Yesterday, OSU announced a $1 billion fundraising campaign that they are more than halfway to achieving.

This evening, OSU had it’s biggest upset victory in decades.

It’s good to be a Cowboy.

That was cheesy, but c’mon, this is exciting!

I was nervous in the last couple minutes.

First, because Kansas was making a worrisome comeback.

Second, because I knew that when the final seconds expired, thousands of crazy 20-somethings would be charging in my direction.

They did. It was uncomfortable.

And the worst thing possible happened. No, I didn’t get trampled. I did, however, spin my shutter wheel to the left, causing every picture in this historic victory celebration to be overexposed by at least a stop and a half. In addition, my lens hood was hit, causing it to put big, ugly, adjacent black lines on all the photos.

Ugh. Sick feeling.

It was mostly recoverable. The picture above is one of the ones that happened to.

I’ve written more than usual I think, so I’ll stop.

Go Pokes!

P.S. Instead of having Adam’s extras, I’ll link this slideshow on the O’Colly site.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning and headed to what I argue is the most beautiful place in Stillwater and maybe the state.

Karsten Creek is a world-class golf course tucked in the woods.

This is the third time I’ve been to the course. The first time was for the Big 12 women’s golf tournament.

During the tournament a Kansas golfer was in the backswing of a shot from the fairway when two turkeys darted out right in front of her from the coppice.

Despite the frustrations of the golfer, it was hilarious.

Even better than the beauty of the place, is its serenity.

When I’m walking or carting around the greens, its impossible to have anything else on my mind.

When I leave Karsten Creek and get back on highway 51, it feels like I’m departing from a different country and heading back into the real world.

I’ll be headed back out soon. Expect another post detailing my love for the links.

P.S. Extras for Adam.

Wednesday, Nathan and I had the good fortune of hanging out with one of my absolute favorite bands in their recording studio.

There’s probably not a cooler place to be than the recording studio of a band that you admire. This is the third time I’ve been so lucky. Colourmusic and Sherree Chamberlain also humored us.

I’ve been captivated by the Other Lives‘ music since I was a junior in high school and they were still Kunek. If you haven’t listened to them, fix it.

Jesse, Colby and Jonathan were nice enough to play three of their newest songs for us and even asked for our input. Woah.

I’ll stop gushing now, but if you’re a friend of mine, expect a facebook message telling you how badly you need to check out their new EP or LP when it comes out.

P.S. For my friend Adam, here a few others.

Fans watch as professional freestyle motocross rider Kenny Bartram competes in an expo in outskirts of his hometown of Stillwater, Okla.

I’ve begun a new photo project.

Kenny Bartram is a well-known FMX rider. He’s competed in the biggest of competitions, been in big-time music videos and a lot of other cool stuff that I’ve yet to learn.

So far, he’s been surprisingly easy to work with. For instance, it was really cool of him to send me an e-mail to clue me in to this expo that I was completely unaware of.

The plan is to make this a long-term project, so I’ll probably post an update every couple of weeks.

Oklahoma State forward Roger Franklin, left, gives a low five to teammate Matt Pilgrim after a 97-76 Bedlam win on Saturday.

I can’t tell you how great it is to be at a big win.

It just feels good. When I shoot games, it’s a different experience than when I watch as a fan. Not better or worse, just different.

When OSU beats a big opponent or rival, it’s doubly enjoyable. I wore a smile for almost every one of the 40 minutes.

Good game, Pokes!

Dallas Gracey from Tuttle gives a fist bump to his coach after a loss to Chayse Garrison from Sallisaw in the 135 pound division in the finals of the Class 4A 2010 Dual State Wrestling Championship on Saturday.

Day two of high school wrestling in Cushing.

The night before I had terrible luck trying to submit photos to The Oklahoman on a friends laptop via the free Wi-Fi from the lovely people at McDonald’s.

I got about four images through before it just stopped working with no explanation. I assume I hit a data limit for the network, but who knows.

I raced back to Stillwater to submit the remaining images and thankfully my editor, Doug Hoke, was generously understanding.

Then I put them in the wrong folder.

The next day I had a colon in the filename, which the system rejected.

Ugh.

It all worked out though and I had multiple images published in The Oklahoman, so that’s pretty cool if you ask me.

105-pound wrestler Matt Manley (left) from Perry slams Brandon Henson (right) from Little Axe compete in the first round of the Class 3A 2010 Dual State Wrestling Championship on Friday.

Friday I took a trip to the quaint town of Cushing, Okla.

I was assigned to shoot the class 3A and 4A dual state championships. If you aren’t familiar with wrestling, that means it was team versus team instead of the normal individual competition format.

Wrestling isn’t easy to shoot. Most gyms have terrible light as it is. Not much of it and a awful, shifting color. To make matters worse, wrestlers almost always have their faces pointed down, eliminating their faces in shadows.

Luckily, there was a balcony where I could use the shadows to my advantage.

Jonathan Trost of Stillwater’s Random Robotics puts pieces on the team’s robot during a practice on Monday. In April the team will compete in an international LEGO robotics competition in Atlanta, Ga.

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend the afternoon with the state’s coolest nerds.

I was jealous of them the entire time. They get to build robots, make computer programs and play with LEGOs. And there are incentives for doing it.

In April, the team will take part in an international competition.

Go nerds!

After a tip from friend and cross country runner Mark Nelson, I walked an hourlong round-trip in the shin-high snow to the cross country fields.

It was as gorgeous as he described. Well worth the trip and the lifeless limbs that followed.

Note: If you are an Oklahoma blogger, make sure to cast your ballot for best blogs of 2009. You can see the finalists here.

For this week’s photojournalism class assignment, we were told to emulate another photographer’s vision or style while covering an event.

That is not easy.

It’s pretty much the most daunting assignment you could be given. Especially when the photographer has to be from VII Photo Agency.

I chose Stefano de Luigi.

His photos are kept even and with a lot of space. His horizons are mostly straight and his subjects are mostly centered. The space around his subjects gives a good feel for the environment, which gives the viewer a feeling a feeling of being there.

The thing I found strange about his images, though, was the high percentage of photos with people with their head turned to the camera. Many photographers look for great faces – they can make or break a photo. De Luigi, however leaves them turned away and it doesn’t hurt his photos at all.

Here are a few others I took in the short time I had at Polar Plunge.