NCAA tournament: Ohio State, Iowa State, Iona

More second round action: (2) Ohio State vs (15) Iona and (7) Notre Dame vs (10) Iowa State. OSU crushed Iona by 25 points. The game was a dunkfest for OSU’s Sam Thompson, seen above. Thompson scored a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds in the victory. In the second game, Iowa State beat up on ND 76-58.
© 2013 Ethan Klosterman. Do the right thing– don’t steal.
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NCAA Tournament at UD Arena: Indiana vs JMU

Indiana, the No. 1 seed in the west region, played (16) James Madison University during the second round. Here are a few of my favorites of Zeller, Oladipo, & co. Indiana won handily 83-62.
© 2013 Ethan Klosterman. Do the right thing– don’t steal.
Contact me prior to using these images.
NCAA Tournament at UD Arena: First Four

In March, the University of Dayton and UD Arena were privileged to host not only the NCAA Division I First Four but also the second and third rounds. With UD Arena being my home arena, I got to shoot it all. What an opportunity to shoot a lot of basketball!
For the start of this year’s tourney, UD Arena hosted North Carolina A&T vs Liberty, Middle Tennessee vs St. Mary’s (Calif.), LIU Brooklyn vs James Madison University, & Boise State vs La Salle. While they weren’t the most talented teams in the country, it was fun to have four games over the two evenings with the arena all NCAA’d out.
Here are my favorites from the eight hours of games from March Madness’ First Four.
© 2013 Ethan Klosterman. Do the right thing– don’t steal photos.
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Dayton falls at Xavier… yet again

UD hasn’t won against Xavier on their on turf since Jan. 10, 1981. Jimmy Carter was president then. The streak continued last night as they lost, 66-61.
© 2013 Ethan Klosterman.
EuroTour: Prague, Czech Republic, and Munich, Germany

After a great time in Berlin (a city I will be visiting again, if not living in), Dad and I hopped on a train for a quick, one-night stop in Prague, Czech Republic, while en route to Munich, Germany.
We were now in the country that we both knew the least about. We knew zero Czech words and we had none of their currency either; they aren’t on the euro. As we were pulling into Praha (Czech name of Prague), there was a noticeable difference in the language and writing on the signs. There were also relatively a lot of regular people walking around and across the train tracks. It also looked rather run down. Maybe that’s just what the old communist states look like.
After figuring out the exchange rate of euros (and, in the back of our heads, dollars to euros) to crowns, we were off on the metro in search of our hostel that we got for 12 euros per person! At the time, 1 USD was about 20 crowns. It was cloudy but not too cold, and, knowing we were there for only one evening and were departing to Munich in the late morning, we had to get out and explore. We had dinner at a local restaurant of goulash and some beef with cranberries and drank Budweiser Budvar. Yes Budweiser, but it’s not the American kind. Google ‘Budweiser in the Czech Republic,’ and you can learn about it. With filled stomachs, we went off on foot in search of the Prague Castle which I have been wanting to see for years.
I would have loved to have taken a tour or caught the castle at sunrise too, but this will have to do for my first visit there. We kept walking and wandering around the city as we tried to absorb all the sights and sounds we could.
The next morning, we had a big breakfast at the restaurant at the hostel and were off for a few more hours of exploring before we had to grab our bags and head to the next train.
Our stay in Prague was nice, but just too short. There was so much I just didn’t get to see. If I were doing it again, I’d cut out the city completely and spend another quality day in another city instead of hours on the train and just a few hours exploring. Quality over quantity.
A number of hours and a couple of trains later, we were in Munich. I was really surprised at how happy I was to be back in a German-speaking country. I’ve only ever taken about 4 classes of the it in 6th grade, but I remember it quite well. Maybe it’s my German heritage trying to call me back. We had a tasty dinner of sausage and Augustiner at a beer garden and were in for the night.
We caught up with a guided tour of Munich for a brief intro to the city and spent the rest of the day walking and hopping on the metro.
A tasty kebab from an all-hours restaurant near the train station later and we were in for the night. I performed a quick, YouTube-guided surgery* (Hi, Dad), and we figured out logistics for our visit to Dachau in the morning.
Our guided tour of Dachau was an important goal of mine. I wanted to get a better feeling for the horror of World War II and what my grandfather was fighting to end. The stories and history we heard were interesting, but I was surprised at how unemotional the tour was for me. It was challenging to think of the terrible things that happened there and across Europe, even through the pictures and a few of the buildings that were still around. It was hard to imagine something so awful happening from my modern day perspective, but I’m very glad we went and experienced it.
We made our way back to Munich, a 30 minute train ride, and checked out some of the department stores near Marienplatz. When I go to Germany again, I’m buying authentic lederhosen.
A couple days of drinking Augustiner, eating sausage at every meal and hearing some funny maypole stories in Munich were over, and we were off to spend a few in Rome!
For more of my traveling adventures and to see the previous EuroTrip posts, click here.
© 2013 Ethan Klosterman
Dayton snaps Murray State’s 16-game streak

