Phootball Fotography

Patriots D looks to get some Manning

Here’s yet another thing I am late with, but with good reason. It takes a long time to go thru 300+ photos that I shot at the game. Then, you have to some adjustments to each with respect to the lighting and sharpness before finally cropping them. I never do any of this with my other stuff, but it seems very necessary with sports photography.

I have to tell you, this has to be the hardest stuff to shoot. I suppose that’s why sports photographers make a good sack of coin and run about the sidelines with $10-20k of equipment hanging from their bodies. You only have one chance to get the shot. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get any, but I’ll keep trying. If you want to see what I did get, here’s the photo set.

You know what? Maybe weddings are harder to shoot because you also don’t get a second chance and you are also dealing with some serious memories and emotion. Man, out of everyone you probably pay way too much money to for a wedding, they are probably worth the most if they did a good job.

Anyway, back on the topic of sports photography… after seeing the results, I think I would have done better with a faster lens. These guys move way too fast for my lens to keep up with, even zoomed out at f/4. I included some shots so you can see what I mean. You’ll see where people on the sidelines are focused, and even some players, but others are very blurred.

I thought about getting a faster lens for the game, but I didn’t want to rush into the purchase as it costs more than the camera itself. Perhaps when the tax man giveth back, I’ll earmark that cash towards the lens. It’s like I had it on layaway all year.

Brady and Dillon on the 4 yard line

As for the game, well you all know the score. They lost it. I’d complain about the officiating again, but truth be told, they probably lose with more good calls too. Every time I remember seeing Manning throw the ball, there was no receiver in sight yet, but then one of them would come streaking across or down the field to catch it and keep running. Why? Because our secondary blows. They were chasing guys all night and the only reason Asante Samuel had his INT was because Manning under threw his receiver because Reggie Wayne beat him all night long.

Meanwhile, Tom Brady was often pressing to make good throws so much that they were launched into the ground at our receiver’s feet. Of course, I’m more willing to blame the no-names we have at those positions than Brady, but honestly, in some cases, his arm looked freakin broken to me.

All that said, with Adam Vinatieri missing two fields goals, we still had a shot until Brady chucked his fourth INT to finish it off. Of course, we were already streaking down Route 1 at that point, so no skin off my back. If you turn the ball over six times, which I think we did, you don’t deserve to win, especially against the Colts.

I mentioned in the Flickr photo set that this was my second year in a row catching the Colts game. They lost both times. I’m thinking maybe it is me… or, you know… the crappy secondary both years…

Feels good to write a non-TV post though.