealed the victory for North Lawndale.
When asked what he told his players after missing two shots to tie, Jennings said, “Keep shooting the ball. I feel like I’ve got two of the best shooters in the City in Chris [Hammonds] and Julio [Montes].
“I told Julio I will live with him taking those shots. You gotta take ‘em,” Jennings added. “I wouldn’t do it any different.”
Final was North Lawndale 61, Lincoln Park 58.
This is something of a disappointing 0-2 start to the season for Lincoln Park who had a blowout loss to Whitney Young on Feb. 26. Antwon Jennings comes to Lincoln Park this year from the staff of Morgan Park under legendary coach Nick Irvin. Coach Jennings spent years under Coach Irvin including Morgan Park’s two 3A state championships.
Nevertheless, the future is bright for the Lions who take on archrival Lane Tech on Friday, March 5, at Lane.
After the last-minute postponement of the Farragut game on Friday, Feb. 26, the Lane Tech boys basketball team finally opened its season on Monday, Mar. 1, against Jones. The Lane boys (no longer known as the Indians) beat Jones 40-34, in a defensive struggle.
Both teams came out of the 360-day layoff since their last high school basketball game, very rusty. Shots just would not fall. These jitters combined with very strong defensive efforts by both teams meant that after one quarter of basketball, the score was Lane 7, Jones 5.
The second quarter was not a whole lot better. The score at the half was Jones 15, Lane 12.
“First game jitters; that’s gonna happen, especially after a year layoff and only having a couple practices,” said Lane Tech head coach and athletic director Nick Logalbo.
Things teams settled down at halftime and felt a little more normal, well COVID normal. Shots started falling. It turned into an exciting back and forth game. Lane’s junior guard Sean Molloy sparked the Lane boys with nine of this game high 14 points in the third quarter. Interestingly, Sean Molloy is the youngest brother of Lane’s girls’ varsity basketball coach Megan Molloy.
With 1:06 left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Jones senior forward Niko Rosich tied the game at 37 with a long three-pointer.
Lane point guard senior Justin Brown quickly brought up the ball and with 50 seconds to go dished to Molloy. Off the shot fake, Molloy slashed into the lane and was called for a charge. With the foul, the ball went over to Jones with the game still tied with 39 second remaining.
Initially, Jones looked like it would play for the last shot but Rosich broke for the basket missing a layup. Molloy scrambled for the ball and dashed up court. Weaving way through defenders Molloy dropped in a right handed layup being fouled in the process with 20.2 seconds remaining.
Sean added the free throw giving Lane a 40-37 lead. There it would end.
“You know the Molloy boys; those kids are tough as nails. Sean gonna be obviously a really good player for us. We knew he would make those plays. The charge was questionable, but how about a junior responding like that? He wanted the ball right back,” Logalbo said of Molloy.
Sean’s older brother Michael Molloy was Lane’s starting point guard several years ago. Brother Neil Molloy played football at Lane from 2011 to 2015, later playing college football at Illinois Wesleyan.
Sean Molloy had 14 points. Lane’s senior center Aaron McQueen finished with 10 points. Justin Brown had seven.
Jones’ Rosich also with 14 points. Jones’ Devin Boston had 11 points.
One can view the entire game, include Lane Tech sophomore Alex Burstein’s play-by-play, on Lane Tech Athletic’s You Tube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxdhVaJI8sQ&t=53s
The now fifth ranked DePaul Prep Rams traveled to Lombard this morning for a rescheduled game against Montini and defeated the Broncos 60-39.
DePaul plays Loyola Academy tomorrow at home at 7:00. I don’t write much ahead of the Loyola game.
I hope you like today’s photos.
The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Providence Catholic Celtics 55-38 last night (Feb. 24) at the Tom Winiecki Gym.
TY Johnson was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000 point as a varsity player in the first game of the year against St. Joseph.
Today was my day for getting photos of the coaches and of blocked shots.
I hope you like the photos.
St. Ignatius has a good team. I have seen them a couple times this year and they have a good young team. Kolby Giles is a beast.
Let me tell you something. Tom Kleinschmidt’s DePaul Prep Rams handled them 59-38 last Friday (Feb. 19). The Rams jumped out to an early lead with tremendous defense and points off the break.