The University of Dayton brought Murray State University’s 16-game road winning streak to a skidding halt, Dec. 22. The Racers came in as favorites considering its 75-58 win against UD last year and its advancement to the round of 32 in this past NCAA tournament. UD, coming off a one point loss to Illinois State four days earlier, played all out and surprised a lot of people with a 77-68 win. It was easily the most exciting game the Flyers have played at home thus far this season. The 12,500+ fans inside UD Arena were as loud as I’ve heard them in many games. It was electric!
Tech note: I set up a post remote with a D300s and a 17-35mm f/2.8 set to 17mm (thanks, Erik!) and got lucky a few times. I was also shooting with the Nikon D800e and some different glass for the game (thanks, Isaac!). Word to the wise: if you’re shooting the D800 for sports, make sure you have big CF/SD cards. Those ~37mb RAW files fill up cards very quickly, but the 36 gorgeous megapixels are a welcome change from the usual 12! Cropping heaven!
© 2012 Ethan Klosterman
UD falls short against Illinois State 74-73

The Flyers were back at home taking on Illinois State University, on Wednesday, Dec. 19. UD faced a physical and quick Redbird team that had them down by two at halftime. The Flyers battled through the second half and had 29 seconds to make the game-winning shot. Despite two attempts in the last 10 seconds, they could not get a shot to fall. The Flyers are now 8-3 on the season.
Even worse than the loss at home was redshirt senior guard Kevin Dillard having to leave the game abruptly with about four minutes to go in the second half due to an apparent back problem. I was about five feet from him after he hobbled to the bench, and he sounded like he was in excruciating pain in his “whole back.” After a couple minutes of grimacing and cursing on the bench, he left the gym floor with team trainer Nate Seymour and did not return.
© 2012 Ethan Klosterman
University of Dayton women’s basketball at 11-0

The University of Dayton women’s basketball team is in the midst of its best season in its history. The Flyers have earned their highest rankings in program history with their No. 15 spot in the latest USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 16 spot in the latest AP Top 25 poll. Did I mention they’re on an 11-game winning streak? Tuesday, they went on the road and routed the University of Akron Zips (8-3) 90-59 to maintain the undefeated season.
Here are some of my favorite frames thus far this season.
© 2012 Ethan Klosterman
Flyers shut down Florida Atlantic

The Flyers hosted Florida Atlantic University at UD Arena Dec. 15. After finding a bit of a rhythm over the last three games, the Flyers dominated the Owls. UD extended its winning streak to four, with the 81-56 victory. Here’s some of what I saw.
Matt Derenbecker was lighting it up from beyond the arc. He went 5-of-8 for a career-high 15 points.
© 2012 Ethan Klosterman
Men’s & women’s soccer: August & September
These are some of my favorites from Baujan Field thus far this season.
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UD women’s volleyball: August & September

Here are a few favorites from the University of Dayton women’s volleyball team’s games from late August through mid-September at the Frericks Center.
Photo nerd note: Exposure is around 1/500th at f/2.8 at ISO 4000. To top it off, the lights cycle which makes for even more fun frame-to-frame. To overcome the technical challenges, on my Nikon D300s, I shoot with a 70-200mm almost exclusively. I shoot in manual always staying at f/2.8. I activate auto-ISO with a limit of 3200 which is way higher than I’d like, but there’s no getting around it considering how dark the building is. With those set, as the play develops and where it’s happening, I scroll through shutter speeds from 1/160-1/500th. I dial in a custom WB of around 3230K and shoot RAW (as usual) to deal with the WB shifts. There are few angles with clean backgrounds that allow me to get faces and expression without distractions in the BG. Needless to say, it’s a very challenging place to make pictures.
Volleyball-wise, it’s a great environment. The Red Scare is loud and energetic, and it’s a cozy place overall. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt to be ranked in the top-20 either.
Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival

