Photo of the Hockey Semifinals Now: 9 March 2012

For the second time in three years, Chelsea hockey arrived at Compuware Arena to play in the state semifinals. This year’s opponent was fancy-pants private school Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, an institution whose yearly tuition for full-day kindergarten is more than I paid for my car. FOR ONE YEAR OF KINDERGARTEN. No, I’m not kidding.

The game was at noon on a Friday, but Chelsea students turned out to support the hockey team.

When the game started, it was easy to see the contrast between Chelsea’s first-ever trip to the semis two years ago and this year. Two years ago the big stage seemed initially intimidating, but this year the team seemed comfortable in the semis. So comfortable, in fact, that the Bulldogs took an early 1-0 lead. And the students rejoiced.

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs eventually started taking penalties, and those penalties started turning into Liggett goals. That 1-0 lead turned into a deficit before too long.

Since hockey is such a Canadian game, it seems appropriate that a Tim Horton’s ad would be prominent.

Another photographer on duty that day noted that it was difficult to get a good shot of the coach without having it look like a Tim Hortons’ ad.

As time wound down in the third period, Chelsea’s frustration began to boil over. This resulted in an avalanche of penalties.

This also resulted in several ejections.

When the game ended, the coach gathered the team together for a word before the handshake line.

The team saluted the fans before heading off the ice following the 5-1 loss to Liggett.

Take note of the player all alone at the top of that photo. That’s the starting goalie. As a senior, he was preparing to leave the ice for the last time in his high school career. Those can be hard moments to watch and even harder moments to photograph, but the resulting images can be deeply meaningful.

This is how it looked when Chris left the ice for the last time.

Photo of the Hockey Quarterfinal Now: 7 March 2012

Chelsea hockey traveled to Allen Park to face Allen Park in the state quarterfinal. The winner would get a trip to Compuware Arena. The loser — or, for you non-competitive types, the second winner — would have more time to catch up on all its favorite tv shows on Hulu.

Chelsea jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead, and before long things got even worse for Allen Park: the referees awarded Chelsea a penalty shot after a non-goalie Jaguar closed his hand on the puck in the crease. This was a dangerous moment for Allen Park.


“See here, he’s going to skate towards you with the puck, see, and he’s going to shoot the puck, see, and if you want — that is to say, if you’re so inclined to do so — you can maybe try to stop the puck from going into your net, see.”

Sadly for the Bulldogs but happily for the Jaguars, the goalie made the stop. However, later in the first period the Bulldogs did manage to score a second goal.

The first period ended with Chelsea enjoying a 2-0 lead, and the second period featured even less scoring than Michigan State basketball managed against Louisville. I know that’s hard to imagine, but it’s true. (Neither team scored in the second period.)

Though there wasn’t any scoring, there was good action and a few indelicate interactions…like this:

There were some good hits, too.

Much to the chagrin of the many Bulldog fans in attendance, Allen Park managed to score a goal in the third period.

This made the score 2-1, leaving Chelsea a lead of one lonely little goal. One scrawny goal in the third period of a hockey game in a single-elimination tournament. That’s it.

If you’re not a hockey fan, let me explain to you what a one-goal lead in the third period of a hockey game in a single-elimination tournament is for anyone with a rooting interest in the game: it’s miserably thrilling. You’re watching the game begging the clock to move faster, begging the puck to clear the blue line even if only by an inch so you can get a chance to breathe, begging that shot to be wide or high or directly into the goalie’s chest or in Lenawee County or really ANYWHERE BUT IN THE NET. In playoff hockey it takes only one shot to ruin everything, and you spend the waning seconds living both in fear of that one awful shot and in hope of the appearance of those glorious zeros on the clock before that one loathsome shot can be created.

Playoff hockey can lift your heart to absurd heights of joy, but it can also tear your heart out of your chest.

Much to the delight of the Chelsea faithful, the Bulldogs kept the puck out of the net to preserve the 2-1 victory. When time expired, they poured onto the ice to rejoice over their second trip in three years to the state semifinals.

As Chelsea celebrated, Allen Park mourned the end of its season.

This Allen Park team bore some resemblance to the Chelsea team of two years ago: both produced somewhat below-average regular seasons, but both surprised plenty of people by finding a way to win in the playoffs. The main difference: Chelsea’s team of two years ago reached the semifinals, while Allen Park’s 2011-12 team fell one goal short of that accomplishment. Just one scrawny little goal. It’s the thinnest of margins, but it looms large when you no longer have time to erase it.

Playoff hockey can lift your heart to absurd heights of joy, but it can also tear your heart out of your chest.

