Team Sin Bin

… become a Detroit Red Wings fan? Simple, my dad was from Grand Rapids, MI and he raised me as a Wings fan. I’ll never forget attending my first playoff game, because it was at The Joe, and it went to triple overtime! It was Game 2 of the 2009 Western Conference Finals, Red Wings vs. Ducks. From that point on, I was hooked on going to games, and once we got home to Dallas, we started to go to more Stars games, especially when the Red Wings were in town. Through the years, I’ve gone from a casual fan of the sport, to basically hockey obsessed. My love for photography started on a family vacation where I stole my mom’s point and shoot camera to start photographing mostly nature. It escalated into my mom getting me my first DSLR one Christmas. In 2014, my mom won tickets to the Mike Modano retirement game, and I decided that I was going to take my camera, and see what I could do. In Dallas, fans can stand on the glass for warm-ups, and this was my first time doing that, and boy oh boy, I fell in love. I didn’t have social media at the time (just a blog for my photos), but I posted some of the photos I had taken, and they somehow made their way to Twitter/Instagram, and someone informed me that a Stars player had used one of my photos. I was like, wow, people like my photos that much? My photos are really that good? (Questions I still ask myself to this day.) Since then I fell even further in love with hockey and hockey photography, as well as the Dallas Stars & Texas Stars.

While living in Virginia, I became a huge Washington Capitals fan & continue to support and follow them since moving to Florida. I have been a motorsports photographer for over 20 years, primarily shooting pictures at Monster Truck shows. I started shooting pictures at the Jacksonville Icemen ECHL games that I attended during their inaugural season. The positive response to the hundreds of pictures I shared on Facebook pages prompted me to start a Jacksonville Icemen Photography Facebook page. I’m now happy to be able to share my pictures on the Sin Bin.

… the Rochester Americans. I put photography on hold for three decades while I was both active duty Air Force, and then Civil Service. After retiring from the Air Force, and Civil Service, I realized it was time to finish my BFA degree in Graphic Design, with an emphasis on photography through the University of West Florida. I’m planning on graduating in the spring of ’20. I started as a game day photographer for the Pensacola Ice Flyers for the ’18 – ’19 season. After the start of the ’19 Spring semester, I transitioned to student intern. I’m now a proud member of #TeamSinBin.

I have been hooked ever since I overcame my hesitation and watched the Macon Whoopee play. A few years later I was able to see the Macon Trax play for a championship against the rival Columbus Cottonmouths. Unfortunately, that was the last time there would be a hockey team in Macon for 10 years. In 2015, the Macon Mayhem were announced and I was ecstatic. During the second year of the Mayhem, I started taking photos at the game for fun and posting them on my Instagram. The Mayhem liked the work I had done and asked me to be an official photographer for the 17-18 season. I am constantly upgrading my equipment and abilities as I start my photography career. I am proud to be part of #TeamSinBin.

… photos for her high school magazine, she always went to take photos for the soccer team, that’s where she fell in love with sports photography. Now working as the Photography and Social Media Editor for her award-winning college newspaper, she still finds herself on the sidelines. Throughout the years, she started her own photography business and started doing professional portrait, wedding and sport photographs. She loves working for many organizations like FC Wichita Men’s and Women’s Soccer, Wichita Selection Indoor Soccer, El Dorado Broncos Baseball, and the National Baseball Congress World Series. Hockey has been apart of her life since she was younger. Going to watch many Thunder games and then in 2018 going to see her favorite NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers.