John Legend, a Springfield, Ohio native, headlined Saturday night at the Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival. This was the festival’s first year, and I’m looking forward to it growing and coming back bigger and better next year.
All photos © 2012 Ethan Klosterman.
Vice President Joe Biden campaigns at Wright State University

Vice President Joe Biden made a campaign trip to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio on Sept. 12. He was in front of the estimated 1,000-person crowd in a small hall at the school for about 37 minutes. This is what I saw.
All photos © 2012 Ethan Klosterman. All uses illegal without prior permission.
EuroTour: Berlin

After a spending a couple of days in Amsterdam, Dad and I were off to Berlin, Germany.
After another train ride, we arrived at Berlin Hauptbahnhof. This massive station is a gorgeous, glass, German Goliath. Unfortunately we arrived on a nasty, cloudy day, and it began to sprinkle once we stepped outside the station. So just trust me, this station was super nice.
We made the mistake of not packing food or eating on the train (yes, there was a dining car) so we were very ready to eat. We grabbed a bus and headed to our hostel, St. Christopher’s. It’s actually a chain of hostels around Europe that has a bar, Belushi’s, on the ground floor and then rooms upstairs. We had such a good experience there that we stayed at another St. Christopher’s in our next city, Prague.
After checking in and unloading our stuff, we got a recommendation to go to Hofbräu Berlin. I desperately needed food. I was hangry. Real hangry.
After we stuffed ourselves at the restaurant with mixed sausages, potatoes, a pork knuckle for Dad, and German beer, we dodged raindrops as we walked back to the hostel through a steady rain. I updated my Twitter followers, Dad and I planned out what we wanted to see the next day, and we called it a night.
We woke up to cloudy skies, cool temperatures, and an aggressive, face-numbing wind. We went on an easy-going, 4-hour walking tour of the city where we visited many of the big sites around Berlin and heard some informative history that gave us a solid intro to the city. I’m a big fan of the walking tours — especially the ones in cities that have lots of history, like Berlin. Sure, I learned a little bit about Berlin in school, but nothing close to what I got from the tour guide. It’s a nice way to start a city. I think it ended up being my favorite tour of the whole trip.
No, I didn’t burn the foreground in post. The sun burst through the clouds to illuminate the trees just beyond the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
After doing some research in Amsterdam and asking the bartender at Belushi’s for recommendations on where to go to get good currywurst in Berlin, Curry 36 came up. It was dee-licious. I could eat that once a week. It was very affordable, too.
Ahh, an American flag. This is the US Embassy in Berlin. It’s ~50 yards from one of the most iconic symbols of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate (seen below).
There was a large race (run, walk, and rollerblade) kicking off later that evening when we made our way back to the Gate. The teams above were on inline speed skates.
Fun fact: if you’re in Berlin and see this guy on the crosswalk sign, you’re in East Germany. If you see a more standard type of guy with his arms down, you’re in West Germany.
After the race had come to an end and we walked along the dozens of vendors and tents, we walked toward Reichstag to grab a couple shots of the sunset. One full day down and one to go.
We awoke to sunny, much less windy morning. After a bit of wandering, we wound up at Alexanderplatz and under another icon of Berlin, TV Tower.
If you know the story behind the Trabi, you get the irony.
The next stop on our cross-town tour was the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall. It’s about three quarters of a mile long. On the opposite side of the wall seen in this photo is the East Side Gallery. A sample of the actual art is on the photo above this one. It’s amazing to think about this wall-turned-public-art-exhibit causing so many issues just 20-some years ago.
After stopping at one of the recommended kebab restaurants for dinner, we were off to Potsdamer Platz, the home of the Sony Center.
But on our way to Potsdamer, we passed through the Klosterstrasse Station. We hopped off the train to take a picture of the station. It’s always cool when you see your last name, or at least part of it, as the name of a U-Bahn (metro/subway) station.
We made it to Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center as the sun was coming out from behind the clouds. It has fantastic architecture and design. This photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s a huge entertainment, bar, and restaurant area. The light pockets that shine in throughout the day must be a photographer’s heaven.
We left Potsdamer Platz and set off for the zoo. We ended up finding it, but unfortunately it had closed for the evening. We did manage to find a random park party/concert with some nice German-ish reggae.
Enjoying the freedom to do what we pleased, we continued walking. We ended up on Kurfürstendamm. It’s the boulevard that’s home to stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Rolex, Prada, Armani, etc. Wikipedia tells me it can be considered the Champs-Élysées of Berlin. $Big money$
It’s also the home of the $1,600 baby stroller that my Dad thought my sister Shannon would love.
After walking block after block and still finding more swanky stores, it was now almost completely dark and time for us to head back into the city.
Berlin was one of my favorite cities. I’m not sure why it is, but I’ve made a list of my top ten reasons that I can put my finger on. I really want to go back and explore some more… and maybe even live for an extended period of time.
Nine reasons why I really liked Berlin:
- History- WWII, Cold War
- Architecture- new & old
- Liter beers
- Giant soft pretzels
- German seems like a language I could get used to. I took maybe four German classes in 6th grade. I still remember how to count from 1-10.
- Seems really clean (Subways, streets)
- Currywurst
- The doors to the S and U Bahns will open before the train comes to a complete stop. Sure it’s relatively less safe, but it’s a more efficient and faster way to unload passengers.
- As far as I know, all of my family is from Germany (Oldenburg to be precise). Enough said
With two fun, full days plus an evening spent in Berlin, we were off to our next destination and the place we knew the least about: Prague in the Czech Republic!
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Beginning of the EuroTour: Amsterdam

