Two Rooms With A View

The view of Dallas from my hotel room at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving. That's Texas Stadium on the right. Just thought I'd share it with everyone.


The view at Missouri's Cotton Bowl press conference in the Omni Mandalay's Los Colinas Ballroom yesterday in Dallas. I guess this is what they mean by "crack reporter."

Cotton Bowl Coverage

Here's me at Texas Stadium in Dallas covering Missouri's practice for the 2008 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic. Wow huh? Whatever.


Here's the media ticket I got for the Dallas Mavericks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers NBA game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. $125 for an NBA ticket. Wow huh? We sat in the "Platinum Club" seating area that had its own concierge and waitstaff. Unfortunately had to leave the game early (third period) because Alex had to file a story about Darren McFadden's step-mother supposedly getting a free car and it might break some NCAA rule, yada, yada, yada. Thank god for the hospitality room back at the Omni with its free drinks (yeah). What's cool is we get to go back to the Amerian Airlines Center on Saturday for the Dallas Stars vs. St. Louis Blues NHL game. Woo Hoo! More $8 beers, with fisticuffs this time. Doesn't life seem backwards sometimes

Hawgs Illustrated: Vol. 17, Issue 1

There's a new sheriff in town folks. Unfortunately we won't get to see Petrino's magic at work until spring practice. For now there's the Cotton Bowl to look forward to and the last hurrah of D-Mac, Felix, Monk and a bunch of other guys whose names we won't see in a Razorback uniform again after Jan. 1. Yours truly will be in Dallas from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1 covering the Hogs at the Cotton Bowl. I'm kind of 50/50 on the whole thing. It will be a great experience as far as work goes, but I'm not excited about being away from my family for a whole week right in the middle of the holidays. I guess these are the sacrifices when you have one of the coolest jobs out there.

By the way, we do have to drive to Dallas for Cotton Bowl. No swanky private jet this time. See, the sacrifices are just piling up.

Henning Family 2007 Christmas Card

For those of you that didn't get one in the mail, here is the Henning Family's 2007 Christmas card. Several recipients of this year's card were disappointed that I failed to include Juno on it. Historically our Christmas card is a family portrait and Juno is always present, usually wearing a Santa hat, awwww. Well I ran out of time and decided to break tradition and use a photo from our trip to Italy this year instead. The photo is actually the only shot of the three of us together from the trip, I couldn't bring myself to hand over my camera to a complete stranger without fear of them running off with it. Hey, I saw European vacation. Anyway, one person in particular, a Mr. Kermit Owens, was so disappointed Juno wasn't included on our Christmas card that he took it upon himself to Photoshop her in there. And you know what? I love it. Thanks Kermit!

Merry Christmas Everyone! (said in my best Jimmy Stewart impersonation)

RAPPIN' REINDEER

Snapped this feature yesterday at an elementary school holiday sing-along assembly. The kids were performing as "rappin reindeer." Their "gangsta-rap reindeer" counterparts were busted before the show on dogfighting and weapons violations charges. Could've been big. And by big I mean HUGE!

The Search Is Over

Former Atlanta Falcons/Louisville Cardinals coach Bobby Petrino was introduced at 10:30 p.m. last night as Arkansas' new football coach. The announcement ended two weeks of ups and downs for everyone tied to Razorback sports following Houston Nutt's resignation/heist on Nov. 26. Petrino will make an estimated $2.85 million as the head football Hog. He left an annual salary of $4 million with the Falcons, so it's obvious he really missed coaching in the college ranks. I just hope he sticks around long enough to take the Hogs into the BCS.


Judging how he did get the "Hog Call" right, things might be looking up for the Razorbacks. Personally I hope there aren't any more hiring/firing/resignation press conferences again for a long time.


Look at the animals I have to work with at these things. They're a bunch of photo heathens.

I <3 John Pelphrey

Arkansas' new basketball coach John Pelphrey is a dream coach for sports photographers. The man loses it and I mean LOSES IT in the coaches box. He is a complete 180 from the stiff Stan Heath was in the box. The photo above just screams at you. If you didn't know he was a basketball coach you'd think his head was full of ants or something. I love this man. Not in a funny, Judy Garland fan sort of way. More like the John Wayne, hey man let me buy you a beer and tip that dancer for you sort of way.


