As promised the photos from One Night of Queen have been posted up on our Flickr page. There is a collection for the whole night, that contains one set of the photos that our house photographer James Crisp took, and another set with some shots I got from my seat. Below are three of the photos James took. You can tell by the angle and placement how keen his eye is in spotting great photo opportunities.

As with all the previous events, if you attended and manged to take some photos yourself then we would love to see them. Please feel free to email them to us at rupparenablog@gmail.com, email us a link to them, or leave a comment with a link to them. What, you say you were too busy dancing to take photos? Don’t fret, words are just as juicy and telling. We would love to hear of what you thought of the concert as well as any feedback about various aspects of the show. Till next time readers, hopefully this isn’t the last time we see Gary and The Works, but as they say, “the show must go on!”

This past Sunday was UK’s last game of the regular season. Since it also happen to be our last home game of the season, it was Senior Day! That’s right, UK fans everywhere gave a proper farewell to Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford at center court prior to the night’s game. Not only did the fans show their support, but a video played of Randolph Morris wishing them well, and their former teammate Rajon Rondo from the Boston Celtics presented them with their jerseys.

It is fair to say that the team wanted to return the appreciation to the fans and planned to end the season on a good note. Early in the game, Florida lead by 9 points while Kentucky was busy playing catch up. Once we caught up though, we took it all by storm. Around half time, the scores were very close with Kentucky leading by only 2 points. After a nice rest, they stormed back on the court and swept up the Gators by going on a 15-0 point run and getting the lead by a good margin. Near the end of the game, Florida was able to catch up some and make Kentucky earn the victory. Below is a quick clip I took from the sidelines of the fans getting into the game and ‘backseat’ reffing from their seats.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WEOMoqh6w8]

For some photos from court-side, check out our Senior Day set on our Flick page. For more stats on the game, be sure to check out the Box Score and Play-by-Play on the UK Athletics site. While you are over there, you can read their recap of the game for more detail on each play as well as more specifics about the stats of each player.

Although the Wizard of Oz was great and powerful, perhaps he misspoke when he said “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” With productions of the scale that take place in Rupp Arena, perhaps it is the ‘people behind the curtain’ who should be given the most attention (except for the event itself of course). When you go to an event keeping the video production in mind, it can seem almost daunting at the amount of well edited videos that are displayed on the LED screens. As a good example, take note of the eRUPPtion Montage I posted up yesterday. Numerous montages like that are made for nearly every event that happens at Rupp Arena (be it a basketball game, concert, truck pull, etc.).

Each event definitely has it’s fair share of video production, but compared to a UK Basketball game, all our other events fall short. Of course that should not discredit the amount of work that goes into each show at Rupp Arena, but is more to emphasizing the amount of video production that goes into a single basketball game. This past Sunday, during Senior Day for UK Basketball, I was able to step inside the video production room and take some photos and a short video. Below is a clip from during the game where there are many tasks being done without a hiccup by our experienced crew.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxtC5Jg_uwQ]

It is one thing to have to produce a bunch of videos for an event and play them in the right order. It is another thing entirely to have to capture and play video on-the-fly, switching between multiple cameras, and getting the best shot for a particular situation. On top of that, there are trivia, montages and replays that have to be done and inserted into the gaps during the game. Not only is this done once, but for every UK Basketball game, men and women. That is a total of twenty-five times just this season.

To get a better sense of being in the room and seeing all the action happen, as well as the many knobs, switches and buttons that I strategically avoided to prevent meltdown, have a look at the Video Production Room set on our Flickr page. There are quite a few shots there for you to feast your eyes on. Next time you attend an event at Rupp Arena, pay attention to the many elements that go into that show. Who knows, if you like the event a lot, maybe you can treat the video production crew to a hotdog from the concessions stand.

Our photos just went up today from the eRUPPtion event his past Friday. There are some load-in shots, some shots “from the stands,” as well as some excellent photos from our house photographer, James Crisp. There are some really cool action shots that show the intensity of the matches, from well places kicks and punches to carefully controlled body holds. There are photographs of their entrances that included but were not limited to smoke, Hannibal Lector replica masks, and even a live rapper. The “bombshell beauties” are even shown displaying the round cards around the caged ring. In addition to the photos, our Video Event Technician, Joseph Lloyd, put together a great video recapping all the matches and the feel of the whole night. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ntQxIcPdU]

Head on over to our Flickr page to have a look at all the shots. If you were able to attend the event and took some photos then be sure to email them to us at rupparenablog@gmail.com.