There was plenty of fight in the Wolfpack. Matt Monroe has his team playing well and playing as a team. After opening the game with an 18-6 run, the Rams went a little cold. When asked what happened, Kleinschmidt said, “Well Ignatius happened. They’re a good team. They spread us a little bit. We went to our bench. We haven’t played in eleven days. They’re a good team. That’s what happened to us.”
Nevertheless, the Rams just seemed too quick and too athletic. TY Johnson and Rasheed Bello are the best front court I have seen this year.
Mind you this is not expert analysis here. These are my impressions as a photographer. But man-o-man the Rams look good—fierce even.
In this COVID world, I don’t know how they stack up. I have seen other ranked teams in person and streaming. They are close to the best. If there was a normal playoff, this Rams team would be a 3A finalist. Do they beat Notre Dame to get to the title game? I don’t know. Notre Dame is loaded. I understand that match up is being planned so we might get to find out.
I hope you like the photos.
I was at St. Patrick Tuesday evening for the ESCC showdown between #5 Notre Dame and #10 St. Patrick. St. Patrick is tough place for a road team. The last Gordon Tech basketball game ever was March 7, 2014. It ended in a 59-39 loss for the Rams at St. Patrick. That home crowd is tough.
Not the same this year. Not the same home crowd but still very tough. St. Pat’s has an excellent team this year they and gave the Don’s all they could handle.
The Dons jumped out to a 5-0 lead early in the first quarter but never could break it open.
The Shamrocks pulled off a 15 to 9 run and grabbed a brief 32-31 lead at the 6:01 mark of the fourth quarter.
The #5 ranked Dons are a tough, well coached veteran group with three division one recruits. When they got the lead up to about five, Kevin Clancy went into a stall trusting his players to make the free throws.
They did. Anthony Sayles went eight for eight at the line.
Behind the leadership of the three division one recruits, Anthony Sayles (17 points), Louis Lesmond (14 points) and Troy D’Amico (11) points, the Dons regained the lead and held on to win 52-45. Notre Dame’s Sonny Williams added 8 points and Frank Lynch, (nephew of Chicago’s Sulzer Library librarian and 47th Ward resident, Julie Lynch), had 2 points.
Despite a 24-9 season last year and winning a spot in a sectional championship, number 13 ranked St. Ignatius hosted St. Laurence in a Chicago Catholic League “crossover” matchup between two teams swapping spots in CCL divisions this year. The Wolfpack were, some might say, “relegated” to the White and the Vikings moving up to the Blue division.
“I know; it’s weird. We are moving because of our record two years ago,” said St. Ignatius head coach Matt Monroe.
Relegated or not St. Ignatius is good. Coming off a disappointing 34-31 loss against Loyola Academy on Thursday, the Wolfpack looked flat and tentative in the first half. Just like they did at Loyola.
The Vikings impressed in the first half. Lead by senior guard and football quarterback Darius Wilson, the Vikings defense played well and the offence finished at the other end leading 33-30 at the half.
Monroe lit a fire under them at halftime. “I told them we have to play with energy on defense. When they got active on the defensive end, it jump started the offense,” Monroe said.
The second half was a whole different story. Ignatius outscored Laurence 18-6 in the third quarter. Ignatius did not let up in the fourth. Laurence’s frustration boiled over into two technical fouls. It was over at that point.
When asked if it is the quest for a CCL White championship motives his team, Monroe said, “I tell them to play for each other.” Make your team great.
Monroe has his team playing for each other.
Final score: St. Ignatius 67, St. Laurence 49.
The Chicago Public Schools announced Feb. 8 that high school basketball could begin Feb. 11. Coaches are expecting to work through tryouts, start practices on Feb. 12 and start games on February 19. The IHSA announced is extension of the CPS season to March 20, a week longer than the March 13 limit with applies throughout the rest of the state. This gives CPS teams one month and one day to play as many games as can safely be scheduled.
“We have 10 teams in our league [Red West-North]. So it’s nine games that CPS has given us for a league schedule,” Lane Tech Coach Nick LoGalbo said. Lane will play Clark, Farragut, Lincoln Park, Marshall, North Lawndale, Orr, Schurz, Westinghouse and Young. The dates and time have not been finalized.
