5: Eastern Michigan football clinching to go to a bowl game for the first time since 1989

4: Shane Bieber wins All-Star Game MVP

3: Eastern Michigan basketball defeats Michigan

2: Joe Mauer's final game

HM: Eastern Michigan women's basketball's run in the MAC tournament after a tragic loss of a teammate

March 13 - Eastern Michigan coach Tory Verdi celebrates with his team after defeating Ball State in the MAC Tournament.

1: Eastern Michigan gymnastics wins back to back MAC Championships

Another home stand concluded this past week for the Twins, check out some of my favorite shots from the week and a half of games!

We started the Opening Day festivities dealing with a pretty big snowstorm that required all hands on deck to help clear the snow from the ballpark. (And when I say all hands on deck, I mean it) 

My first real event that I covered was a ticket event through US Bank where MLB Hall of Famer, Jack Morris and Twins mascot, T.C. Bear went around the skyway handing out tickets. This was a cool event to get the Opening Day weekend started up! 

The following day came Opening Day. I still can't fully put into words the entire experience but surreal definitely describes it well. As an intern I had to help pass out hot dogs and coffee during an event called Breakfast on the Plaza which started my day with a 4:30am alarm. After that, I went back into the ballpark to photograph the test runs of the pre-game festivities which included the Eagle flight which I was used to shooting at Eastern Michigan. 

After all of this the crowds started to file in and it was time to get rolling for the actual game! Brace had me placed up in the terrace level to get different kinds of shots of things going on and also roaming around getting fan shots. 

Overall, Opening Day was an incredible experience and the best part is you start right back up the next day. And in this case, the next day was actually following an off-day and was the coldest game in Twins history. Luckily the sun was out but it was still a cozy 28 degrees at first pitch. With the field being heated underneath, it created a unique fog that came off the infield for photos as you can see in the photo of Sano. 

The other really cool part of this internship is to see a lot of future/potential hall of famer's roll in like Ichiro, Robinson Cano, Justin Verlander and Jose Altuve. 

My first official game in the dugout was the Wednesday game against the Astros and it was definitely a memorable one for me as Max Kepler hit two home runs including a walk-off to win it.

The next game I worked the following night was also extremely memorable because Joe Mauer entered the game two hits away from 2000 and Brace stashed me in the first base photo well which turned out to be a great spot to be when he got his 2000th hit. Being able to have these two games as my first real games shooting has probably spoiled me but won't ever forget these couple of games.

After this game, the Twins then had three straight snow outs before leaving for Puerto Rico. I'm going to try and do a post every homestand with my favorite photos as the Twins are back in town April 27th against the Cincinnati Reds! Feel free to leave a comment with any questions!

First off, you need two camera bodies with one having a telephoto lense and the other being a wide angle lense. I generally use my 6D and my 7D mark ii for the bodies and then for lenses I use 70-200 2.8 and 16-35 2.8. Now these aren't the ones you'd have to use but I'd highly recommend them!

Here are the listings:

70-200 2.8 at B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/680103-USA/Canon_2751B002_EF_70_200mm_f_2_8L_IS.html

Personally I would recommend looking for a used version of this because you could potentially save $1000 that way. That's what I did and I'm definitely happy about that!

16-35 2.8 at B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/486708-USA/Canon_1910B002AA_EF_16_35mm_f_2_8L_II.html

This lense is fantastic for wide shots. Yes it will hurt the bank but worth it. Once again buy used and save some cash.

Gorillapod at B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/470237-REG/Joby_GP3_A1EN_Gorillapod_SLR_Zoom_Flexible_Mini_Tripod.html

Some people use these some use actual baseplates; either way you will be fine as long as you have something to mount it on. I liked the price of this so that's why I went with it. Only difficulty you could run into is getting it straight but you can fix that in post worst case.

Pocketwizards at B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/844969-REG/PocketWizard_801_130_Plus_III_Transceiver_Radio.html

Now I got the plis iii's because the IV's were not out yet. Now I would get the iv's because it will save you a bunch of money and not change a whole lot except for less channels.

Cord at B&H Photo: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/576657-REG/PocketWizard_802_453_CM_N3_ACC_Canon_Pre_Trigger_Cable.html

Now the cord all depends on your camera so make sure to check out the list to make sure it is indeed compatible!

Hopefully this helps with purchasing needs. Leave a comment below if you have any questions!