It's going to be a great season.

Hawgs Illustrated: Final November Issue

This cover from the MIssissippi State game is a week late getting posted, but since I've shown every other cover so far this football season I figured I'd post it anyway. This issue was the last weekly for the Razorbacks' 2007 football season. The next issue will be in a couple of weeks and will feature the LSU game as well as Nutt's resignation. It certainly has been an interesting week for Arkansas football.

Test Shots

The Arkansas media circus gathered at the Broyles Complex in Fayetteville tonight for Houston Nutt's much-anticipated resignation as the Razorbacks' football coach. I snapped a few funpix of the local photo hooligans in attendance for the scrum while checking my exposure. Amelia Phillips and Dan Hale (a.k.a. Mr. and Mrs. Hale) and Andy Shupe were there.


Shupe, again, with Beth Hall. She hates having her photo taken. She told me that several times. (Hi Beth!)


Waiting for Nutt. (Hi Beth!)


Dan throws some metal. Metal rules you know.

The Boot Returns to Fayetteville

Arkansas knocked off No. 1 LSU yesterday in triple overtime in front of a crowd of 92, 606 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. The win brought "The Golden Boot" back to Fayetteville for the first time since the Razorbacks last beat the Tigers in 2002.


I have to say I get my own satisfaction in watching 92,000 plus Tiger fans, I doubt there were more than 500 Razorback fans in the place, silently filing out of "Death Valley" after a defeat. I don't necessarily hate LSU, I just HATE their fans. LSU fans by themselves or in small numbers are tolerable. Over 92,000 of them is ridiculous. They're the most hateful, venomous group of fans in college football. I guess what makes it personal is they even trash talk, and cuss, the visiting photographers on the sideline. Of course this hate excludes the great group of LSU fans Zac and I bummed beers off of in the parking lot after the game. Cheers losers.


In other news, guess who'll probably be coaching at Arkansas again next year. Houton Nutt saved his job yesterday. How can you fire a coach that finished the season at 8-4 and knocked off the No. 1 team in the college football? The job is his to walk away from now.

Recent Work: Portraits

Dwight Chalmers, music and sound designer for The Listen Laboratory in Fayetteville, Ark.


Daniel Sanker, president/CEO of Case Stack in Rogers, Ark.

Hawgs Illustrated: Second November Issue

The latest greatest issue of HI. Just one more weekly issue for the season and then things slow down for the magazine. The football season has been a blur. Nov. 23 seemed like a long way's off on Sept. 1. Now the Hogs' last regular-season game is next week. The Razorbacks play Mississippi State tomorrow in Little Rock. They need to get a win against the Bulldogs to get a lock for a bowl game. Otherwise it's a must-win at LSU, and we all know the chances of that happening.

Game 10: Arkansas 13, Tennessee 34

Saturday's game in Knoxville was a disaster for the Hogs and myself, to some extent. I was using a loaner Nikon D2H from NPS on my 400mm and the thing was completely unreliable. Most of my frames were soft. Here are a few that were usable. The lead is of course with my RELIABLE Canon 1D and 70-200. I wish I could say I enjoyed my trip to Knoxville more, but when the gear ain't working right I could be at Hooters girls touch football game and still be pissed. OK, that's a bit extreme, but I'd still be pouting. Just a tiny bit.



So Z-Man and I both had the shot above of Michael Smith's dive for a touchdown. Thanks to the bunk D2H I was using this frame was a bit soft, too soft for HI's doubletruck. So I gave the doubletruck to Zac and his frame from this play. There, you happy Zac. I said it. Your's was better. (;





I joked about it on Nathan's blog earlier this week, but I still believe Smokey IX was booing coach Nutt from across the field.

Arkansas Basketball Portraits

Here are those Arkansas baseketball media day portraits I mentioned before. The above photo of Patrick Beverley also ran in the recent issue along with Darian Townes' portrait below. The rest of these portraits have been spread out of the last several issues. There are a couple more I'd like to show but they haven't been published yet, so I'll post them later. Didn't do anything special with these. A light or two and an athlete. I'm pleased with them. I've got a great shot of Charles Thomas bringing on the "Manimal," but that's one of those I can't show yet.