Back on the other side of the scoresheet, the Bulldogs received a rousing ovation from their fans as they walked through the lobby on their way to the bus.

When next you see photos of these Bulldogs on this blog, they’ll be in Compuware Arena facing University Liggett.

Photo of the Festoons and Flourishes Now: 20 February 2012

If you pay attention to the post titles, you might be wondering why we’ve jumped back to February. I’d like to say it’s because it’s been 80+ degrees in March and I wanted to remember a time when temperatures made sense, but that would be false. Well, okay, it might be a little bit true, but it’s not the primary reason. The real reason is that I was waiting for a website to go live before I posted these photos so I could link to the site so you could buy stuff. BUSINESS, y’all.

Anyway. My friend Ashley is one of those crazy artistic people who makes stuff that looks cool. She was preparing to offer her cool-looking stuff for sale and she needed pictures to help entice browsers to become buyers. I have cameras and I have been known to take pictures of various things and such, so she dropped by to avail herself of my cameraocity.

So, with further adon’t: here are the product offerings of the fabulous Festoons and Flourishes.

Those are paper rose globes. In that photo they’re hanging from a tree. You could do that with them, but it’s not a requirement. Here they are in a more conventional setting:

You can also get them with convenient handles:

The paper roses come in a wide variety of colors, and yes, they are sold separately!

They also come in two sizes: wee and not-so-wee. The above are not-so-wee; here’s a photo of the two sizes together:

But wait — there’s more! The roses also are available with Swarovski Crystals.

Guess what? There’s still more! The roses are available with glitter, too.

(If you’ve already made a Twilight joke, we can be friends.)

We’re not quite done with the paper roses. They can be multi-colored, too!

There are bunches and bunches of color scheme possibilities with these roses. Here, this should give you an idea:

And just for fun, here’s what that arrangement looked like from the back:

That took a while to put together. It almost seemed a shame to take it apart.

Ah, but Festoons and Flourishes is far more than flowers! Here’s a fine idea for the soon-to-be-brides:

That’s a bouquet made from the bows from bridal shower gifts. You can send your bows to Ashley, and she’ll send them back looking less like bows and more like a bouquet.

If you’d like a bow bouquet but don’t have a collection of bows, she can still make one for you.

Festoons and Flourishes also offers thank-you notes.

For you kids out there, thank-you notes are pieces of paper upon which you write words of gratitude. You then put the paper in a mailbox for the United States Postal Service to deliver. Think of it like slow email you can touch. It might sound strange, but trust me: it’s wonderful.

If you need eye-catching table numbers or seating charts, Festoons and Flourishes can do the job.

That’s all the photos for this post. What are you waiting for? Go check out Festoons and Flourishes!

Photo of the Royal Garden Trio & Friends Now: 3 March 2012

The Chelsea Center for the Arts held a fundraiser. I couldn’t make it to the Friday night event — which is a real pity because it involved chocolate! — but I did make it to the Saturday night event: a concert featuring the Beach Fiddle Club, the Chelsea House Orchestra, Charlotte Prenevost, and the Royal Garden Trio.

First up was the Beach Fiddle Club.

If you’re not familiar with Chelsea, you might be wondering about the name of that group. Do they fiddle on the beach? No. Well, I mean, they might do that every now and again, but not on a regular basis. The group is composed of local middle school kids, and the name of that school is Beach Middle School. (The school was named after Dwight Beach, a Chelsea native who rose to the rank of general in the U.S. Army.)

Next up was the Chelsea House Orchestra.

Charlotte Prenevost joined CHO for a song.

To cap off the evening, the Royal Garden Trio took the stage. They first performed a few songs with some CHO members.

Charlotte Prenevost sang with the trio, too.

Then the trio had the stage all to itself.

The Royal Garden Trio is well worth checking out. Here, watch this video. You won’t regret it.

Photo of the Hockey Playoff Now: 3 March 2012

Chelsea hockey faced Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central in the regional final at Arctic Coliseum. This game wasn’t for all the marbles, but since high school playoffs involve multiple trophies, there were some marbles involved.

If you’re a dedicated Chelsea hockey fan, you might remember Monroe St. Long Name from two years ago, when Chelsea entered the playoffs two games under .500 and made program history with a hilariously unlikely and completely thrilling run to the state semifinals. Monroe Blah Blah Blah was the team Chelsea faced in the regional final that season, too. They were among the better teams in the state that year, so the odds were against the Bulldogs. However, Chelsea put forth a rousing effort…but MSMCC scored to take a one-goal lead with less than a minute to play, a crushing development that seemed to be the final blow. But wait! It wasn’t! Chelsea tied the game with under 30 seconds to play, and a few minutes into overtime the Bulldogs scored the winning goal to claim their first-ever regional championship.