Follow me on Twitter: @amascharka

The basic things you need:

Two cameras

Two lenses (preferred a long telephoto and wide angle)

Two Pocketwizards and one cord for remote body

Mounting device (I use a gorillapod)

Now the perfect spot in my mind is underneath the basket. It gives you a nice angle to work with that is different from the one you get with your telephoto. 

Here is a comparison from 2013 I took:

Same shot, two different angles.

Remote cameras are most helpful because they give you options to work from. If you need a wider shot to work with then you have this or if you want something tighter then you have that as well.

As a photographer, you always want to give yourself as many options as possible.

Here is the view from behind the remote camera:

And finally here are some newer remote shots I took from EMU's win over Michigan in 2014:

Follow me on Twitter: @amascharka

It was another season of Eastern Michigan football and to put it nicely it wasn't pretty. Ron English, now in his 5th season as head coach, was fighting to keep his job for next year. Let's just say that it didn't go so well when a tape was released of him degrading his players. http://www.easternecho.com/multimedia/8077 Not exactly the best thing to do. The good news is I really, really like Chris Creighton, new head football coach, and I'm exciting to see what he brings in the fall. Ok I'm sidetracking my post right now but I figured that was worth sharing. Anyways at the Echo this year we decided to expand our coverage out to Ann Arbor with some Michigan football. 

It was definitely cool because growing up in Ann Arbor and going to high school across the street from the "Big House", it was nice to finally work there. If you want to read my full post you can find it here: http://www.mascharkaphoto.com/blog/2013/10/shooting-at-the-big-house

So after football season ended, it was finally time for basketball to start up. Now I'll be completely honest basketball is 100% my favorite sport to cover. There's just so much action that you can capture. So I decided I was going to do my best to shoot every single game. The places that I traveled over this year made it that much better. (Kentucky, Cleveland, Purdue, etc..) 

First off I was able to travel down to Lexington, Kentucky to shoot EMU vs. Kentucky which was absolutely awesome. Rupp Arena is simply phenomenal. Definitely the most interesting part to me were the indoor fireworks during introductions, granted it totally caught me off guard.

Glenn Bryant throws down a dunk over Willie Cauley-Stein.

Overall though this Eastern Michigan basketball team was such a cool group of guys. They made my job so much more fun than it already was whether it be with pre game dunk contests or goofing around on the bench. It was just a lot of fun to be able to follow them!

Eventually it came time to go back down to Cleveland for the 2014 Mid American Conference Tournament. Now the tournament takes place in the middle of March and you'd think on most years that you wouldn't have to worry about road conditions... Well... WRONG.. We headed down to Cleveland in what was considered white out conditions and then we got stuck on the Ohio Turnpike for 12 hours and missed the first game of the tournament. (Really long story, if you want to see what we went through I made a video of it all. See below) 

Eventually we did get down there but it just took a little longer than expected. 

Alright so the above photo was our hotel. That alone made our horrible trip worth it. It was definitely a stunning building.

Now the food was on par with what it was last year, which was phenomenal! And EMU held off Bobby Hurley's led Buffalo which was also quite nice!

Jalen Ross and Glenn Bryant celebrate after knocking Buffalo out of the MAC tournament.

They then went up against Toledo which sadly they didn't pull off the win but it was still an overall great time in Cleveland.

Along all this time I was also able to cover awesome events such as the Gymnastics MAC Championship, The Football MAC Championship and The Little Caesars Bowl. All of which were unique experiences of their own but there's only so much I can say in a blog post before I lose everyones interest. Which with that said if you're still reading at this point then I really appreciate you!

Anyways I just finished up getting ready and setting my work up for our year end Photo Gala at WCC. That was an absolutely phenomenal experience! Here is the setup of my work from it.

Overall it has been an even better year than last and I cannot wait to see what awaits me in the Fall! I was able to climb the ranks of the Echo from being a sports photographer to now being the Multimedia Editor. This was the best accomplishment of them all! Thanks for reading all the way to here and like I always say hopefully I'm a bit more consistent with these posts in the future!

Oh and just for kicks for the end of the post. Here is a totally unrelated shot I got a couple nights ago during a thunderstorm in Ann Arbor! See you later!

Got out early and decided to get some pre-game shots of some of the players before they put on their uniforms. This is one I got of Michigan starting quarterback Devin Gardner. After getting some pre-game shot the weather decided to starting hailing (I think there's a bad pun in there somewhere) so I decided to head into the media room until a little bit before kickoff.