Part of the fun of my job and this blog is to interact with people who attend (or plan to attend) events at Rupp Arena and get feedback from them as well as photos they took from their perspective. As the famous saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and despite the best efforts from our house photographers and myself, we still pass over parts of concerts or events that would be great to have photos of. Sometimes it is the timing, other times it is the angle of the shot, but it is always great to view someone else’s photos and put yourself in their shoes and see what parts of an event they took pictures of.

During my call-to-arms for fan photos from the Linkin Park concert, someone by the name of Kevin Foster sent me twenty photos he took of the concert. It turns our he was sitting in the stands on almost the opposite side of myself, so he got to capture a few rock poses that I never knew existed. My thanks goes out to Kevin for the great shots and for sending them to us. You can view Kevin’s pictures in the Fan Photos (LP) set under our Linkin Park collection on Flickr. If you have some pictures you took of the Linkin Park concert, George Strait, or Monster Jam, send them along to us at our email, rupparenablog@gmail.com. Not only would I love to take a look at them, but I will toss them up on our Flickr page for everyone to see.

Monster Jam roared in to Rupp Arena this past Saturday less than 20 after Lexington played host to George Strait. Monster truck enthusiasts and new-comers shows up in force to get a chance of the action and get to see the original Driver of the infamous Gravedigger, Dennis Anderson, sit behind the wheel and show of his skills. O boy do we have a load of content from that event. The photos have been added up to our Flickr page with great action shots by one of our house photographers, James Crisp. In addition to the in-your-face intensity those shots provide, there are some shots from the stands like we did with our previous shows.

Now for some extremely special. I was able to interview Dan Evans, the driver of the Destroyer, as well as Dennis Anderson himself, the original driver of Gravedigger (who drove for the show). Text seems to lack some of the track-side grit that the audio conveys, so to spice it up I whipped together an audio segment with the interviews for your listening and/or downloading pleasure.

Click to listen, or right click and select “Save As” to save.

As for the show itself, it never lacked excitement. Of course monster trucks are all thrill, but to fill in the gaps between competitions there were nail-biting ATV races which pitted our home team against the likes of South Carolina. There was even an interstellar battle that took place on the floor. Below are some sample pictures of all of the above.

As with all of our events at Rupp Arena, we would love to know what you thought about it. Was there something that could have been done better? Please tell us. Also, be sure to email us your photos from the event so we can add them to a fan section on our Flickr page. Stay tuned for more interviews like the one in this recap for more events in the future.

Things are finally starting to settle down from this past weekend. There are even more events just around the corner, but in this calm before the storm, it may be nice reminisce about that Friday night which seems like just yesterday. George Strait came, he saw, and he played guitar. It almost seemed contradictory that his songs are so mellow and soothing, yet evoked so much emotion from the crowd. It is safe to say no one will forget that night, but here is a gift from me to you to make that memory that much sweeter.

You may remember Michael Wright for the amazing photos he took of the Linkin Park concert just one week ago. We have all sorts of great shots (like the one above of Phillip Sweet from Little Big Town) of all the members of each act (Sarah Johns, Little Big Town and of course George Strait) courtesy of Michael’s good vision and speedy shutter. Be sure to stop by our Flickr page for shots of last Friday concert. Within the George Strait collection, there are sets of Sarah Johns photos, Little Big Town photos, George Strait himself, and some more shots from the stands. As with Linkin Park, we would love to see your photos from this event. Please email us any shots you took to rupparenablog@gmail.com. Who knows, you may get your pictures added to our Flickr page.

Finally starting to crash from the adrenaline boost that was the Linkin Park concert this past Monday? I will make things a bit easier, and allow for your memories to stay active much longer. After all, as they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, if that is true, then we have exactly 83,000 words for you to chow down on.

Our always excellent house photographer, Michael Wright, managed to get some amazing shots of all three bands (such as the one above, of guitarist Brad Delson from Linkin Park). Michael managed to get still shots of the anything-but-still Chiodos and some face-revealing photos of the always-shrouded singer of Coheed and Cambria. If you would like to take a look at Michaels photos as well some some that I captured from the from the stands, then stop by our Flickr page. There should be more than enough there for you to feast your eyes on. As a special treat, we made the following panoramas for you to do with what you will. Click on each image to get the large version. Be forewarned, when I say large I really do me LARGE, making it easy for you to spot yourself if you were down in the pit or on one side of the arena.

Load-in Panorama

Concert Panorama

Do you have any pictures from the show? If so, we would love to see them. Email your photos to rupparenablog@gmail.com and we will add them to the Linkin Park section of our Flickr page. Be sure to include any notes you would like on the photos, and please zip them up if you send us a lot.