“What the non-conference schedule looks like, I don’t know. Are they going to allow us to schedule and extra game per week or are they going to cap it? I don’t know,” LoGalbo said.
“Unfortunately, all the Catholic League and 30-mile radius teams have their schedules pretty locked up already. We were going to play DePaul and Pat’s and Ignatius. I don’t know if we are going to be able to get those teams in.”
“I wish I knew more. When [the IHSA] extended [the season] a week, I really thought they were going to do a regular season schedule and then a conference tournament that last week. But based upon the preliminary schedule I received, the regular season goes all the way to deadline. So I don’t think there is going to be any playoff or tournament.”
The preliminary CPS rules given initially to coaches do not allow spectators at all. Each team is allowed 20 people--15 players, two coaches and three others. There would also be two people at the table, three officials, one administrator and a maintenance person. There is not specific allowance for press. However, that may change after coaches have their meeting scheduled for Feb. 11.
Sixth ranked DePaul Prep played its first game Monday, Feb. 8, defeating St. Joseph 54-37 in St. Joseph’s nearly empty gym.
The Rams came out cold. Suffering jitters from the nearly year-long layoff, both teams missed shots and turned the ball over.
After a St. Joseph 7-0 run to open the game and about half of the first quarter, DePaup Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt dialed up the pressure having his Rams trap the ball handler.
“Slow start coming out. You have to hand it to Joe’s. They were way more physical than us. They came and punched us in the face . . .. It’s a Catholic League road game so you have to be ready and we weren’t. For whatever reason. I’m not making any excuses. We picked up pressure and started getting some live ball turnovers. We started getting some baskets,” Kleinschmidt said.
Midway through the second quarter the Rams opened a 12-point lead and it never was close after that.
DePaul senior guard Tyler “TY” Johnson lead all scorers with 26 points. DePaul senior guard Rasheed Bello finished with 9 points but had an end-to-end monster dunk in the first half that fired up the Rams.
Senior center Brian Matthews did not play until the start of the fourth quarter. “Brian hasn’t practiced yet. That’s the only reason [he didn’t play]. We brought him in in the fourth to give Dylan a little plow and that’s it,” Kleinschmidt said.
Postponements and cancellations have crippled the Chicago Catholic League schedule. The Rams were scheduled to play Marmion on Feb. 10. However, St. Joe’s had a player with a positive test within 48 hours after DePaul game, and after contact tracing, DePaul Prep determined that the majority of their varsity team would have to quarantine for 10 days. The Rams will miss the Marmion, Montini and Providence St. Mell games. The Rams next scheduled game is Feb. 17. at DeLaSalle Academy.
Loyola Academy opened its season at home Friday, Feb. 5, against Maine South. The Ramblers lead going into halftime but fell behind in the third quarter and could not recover eventually losing 47-36.
Despite the loss, Ramblers’ coach Tom Livatino was upbeat. “It felt normal in an abnormal time. I always thought we would play. It was all good. It was so phenomenal to be back.
As for the game Livatino said, “[a]n inexperienced team lost to an experienced team. That’s what happened. All credit to Maine South. We have a long way to go. We haven’t had a practices to iron the kinks out. We have chosen to play games. I guarantee that we will get better.”
And he was right. After two postponed games, the Rambler hosted #13 ranked St. Ignatius on Feb. 11. The Ramblers edged the Wolfpack 34-31 winning the Jesuit Cup (both schools are run by the Society of Jesus order of Catholic priests).
The Ramblers replaced their Feb. 12 game postponed game against St. Joseph with a game against Glenbrook North.
It’s a strange season. The schedule is fluid. Teams are just going to play as games work through issues during games. With no playoffs, postponed and cancelled games on a daily basis, we should all just enjoy any game we can see. For most fans, that will have to be through a live stream. Most schools are making such arrangements. Check school websites and social media for live stream information.
DePaul Prep defeated St. Joseph 54-37 in opening game of this COVID-19 season on Monday evening in an empty gym. Maybe you saw it streaming. I understand St. Joes was broadcasting it on Facebook or You Tube. Essentially, the only spectators were the teams themselves, the St. Joseph sophomore team, a couple of St. Joseph staff members and me.
