Away Game - Ole Miss...
posted by Gameshots, 10/09/2008 05:32:00 PM
Always an exciting time and quite an experience. I'm one of those 'glass half-full kind of guys' so I look forward to the event in a positive sort of way as opposed to focusing on the long hours and many miles and late nights. Invariably, we meet other fans along the way and have a great time either getting to know them for the first time or renewing acquaintances. We stayed in Tupelo, MS for this game.
How many times have you made a trip somewhere, anywhere, and having done the customary research you thought you had a good perception of what you would encounter on arrival? If you're like me, you found that is often a very different experience than what you had anticipated. In the case of SEC football, each 'atmosphere' is different. The attitude of their fans, either on the road, tailgating, in the stadium, or after the game is often markedly unique. One thing that doesn't seem to change is the 'bonding' with fellow Gamecock fans that are passed on the highway or met in Rest Areas and restaurants along the way.
Had an interesting question asked of me, near Birmingham, in a restaurant while on the way home on Sunday. A man, who appeared to be a truck driver, came up to me and pointed to the 'Block C logo with the Gamecock in the middle' and asked me what it was as he had seen cars pass him all morning and didn't know what it was. I told him. Nothing surprises me in Alabama. Other than the OBAMA bumper stickers that had been converted to GOBAMA. Bama has been a pleasant surprise for their fans as they feel they just might be able to win the Auburn game this year for a change of fortunes.
'The Grove' environment...
One thing that makes a visit to Ole Miss, for football, special is 'The Grove'. The campus is laid out nicely and a central part of this campus is a grassy area under a large grove of trees. Conveniently located with easy access to the major athletic venues. One of my goals prior to the game was to capture in photos this aspect of the environment. You'll see a variety of scenes in the 'Grove Gallery' that include everything from fans of both teams tailgating, interesting tailgating sites and personalities, to the Ole Miss team getting off the bus and walking through the hordes of fans on the 'Walk of Champions'. The walk is very much a highlight of their game day experience and everyone knows exactly when it will occur. You'll notice in the pictures that they make good use of barricades and police for crowd control.
After the walk, in the vicinity of the Stage in the Grove, the cheerleaders and dance team perform to the delight of everyone. In a roped off area beside the stage, the band 'warms up'. Everyone knows exactly what time all of this happens, as well.
In case you wondered if the beautiful flower arrangements and Hi-Def televisions etc. are because Saturday was Homecoming at Ole Miss, I can assure you that they do that every Saturday. It's a tradition.
On to the game...
Truthfully, I had to leave the tailgating atmosphere before I wanted to as my primary goal was to shoot the football game and I had to move on to the stadium. Now 'moving on' into the stadium can be an event in itself. My luggage included a suitcase full of camera equipment and a briefcase full of computer gear that together weighed almost seventy pounds.
Can you imagine what a welcoming sound it was as I was unloading my gear from the trunk of the car and a man on a golf cart asked if I would like to ride to the stadium? Ride to the stadium? This jaunt included having to go up a final hill to the gate and he dropped me off right beside the stadium. His sole job this day was to carry media people to the stadium and it was most appreciated by all.
Every stadium is different. This one had a feature that I was not excited about. Positively excited anyway. In order to get DOWN and UP to the artificial turf, one had to carry/lug all of their heavy gear down what seemed like a hundred steps! The trip back UP the stairs hauling all of the heavy gear after the game seemed twice as long. Well, at least I got my exercise Saturday to make up for all of the time sitting and driving to and from the game.
Game on...
The game itself was a fun and exciting event to shoot. You have to love an early afternoon game, as a photographer! As long as it's not raining, you are one happy person. One of the good things of shooting games on the road in the SEC is that the photographers can shoot from the end lines (and the sidelines were not crowded either).
For this game I had three cameras with me during the game. Having three cameras gave me the ability to quickly change as the situation changed before me. Sometimes you have enough time to change during the action, but not often. When I was shooting the Ole Miss 'almost' touchdown that became a fumble recovery by Emanuel Cook, I began the play using my Canon 40D with the 300mm lens and switched and shot the end of the run in mid-field with the Canon 1D Mark3 with the 70-200mm lens. I had thought that Emanuel might be able to return the fumble all the way for a touchdown so I was prepared to cover the run from goal line to goal line.
For those interested in the camera information, since this is a PHOTO blog, I will note that there is a 'multiplier' difference between those two cameras. The 40D is 1.6 and the 1D is 1.3 so the difference is 'almost' like having a converter on your camera of .3. Depending on the situation I may mount a particular lens on a specific camera to either make a telephoto lens stronger or get a wider angle with a wide angle lens, for instance. I try to make the Mark 3 my primary shooting camera as it is a bit more advanced and capable of shooting a burst of 90+ HiDef images at the rate of 10 frames per second compared to only 6.5 fps on the other cameras. No big deal but my preference.
All of my cameras are 'setup' identically. Center point focusing, same ISO and shutter speeds, and all clock times identical, then when quickly changing a camera or when editing pictures the necessary consistency is achieved.
This week, on to Kentucky...
Game time is at noon and the weather forecast is currently good. On Friday night is UK's "Big Blue Madness" in Lexington. Complete with Live TV coverage from Rupp of the beginning of their basketball season. One would never know that a football game was going to be played the next day as the focus was entirely on basketball late into the night. Hmmmm.....
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A football 'road trip' in the SEC!