I had much higher hopes for the classic photo here but it is what it is. Next time I get to shoot it I'm going to try a lower angle but it was still a cool moment nonetheless.

So to say the least this game featured big offensive explosions which either says good things about both teams offenses or says really bad things about the teams defenses which I would say it was the defenses but back to the point. Devin Gardner, Fitzgerald Toussaint and Jeremy Gallon all had career days and so it provided a lot of chances for me to get photos.

Now one of the things that took a little bit of adjusting was the fact that you had very few spots where you could shoot from. Essentially you had to either be in the end zone or between the 20-25 yard line marker but being real that wasn't an easy place to shoot from so the end zone was where I spent all of my time in. As the game went on though it was a pretty easy adjustment because all of the action you wanted to capture was pretty much going to be in the end zone.

I felt like I had to include this photo in this post because Gardner was absolutely blasted in the end zone for this touchdown. Thankfully he was ok but man it was a loud and hard hit. 

After both teams combined to score 110 points thankfully Michigan had scored 63 of them. It was definitely a fun game to shoot and I look forward to later chances to get back there.

If you want to check out the fully gallery of images here is the link to them!

http://www.mascharkaphoto.com/p742069801

Hopefully I will post more frequently but until then feel free to follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/Amascharka

-Andrew Mascharka

It is very cool to see Head Coach Ron English lead his team onto the field.

I found this one pretty funny due to the obvious holding call that wasn't called.

Easterns running back Bronson Hill is one my favorite guys to photograph due to the intensity in his eyes.

As a photographer it is always nice when your background can be filled with crowd which was nice about Saturday.

This isn't as tack sharp as I would have preferred but I still was really happy with the action capture that resulted. Pretty sure the Eastern guy ended up with the catch too!

This was one of, if not the biggest plays of the game. Eastern was down by four in the 4th and Sean Kurtz came up with a huge interception which lead to an Eastern touchdown.

This may be my favorite of the entire game due purely that running back Darius Jackson literally dragged the defense to the end zone.

Overall it felt great to get back out on the field shooting again. And also at the same time it feels good to get a blog out which has been much overdue. 

Now if you want to see the rest of my gallery go to : http://www.mascharkaphoto.com/p476554024

Thanks again for reading this far!

-Andrew Mascharka

Now I've been to Cleveland recently for Indians games but I had forgotten that the giant Lebron ad was no longer located across from the stadium. It's weird seeing anything else there but at the same time Cleveland fans I'm sure wouldn't like to be reminded every day of who ditched their team.

Just walking inside the arena you instantly get the feel of a NBA arena. Every area of the arena is just so nice.

The first day I was there Eastern played Miami (OH). It was a pretty easy second round game for Eastern and Miami was really having a bad year. The game was surprisingly close until the second half when Eastern really played well and took Miami out of the game.

I think easily the best part of shooting here was the light was spectacular. All I really had to due post processing wise was crop adjustments. White balance was pretty much spot on and it was bright enough where I could shoot at a low enough ISO. 

It was a really nice first game in Cleveland and then we headed back to Ann Arbor for the night. I got in around 2:30 am and ended up just staying up and finishing editing so I eventually found myself going to sleep around 4. Then up and ready the next day to head back down to Cleveland around 5 pm.

I knew going into the game that it would be a tough challenge playing Western Michigan. They had a really good team this year but we had beat them earlier in the season in overtime so I knew it was a possible chance to come back for a third day.

Eastern played a tough game but Western just had a really good game. So sadly their season ended as well as my basketball shooting for this season. I really couldn't have asked for a cooler team to be able to shoot in my first full season of basketball shooting. Proud to say I was able to cover almost every game they played this year.

Overall I had such a good time shooting in Cleveland and hopefully I'll be able to make it out again next season for an even longer run in the tournament. But for now I need to get ready for baseball shooting again which personally is my favorite to shoot.

-Andrew Mascharka

The opening act was a DJ called Tommy Trash. It was good to get into the pit and test out how to prepare for what Tiesto would be like.

Now the first thing I realized when I got down there was how high up he was from the stage which really created problems for capturing his face. This was one of the few shots I got that I was really happy with how it turned out. Most of the time it felt like his hair was blocking his face which created problems. After spending a little time down in the pit I decided it would be beneficial to me to get on higher grounds and include parts of the crowd. So then I headed up to one of the suites. 