This year the roles were a bit different: Chelsea came in with a stellar record, while MSMCC came in weaker than usual. Given the history I just recounted, I think you can understand why I was a little nervous. Or maybe a lot nervous. As I mentioned in a previous post, hockey single-elimination hockey playoffs are weird, man.

The game didn’t start well. The goalie made the above save, but MSMCC managed to score an early goal for a surprising and somewhat distressing early lead.

There was a bit of goalie encouragement going on before the second period started:

And while we’re away from the action, let’s all take a moment to appreciate Chelsea’s wonderful Angry Destructive Bulldog logo.

Back to the action.

Unfortunately, MSMCC scored another goal midway through the second period. Things were looking a bit grim, so the Chelsea coach called a timeout.

I don’t know what he said to the team in that timeout, but it worked. Boy, did it ever work. After a few solid hits, this (finally!) happened:

MSMCC held onto its 2-1 lead for the rest of the second period, but it was obvious Chelsea had found the on switch. The third period saw this:

And then this:

That goal gave Chelsea its first lead of the game midway through the third period.

As time grew short, MSMCC called its timeout to scheme its own miracle goal. While they did that, Chelsea schemed its anti-miracle goal.

After MSMCC pulled its goalie for the extra skater, Chelsea got ahold of the puck and — after several tries — put it in the empty net to seal its second regional championship in three years.

The goalie might have been secretly pleased about the win.

He might have had a little bit of company, too.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t much of a secret.

With the win, the Bulldogs moved on to the state quarterfinals against Allen Park in Allen Park.

Five for Lighting: BSP has now existed for five years

Hey, guess what I’m celebrating today!

Yes indeed, Burrill Strong Photography officially started five years ago today. I wanted to write a massive pile of magnificent prose to mark the occasion, but I found that I didn’t have much to say. And besides, it’s Burrill Strong Photography, not Burrill Strong Proseography. So, in the absence of magnificent prose, here are some of my favorite photographs from the past year. (These are somewhat chronological, but not strictly so.)


A Chelsea baserunner narrowly avoids the tag on his way to third base.


Current & former CHS baseball players gather for Akel Marshall’s retirement ceremony.


Anna Rode keeps an eye on the ball for a photo to accompany a feature article in the Standard.


A Dreadnaught and a Bulldog fight for the ball in a playoff game. The game went to a shootout. Dexter won.


A Dreadnaught avoids the penalty against Ladywood in the playoffs. The loss ended Dexter’s season.


A Chelsea softball player finds herself oddly synchronized with the umpire.


On a dry day, sliding into home plate can be dusty.


The CHS softball team keeps an eye on the action from the dugout.


This is a good example of how much fun reflections can be to photograph.


The flexing bat makes this one of my favorite photos of the spring.


The aftermath of a playoff loss provides powerful images.


On the other hand, playoff victories provide fun images. Here, Milan softball celebrates a regional victory.


The Milan softball team celebrates the final out of its win in the state semifinal.


Milan’s senior pitcher Kat Hoffman reacts to the Big Reds’ defeat in the championship game.


The Belleville lacrosse goalie levels a Dreadnaught. He scored anyway.


As Chelsea and Saline demonstrate here, lacrosse is a very physical game.


A CHS lacrosse helmet lays on the field during halftime of a game late in the season.


Local veterans stand during Chelsea’s Memorial Day ceremony.


A local resident makes contact during a vintage base ball game.


A classic car drives through Chelsea’s classic downtown on a beautiful day in May.


An area band performs at one of Chelsea’s Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights events.


The drummer of the Macpodz is silhouetted by the stage lights during Chelsea’s Sounds & Sights festival.


A local family enjoys the music during one of Chelsea’s Sounds & Sights events.


Fireworks light up the sky during the Independence Day celebration at Hudson Mills Metropark.


The Chelsea fair’s demolition derby is always a popular attraction.


This year’s derby was accompanied by a stunning thunderstorm.


I wasn’t kidding about the storm being stunning. That’s all lightning behind the clouds.


The Run for the Rolls has become a popular race. It runs down Main Street immediately before the fair parade.


Chelsea’s own Jiffy Mixes hands out hundred of boxes of its mixes during the fair parade.


Andy asked me to take his senior portraits.


Chelsea opened its football season by defeating Novi during the Big Day Prep Showdown at EMU.


Dom Davis and the Chelsea defense stifled Novi.