After all of my exams were taken and essays submitted, it was time to begin a big adventure. A few months before, my dad accepted my invitation to come to Europe to visit me after classes were done. We decided to do a big European tour by train. The specific Eurail pass we got allowed us to travel unlimited miles and through any of the 23 countries in which the pass was valid during ten 24-hour periods within 15 days. With that constraint in mind, we planned a long route through Europe beginning May 29 and ending back in Madrid from where we would both fly home on June 15.
First city: Amsterdam
Our first travel day was spent flying (the only airplane leg of the journey) from Madrid to Brussels, Belgium on May 29. From there, we would start our train adventures and end the day by arriving in Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
We flew from Madrid to Brussels Charleroi on Ryanair. It my first experience with one of the discount airlines. The 3-hour flight north was different. From the minute that the doors to the cabin were secured, a team of flight attendants were on the loud speaker informing passengers about different kinds of things we could buy during the flight. This wasn’t the typical “we have sandwiches and liquor” pitch. They tried to hawk things like magazines, food, water, perfume, smokeless cigarettes, and lottery tickets. To add on to the annoyance of the constant sales speeches, I was sitting in the middle of two people (one being my Dad). Ryanair definitely doesn’t give any more legroom that is likely mandated by law. As a 6-foot 5-inch guy, I had zero room to move or stretch out. Thankfully, the flight was so short.
After arriving at rainy Charleroi and catching a bus to the train station, we began what would be a journey filled with train ride after train ride in city after city.
After a brief layover-turned-photowalk in Brussels proper, we were on our way to see the Belgian and Dutch countrysides on our train to The Netherlands. It was interesting to see the landscape change from flat farm fields to watery canals as we made our way farther north.
We arrived in Amsterdam late, so we found our hotel and grabbed a quick bite to eat, and called it a night.
The first things I noticed in Amsterdam were bicycles. Men, women, old, young–all riding bikes. It was amazing to see a place where bikes greatly outnumber cars by such a large margin. I’ve seen estimates of the number of bikes in the city around 550,000. It’s amazing considering the population is around 720,000.
I found some great lines in Amsterdam Centraal (yes two As) station.
This is one of my favorite frames from the whole trip. It was amazing how much light there was at 10 p.m. even with the clouds!

This is one way to attract customers to a store.
Amsterdam was a great place to start our adventure. I loved the canals running through the city and the gazillions of bikes around every turn. This visit was a good warm up to a longer stay that I hope to have there in the future.
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El Rastro

