ChimpersCage

Illinois State Redbird Men's Basketball v Wichita State Shockers Men's Basketball Seems like all the hoopla this season has surrounded the McDermotts ( Greg and Doug ). Even Sports Illustrated had a multipage/mulitphoto spread on them and the 'Jays from Creighton. Still, I look at the leaderboard on the MVC site and see the Wichita Shockers are 2 games ahead of them. The Shockers beat the Illinois State Redbirds on Doug Collins Court last night by thirteen. So, the MVC has a first, a second, a pair in third and a four way tie for fourth. Should be a fun dance in St. Louis this year! 20120222 Wichita State v Illinois State - Images by Alan Look

With a win at the Bracketbuster over the Oakland Golden Grizzlies , Tim Jankovich broke into the triple digits on wins and arrived at number 100 with the Redbirds. The Redbirds, down from the start, made their way back with Jackie Carmichael leading the way. It was a couple put backs and a couple of three point shots by Jon Ekey however that seemed to wake up the 'birds. One scheduled game left at home this season against the Missouri Valley Conference leaders, the Shockers of Wichita State and one away against Bradley before the dancing starts with the conference finals in St. Louis. 20120218 Oakland v Illinois State - Images by Alan Look

Alan Look photography is growing a bit. Working to expand our selection of images to include some more Stock Photo offerings and to increase our exposure. You may already know that many of our editorial type images are available through places like Icon SMI, Corbis Images, and NewsCom. They are also available through Alan Look Photography virtual agencies like Blue Truck Imaging and Fire Plug Media . Blue Truck Imaging is a virtual agency that also markets several other photographers images. FirePlug Media represents Alan Look Photography editorial content and the same for friend and photographer John Power of John Power Photography . Of course all the content represented on those 2 sites is also viewable on each photographers website and through PhotoShelter . All images are the property of each individual photographer and all sales, licensing, and legalities are handled individually by each. Alan Look Stock Photos has also joined the stable. This virtual agency cur...

Illinois State and Bradley have long been local rivals. Every season in Central Illinois starts with talk of the 4 games (2 mens, 2 womens). Bradley is struggling this season and Illinois State doing pretty well. That has kept some of the chatter to a lower roar than other seasons when the two are more evenly matched. Still, not many loyals missed the games at the Redbird Arena end. It was mostly a full house for the Mens game, and the Womens game filled the lower bowl and doubled as the venue for the Play 4Kay event. Illinois State took both the Normal games. 20120204 Bradley v Illinois State - Images by Alan Look 20120212 Bradley v Illinois State - Images by Alan Look

It's been a while since I posted. I hope to be a little more consistent, but you know what they say about the best laid plans... Last week the Chicago Automobile Trade Associations 2012 Chicago Auto Show began at McCormick Place in Chicago. I'm lucky enough to get in on Media Day and get some great pictures. Over the years several of my images from the show have been used in weekly, monthly publications and several books. One of the initial items that drew me to the Chicago Auto Show several years ago were the concept cars. I think everyone has a couple that they really like. I'm no exception. The climate at the show seems to be changing. The number of manufactures showing concepts seems to be shrinking. In the heyday 10 years ago, I remember one manufacture having multiple concept cars on display in any one show. I think the total number of concepts by all manufactures combined this year lists out at around 8 on the Chicago Auto Shows website. Lexus was pr...

Well, I got to wondering today just how many players I had shot that were possibly going to be in the 2012 NFL draft. A quick search of some of the polls and listings and a quick search of my archive came up with a number of players. One, Cody White I have been photographing since he attended High School at Normal Community West. There were a Number of Illinois State Redbirds that made the list and a good parcel from the Missouri Valley Conference. Fill in the rest of the non-conference games at Hancock and I got the following into a gallery. I only selected one image of each person for this gallery. If you search my archive by name, you will find several more of each. Unfortunately there were several players I did not capture. Enjoy, and good luck to all involved when the draft takes place. 2012 NFL Draft Prospects - Images by Alan Look

A few short weeks ago, I was shooting a night time IHSA playoff game at Normal Community West High School and ran in to a fellow shooter and friend. As I made my way around the field to say hello and chat for a couple seconds, I noticed something that made me take a second look. On his flash unit was an extender. I'd heard of Better Beamers before but had never seen on in person, still haven't. His unit was a dozen or so years old and while it used the fresnel lense technology like the Better Beamer, it was made by someone else. Inquiring about just how much it would help and what if any side effects there were, I decided to look into one. Online, I found a couple different variations with the Better Beamer being the more popular. Next I visited a couple of photo chat rooms to get an idea of what people thought that had used them. They are used a lot in nature photography and I found some using them in sports photograpy. The biggest compaint I could find was escaping l...