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11/10/2007 10:47:47 AM · #1 |
yesterday afternoon, i got a call from the Richmond Times-Dispatch photo desk, wanting to know if i could cover for a shooter who called in sick. as it turns out, one of the two assignments was to cover the biggest high school football game of the year, the game that would decide the regional championship. of course i said yes.
i knew that this would not only be the centerpiece story on the front page of the sports section, but if i had a decent enough piece of art, they would also run it at the top of the A1 as a teaser. the pressure was on to produce. the pressure was also on timewise: i had a 10:30 deadline. between downloading, selecting, editing, and captioning, i also had about a 20-minute drive from the school to paper (in addition to a 10-minute hike from the field to my car). thankfully, on the way in, i got a police escort to the field so i didn't have to wait with the other 7000 people who were going to this game. timewise, this meant i could shoot the first half, but i would really be pushing it to stay through halftime and for any part of the 3rd quarter.
and, as it turned out, by the end of the first half, i had NOTHING. oh, i had easily 450 frames, but they were 450 frames of blah. nothing stood out. oh, something could have filled a hole in the paper, but there was nothing that looked like centerpiece art.
so, i decided to wait in the rain through the halftime, and hope for something early in the 3rd quarter. i also decided to take off my 1.4TC off my 70-200, and just hope to get closer to the action than i had been during the first half.
it paid off. just a few minutes into the half, the favored team took over around their 20, and started putting together a real strong drive. i followed them up the sidelines and got exactly what i was looking for...
[thumb]610982[/thumb] 
guess which one was on both the A1 and huge on the front page of the sports section ;-) it was worth having to run the mile and a half to my car, lugging my gear, then race downtown while downloading onto my laptop. in, just under the wire...sah-weet! |
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11/10/2007 10:50:01 AM · #2 |
Great action shots Skip... Kudos on doing a magnificient job.
Ray |
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11/10/2007 11:58:08 AM · #3 |
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11/10/2007 12:26:36 PM · #4 |
| Those are great shots Skip! Congrats! |
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11/10/2007 01:28:39 PM · #5 |
Congrats. Sounds like it was pretty crazy with all those people around. The last two games I've shot, one of the teams went to state, but there definitely weren't 7000 people watching. Maybe a thousand or so..
Which one did they run?
I'm surprised by how dim those lights look, by the way - what kind of settings were you shooting at? I imagined the big stadiums over there having tons of light.
Did you utilize your shot list method to get these two? What are the signifigance of the players/plays? |
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11/10/2007 01:50:20 PM · #6 |
I'm really glad you stuck around to get the shots you wanted! Nuthin worse than investing time and effort into a photo shoot and not being happy with the results.
ok..well, maybe somethings worse :) These are very nice action shots. |
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11/10/2007 01:51:45 PM · #7 |
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11/12/2007 03:31:59 PM · #8 |
thanks for all the buzz!
this is the one they ran
not too surprisingly, most stadiums here (especially the older ones) are not that well lit; typically, there are 4 trees of lights in the corners, and, when we're lucky, one on each side in the middle.
my settings were on full manual, 1/400, f/2.8, iso1600.
this assignment didn't allow for as much time to shoot the feature stuff i normally look for. when i'm shooting for a weekly, i can stay the whole game; when i'm shooting for the daily, i'm pushing it if i stay longer than midway through the halftime show.
while i did manage to get some other stuff, my primary concern was making sure i had a rock-solid piece for the paper. that last thing i wanted was a simply forgettable shot with my name on it. the only other thing that made this image special was that the receiver was a major factor in the game. and it has generated some pretty good buzz around these parts, too ;-) |
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11/12/2007 03:43:33 PM · #9 |
Nice work Skip. I know how you feel every Friday night, rushing from sideline to sideline and clock watching the whole time so as not to miss deadline. Ask Brad to tell you about the story of a game he shot with me one Friday night in Ramona CA after the fires. Everything that could have went wrong went wrong and in big proportions to boot. Still managed to get the shots in thanks completely to Brad.
Again nice work. I've been doing this for a few years now every Friday night and still no luck with a shot like that. |
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