It was an interesting game. The Rams came out cold. They had good shots; they just missed the bucket early and often. Both teams were missing shots and turning the ball over. It must have been jitters from the long layoff.
After a St. Joseph 7-0 run to open the game and about half of the first quarter, DePaup Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt dialed up the pressure having his Rams trap the ball handler.
“Slow start coming out. You have to hand it to Joe’s. They were way more physical than us. They came and punched us in the face . . .. It’s a Catholic League road game so you have to be ready and we weren’t. For whatever reason. I’m not making any excuses. We picked up pressure and started getting some live ball turnovers. We started getting some baskets,” Kleinschmidt said after the game.
Midway through the second quarter the Rams opened a 12-point lead and it never was close after that.
DePaul Prep senior guard Tyler “TY” Johnson lead all scorers with 26 points. DePaul senior guard Rasheed Bello finished with 9 points but had an end-to-end monster dunk in the first half that fired up the Rams. By the grace of God, I happened to be ready and snapped a photo which I posed on Twitter at halftime and is included below.
Senior center Brian Mathews did not play until the start of the fourth quarter. “Brian hasn’t practiced yet. That’s the only reason [he didn’t play]. We brought him in in the fourth to give Dylan [Arnett] a little plow and that’s it,” Kleinschmidt said.
The Rams were scheduled to play Marmion in the Tom Weinicki Gym on Wednesday. However, the game has been postponed because Marmion is quarantined. The next game for the Rams is Friday evening at Montini.
As for the photos, it’s all about the light at St. Joe’s. Those tungsten or sodium vapor lights must be an effort to freak out other teams. Most CCL teams are used to it, maybe even like it. I admit the lights are kind of growing on me. It makes for weird photos. Everything is under exposed orange.
My string of a game every day or so is coming to an end. Just not enough time to shoot, process and write every day.
Hope you like the photos.
In the second game of the Evanston v. Vernon Hills season opener, the Wildkits womens’ team opened their season against Vernon Hills 49-27.
Game recap to follow in the weekly column in Inside Publications—insideonline.com.
Here are my pictures from the game. I hope you like them.
The Evanston Township High School Wildkits defeated the Vernon Hills Cougars in Evanston Saturday afternoon 81-60.
More about the game in my weekly column in the Inside Publications—insideonline.com.
My thanks to the nice people at ETHS, Athletic Director Chris Livatino, in particular. Very well done and safe operation in this COVID season.
Here are my pictures from the game. I hope you like them. Photos from the girls game to follow shortly.
I have photographed four basketball games in the last three days and been glad to do it. Thursday was Prospect at Notre Dame. Last night was Maine South at Loyola. Today was Vernon Hills boy at Evanston, then Vernon Hills girls at Evanston.
It look a little getting used to again. Not exactly riding a bike; more like hitting a golf ball. It took a few swings to get back in the groove.
Thursday and Friday were challenging. I had to shoot from the balconies above the court. But not today for the two games at Evanston, I was on the court at it’s wonderful Beardsley Gym. The light in there if very good. As we all know, the light in the gym is the important part of basketball. It was just fun to be back on the floor. The pictures were better because of it.
It was a challenge last night at Loyola to shoot from the balcony well off the floor. I got some good shoots but for that type of shooting I need better equipment. It would have been right up Brian O’Mahoney’s alley. He is very good at doing it this way and gets razor sharp tight images from above. I don’t have the right equipment to make the most of that style.
More about the games themselves in my weekly column in the Inside Publications. Pick up the print version or subscribe at insideonline.com.
Here are the pictures from the Loyola v. Maine South game. Hope you like them. The photos from the Evanston v. Vernon Hills games will follow shortly.
My last basketball game was 332 days, March 11, 2020. The DePaul Prep Rams loss to St. Ignatius in the 3A Sectional semi-final. After that, nothing. Until yesterday.
Shay Boyle and the wonderful people at Notre Dame College Prep allowed me to come out and photograph their game against Prospect. I have photographed quite a few Notre Dame games in recent year. They have had great teams. It truly was a shame that they could not complete their playoff run last year. They just had a great team, really fun to watch, really skilled, tons of talent and heart. I have no doubt they would have won 3A. Okay, they might have beaten St. Viator in the sectional final, maybe. But if they did, I have no doubt they would have beaten Fenwick in the Super-sectional, some downstate team in the semi-final and then Morgan Park in the state championship game. No doubt.