So I snagged some shots before Tommy Trash ended his set and this was one of my favorites. It caught the crowd in pretty good light and you can still see Trash in the background. Also I probably should have mentioned this earlier but I had my cameras at 3200 iso and both at 2.8 with my shutter speed varying from 1/125 to 1/800 at times. I felt myself constantly changing it due to the light changing which actually caused me the most problems. So after Tommy Trash left the stage then Tiesto came out almost immediately which caused me to quickly sprint from the suite back down to the pit.

Tiesto put on such an amazing light show but at the same time that created a lot of problems for me but also created opportunities for some really cool shots. Just like with the opening act it was hard to shoot Tiesto due to him being so far up off the stage. After trying for a few shots with the 70-200 I decided to switch over to my wide angle. 

The wide angle helped me expand on his stage along with getting shots of the crowd. Also I forgot to mention that with concerts you only get 20 minutes to shoot in the pit before they kick you out. So that added the extra shoot fast element in. After the 20 minutes I headed back up to the suite to enjoy the rest of his show along with getting a few extra shots.

I was really happy with the shot above cause I finally could capture him finally djing without an obstructed view. The only downside with the 3200iso on the 7D was the noise but thankfully wasn't a problem with the 6D. But overall it was a really good concert and definitely a new experience to shoot.

-Andrew Mascharka

Generally it's shown what gear is used. So here is the list of things that I use :

Canon 6D, Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 2.8, Canon 16-35 2.8, a gorillapod mini tripod and two Pocketwizard Plus III's. 

Now at the Convocation Center you have quite a bit of options of where to shoot from. First off I set up my remote camera under the basket for wide angle shots. I use my 7D for this setup with the 16-35 2.8. Generally I have it at around 1/800 at 3200 iso and I shoot these in raw. Now I can't take credit for this idea, my friend Anmmar showed me this setup.

Now they are a bit noisy but shooting in raw you can save them as much as you could expect.

Now with these you really can't expect that many to turn out the way you want. With this camera I had over 700 frames to go through and I only ended up with 4 or 5 that I was satisfied with. I don't rely heavily on these turning out good but sometimes I get a really cool shot with them.

My favorite part of this is that I can get two different angles of the same shot. While I'm shooting with my 70-200 my remote camera is firing at the same time. It gives two different perpectives and gives me more options to choose from later on.

The more important shots for me are with my 6D and my 70-200. In my opinion there is no better lense to use for basketball than the 70-200 2.8. Actually I'd say that's true for most of the sports I shoot. There's no better lense to have in your arsenal than this one. I usually stay around 1/1250 at 6400 iso in the Convo. The lighting is decent and with the full-frame 6D I can go at this high of an iso with virtually no noise at all. I generally am prepared for any shot but my favorites consist of either dribbling past a defender or action under the basket. I usually stay far to the left or right side of the basket since I have the wide angle under the basket already shooting for me.

Now the only problem I ever face with my 6D is the autofocus. It has a lot of problems picking up fast action but besides that I think it works perfectly fine for sports and it just makes timing all the more crucial.

Now after the game I head home and start editing. First off I go through everything I shot in lightroom and on photos I like and will post I give them a four star rating. Then after I finish sorting I really only need to make crop adjustments on the 6D photos. The quality of the high iso is nice to have! And for the 7D wide angle shots I make crop adjustments and also play with noise reduction because it isn't as pretty at high iso's. Then after I finish exporting I send them off to the sports editor at the Eastern Echo through dropbox.

Hopefully I didn't bore you all with this but I figured I'd give blogging a shot. Feel free to leave a comment on if you enjoyed reading my tips or anything I should fix up for the next one I do.

Weird or cool happenings at this game:

Thought I was done talking weren't you. Well there were some cool things that were apart of this game that I feel the need to share.

First off Akrons head coach, Keith Dambrot, is a former Eastern Michigan assistant basketball coach. But more notably he was Lebron James' head coach at St. Vincent - St. Mary High School.

The weird thing that happened tonight was an Akron player lost one of his contacts during the game. Play had to be stopped until one of the bench players spotted it and grabbed it off the court.

Well thanks for reading my first post. Hopefully I either helped you in some way with shooting basketball or you enjoyed the extremely strange end to my blog. Either way you made it this far in reading and I thank you for that. 

Also for the full group of photos I took at the game go to : http://www.mascharkaphoto.com/p467747303

-Andrew Mascharka