Darian Townes


Steven Hill. I think I was standing on a chair and he was still taller than me.


Gary Ervin


Vincent Hunter

Hawgs Illustrated: Basketball Preview

Hawgs' Basketball Preview issue hit the stands this week. I had a lot of fun getting this issue together. Kai Caddy did an awesome job designing the magazine throughout. There are several portraits inside I shot back on media day for the issue, which includes the cover photo of Patrick Beverley. I plan on posting the portraits as soon as I can get around to it. Stay Tuned.

Game Nine: Arkansas 48, South Carolina 36

The Hogs pulled out their second SEC win of the year against South Carolina on Saturday. Arkansas literally ran over South Carloina with 542 yards of rushing. Darren McFadden broke the school record and tied the SEC record for rushing yards in a single game with 321 yards and one touchdown. The win was big for the Razorbacks and hopefully will give them the momentum they need to put more W's up over the last three games of the season.


Felix Jones had 166 yards and three touchdowns.


Marcus Monk got his second TD of the season.


Arkansas' defense got the job done against South Carolina. The Gamecocks did rack up 364 passing yards, but the Razorback defense kept enough pressure on Mitchell to disrupt his rhythm for most of the game.


D-Mac flexes for a national television audience watching on the deuce following his game-sealing 80-yard touchdown run. McFadden jumped back on the Heisman radar with his performance against the Gamecocks.

I'm off to Knoxville tomorrow for the Hogs' game against Tennessee. This game could go either way. The 104,000 screaming fans at Neyland Stadium could be the difference in this game. I'll have my earplugs in for this one. Not so much for the fan noise, I just don't want to hear "Rocky Top" being played for three plus hours.

D-Mac and Felix on Halloween

Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden, left, and Felix Jones made their appearance at the University of Arkansas Student Union in Fayetteville today to show off their Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble Halloween costumes. The costumes were voted on by Arkansas fans at the Hogwired.com. Fans were asked to vote for three costume combos. The two losing costume combos were the Blues Brothers and Sonny and Cher. Thank god it wasn't the latter. This whole thing started last Halloween when D-Mac was photographed passing between classes in a clown costume. He's quite the characther and has always been one to cut up and make people laugh.





Too bad this is the last time we'll see these two togehter like this. They'll both be gone next season.

Hawgs Illustrated: Fifth October Issue

Here is the latest Hawgs cover. D-Mac got the front due to his four TD's. Next week is the basketball preview. Once it's out I can finally post the basketball portraits I shot several weeks back. Stay tuned.

Game Eight: Arkansas 58, Florida-Int'l 10

Another Arkansas game, another nasty D-Mac stiff-arm shot. The Hogs pretty much had their way with the Golden Panthers on Saturday. It wasn't much of a football game. McFadden scored four touchdowns on Florida-International, which is the last cupcake on the Razorbacks schedule this season. It's all SEC from this point out. Arkansas is going to have to earn the W's over the next four games.


Star receiver Marcus Monk made his comeback appearance on Saturday. He had a couple of passes thrown his way broken up and also had one intercepted, but he did manage to haul in a 13-yard pass from Nathan Emert for his first touchdown of the season. Hopefully he'll have a bigger impact in SEC play.


Felix Jones made his usual contribution to the Hogs' win. The Cat had 89 yards of rushing and one touchdown.


Peyton Hillis had six catches for 77 yards on the Golden Panthers. Hillis was named the Crip Hall Award winner for outstanding player in the Razorbacks' homecoming game.


Defensive back Matterral Richardson returns a Florida-International fumble as defesive coordinator Reggie Herring goes nuts in the background. The Hog defense had five interceptions and two fumble recoveries on Saturday.


Rashaad Johnson, left, celebrates an interception with fellow defensive back Michael Grant. Johnson had two interceptions on the Golden Panthers.


Another D-Mac shot.


The Hogs host Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks this Saturday. Their quarterback's name is Smelley. I can already see the myriad of great headlines that could come out of this matchup.