These COVID games are weird. No fans. Worse yet I can’t photograph from the floor. Shooting basketball from above doesn’t make for good photos. Photographing anything from above does not make for good photos. But we can only do what we can do. And we can’t shoot from the gym floor.
I am not the most naturally gifted photographer. I really have to work at it through trial and error. These Notre Dame photos are not very good, either in terms of exposure and color or composition. I will figure it out. I will find the best spot from above in the gym to get usable shots. I mostly try to watch what other photographers were doing. Allen Cunningham found a great spot got some excellent shots. He always does such fine work.
So here they are.
The Illinois High School Association announced Wednesday that high school sports may resume practices immediately and games may start as early as next week. However, exactly when games will start in Chicago has yet to be determined. Games may not resume until Chicago moves into “Phase 4” of COVID restrictions.
Even in areas of the State already in Phase 4, basketball games may not start until teams complete seven days of practice. Under previously released Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines, practices could have started last week. Games will not start in Chicago until the State of Illinois moves Region 11 (Chicago) moves out of “tier 1” and into Phase 4. The move to Phase 4 depends upon a number of factors related to infection rate and hospitalization rate.
Games are limited to schools within the same state “region” established for COVID purposes. The City of Chicago is one such region. Suburban Cook County is another. The new IHSA plan allows for games between teams of the same region and teams within the same conference regardless of region.
While all CPS teams are obviously in the same region and can play one another, a CPS school would not be allowed to play a suburban team. In contrast, the Chicago Catholic League has city and suburban schools. Catholic League teams will be allowed to play each other but not public schools in another region. For instance, St. Ignatius (Chicago) could play Loyola Academy (Wilmette) but not Evanston.
The exact number of basketball games allowed by the IHSA is not limited, just the date by which the season must end, March 13. “The number of basketball games is a local decision,” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in Wednesday’s press conference. Schools and conferences will be allowed to set the number of games played. Anderson said that the number of games will have to be weighed against other academic and health related considerations.
The Chicago Catholic League released its schedule of mens basketball games. The 15-game season will start on Monday, February 8th and then the following Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until March 12th. Each team will be 7 games within their division and 8 “crossover” games against teams from the other division. The CCL has a rule that only home fans will be allowed to attend games.
Lane Tech Athletic Director and head men’s basketball coach Nick LoGalbo is not optimistic that games at Lane Tech will start anytime soon. “No matter the IHSA does, for us, everything is dependent on [CPS],” LoGalbo said. LoGalbo does not know what CPS will approve or when the approval will be forthcoming.
Nevertheless, CPS athletic directors are working on a schedule to play teams within each division in order to be ready. “We are looking at playing two to three games a week within each division,” LoGalbo said. “Plus some non-conference games.”
Current IDPH rules limit spectators at public indoor events to 50 people. The IHSA’s interpretation of the 50-person limit excludes players and school staff. It is unclear how schools will handle admitting spectators.
As for spectators at games, LoGalbo was not optimistic. “CPS may not allow spectators at all. Bank on nobody.” Lane is working on a plan to stream all games on the Internet.
Lane Tech womens basketball head coach Megan Molloy did not have much information about the plan going forward. “I have been meeting with my team over Google classroom and Google meets but that is about it,” Molloy said.
“Getting started again is going to be challenging. It is going to be hard. I am just going to tell my team that we are going to have to make the most of what we can do; we’ll have to take advantage of the time we have. That will be a good thing,” Molloy said.
The scheduling of back-to-back games varsity and sophomore games will be problematic. IDPH rules require the proper cleaning of the facility between such games. We may not see sophomore games immediately followed by varsity games.
Interestingly, health department rules require players must wear masks during games. Game rules will be modified slightly to provide one minute long socially distanced “mask breaks” when players can take off their masks and get a drink of water. There will be one such break during each quarter of the game.
High school football teams can begin practicing March 3rd. Games can begin March 19th and the season runs until April 24th. That leaves enough time for six games. There will be no state playoffs.