CHS football games are the place to be on Friday nights in the fall.


I had the privilege of photographing a first birthday party. Can you tell her dad is a football coach?


My good friends Mike and Bethany asked me to take their engagement photos.


Mike and Bethany might be vaguely fond of each other.


Mike and Bethany also asked me to take a few photos of their wedding at Somerset Beach Campground.


The sand made one wedding guest very happy.


The Chelsea Area Fire Authority holds an open house every year. Kids always enjoy using the fire hose.


That’s using your head.


You’d think this wouldn’t end well, but…it did.


A Bulldog takes a soccer ball directly to the face. This wouldn’t be funny if he’d been hurt. But he was fine, so it’s hilarious.


Did you know Chelsea has a veterans’ memorial? It’s well worth a visit.


Local elementary school students listen during Chelsea’s Veterans Day ceremony.


The kids brought gifts to present to the veterans after the ceremony.


CHS senior Bryce Bradley outlasted his knee brace to win a cross country state championship.


Skyline basketball featured a high-flying senior.


Lincoln basketball proved to be too athletic for Dexter.


The CHS basketball student section got loud for Chelsea’s game against county rival Dexter.


This is one gorgeous Albuquerque sunset.


Youth Dance Theatre puts on a superb production of the Nutcracker each year.


Sometimes wrestlers’ bodies bend in ways they shouldn’t.


And sometimes wrestlers find themselves with new perspectives on the world.


The University of Michigan staged an art exhibition at Chelsea’s abandoned Federal Screw Works factory.


The FSW exhibition featured some curious sights.


Chelsea hockey played Skyline at the University of Michigan’s venerable Yost Ice Arena.



Chelsea’s Kyle Whipple took the opportunity to level Saline’s goalie. The hit resulted in 17 minutes of penalties for Whipple.


Dexter’s goalie absorbs the Dreadnaughts’ overtime loss to Lumen Christi in the playoffs.


Chelsea’s fans celebrate along with Austin Sullens after a goal against Lumen Christi in the playoffs.


Steve Jacobs, owner of Velocity Data Centers, poses during a photo shoot.


Theater lighting provided this backdrop for a Chelsea House Orchestra concert.

Photo of the Other Rivalrypuck Now, Playoff Edition: 1 March 2012

Having dispatched the Dreadnaughts, Lumen Christi returned to the Arctic Coliseum to face their thoroughly not-loved rival Chelsea for the third time this season. The teams split the season series, with Lumen Christi winning the last game in blowout fashion, 9-4. (SPOILER ALERT: that may be the final score of next’s fall’s LSU/Alabama football game.) Given Chelsea’s stellar record and earlier defeat of LC, the likelihood of another lopsided game was low…but single-elimination hockey playoffs are weird, man. They’re just weird. When it all comes down to one hockey game, one shot or one suddenly unbeatable goalie can screw up the whole thing.

As is the norm (NORM!) for rivalry playoff games, there was a big crowd. How big? So big that all the Blue Wheelchair Man Group parking spots were full! Come on, people. That wasn’t nice. You’re supposed to leave one for me.

What you don’t see there is the crowd standing along the boards all the way around the ends. It was a good crowd.

As is the norm (NORM!) for Chelsea/Lumen Christi games, there was plenty of violence. Most of it was legal, too.

The following photo is among my favorites of the entire winter:

Everywhere you look there’s some sort of awesome in the frame. Happy Chelsea player? Check. Ref signaling the goal? Check. Elated fans? Check. Child with the greatest facial expression in the history of humanity? Check. (Look just above the player’s shoulder.) If that picture were a pizza, it would be a Thompson’s Super.

While we’re on the topic of fun photos, here’s one of the goalie using the Force to make a save:

I know it might look like the puck is headed into the net, but he did make the save. The puck hit his leg and deflected straight up.

But let’s get back to the violence.

The Lumen Christi player looks deeply offended, but the referee wasn’t buying it. There was no penalty on the play. However, there were plenty of pleasantries from the Lumen Christi students in the background.

Oh, look. Another save.

The game remained uncomfortably close for far too long. Fortunately for my blood pressure and hair color, Chelsea finally pulled away.

With the game in hand late, two of the players had a brief conference.

The referees stepped in very quickly, so nothing came of it beyond a couple irrelevant penalties.

When time expired, Chelsea got happy.

With the 4-1 win over Lumen Christi, Chelsea moved on to face Monroe St. Mary’s Catholic Central.

