It’s been a while since football season ended but if you are a regular reader of this site, or anyone who has ever met me during football season you would know that I am an unreasonably big Miami Dolphins fan. So big in fact that I run the New York City Miami Dolphins fan club with my friend Michelle. We plan a yearly trip to the NFL Draft and make a lot of noise and harass New York Jets fans at every possible chance. If you watched the Dolphins make their pick of Dion Jordan you saw him point to us after he heard us cheering for him like crazy people.

I didn’t take a ton of pictures at the draft and these shots are over three days. On Wednesday we had to wait in a four hour line for tickets, on Thursday we were there for round one and then I went back again on Friday for rounds two and three. Yes, I realize it is absurdly nerdy for me to be such a big Dolphins fan, but this is my life.

Click here to see all my pictures from the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall. 

Update: Check out our draft video!

Every year I get invited to the Miami Dolphins Web Weekend. It’s a gathering of people who run Miami Dolphins fan sites. I know that sounds insanely nerdy but it’s pretty much the highlight of my year. You can probably stop reading now. But seriously, it was awesome. The first night we had a dinner at the team training facility where Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin and Phins great Sam Madison came and talked to us. The next day we packed care packages for the troops as part of some veterans day community service. After that we went back to the training facility for a tour and guest speakers. We got to talk to Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland and CEO Mike Dee and we watched a documentary on the undefeated 1972 Dolphins with the legendary running back Jim Kiick.

After that were the “Webby Awards” which are awards given to the best Dolphins websites. The Dolphins added a new category to the Webbys for the best community related site after former Dolphins president Eddie Jones who passed away recently. I thought my site Dolfans NYC had a chance because we have raised a ton of money for charity and have had a lot of press lately. We ended up winning not only the Eddie Jones award but also an award for best features and content. It was actually an incredibly proud moment for me and my partner Michelle.

The next day we woke up and headed out early to tailgate at Sun Life Stadium. We eventually headed inside the stadium where we watched warm ups from the sideline and then took our seats in the “Locker Room Club” which are amazing seats that are on the field right behind the endzone and then you can walk back into the stadium and watch the players come in and out of the locker room. Before the game the owner of the team was brought over to us so he could tell us how much he enjoyed our tailgate party in NYC a few weeks ago. I ended up on the Miami Dolphins Instagram account shaking his hand. It was pretty cool.

After that a game was played and we don’t need to talk about that. Let’s just say it was not the highlight of the trip. Anyway, I posted a bunch of photos from the weekend and you should look at them.

Click here to see all my shots from the 9th annual Miami Dolphins Web Weekend!

On Sunday my Miami Dolphins lost a game and I was upset. I am really upset when the Dolphins lose, but somehow this was worse. I felt seriously depressed. I realized that despite minimal personal loss from Hurricane Sandy, I am suffering from the aftermath. Manhattan is getting back to normal and at least one of the trains in my neighborhood is running, but every moment of every day seems consumed with Sandy. Hearing from friends and reading stories and seeing pictures from Sandy’s devastation is constant. Nothing in life seems as important or as funny anymore. There is just a cloud over everything.

Other than losing a couple jobs and not having any transportation I have been very very lucky. So many of my friends and friends of friends have lost so much. Dolfans NYC, the New York City Miami Dolphins fan club I founded has been hit especially hard. The owners of our bar, Third & Long had their homes in Breezy Point destroyed. The bar was without power for almost a week and many of our members in Jersey, Staten Island and Long Island have lost everything they owned. Seeing our bar half empty on Sunday was another reminder of how bad it has been for everyone.

As a club we constantly are trying to raise money for charity. We had promised to raise $1000 for the Miami Dolphins Foundation but ended up raising $1500. We decided to take the extra $500 and donate that to Sandy relief but we wanted to do more. I got out my camera and decided to shoot some video. I interviewed several of our members and the manager of Third & Long and asked them to speak about how the hurricane has impacted their lives. All of us at the bar were the lucky ones but even those that made it out okay were still suffering. I edited the interviews together and put together an online fundraiser at IndieGoGo. The goal is to raise $1000 to donate to the local New York chapter of the Red Cross. There are a bunch of Dolphins related things you get for donating but since most of you aren’t Dolphins fans it might not be quite as appealing. I encourage you to donate anyway.

If you are in New York and want to help out in other ways we are planning a day of service on November 18th. You can contact dolfansnyc@gmail.com for more details. You can also find out other ways to help by checking out the NYC Service website.

If nothing else enjoy the video I put together. Thanks!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e96iFRSg-Ec[/youtube]

Once again I come to a blog full of nightlife party pictures and naked girls to talk to you about the Miami Dolphins. I know it doesn’t make any sense but aside from being a photographer I happen to run the largest Miami Dolphins fan group in the world. No big deal. My friend Michelle and I founded Dolfans NYC, the New York City Miami Dolphins fan club. So yesterday when the Dolphins came up to New Jersey to play the New York Jets we brought out the welcome wagon. We bought 200 tickets, loaded up two charter busses and threw one hell of a tailgate. It was amazing. We filled two sections of MetLife stadium and were so loud you could hear us on TV. The Dolphins organization even paid us a visit with owner Stephen Ross and minority owner Fergie (yes, that Fergie) came out to the tailgate. Dolphins CEO Mike Dee, Dolphin legend Nat Moore and a bunch of cheerleaders joined them. Dolfans NYC is probably the most successful thing I have ever been apart of and this was by far our best event.