… NHL game during the “Broad Street Bully” days. I still love my Devils. I joined the U.S. Navy in 1986 and became a rabid Washington Capitals fan while stationed close to D.C., ultimately becoming a Caps Season Ticket Holder for several years. Upon retiring from the Navy in 2009 and setting permanent roots in the Hampton Roads area, it was just natural I became a Norfolk Admirals Season Ticket Holder. My love of obscure esoteric photography subjects and styles led me to seek permission from the Admirals to volunteer to shoot pictures for fun (how that all became, is an entirely different funny story) as Ice Hockey is the hardest thing ever to photograph. From there, things just expanded. When not glued in front of the TV watching Caps games, NHL Center Ice, CBC HNIC or at an Admirals game working, I can be found playing with my ham radios (call sign W4CPO), helping out with regional Feline TNR programs, working on my house and vegetable garden, fabricating lies to get out of marital trouble or out riding my Harley Davidson Electra Glide Ultra Limited. As Jerry Garcia used to sing – “Nothing left to do but smile. smile, smile”

I am going back to school for a degree in Sports Media. I currently shoot all sports at Butler Community College in Kansas. I also shoot portraits, weddings and engagements. I am a New York Rangers fan in hockey and I love spending time with family and friends.

…having cameras around me at family events, I can remember taking photos when I was 4 on what would become my first camera. I have been watching hockey for as long as I can remember, The Quad City Mallards were the first team I fell in love with and since then I can be found at a hockey rink no matter the league.

… and started going to Stingray games and became hooked on live hockey… taking pictures of the action is just an extension of the action for me.

Breaking into the sports media scene with attending Metro State in 2016, JJ started his new favorite job by working with Colorado Hockey Hub to cover Colorado amateur and high school hockey across the state, eventually parterning with the Avalanche for multiple tournaments including the Peewee Quebec Qualifiers and the Colorado High School Hockey combine. Along with working with Colorado Hockey Hub, JJ is a former member of the Mile High Sports magazine, where he covered the DU Pioneers, Colorado Eagles, Denver Outlaws and Colorado Avalanche, where he earned his first credential to cover the Avalanche from the press box. After hearing a lot of good things about the Sin Bin News, I am happy to have the opportunity to grow here as a photographer. When I am not shooting hockey games, I am either hiking the gorgeous trails in Colorado, going for random bike rides with my family, playing hockey, or working on freelance writing projects. As a dual citizen of Germany and the United States, JJ’s ultimate dream is to shoot a game for the Eisbaren Berlin in Germany one day. During Eagles games, you can follow his Twitter at @seawardjj5 for awesome pictures of Eagles games.

…attending the D1 men’s hockey games there. Not long after, he became a season ticket holder (and an avid hockey fan in general), and went to almost every home game until his graduation in 2017. He began shooting photos of the RPI hockey team in 2015, and has been unable to shake the sports photography bug since then. While living in Maine in 2018 for his full-time engineering job, Malay was able to shoot home games of the Maine Mariners’ (ECHL) inaugural season in Portland. Since moving to Connecticut, he has continued to develop his sports photography skills by shooting hockey at Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL) games and soccer at Hartford Athletic (USHL) matches. While he doesn’t yet have a favorite hockey team, he enjoys watching just about any hockey game and even pretends he can play a little bit himself (he’s definitely not expecting phone calls from a scout any time soon). When he’s not shooting sports, Malay also enjoys traveling and wildlife photography; he has ventured to remote islands in the Atlantic Ocean to find puffins, and to the forests of Costa Rica for caimans & toucans.

… hockey game with the Greenville Road Warriors, and I was hooked! I have been one of the game day photographers with the Road Warriors/Swamp Rabbits ever since. When not shooting hockey, I am shooting concerts, and other sports in Greenville. I am happy to share my work with the Sin Bin.

… invited me to a Reading Royals game and that game got me hooked on hockey. The next season I had season tickets and started to also go to as many away games as I could. That season I realized that some goalies had artwork on their helmets so I started to bring a camera to all hockey games I went to and would stand at the glass during warmups to get the goalie helmets. Eventually, it turned into me taking photos from my seat and finally going to college for photography. I have my BFA in Photography. I have been a photographer with the Reading Royals since 2012-13 when I was their photography intern. I still take photographs of all goalie helmets every game and I am extremely offended by white/blank goalie helmets. I enjoy traveling to new arenas and I am currently trying to get to all 31 NHL arenas, I have been to 13 so far.