Cut Throat Bay

The NBA All Star game was played without a couple of high profile participants this year as the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson would not play due to injury. Kobe and ‘AI’ were the latest in a string of injuries to All Star players that also claimed Portland’s Brandon Roy and New Orleans’ Chris Paul. The NBA has been much more strict about attendance at the All Star game since a number of players skipped out with dubious injuries.

Kobe Bryant has been plagued with minor injuries all year, but missed the Lakers’ last three games prior to the All Star contest due to an ankle sprain. Los Angeles is hopeful that by not playing in the game that Kobe will be able to return to action immediately after play resumes following the All Star break. Bryant did travel to Dallas to participate in All Star game festivities. Kobe is always the center of attention wherever he goes and presided over the annual slam dunk contest as well as a benefit appearance for retired racing wombats.

Iverson has missed Philadelphia’s past five games due to an illness suffered by one of his young children. Unlike Kobe, Iverson wasn’t expected to be in Dallas this weekend due to the nature of his situation. It’s debatable that Iverson deserved an All Star game nod in the first place. He quickly wore out his welcome in Memphis to start the year, and eventually landed back in Philadelphia where he’s averaged 14.4 points per game since his return. He was voted in to the starting lineup by NBA fans, and this renewed calls from the media to revise the procedure for selecting All Star game participants. Unfortunately, many of the All Star voters are dimwits and pick players based on their ‘name recognition’ rather than their in-season performance.

Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks was chosen to replace Bryant in the Western Conference lineup, while New York’s David Lee was the East’s fill in for Iverson. The West already had two ‘fill ins’ named to their roster as Denver’s Chauncy Billups and the LA Clippers’ Chris Kaman took the place of Chris Paul and Brandon Roy respectively.

NBA betting enthusiasts had several options on the menu beginning with the annual ‘rookies vs. sophomores’ game on Saturday. The Sophomores were a -12 point favorite with the total set at 245′ but were crushed by the rookie team. This year’s game in Dallas set an all time record for All Star game attendance.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on football betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

The Green Bay Packers entered the NFL playoffs as one of the league’s hottest teams, and mounted a 21 point second half comeback to force overtime against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Things looked good when Green Bay won the toss, but only moments later their season was over after an Aaron Rodgers fumble that Karlos Dansby returned 17 yards for the game winning score. It was a strange ending to a classic offensive display.

Arizona sent much of the NFL football betting public home unhappy as well with their 6 point outright victory. The Cardinals had opened as -2′ home favorites but public sentiment favoring Green Bay had moved the line so significantly that Arizona was a +2′ home underdog by kickoff. With the victory, the Cardinals improved to 5-4 both SU and against the NFL pointspread at home this season.

Cardinals’ quarterback Kurt Warner improved his postseason record to 9-3 SU with one of the most impressive performances in league history. Warner finished with 379 yards passing and 5 touchdowns with no interceptions. After the game, he reflected on his performance:

“We knew how tough it was going to be on our defense with all the weapons they have offensively and how they’ve been playing. It was just one of those games where I felt great. I loved our playing. I felt like I was seeing everything well and it accumulates to 51 points.”

Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers might be remembered more for the game ending fumble than his own impressive performance, but he matched Warner play for play in what will certainly go down as one of the best quarterback duels in NFL playoff history. Not surprisingly, the entire Packers’ team along with head coach Mike McCarthy took the loss hard:

“It’s clearly one of the toughest losses I’ve been a part of. I’m very proud of our football team and fight. This is a hard game to swallow.”

Quarterback Rodgers was in no mood to reflect on his excellent numbers, but was instead focused on reliving the decisive final play:

“I was trying to unload it. I should have held on to the ball. I was looking at the front side for Driv [Donald Driver]. It looked like he was getting grabbed a bit. Then I was looking for James [Jones] and they were driving in on him as he was running a little in cut, so I kind of pulled the ball back and someone hit my arm.”

Arizona will head to New Orleans to face the Saints at the Superdome next Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals are a +7 road underdog with the total set at 57. Oddly, Arizona posted better numbers on the road this season than at home, finishing 6-2 SU/4-3-1 ATS.

Ross Everett is a experienced freelance writer specializing in travel, poker and NFL football handicapping. He is a staff handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, flower arranging and scuba diving. He lives in Southern Nevada with four dogs and a pet coyote.

A portrait, also known as a portraiture, is a photo centering on a person or small groups facial expression while they are in a still position. The personality, mood and likeness of the person or group will be presented. You can also include the whole body and background in portrait photography as well. Generally the person or group will be looking strait at the camera during a portrait photo.

Non-professional models are used for portrait photography, unlike other styles of photography. Some examples of portrait photography are graduations, special events, and weddings and are usually displayed in private homes. Many are done on studio with several backgrounds to choose from.

History of Portrait Photography

Ever since the camera was invented people have been using portrait photography. It was, and is more inexpensive way then having your portrait painted and it is a more available method. People would sit against a background and were lit with natural light from a window. With technology evolving photographers have the ability to take pictures with less exposure time giving them more freedom to move around and create new styles of portrait photography.

Methods of Light

Portrait photographs can be done in a studio where the photographer can adjust the light when capturing portraits. They can change the direction and the intensity. Kicker lights, fill lights, background lights and the main lights are a few of the different lighting terms.