Our fans were nice and buzzed on the 12 bottles of rum Sailor Jerry provided for our tailgate and we were talking smack to Jets fans all game. The Dolphins kicked the shit out of the Jets and we were pretty much the only fans left at the end. Let’s Go Dolphins was the only thing you could hear in the stadium.  It was better than Christmas. We got out of there and were back to our bar, Third & Long, by 5:30pm in time to have a victory drink and get back home before the Subway closed for hurricane Sandy.

Speaking of, not sure what is going to happen when this storm hits so I might be without power or internet for a while. So if this is my last update for a few days I hope everyone out there is safe and has a mostly enjoyable break from real life if you are stuck inside for a while.

Click here to see all of my pictures from the Dolfans NYC tailgate and take over of MetLife Stadium!

For those of you new to the site or to my life you may not know Football Season Igor. He is me during the months of September through January when my life is dictated by the fate of the Miami Dolphins. He is the guy who shows up to the club wearing all aqua and orange if you happen to throw a party on a Sunday. He is a lunatic.

For some unexplained reason I am a die hard Dolphins fan. And when I say die hard, I don’t just mean I can name most of the players and I watch all the games… I mean if the Dolphins lose a game I am shitty for days. I have cried at least twice in my life as a result of football, I have a Dan Marino tattoo and I happen to run the New York City Miami Dolphins fan club. I do not fuck around.

The Dolphins this year happen to be pretty bad at football. There are some positive signs for the future but right now it seems like they are probably going to lose more games than they are going to win. They have only been to the playoffs once in the last decade so you’d think losing would be something I would get used to. It’s not. I am devastated every Sunday and I get shittier as the year goes on and hope is sucked out of me every Sunday.

I don’t know why I do this to myself but I do. And you have to suffer through it. I will try to keep too much Dolphins related nonsense off my Twitter and website but you are going to have to deal with some of it. Sorry. So to start with here are some photos from the first 2012 Dolfans NYC meet up at Third & Long. It started off a lot of fun but turned sour really quickly. Still, it’s good to be around football fans again, especially when 90% of them are as crazy about the Dolphins as I am.

Click here to see all the photos from Dolfans NYC week 1 VS. the Houston Texans at Third & Long.

I grew up watching WWF Wrestling Superstars in the 1980s and then again in the late ’90s I watched a little more wrestling when WCW/NWO were having a Monday night ratings war with WWF or WWE or whatever the fuck it is/was but by 2001 I was pretty much out of wrestling. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the sport and I certainly could talk wrestling with someone relatively competently. I just don’t have the same interest in it as I did as a kid.

The Insane Clown Posse has their own wrestling league called Juggalo Championship Wrestling or the JCW. They host a main event called Bloodymania at the Gathering every year (I shot Bloodymania 4) and I was tempted to photograph this years chapter but by the time Bloodymania 6 rolled around on Sunday I was pretty much over taking photos. I shot nearly 7000 shots in the 5 days I was at the Gathering so I was ready to call it quits. I had an idea that I would hang out backstage and maybe get some wrestling portraits.

I didn’t know what the rules about photographing wrestling behind the scene, I know it would be terrible etiquette to photograph the heels and the heroes next to each other and I didn’t know enough about the events of the evening to figure out who was who so I asked Upchuck the Clown, the host of the evening, what I should do.  He decided to introduce me to an old wrestler who was running the promotion who then proceeded to yell to all the wrestlers that I was from the Insane Clowns and I wanted to “make their picture” and put it on the “Psychopathic Internets”.  He also told me that when I got the photos developed I should send him 8″x10″s.  He kept calling wrestlers by their wrong names insisting, for example, that the Headbangers were called the Head Hunters. At one point in the evening I was trying to photograph a wrestler in the pitch blackness that was the back stage area and I hit something on the camera which caused the auto focus to fail so I went back in the tent to get some light. The promoter saw me there and when he realized my camera wasn’t working he accused me of not being a professional and asked me where my photography shop was. The whole thing was sort of amazing and three hours later when I was losing my mind with exhaustion I couldn’t stop laughing thinking about him. One of my fellow journalists actually started crying laughing when I told her the story. The dude was bad ass though and introduced me to some wrestlers to get some pictures.

The last thing I will say is that it’s pretty depressing seeing what wrestling has done to some of these older guys. To anyone who doesn’t think professional wrestling is a sport spend an hour back stage before a wrestling match and you will see the pounding these guys have taken over their whole careers and see what athletes these guys really are. This gallery is pretty small because I was just taking a few shots here and there but if you are a fan of wrestling of any era you will recognize a bunch of these guys.

