the title is as such - this past weekend kicked off (no pun intended, well, okay, maybe a little) the official start of the football season - though we won't be able to do this for most of the season, we both worked the night shift so we could cover 2 games - in part, because we also needed to shoot a page 1 "Friday night Football Returns" dominant feature, and also because one of the schools is in an area where we put out a weekly tab, so you gotta shoot extra to cover 2 publications, essentially.....but, wait, it's not just all that which warrants the title of this particular post - the one thing that i dread about shooting football every year is not really the sport, but all the elemental factors that usually accompany it - cold, damp, wet, windy, oh yeah, and it's dark - several of our schools clearly have not put sports lighting on the budget (which could lead to an entire cynical thread of its own - i mean, a lot of them can barely afford to stay open, let alone spend their non-existent/in-the-red budgets on little things like better lighting for the local journalists to shoot under!).....but i digress - so, to the jumping in, all appendages on deck, our weather has taken a turn for the chillier - more like late september or october than august - and there was rain - oh lord, was there rain - okay, i'm exaggerating - it was only a slight steady dripping, but then there was that really very big cloud i noticed lurking on the fast-approaching horizon toward the end of the first quarter - oh ye of the slightly greenish foreboding tone - oh, yeah, something was coming, and it wasn't going to be good....so, having bagged a couple decent action shots (i didn't have the primary game, i had the optional one, so really i was trying most for the feature), i went up into the stands, and within minutes that cloud had arrived, and it wasn't going to pass by without seriously making its presence known - it only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes, but it was kind of cool, because it helped the feature - 2 girls braved the better part of the downpour, sans umbrellas, still cheering for the home team, and at its hardest, it sent kids piling onto one another beneath the umbrella holders - i could only hope i had something, because honestly, i couldn't see a thing thru the rain, all the water running into my eyes and seriously streaking up the lens, and trying to focus...well, you get the idea- not sure i captured all the momentary chaos of the scenario, but i felt pretty happy about what i got regardless...and let me just thank the good people at nikon for making their cameras pretty damn tough, because that D3, soaked to the bone as it was, didn't miss a beat - now, me, not so much - try clearing off your glasses with soaking wet clothes - yeah, not working so good - down to no glasses and manual focus? good thing it was half time and i had to go, cos for me, it was pretty much game over at that point!
and just when you thought you hadn't had enough!
saturday, it was back out for more football - monroe vs adrian - a big rivalry, and they hadn't played one another for whatever reason in a year or so, so now it really was even a bigger deal! they, along with a few of the other larger regional schools got to hold their season opener in the stadium at EMU - again, needed a page 1 dominant feature along with action for page 1 sports - the home team wasn't doing so hot - in fact, they got spanked - 30-0 - not a rivalry match to go down in the ol' history book, unless you're the other team maybe....that always makes the action harder, cos if they can't execute the plays, that leaves me just less to work with action-wise....liked this shot best, though it is a better picture of a guy on the other team
halfway thru the second quarter, i started focusing on the sidelines - i shot fans as the feature the night before, so i wanted this one to be something of the players, especially since the big deal was the team rivalry - got these 2 kids' reactions as they watched the defense go for an interception - and then i was off - i actually wouldn't have minded staying for the whole game, but we were in Ypsilanti - about 40 minutes or so drive, and i had to get down to "Kids Day in Luna Pier" - on the southeast part of our county - which was a good hour, and since i was on desk that night, too, i was trying to get some time off somewhere in there....
so, they had a sandcastle contest on the beach, a mechanical bull, not just one but several inflatable moonwalk things (i shot none! yeah for me!), a musical chairs game, etc etc....it was actually kind of cool....
i saw these 2 girls swinging around on a fence game thing in the little park near the beach - they were actually part of a wedding that was going on on the pier simultaneous to the event - the wedding party had no idea this event was scheduled at the same time - some of them told me they thought it was just part of their ceremony - i was like, y'all must have been thinking, boy do these people in Luna Pier know how to host a wedding or what?! anyway, for this one i'm thinking Still Life - quote ideas anyone?
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