Dickies Arena, Fort Worth
Thursday, March 26, 2026

After having three days of much downtime following a full weekend of shooting Rounds I and II of March Madness, as well as the Texas Derby between FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo FC, it was back to the grind.

Fort Worth, along with Sacramento, is one of two cities hosting the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 for women’s basketball. There will be four days of serious Division I women’s basketball. The first day, Friday, will see Notre Dame facing Vanderbilt, while the UConn Huskies will take on North Carolina.

The second day of action will pit Louisville against Michigan, and the Texas Longhorns will face Kentucky.

The two winners from Friday will advance to the Elite 8 and face each other on Sunday. The same applies to Saturday’s winners, but that game will be played on Monday.

The winners of the Sunday and Monday games will become part of the Final Four. The other half of the Final Four will be determined in Sacramento.

I utilized my time at Media Day photographing March Madness signage throughout the arena—on the basketballs, the court, and around the venue overall. With an overall season record of 36–0, it is easy to see why UConn is the overwhelming favorite to win the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship. I also took advantage of my access to photograph the Huskies’ practice during the first ten minutes. Following practice, a press conference with head coach Geno Auriemma was held.

The schedule for Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, UConn, and North Carolina on Thursday consisted of a team practice, a head coach press conference, followed by a student-athlete press conference.

For this day, even though I had set out my main earbuds, I left them at home. No worries, though—I always keep a spare with me, but I was unable to get them connected to my laptop. The Bandcamp albums on my phone became my only listening options.

Since downtime was sporadic throughout the day, I did not listen to an entire album in one sitting. The albums I did pull up, however, were Northern Chaos Gods by Immortal, Brotherhood of Metal by The Rods, and Anthology 2 by The Babys.

The Babys release consists of twenty-nine songs. Many recognizable hits—such as “Isn’t It Time,” “Back on My Feet Again,” “Everytime I Think of You,” and “Midnight Rendezvous”—appear on the album alongside deep tracks and new material. This version of The Babys does not feature John Waite on vocals; instead, John Bisaha takes over the role. The only remaining members from the classic lineup era are drummer Tony Brock and guitarist Wally Stocker. It should be noted that Bisaha does a mighty fine job handling the vocal duties for The Babys.

Notre Dame vs. Vanderbilt
UConn vs. North Carolina
Dickies Arena, Fort Worth
March 27, 2026

Before leaving the house, I made sure my laptop earbuds were in my camera case. For me, that was the first order of business.

I am normally an early arrival for sporting events, but I rolled in at 10:00 a.m., not the 7:00 a.m. time listed on the schedule. Those early hours were reserved for practice and media availability for teams slated to play on Saturday.

My first order of business for the day was to finalize my keywords for captioning and upload the metadata template for the Notre Dame–Vanderbilt game. I knew this would take some time.

Since I did have my laptop earbuds with me at the arena, I pulled up Death Cult Armageddon (2003) by Dimmu Borgir. It is a fine specimen of symphonic black metal, and I highly recommend it.

Upon completion of Death Cult Armageddon, I dialed up the previously mentioned Anthology 2. I just cannot go wrong with this Bandcamp album—twenty-nine songs of classic AOR is a winner in my book.

With the quick thirty-minute turnaround between games, there is really no time to ponder what I would like to listen to. I need to get my images edited, processed, and uploaded to the server. I am making an effort to keep my number of rated photos lower than normal.

What I have noticed is that I tend to return to my baseline photo position around the midpoint of the first period. That gives me three full ten-minute periods to shoot before editing my images.

I shot Game 1 of Round III, Notre Dame vs. Vanderbilt, in its entirety. It was not until the middle of the first period of Game 2 that I completed my postgame image processing before heading back out.

When everything was said and done, Notre Dame and UConn moved on to the Elite 8. Those games will take place on Sunday and Monday.

UConn is clicking on all cylinders, as they easily sent North Carolina packing with a 63–42 win over the Tar Heels. I anticipated some jubilation from the Huskies’ bench once regulation expired, but there was none—not even a hint. The reaction felt more like another typical day at the office coming to an end.

My end-of-game listening selection for Game 2 was a fairly easy choice. I went with Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic The Dark Side of the Moon, followed by their 1983 release The Final Cut. These two albums brought my workday to an end.

There is no debating how great The Dark Side of the Moon is, but many Pink Floyd fans remain divided. Some consider it untouchable, while others feel it falls under the label of mediocrity. Personally, I think it is a great release, though perhaps that reaction had something to do with listeners simply wanting “new” Pink Floyd at the time.