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About 250 Portland Trail Blazer fans camped outside in the cold at the Rose Garden to wait in line to buy tickets for the playoffs. The first person in line showed up at noon and will have to wait a full 24-hours in line. Thanks to Tom Boyd for the heads up on this. I was supposed to go in the morning, but Boyd heard on the radio that people were already out there after tonight's game. I decided it would make much better pictures in the middle of the night than in the daytime.

Goodbye

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During the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder I overheard Portland Trail Blazer GM Kevin Pritchard ask official Jack Nies if the game would be his last. Turns out that it was indeed his last game of a 29 year career. I thought it made a nice picture as the other officials working the game gave Nies a hug.

Blazers vs Lakers

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Doesn't get much better than the Lakers at the Rose Garden. The Blazers are really playing their best ball of the season as they enter the playoffs for the first time since the 2003 season.

Blazers clinch playoffs

Went on the road with the Portland Trail Blazers to photograph them clinching their spot in the playoffs for the first time since 2003. There was talk about great locker room access if all went as planned. Well, it didn't go as planned. In fact -- worse case scenario happened. The spot was clinched with the Suns getting blown out by Dallas before Portland even played.

Since it was not a Blazers win that clinched it for them, the PR folks decided not to let me into the locker room. What made it worse is that Portland lost to Houston. So, I had to try to get pictures of the team making the playoffs in a game that they lost. Ugh.

Anyway, I photographed this picture of Steve Blake on the trip.

Access is so important and so difficult to get in professional sports. For that reason alone I think photographing professional sports is way overrated.

Remote control

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I think my remote camera bailed me out tonight. I didn't have much that I liked from my position on the floor. Here are a few others from the same remote camera. It was mounted on the standard just below the level of the backboard.

French lessons

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NBA's Portland Trail Blazer forward Nicolas Batum visited The Portland French School here in Portland, Oregon. Batum is a native of Lisieux, France and was acquired via Houston Rockets in the 2008 NBA draft. The Oregonian's Ryan White and Molly Blue were also there to blog and produce a video about the visit.

Blazers vs. 76ers

The Portland Trail Blazers lost a tough one at the Rose Garden tonight.

Gonzaga buzzer beater

The Oregonian's Joel Odom put together this slideshow from the pictures Jamie Francis, Tom Boyd and I took at the Gonzaga basketball game. It was a great finish to the NCAA tournament that was hosted here at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon.

NCAA basketball tournament

March Madness returned to Portland, Oregon for the first time in 26 years.

Because of the NCAA anti-gambling stance, Oregon had been passed over for hosting the basketball tournament. Last year, lawmakers voted to get rid of Oregon's state lottery game for betting on professional football.

See more pictures from the tournament on my sportsshooter.com site and of course oregonlive.com

Red bugs

Last summer Oregonian sports reporter Jason Quick and I made a trip to the home of Portland Trail Blazer forward Travis Outlaw.

When we arrived in Starkville, Miss. and met Travis, one of the first things we noticed was a large band aid on the back of Outlaw's right arm. There were also scrapes on the top of his forearm.

So naturally, we asked Outlaw what happened.

The first take on the accompanying video is his response.

Throughout our stay, it became somewhat of a running joke.

We would ask Outlaw what happened, and he would give a different response, each one more ridiculous and funny than the last.

I even asked his dad, who said he's not sure he's been given the real story. He said Travis told him he fell down in his driveway.

A pretty funny scene unfolded as I made myself comfortable on the lawn in Travis' back yard. I revealed my ignorance of the critters of the South as I sat cross legged while wearing shorts. Guess that is a bad idea, because before my skin actually came in contact with the ground Travis noticed and stopped mid sentence with his conversation with Jason.

"Red bugs. We got red bugs ..." The jumbled video is an indication of how quickly I got on my feet.

The next afternoon, at Travis Outlaw Day, we were walking in the park with Travis when he once again saved me from trouble, quickly telling me to avoid a hard-to-see ant hill. It was nearly too late. I missed stepping directly on the hill, but he got close enough that my right leg was ambushed by little ants, who showed no mercy.

By the end of the trip, my legs were a sight to behold. The bites-per-square inch had to set a Mississippi record.

Here is the outtake video from our trip ... I still think its funny, but maybe its one of those you had to be there moments.

What's in a name

I decided the first post on this blog would be this picture of the Tualatin Hills Synchronized swimming practice. It was one of my favorite pictures from the Sidelines photocolumn that fellow (former) Oregonian photographer Sol Neelman and I created. I have taken the name of that column to use for this blog.
Below is an explanation of the the column and what I hope to continue with this blog...

Idea: Its hard to believe, but I used to be a high jumper back in high school. I jumped 5 feet, 10 inches - which is completely average. I was never good enough to get my picture in my hometown paper, The Spokesman Review. I wasn't good enough, and my team wasn't good enough. Just like most newspapers, space in the sports section goes to the biggest and best athletes in the community. I am sure every sports photographer out there has gone to an event and come back with a great picture - only to have it not published because it wasn't of the winner. Some of the best moments in high school sports often do not involve the biggest schools or best athletes. How do we get these telling pictures in our paper? This is the idea I started with when I went to the sports department to pitch a photo column called "Sidelines". Execution: High school sports is not just about the action. With this column I am tried to show the culture surrounding these sports - away from the action. Each week we tried to take a look at a different sport or team that did not get coverage in our newspaper. Students are participating in sports other than basketball, football and tennis. Once a week, I was given a day to work on the column - shooting and researching. Fortunately, I was not asked to cover an event for the daily paper while shooting for a Sidelines picture. One issue that came up is what to do if I get sent out of town or take vacation. This is the point that SportsShooter.com member Sol Neelman started to contribute to the column. He is based in Eugene, OR and travels all over the state as part of his job for The Oregonian. This helped us include parts of the state that otherwise would not be included. Progress: Having a dedicated space in the newspaper each week comes with an added level of pressure. Lots of critics inside and outside the newsroom. We always hope to get emails and phone calls telling us how wonderful our work is. It doesn't always work out that way though. This email is much too long, but here is a portion of an email I received from a cheerleader regarding a Sidelines column. The picture was of a dejected quarterback after a playoff game... "It is hard to understand the reasoning behind posting a picture of my quarterback and fellow cheerleaders like that, three days after the fact. No other reasoning can be drawn except that the picture was meant to cause pain and humiliate. You should be ashamed for your self for what you have done. If you are a holy man, God does not except this kind of behavior and you have rightfully earned your spot in hell. But if you are not a holy man, which would not surprise many, you have earned your place with the other scum of the earth. You must be a sad troubled man to have such a small, unimportant column in the newspaper. And by your appearance, it obvious that you could not be new to the journalism business, you are way too old for that. So it looks as if your career has developed into shattering the hearts and souls of young aspiring athletes; in a small column run only once a week. It must be a nice feeling. Getting back at all the jocks who more likely than not, never knew or cared about your worthless existence." Sincerely, Your Cheerleader Friend Here is another response from the same picture... "Bruce - I just wanted to thank you for the "Sidelines" picture you ran on December 6. My son, Stephen Scott, is the lineman in the middle on the bench. Your picture said it all. My son was very moved by the picture. He has it in his room to remind him of an awesome season, the friends he met, the highs and the lows...and the dreams for the next year. Thank you for being there and capturing the moment." Laurie Scott