One of the awesome and/or terrible things about my occupation is assignments can come up out of nowhere and a completely eliminate what I thought would be a nice relaxing weekend at home. This blog is a perfect example of my wild and crazy life.
.While in Texas on a mini vacation I was offered the opportunity to head down to Houston and cover a few rounds of NCAA Basketball March Madness. While I always make it a point to tell anyone who’s listening that I hate basketball for some reason I eagerly accepted the gig and off I went for three games of college hoops.
.For the last several years I have spent New Years eve in Tempe, AZ covering the Insight Bowl. I am guessing most of you have never heard of the game and would wonder why I’d waste my evening covering a bowl game nobody cares about. My answer is simple. For the first 30 minutes of the game it has some of the most amazing light that I get at any stadium in the country. Continue reading to see what I am talking about.
.About eight months ago had someone asked me about the UFL I most likely would have responded with UF huh? But after covering the new league from nearly the beginning of their inaugural season I can now say I know nearly everything about the league. The mini first season came to a close last week in Las Vegas for the UFL Championship game.
.As the United Football League (UFL) season approaches I once again found myself down in Casa Grande, AZ to cover a practice. Instead of a daytime practice like the previous shoot this would take place under the lights. I expected the lights on the practice field to be crappy but I would find out it wasn’t too bad. With a trunk full of gear, Jennifer and I headed 49 miles south for what would be my last UFL shoot before the season begins with the inaugural game set to kick off Oct. 8th in Las Vegas.
.I had planned on spending the weekend in San Diego shooting drag boat racing on Mission Bay with Jennifer and some friends but as things tend to go in my crazy life as a sports photographer, the original plan took a back seat to a last second shoot. That last second shoot was a college football game in Utah. Initially I wasn’t very excited about the change of plans but once I found out the game had a late afternoon start with the chances of great light I somewhat warmed up to the idea.
.
Last weekend I went up to cover tryouts for a new football league set to kick off this fall. The United Football League (UFL) was something I had honestly never even heard of until about a week prior to this shoot. Perhaps I had heard a year or so ago about a new league trying to begin but as with most sports fans I quickly dismissed it as something that was doomed to fail (like me taking a 10th grade algebra test). One of the cool aspects about the shoot I was looking forward to was that I would be shooting for the UFL so I was promised some good access for shooting. The hardest part of the shoot would be to not get drunk the night before on the strip!
.A few months back I had the privilege of shoot behind the scenes with NFL superstar Kurt Warner for an ESPN.com story. With ESPN writer Wayne Drehs in tow we got to work documenting Kurts life on and off the field.
.As 2008 began, it would end with me on the sidelines shooting a college bowl game. Although the Insight Bowl is a small game few care about it is one of my favorite games because if the sun is out (which it usually is in Arizona) there is great light to take advantage of. And take advantage of it I did.
.