Photo of the Hockey Playoffs Now: 28 February 2012

As usual, the hockey playoffs started in Chelsea. And as usual, the district featured four te…uh, wait, what? The district changed this year? Gabriel Richard went elsewhere? I…I don’t know what to say. Well…okay. I can adjust.

As I was saying, the district featured four three teams: Chelsea, Dexter, and Lumen Christi. The odd number of teams meant somebody got a bye. Like pretty much everything else in non-football MHSAA playoffs, I’m sure it was determined randomly, and Chelsea ended up getting the bye. (To be frank, though, Gabriel Richard tended to function as a bye on skates, so I’m not sure their departure changed much.) This left Dexter and Lumen Christi to fight it out to see who got to face Chelsea. I mean, not to actually fight it out, but to play hockey. Which…yeah, I guess that’s not too different.

For Chelsea hockey, this matchup is something like a Michigan fan watching Ohio State and Michigan State play each other in anything. Dexter and Lumen Christi are the Bulldogs’ most not-loved hockey rivals, so Chelsea’s ideal outcome would be one in which neither team wins and the Bulldogs get hot fudge brownies with ice cream. Sadly, nobody has found a way to make that a possible outcome of a hockey game, so one of the teams had to win. The expectation was that Lumen Christi would win, but hockey playoffs can be strange, so…here, look at the photos.

I’m including the next photo solely for my own amusement.

The gentleman behind the glass is Mike, the reporter who was covering the game for Heritage. You’ll note that he’s hard at work shooting video. Good work, Mike.

Dexter played a surprisingly good game, but it seemed like they were always a step behind on the scoreboard. For every moment like this…

…there was a Lumen Christi goal to retake the lead. (By the way, check out the water bottle in the above photo.)

Still, the pesky Dreadnaughts wouldn’t go away.

And the Dexter goalie made some great saves to keep his team in the game, perhaps none bigger than this glove save on a breakaway:

The Dreadnaughts were facing a one-goal deficit when, with under two minutes to play, they managed to get one in the net to tie the game.

And there was much rejoicing in the foreground and mourning in the background.

The rest of the third period passed without a goal, so they headed to overtime.

It seemed either Lumen Christi had found a new source of energy or Dexter had expended all of its energy: the Dreadnaughts struggled even to clear the puck out of their own zone in overtime. When you can’t clear your own zone, eventually you’re going to give up a goal. They did.

And again, there was much rejoicing in the foreground and mourning in the background.

The above photo needs a little explanation. You can see that the Lumen Christi players are excited about the game-winning goal, but you can’t see what they’re looking at. Let me clue you in: the Dexter bench is immediately to the left. And while sometimes one frame can be misleading, in this case it’s not. As they skated by, the Lumen Christi players made a point to celebrate at the stunned Dexter players on the bench. I don’t care who you are and what you just won. That’s not okay.

Meanwhile, the poor Dexter goalie was trying to absorb the loss.

His teammates joined him.

I may have fun with Chelsea’s rivalries, but in all seriousness, photos like the last two are among my least favorite photos to take. It doesn’t matter who’s in them: I can’t take joy in watching athletes deal with a season-ending loss. Those photos can be emotionally powerful, but I still don’t like having to take them.

Photo of the YOST YOST YOST YOST YOST Now: 25 February 2012

To conclude the regular season, Chelsea hockey traveled to Ann Arbor to play Skyline. Given the substantial gap between the two teams and the mercy-shortened meeting earlier in the season, the game promised to be somewhat less than exciting. However, I decided to head to Ann Arbor to take in the game anyway. Why? Because Skyline’s home ice is none other than Yost Ice Arena, a classic old barn of an arena that’s a joy to visit simply because it’s YOST.

I’m posting only two photos from this game, but because they’re photos of Yost, they’re the equivalent of 20 photos. I went primarily for the venue, so I took photos of the venue.

If you’ve never been to Yost, you should make plans to go to a Michigan hockey game next winter. The building is a classic sports venue with character only age can produce, but it’s THE BEST because of the environment Michigan hockey crowds provide for games. I like to call it the happiest hockey place on earth. Here, this happens every game (watch all the way to the end — it’s worth it):

If you’re a sports fan, Yost should be on your list of venues to visit.

Finally, one humorous note: go back to the first photo and look at the little pink spot on the far left side. I didn’t notice it the first few times I looked at the photo, but when I did notice it I had to laugh. Here’s a closer look:

That’s a little girl where she’s certainly not supposed to be. She must have climbed up the retracted bleachers to…I don’t know, get a better view? She must have decided there was something appealing about that spot.

Oh, and as for the game: Chelsea won a lot to a little. With the win, the Bulldogs finished undefeated in the conference.