I met Dan Roth in conjunction with a story being written by Reuters’ Toni Clark. Toni’s story was about a new kind of artificial heart, the LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device), which is implanted inside a patient’s chest. It is powered by external, rechargeable batteries connected to a cable coming out of the patient’s side, and pumps blood through the circulatory system on a continuous basis, taking over most of the heart’s work.

Dan is 23 years-old, has an LVAD implanted inside him, and is awaiting a heart transplant. All this after he had a stroke, had a defibrillator implanted in his chest and ultimately “coded” for 6 minutes.

Photographing the pitcher is the bread and butter of baseball coverage, especially in the playoffs. But photographs of the pitchers are important when two of the teams’ aces face each other.

Generally, the moment you are looking for is when the ball has just left the tips of the pitcher’s fingers. But in a game where the pitchers are likely to be a big part of the story (and therefore there will likely be demand for more images of them), you need to look for other moments in their delivery that look interesting. A pitcher’s motion slowed down to a series of still images can look very strange indeed. Their limbs can look as though they have been disjointed and strange looking pieces of skin can seem to poke out. Remember too that the pitcher’s motion will look completely different from my angle as opposed to another photographer’s view farther out the baseline or closer to home plate.

When it’s all over, your hair is sticky with champagne and beer and your clothes are wet and smelly. Getting pulled over by the police on the way home might prove problematic. Sometimes, when you pick up your camera or lens a few days later, something doesn’t work. But being in the locker room amidst the celebrations after a sports team wins a championship is a lot of fun, at least I think so (yes, I understand if you’re questioning my sanity at this point).

The San Francisco Giants held a 3 games to 2 lead over the Philadelphia Phillies heading into Game 6 of the NLCS in Philadelphia. My assignment for the post-game, should the Giants win and clinch the series, was to cover the locker room celebrations.

Reuters visited the Boston Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center, where H1N1 vaccines are being offered to patients who are at least two years old and healthy.