I went to the El Rastro, the weekly flea market and walked around a bit. Here’s what I saw.
Vendors set up tables and racks all along this tree-lined street in addition to a couple surrounding ones. I wasn’t going for the shopping, but there were a few thousand roaming among the hundreds of tents.
What!? He’s reading a newspa-what? Newspaper? Is that one of those things that come from trees and have yesterday’s news? How’d he find one of those? That’s definitely worthy of tossing a few coins in his cup.
The following frames are from various outings from previous weeks, not El Rastro.
I was taking a break in front of the Prado museum during a walk and noticed some pretty tame, hungry birds hopping around. I set up my camera with a MF 55mm f/3.5 macro lens and attached a cable release. While on continuous high speed, I lined my hand up with where I had the focus set. Once one of my feathered friends slipped into the sliver of in-focus area and came in to grab the food from my fingers, I hammered down on the release. This is the result.
Snap from my grocery store, Alcampo, in Madrid.
This is Comillas Pontifical University’s most recognized architectural feature. It’s equivalent to UD’s Immaculate Conception Chapel.
Walking the line

I went out for a walk around town looking for lines. I found some.
These arches were one block away from my flat in Madrid!
This is the Puerta de Atocha train station in downtown Madrid. It was the site of the terrorist bombing back in 2004 that killed 191 people.
I saw a picture online of this station when I first came to Madrid, and it took me months to finally get to the area. The station and surrounding buildings have lines, lines, and more lines. I highly recommend it to photographers visiting Madrid. And I didn’t even get talked to or stopped by any overzealous, First Amendment-trampling rent-a-cops or police officers like I would surely have encountered in the States! Fantastic!
Leave comments, questions, and suggestions below!
Semana Santa (Part 4 of 4)

Easter Sunday Mass at the world’s largest Gothic cathedral? OK, I guess so.
After staying up late with my friends (coincidentally ran into them at the hostel), we were out the door before the sun was even through its last REM cycle. The mission objective: (good) seats. Our recon reported that Mass started around 9. We figured we’d need lead time of maybe an hour to beat the crowd on the most important day of the year at the third-largest church in the world within a very Catholic country. We wound our way through the streets of Sevilla and made it to the cathedral with plenty of time. By this time, the maintenance man was still doing his last-minute power washing of the side entrance.
By 8:05 a.m., our side entrance finally opens. We’re there in plenty of time. We walk in and boom. This place is huge! While I haven’t seen the other biggest churches in the world, this one was certainly not your grandmother’s church.
It even is the home to Christopher Columbus’ tomb? Not too shabby.
After a few minutes of ohh-ing and ahh-ing at the tall, vaulted ceilings and seeing the processions pass through the church (see below), we started to think something was up. Why haven’t any priests been seen? There are only 40 people coming to Mass? It is Easter, right? After some murmurs move through the small congregation, we finally get word that our Internet-recon was bad. God gave us bad intel!? Mass starts at 11?! You mean we didn’t have to wake up at 5 a.m.? Awesome.
After blowing some time by filling our grumbling bellies with food and coffee at a restaurant around the corner, the time had finally come.
This time around, a familiar incense fragrance floated throughout the church as people were packing in and the organ began to bellow.
This time the two girls (two of our friends bailed after breakfast for naps back at the hostel) and I got seats in the second row on one of the wings. Not too shabby.
After songs- some familiar, some not- a few bows, a handful of handshakes, and a few faintly muttered Spanish phrases, I made it. First Spanish Mass= mission accomplished. Bonus points for it being on Easter… even if it does perpetuate the “Christmas and Easter Catholic” stereotype. If only Fr. Gene was still leading Sunday Mass at UD…
After some lunch and relaxing, I decided I had to find a place called Plaza de España that everyone was raving about. (I had hoped to stumble upon it the day prior.)
I could have spent hours there watching the light and shadows change. So many great lines, colors, and architecture. You might have recognized it from Star Wars Episode II.
After sweating it out in the Plaza, my friends and I had reservations for a flamenco show at a museum. Yes, the purists out there will scream and shout about that not being real flamenco, but hey, finding the authentic stuff was harder than it seems. While it probably wasn’t the world’s greatest, it was still an enjoyable way to finish up our last evening in Sevilla.
After a pleasant dinner at an Italian restaurant near the cathedral, we ended up walking to Plaza de España again. I was only able to squeeze off maybe a couple dozen frames while trying to cradle my camera on the curved, colored, ceramic railing before a security guard scooted us out of the park due to closing time. I would have really liked to have had time to run to the hostel for my tripod and spend some quality time playing with the lights and water reflections. Next time, perhaps.
With that, it was back to the hostel for some sleep, packing up and riding the high-speed AVE through the beautiful southern countryside to Madrid.
Spain = superb.