The most important light source is obviously referred to the main light. It is usually at a 45 degree angle of the subject but it can also be positioned above or below as well. The fill light is used to help eliminate shadows that are created by the main light. The kicker light is the light that brightens up the hair of a subject. This will help to add depth and to show the separation from the subject and the background. To add effects to the backdrops the background light is used to brighten up the background.

Learn more about portrait photography and find the best editorial photographer.

South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway is an egg shaped terror that has become known as the track too tough to tame. If thats true, David Pearson came pretty close–during his illustrious career, he posted 10 victories and 12 poles at Darlington. These are both records for one of NASCAR’s most unforgiving tracks. Pearson’s ability at Darlington bordered on the unreal, and he was able to follow the conventional wisdom about performing well there better than anyone. The old saying is that you need to race the track, not the other drivers, but that’s a lot easier said than done. Pearson, however, made it look easy.

David Pearson was born three days before Christmas 1934 in a tough textile town near the North Carolina/South Carolina border called Whitney. His parents both worked in the local mill and did their best to provide. David quit school after the 10th grade and also worked in the mill. He was soon drawn away by his love of fast cars. He bought his own car and began racing at short tracks in the area. He ran his first race in’52 in Woodruff, South Carolina and won his first championship at the old Greenville/Pickens Speedway in’59.

Pearson never sought out stock car racing immortality, but some of his friends had other ideas. They began raising money to buy a car to race in the NASCAR Grand National series (the forerunner to today’s Sprint Cup). With a patchwork of financial backing, David began racing a limited schedule on the Grand National circuit and was named the’60 rookie of the year. In’61,he attracted sponsors and started to race a full time schedule. Not long after, he was considered among the best in the sport winning Grand National titles in’66,’68 and’69.

The’70s saw Pearson cut back his schedule somewhat, focusing on superspeedways. In’72, he started driving for the Wood Brothers in the #21 car that he was to make a legend. In’73, he won 11 races in’ starts”an incredible feat even by today’s standards. Through the end of the’70s, Pearson won 43 races. In addition to his mastery of Darlingon, he posted remarkable numbers all over the circuit. He is one of two men to have won more than 100 races, and his 105 is second only to The King Richard Petty’s 200 wins. Hes also second on career poles (113) to Petty. Head to head, however, he has a slight edge over NASCARs legendary King: in races where he and Petty finished 1-2, Pearson won 33 to Petty’s 30. His 11 consecutive poles at Charlotte is a feat that will likely never be matched. Another record that may never be broken is his’.29% winning percentage, as well as his record of starting from the pole in 20% of the races he ran.

In March, 2000, SC Highway 221 through Spartanburg County was renamed David Pearson Boulevard in his honor. He lives in Spartanburg to this day. Pearson still takes to the track occasionally–he and current NASCAR driver Carl Edwards were the first to race on the newly repaved Darlington Raceway last Spring. We should all hope to be able to run with a 20 something NASCAR driver when we’re in our mid 70’s. Incidentally, he got the nickname Silver Fox due to his prematurely gray hair and cunning style behind the wheel.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on football betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

South America will host the Summer Olympic Games for the first time in 2016, as Rio De Janeiro, Brazil was awarded the honor on Friday. Rio beat out the US choice of Chicago, Illinois along with Tokyo, Japan and Madrid, Spain to earn the right to host the games. Despite a high pressure effort from the American power elite–including President Barack Obama and TV gabfest queen Oprah Winfrey–Chicago was the first city eliminated from contention. Tokyo was the next to go, before Rio got the nod over Madrid in the final round of balloting.

Bookmakers offered odds on the host city choice, with Rio listed as second favorite at +200. Chicago had been the wagering favorite at most books, particularly after President Obama got involved personally in the US bid effort. Chicago was bet as high as a -300 favorite, while Madrid and Tokyo were priced in the +250 range. Some suggest that Tokyo didnt deserve to have such short odds, but was the beneficiary of regional pride from the notoriously enthusiastic betting population of Japan. Despite some media attention to the betting odds, bookmakers reported that they didn’t receive a lot of action on the event.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, got the better of his US counterpart with a passionate speech that stood in marked contrast to Obamas typically baleful collection of talking points. The Brazilian leader stressed the unfairness that South America had never hosted the games in his speech to the committee;

“It is a time to address this imbalance. It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country.”

The Olympic committee was apparently swayed by this presentation and paid no mind to Rios many downsides. It is without a doubt the most dangerous of the finalist cities, where drug cartels and armed bands of thugs roam without impunity. Well do to Rio citizens are used to removing watches and jewelry before they drive anywhere lest they be targeted by carjacking brigands. Rios murder rate is also one of the highest in the world. Brazilian bid officials have stressed that security will be a priority at the games and it better be lest the Olympics turn into a bloodbath.

Some IOC members suggested that the summary dismissal of Chicagos bid was more of a rebuke of the notoriously corrupt USOC. The last two Olympics held in the US were tainted by crime and corruption. The’96 Atlanta Olympics were disrupted by a terrorist bombing, while the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games were marred by a well known bribery and corruption scandal.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on football betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.