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This weekend was the end of the Big Ten men's basketball regular season. While elsewhere in the conference Iowa surprised Purdue with a strong victory, IU lost to Illinois, which was completely expected. The latter brought to a close my IU basketball photo career, as I will be on the way to Japan during IU's game in the Big Ten tournament. (Courtney Deckard will be covering the game instead.)

Watch the blog next week, as well as the IU School of Journalism website, for updates on my trip to Tokyo and Hiroshima with my International Reporting class.

University of Illinois forward Mike Davis grabs a rebound over other Illinois and Indiana University players during IU's 72-48 loss to the Fighting Illini on Mar. 5, 2011, at Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill. (Alex Farris | Indiana Daily Student)

After I cobbled together the previous entry, I showed it to former IDS photographer and current Washington Post photo editor Michel du Cille during a critique yesterday morning. I went into the critique thinking that I had made something really good that sold my skills well and could set me on my way to a job in the very near future. After his critique, I learned that I had made something passable. Every bit of advice he gave me was pricelessly useful, so I went back and edited the series based on his advice and my own fresh eye. (Mainly his advice, admittedly.)

The seven photos in they story appear below. Hopefully they are less repetitious and they more faithfully follow du Cille's oft-said outline for a photo story: wide, medium, tight, panoramic, detail.

Junior adviser for the Big Ten ticket Dan Haddad (center) and others talk in the "situation room" before election results are announced. Haddad wore a Smurf costume to attract voters in the IU Student Association campaign pitting Big Ten against reviveIU and BtownUnited. (Alex Farris | Indiana Daily Student)

This was a busy night. After having dinner with my girlfriend to celebrate six months together, and after bringing her to the Will Counts Memorial Lecture on Photojournalism at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, I reported on the Big Ten ticket's results party for the IU Student Association election, held at Sigma Phi Epsilon. Far into the future, I hope to do the same (or better) coverage of a larger election celebration (like, say, for U.S. President), but for now, I'm satisfied.

Junior Indiana University Student Association vice presidential candidate Stephanie Kohls reacts as she overhears a call to junior presidential candidate Justin Kingsolver from current IUSA members announcing the results of their election Mar. 2, 2011, in Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity in Bloomington, Ind. The call came shortly before 10:40, nearly 40 minutes after the polls had closed, and announced Kingsolver and Kohls' Big Ten ticket as the winners, earning more than half of the votes cast. (Alex Farris | Indiana Daily Student)