Check out all the backstage shots from JCW’s Bloodymania 6 at the 2012 Gathering of the Juggalos.

The Gathering of the Juggalos is a yearly music festival in Cave In Rock, IL created by the Insane Clown Posse that I have now photographed three times. Every year it produces some of the best photos I have ever taken. To see my complete GOTJ archives please click here.

Let me start off by saying I don’t know a damn thing about Mixed Martial Arts. I have a few friends who love it and I must admit that I enjoy watching people kick each other in the face but I am much less interested in submission holds and dudes rolling around on the ground. Muay Thai kick boxing is really great, but the judo ground moves are pretty tedious to me. I am sure if I gave it more of a chance I could get into it, but I haven’t.

So when I heard that there was going to be MMA at the Gathering of the Juggalos I was not even in the slightest bit interested. But when I got to the Gathering it just so happened I had some time to kill during the Warrior Xtreme Championship fight and I decided to check it out… Holy shit MMA is fun to photograph! I jumped up there right next to the cage and pushed my camera right in the fence. I talked to another photographer who gave me some tips to covering it and I started clicking away. I have no idea what happened in any of these matches or who the dudes fighting were but god damn it was fun to shoot. I will say I got a little too close to a few too many scrotums being pushed up against the cage, but other than that awesome. I hope I get a chance to shoot it again as I figure withe some practice I could get a lot better at it. As of now I am not really a action sports photographer. Anyway…

Click here to see all my pictures from Warrior Xtreme Championship Mixed Martial Arts at the Gathering of the Juggalos.

The Gathering of the Juggalos is a yearly music festival in Cave In Rock, IL created by the Insane Clown Posse that I have now photographed three times. Every year it produces some of the best photos I have ever taken. To see my complete GOTJ archives please click here.

Although I missed it last year because of my epic road trip, I have been to 8 of the last 9 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contests. 4th of July to me is hot dog eating at Coney Island. In that time I have become friends with some of the contestants and now have a pretty good hook up to Major League Eating events so I got my press pass and headed down to shoot the madness.  I took A LOT of photos and the media riser is so far away that all the shots sort of look the same but you should flip through them anyway. There are also a bunch of nice shots at the end of contestants after the event. So let’s get to the important stuff.

The women’s competition was won by Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas a 100lb woman who has been dominating all other women and most of the men in competitive eating events for as long as I can remember. She is turning 45 this year and was determined to eat her age. She succeeded and in the process beat her own female world record by 4 hot dogs. She is amazing and she also happens to be from my hometown of Alexandria, VA so there are a LOT of pictures of her in the gallery.

The men’s competition was won by Joey Chestnut of course. The American champion has now won six years in a row and won by nearly 20 dogs. He ate 68 in ten minutes to tie his own world record that he set in 2009.  The only other eater in the world that could touch him, Takeru Kobayashi, has not competed the last three years after a contract dispute with the MLE. Kobayashi staged his own event at the exact same time and ate 58.5 hot dogs. Even if he had beaten Chestnut it wouldn’t have mattered since it was unsanctioned and done in different weather with different hot dogs. America wins again!

New York hero Tim “Eater X” Janus and Chicago favorite Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti came in second and third, as they almost always, do but it was Matt Stonie who impressed the most eating 46 hot dogs at only 19 years old. The long haired, skinny jean wearing Californian came in 4th and is set to become a super star in the world’s most important non-football sport.

After the eating at Coney Island “Crazy Legs” Conti threw an after party in the East Village. I showed up and took some pictures which I am going to post about twenty minutes from now so come back for that…

Now click here to see all the pictures from Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island.

And click here if you want to see my pictures from older contests!

I went to the 2012 NFL Draft with my crew from Dolfans NYC. I always love going to the draft because as you may have noticed all my friends are hipsters who only like sports ironically. They will act like they are a die hard Mets fan or something and then can’t name 5 players on the team. So when I get to spend two days hanging out with people who love football in the middle of the off season it gives me a chance to talk sports which I so rarely get the chance to do.

So the NFL Draft works like this. On Wednesday we all met up and got in line around 8pm. Around midnight they give you a wristband so you just spend 4 hours hanging out yelling at people about how much their team sucks more than your team. After you get your wristband you come back the next day and spend another hour in line before they let you in to the actual draft. Round one is Thursday night followed by rounds 2-3 on Friday and then rounds 4-7 on Saturday. I only watched the first round because honestly the actual draft is pretty tedious. It’s the hanging out that’s a lot of fun.

Also on the way out I ran into the Dolphins #1 draft pick Ryan Tannehill and got his autograph. As you may notice I tend to shoot a lot of famous people and the like and I would never, ever consider asking anyone for an autograph but for some reason I had to run up to a 22 year old kid who just happend to have his name called out by the dolphins to get his signature on my hat. I don’t know what it is about the Dolphins but that shit is everything to me.

Anyway, I really love a lot of these photos but as you may have noticed my site is totally fucked right now. We are fixing that next week but for now if you are having problems getting them to work I am also uploading them to the Dolfans NYC Flickr account here.

Now click here to see all the pictures I took at the 2012 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall.