There it is. I now own a Hasselblad. So, now will I find my way back into the darkroom. Will it make me a real photographer?...I'm pretty happy though, I can't afford this right now, but the price was too good to turn down. Picked it up from a friend who was happy to pass it along to somebody he knows. It has a sentimental value to it, it was Hank's first Hasselblad, and now it's my first...The vibe is good and I'm anxious to run some film through it.

It's late, should be in bed--after 1am, but I'm having a belated St. Patty's beer and an early St. Pookies day beer, my best bud's b-day today, happy day Rob, Griz v BC what a present, the Griz head to the sweet 16. Enjoying a Widmer's '06 NW Red, very nice. Shot the OSAA State Dance (and drill?) I set and shot the teams, keep thinking I would rather be doing the action, but the teams is easier work. Might post a couple of the groups later, right now some things that are completely unrelated to anything, a shot of me, what the hell, by one Roland Simmons, photog extrordinaire....The other is a shot, pissed and waiting to get on Walker road, man I hate driving in Beaverton.

Goodnight now.

Another shot from the 4A boys. I really like this one, it has an intensity I love to see in athletes. #40 knows there will be a foul called, so he made sure to get his moneys worth. Not a dirty play, but a hard foul with a message. By the way #40 was named player of the game.

Spent this last week shooting the 4A boys state basketball. The 2A I shot last week is something special, but so is the 4A.......well some of it. The championship was kick ass, as was the semi-final game that South Medford was involved in, buzzer beater in OT, March Maddness indeed.

The championship featured teams with outstanding junior stars, Kevin Love of Lake Oswego and Kyle Singler of South Medford. The game was pretty good, came down to the end when South Medford missed a last second shot, but not by much. The 2 junior stars played pretty good, but both sides had outstanding supporting casts. I have to say I really enjoyed this tourney, more so than others I've shot in the past. Looking forward to next year.

Champions

Spent most of last week in Pendleton. Long beautiful drive down the Gorge, with no time to stop and take any pictures, took plenty while I was at the 2A tourney, plenty. Shot every game in the tourney, 22 games in all. I was happy with most of the stuff I shot, although I got a little burnt out the last day, the championship games. Kinda felt Like I had shot everything there was to shot and everything was looking the same. This shot was different though. This is from the 2A Boys championship game, Santiam Christian vs Oakland. Santiam was ahead most of the game, and by 9 or so points most of the time it seemed. Oakland would battle back and get close and Santiam would extend the lead again. Somehow with a minute or so to go and Santiam seemily comfortably ahead, Oakland dropped in a couple of 3 pointers and were all of a sudden down bu 3 three with a couple of seconds to go. Anyway they made a 3 as time expired, true March maddness stuff, and that's when I took this shot. The funny thing about the shot is that I caught the Oregonians photogs strobes and lit the whole scene up quite nicely for me. The kid who made the 3 is being hugged by #15 in white, center right of the pic. Oakland went on to win in double OT.