Always an exciting time and quite an experience. I'm one of those 'glass half-full kind of guys' so I look forward to the event in a positive sort of way as opposed to focusing on the long hours and many miles and late nights. Invariably, we meet other fans along the way and have a great time either getting to know them for the first time or renewing acquaintances. We stayed in Tupelo, MS for this game.
How many times have you made a trip somewhere, anywhere, and having done the customary research you thought you had a good perception of what you would encounter on arrival? If you're like me, you found that is often a very different experience than what you had anticipated. In the case of SEC football, each 'atmosphere' is different. The attitude of their fans, either on the road, tailgating, in the stadium, or after the game is often markedly unique. One thing that doesn't seem to change is the 'bonding' with fellow Gamecock fans that are passed on the highway or met in Rest Areas and restaurants along the way.
Had an interesting question asked of me, near Birmingham, in a restaurant while on the way home on Sunday. A man, who appeared to be a truck driver, came up to me and pointed to the 'Block C logo with the Gamecock in the middle' and asked me what it was as he had seen cars pass him all morning and didn't know what it was. I told him. Nothing surprises me in Alabama. Other than the OBAMA bumper stickers that had been converted to GOBAMA. Bama has been a pleasant surprise for their fans as they feel they just might be able to win the Auburn game this year for a change of fortunes.
'The Grove' environment...
One thing that makes a visit to Ole Miss, for football, special is 'The Grove'. The campus is laid out nicely and a central part of this campus is a grassy area under a large grove of trees. Conveniently located with easy access to the major athletic venues. One of my goals prior to the game was to capture in photos this aspect of the environment. You'll see a variety of scenes in the 'Grove Gallery' that include everything from fans of both teams tailgating, interesting tailgating sites and personalities, to the Ole Miss team getting off the bus and walking through the hordes of fans on the 'Walk of Champions'. The walk is very much a highlight of their game day experience and everyone knows exactly when it will occur. You'll notice in the pictures that they make good use of barricades and police for crowd control.
After the walk, in the vicinity of the Stage in the Grove, the cheerleaders and dance team perform to the delight of everyone. In a roped off area beside the stage, the band 'warms up'. Everyone knows exactly what time all of this happens, as well.
In case you wondered if the beautiful flower arrangements and Hi-Def televisions etc. are because Saturday was Homecoming at Ole Miss, I can assure you that they do that every Saturday. It's a tradition.
On to the game...
Truthfully, I had to leave the tailgating atmosphere before I wanted to as my primary goal was to shoot the football game and I had to move on to the stadium. Now 'moving on' into the stadium can be an event in itself. My luggage included a suitcase full of camera equipment and a briefcase full of computer gear that together weighed almost seventy pounds.
Can you imagine what a welcoming sound it was as I was unloading my gear from the trunk of the car and a man on a golf cart asked if I would like to ride to the stadium? Ride to the stadium? This jaunt included having to go up a final hill to the gate and he dropped me off right beside the stadium. His sole job this day was to carry media people to the stadium and it was most appreciated by all.
Every stadium is different. This one had a feature that I was not excited about. Positively excited anyway. In order to get DOWN and UP to the artificial turf, one had to carry/lug all of their heavy gear down what seemed like a hundred steps! The trip back UP the stairs hauling all of the heavy gear after the game seemed twice as long. Well, at least I got my exercise Saturday to make up for all of the time sitting and driving to and from the game.
Game on...
The game itself was a fun and exciting event to shoot. You have to love an early afternoon game, as a photographer! As long as it's not raining, you are one happy person. One of the good things of shooting games on the road in the SEC is that the photographers can shoot from the end lines (and the sidelines were not crowded either).
For this game I had three cameras with me during the game. Having three cameras gave me the ability to quickly change as the situation changed before me. Sometimes you have enough time to change during the action, but not often. When I was shooting the Ole Miss 'almost' touchdown that became a fumble recovery by Emanuel Cook, I began the play using my Canon 40D with the 300mm lens and switched and shot the end of the run in mid-field with the Canon 1D Mark3 with the 70-200mm lens. I had thought that Emanuel might be able to return the fumble all the way for a touchdown so I was prepared to cover the run from goal line to goal line.
For those interested in the camera information, since this is a PHOTO blog, I will note that there is a 'multiplier' difference between those two cameras. The 40D is 1.6 and the 1D is 1.3 so the difference is 'almost' like having a converter on your camera of .3. Depending on the situation I may mount a particular lens on a specific camera to either make a telephoto lens stronger or get a wider angle with a wide angle lens, for instance. I try to make the Mark 3 my primary shooting camera as it is a bit more advanced and capable of shooting a burst of 90+ HiDef images at the rate of 10 frames per second compared to only 6.5 fps on the other cameras. No big deal but my preference.
All of my cameras are 'setup' identically. Center point focusing, same ISO and shutter speeds, and all clock times identical, then when quickly changing a camera or when editing pictures the necessary consistency is achieved.
This week, on to Kentucky...
Game time is at noon and the weather forecast is currently good. On Friday night is UK's "Big Blue Madness" in Lexington. Complete with Live TV coverage from Rupp of the beginning of their basketball season. One would never know that a football game was going to be played the next day as the focus was entirely on basketball late into the night. Hmmmm.....
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Paul Collins. Paul has been a GamecockCentral photographer since 2005, with a focus on Gamecock football, men's basketball and baseball. He may be reached by email at paul(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.