Athletes will be allowed to play multiple sports but the transition for playing basketball to football will require some extra football practice time for football players going right from basketball to football. Such players will need to participate in a couple practices in helmets and pads before being eligible to play in games.
The Chicago Catholic League/East Suburban Catholic League collaboration for football released its schedule. Each team will play 6 games, 3 against the other division teams and three crossovers. DePaul Prep will play Carmel Catholic, Marion Catholic and St. Joseph at home and Leo, Providence Catholic and Joliet Catholic on the road.
Traditional spring sports such as baseball, softball, lacrosse, girl soccer, etc., will begin practices on April 5th with the season ending on June 19th. Those sports will be afforded longer seasons because of the loss of last terms entire season.
The IHSA will not be mandating any COVID testing of athletes. “We have received no information from the Department of Public Health that would require [testing] of our students to be engaged in either practice of competition. While schools are obviously welcome to have testing if they have resources to do it,” Anderson said.
Lane Tech’s Sean Molloy (middle) rebounding in last season’s game against Oak Park-River Forest.
Never been so happy to put a year behind me. I won’t bore you with details of my pandemic year. Let’s just say I didn’t do much and worked a lot.
Didn’t take as many photos in 2020 has I have in years past. In 2020, I took about 36,000 photos. That is down by over 50%. In 2019, I took 80,000 photos, 73,000 in 2017 and 43,000 in 2017 and 2016.
My 2020 photography plans were upset. I planned to start doing some college basketball. I also planned to upgrade my equipment. Both put on hold.
One good thing is that this year gave me a chance to concentrate on some non-sports photography. I want to do some architecture photography, so I started in on that.
I got a 50mm f1.8 lens. It has been fun learning how to use that.
In picking out my favorites from 2020, I realized that processing on my phone and immediately posting to Instragram has become a much bigger part of what I do. One can see those photos here. The mobile processed photos don’t seem to make it to the file management system. I am gonna have to fix that.
I went through my photos and picked out the ones I liked. So here are my favorite photos of 2020. Interesting collection. None that I would say are among my best ever but I like each one for a variety of reasons. I hope you do too.
footnote: My “best of photos” previously included a photo of Bridget Gainer making the peace. That photo was actually taken by a great photographer Steve Gross. We were both shooting the 47th Ward Democrats event in early 2020. Somehow Steven’s photo ended up in my file system. It was probably because I was posting his photos which he graciously donated to the 47th Ward Democrats. So I apologize to Steven. We should all learn a lesson to watermark photos like Steven does or idiots like me can claim them. I have learned a great deal from Steven. I am so thankful that have just had the good fortune just to be around him. His photos are so simple and elegant. He did a portrait of me which I love. Sorry.
The State of Texas filed a complaint in the United States Supreme Court against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan asking to enjoin [those state’s] use of the 2020 election results to appoint presidential electors and authorize those states to conduct a special election to appoint presidential electors or to direct such State’s legislatures to appoint a new set of presidential electors or to appoint no electors at all.
And it’s not just Texas. President Trump is attempting to intervene with his own complaint. Twenty-two other states are supporting the lawsuit as friends of the court. And lots of congressmen and state legislators too.
Basically, Texas and the other sycophants are saying that four other states’ presidential election results should be thrown out.
Really? Seriously? Seems a little drastic.
You probably don’t know this about me but I have been interested in the little details in the Constitution, for a long time; details such as the kinds of cases for which the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction, (meaning that’s where one files the case). I remembered that suits between states are one of those few kinds of cases. U. S. Constitution, Article 3, Section 2, Clause 2. (I didn’t remember the cite. I had to look that up.)
So I got the complaint from the Supreme Court’s website and I read it.
Texas claims that government officials “weakened ballot integrity” through “executive fiat” or “friendly lawsuits” and “flooded states with millions of ballots to be sent through the mail, or placed in drop boxes with little or no chain of custody and, at the same time, weakened the strongest security measures protecting the integrity of the vote . . ..” Complaint at pp. 1-2.
Okay, that’s crazy talk but, just for our purpose here, suppose it is true. What is the legal theory? What law gives the Supreme Court the authority to overturn election results in Pennsylvania?
