Next up in my Best of 2011 series is my favorite football images of the year. While I did not get to shoot near as many football games as I wanted to this year, it would still end up being a solid season of images. Enjoy!
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My favorite part of the college football season is without a doubt the end of the year and all the bowl games. Living in Phoenix is a perfect location during that time, and no not just because of the fact that I can wear shorts while everyone else around the country is shoveling snow! With several bowl games being played within a few hundred miles of my location it enables me to do several bowl games. This year I would have three bowl games within 40 miles of my house, including the most important bowl, the BCS National Championship.
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Living in Arizona is a great place for sports photography because there is a lot of sports to shoot. The bad thing is due to the heat, games are either played in domes or at night. Both of which rob photographers of getting to shoot games with cool sunlight and light pockets. Every once in awhile though we get rewarded with some day games.
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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.
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My schedule this year had prevented me from covering Arizona State football games all season, thankfully I had a free day which enabled by to cover their last game of the season against home state rival University of Arizona. It is always their biggest game of the year so that plus the fact the stadium is only 10 minutes from my house had me pretty excited for the shoot.
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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.
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After shooting in Dallas the previous night and a 4am wake up call for my flight home today I REALLY didn’t want to go shoot the nearly worthless matchup of two 4-6 teams. But I already had requested a credential and it looks very bad to not use a credential so I sucked it up and decided to shoot the game. I planned to be VERY lazy but I would still go. Continue reading to check out the results of a lackluster effort.
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Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 4000iso, f2.8, 1/1250th
After a busy day of taking the girlfriend to IHOP and editing photos I cruised down the road to Arizona State University to cover the Sun Devils game against the Stanford Cardinal. It was a warm day with a game time temperature of 104 degrees so it was sure to be fun!
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