Texas suggest that it is the U. S. Constitution’s Electors Clause, Article 1, Clause 2. I confess that’s a new one on me. The Electors Clause provides that “[e]ach State shall appoint, in such manner at the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors . . ..”
So I guess the theory goes that the electors appointed, or soon to be appointed, in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, were not appointed in the manner directed by the legislature, i.e., by executive fiat, friendly lawsuits and flooding states with millions of weak security ballots.
As we all know, the Federal Courts have been tightening up the notice pleading standard after Twombly. Plus, we’ve got Rule 9(b) that requires that fraud claims be plead with particularity.
So what in particular did the election officials do to appoint electors in violation of the manner directed by their legislatures? This is where the train leaves the Twombly tracks.
Let’s look at the actual allegations of fact about vote stealing:
Pennslyvania
Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended the deadline to accept non-postmarked ballots for three days after the election. ¶48.
Pennsylvania allowed people to cure defective mail in ballots. ¶50.
According to Republican legislators in PA, there were lots of ballot irregularities. ¶55-58.
Georgia
Authorized ballot processing before election day. ¶67
Court ruling made it far more difficult to challenge signatures. ¶70.
Michigan
Michigan secretary of state sent millions of absentee ballot applications to voters. ¶81-84
Michigan secretary of state allowed on-line absentee ballot applications.¶85
Wayne county didn’t stamp ballot return envelopes as verified. ¶93.
One guy, Jesse Jacob, was instructed not to look at signatures on ballot envelopes. ¶94
Lots of ballots were counted without a registration number for precincts in Detroit which meant ballots were counted multiple times. ¶97.
Wisconsin.
Wisconsin used unmanned ballot drop boxes. ¶110.
Wisconsin officials were letting indefinitely confined citizens register to vote without a photo ID. ¶116-126
One guy in Wisconsin said postal workers back dated ballots. ¶127.
That’s what you’ve got? And you want to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters in four states? You want to overturn a presidential election on this? I didn’t read anything about hundreds of thousands of discarded ballots or altered ballots. I didn’t read anything about more ballots than applications, or more fewer ballots than applications. It’s hard to steal votes. It’s really hard to systematically steal hundreds of thousands of votes in four states.
So good luck with that Texas?
But God help us all of the Trump appointees on the Supreme Court go along with it. I fear we’ll be going to the mattresses. We should all be holding our breath.
I would not want to be John Roberts today.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the case. (website photo)
I started photographing sporting events in 2010. I didn’t start doing it regularly until 2011. At the time, I saved my photos to a Western Digital external drive.
At some point in late 2013, that drive failed. All drives fail. I learned a hard lesson that day. I looked into recovering the data at that time but I just didn’t want to spend the money. Frankly, it don’t even bother me that much. I just keep going.
With the COVID slowdown I was looking for photography stuff to do. I went back and took stock of my photos and my growth as a photographer. I wanted to see those photos again so I sent them off to a data recovery vendor. I am glad I did. They recovered 88,000 photos. Most of them I forgot all about. There are even some good ones.
I noticed a couple things. 1) I have learned a lot over the last ten years about exposure and composition; and 2) contrary to what many You Tube photographers like to say, the camera does matter—at least when it comes to sports photography.
In January 2010, I bought my DSLR, a Canon 2ti kit from Costco. The first basketball that I set out to photograph seems to the January 15, 2010, game between St. Benedict and Crane. I looked at the metadata for the photos. I was shooting at f4, 1/125 to 1/250 and ISO 3200. As I recall, I was struggling with exposure and had thought I needed to have the shutter speed that low. I learned later that shutter speed is king. One can boost exposure but there is no cure for blurry!
Since then, mostly through trial and error, I learned shutter speed is king. I learned composition mostly by imitating photographers that I was around, Worsom Robinson, Quinn Harris, Brian O’Mahoney, Allen Cunningham and Kirsten Stickney.
I watch a lot of You Tube photography videos, Tony and Chelsea Northrup, Jarrad Polin, Ted Forbes, etc. They all say—the camera doesn’t matter. Can one make great photos without a great camera? Yes. But if one wants to consistently make good sports photos—particularly basketball photos—you need good equipment; f2.8 lenses and a camera with high ISO capability.
The following are a few examples of my early photographs.
