Soaked from head to toe!

Today (Saturday) I traveled with the team up to Ypsilanti, Michigan to shoot the game against Eastern Michigan and boy was I in for a wet and wild ride! The first mistake I made was wearing jeans and not bringing another tshirt. Our equipment guy gave me a Under Armour rain pants which kept my pants nice and dry but I was now sweating my ass off and when I took the rain pants off you could see all the sweat around my boxers and it was miserable ride home. 

I am very thankful for the position I am in. I am playing Division I football and I get to shoot the away games that I don’t dress because only 65 guys dress for away games which is fine with me because I get to travel to some sweet places. Another great thing about being on the football team is that I have the best access any one will ever get unless your working for ESPN or Sports Illustrated but I am can shoot the team in the locker room in the training room where ever I want as long as I don’t get in the way and the rest of the guys on the team love it because they get some cool images for them selfs and their family and there all supportive of me being a photographer and they think its cool I get to travel to so many cool places and meet some pretty famous people. 

Back to the game it rained the whole time from kick off all the way up to the fourth quarter. I hate using rain covers for my camera gear because they never fit right and they are always bulky and falling off, so I thought of an idea. I took the saran wrap that the players use to tape ice to shoulders and knees and warped my 300 mm and my 70-200 mm it worked great kept my gear nice and dry and to cover my D3 body I used a shower curtain and cut a few holes for the eye piece and the shutter and I was all set kept my gear nice and dry except when the humidity started picking up causing the front of my lens to fog up and I had to fucking idea what I was even shooting.  I wasn’t really mad at the rain because it made for some awesome  images, the heavy rain drops the loose balls and the flooded field. I got one of the best shots from a football game this season so far, my team mate Greg Harris (30) gets flipped by an Eastern Michigan defender, thankfully he wasn’t hurt on the play. 

Then just as I expected Eastern Michigan fumbled as the rain started coming down hard. It took Toledo guys to finally pick up the loose ball. D.J. Summers (56) scooped up the ball and returned it 45 yards to the 2 yard line where he just rain out of gas and fell down. He as extremely pissed but he recovered a fumble and helped the offense score on the next play. 

On the next offensive play DaJuane Collins (22) ran the ball in for a touchdown after leaping over two defenders. 

Then I had to get a few shots of our place kicker Alex Steigerwald (85) who is a few field goals from tying the NCAA record for most Field Goals in a row when he does eventually get it I will have some stock images for the newspapers and ESPN and SI to pick up for the story and he will be happy I got a few shots of him and he sweet mullet! 

Then I shot some good stock of some of the players who are up for some major awards and some sideline features because the rest of the guys on the team love them and its fun to be hanging around them while I am shooting because they aren’t afraid to do some crazy posses! 

Toledo came away with the victory after a long and wet game, so I headed into the locker room packed up all of my gear messed around with the rest of the guys on the team then headed back home. Next we will host #21 Fresno State at home so I won’t be shooting that game since I dress for home games. Maybe I will fire off some shots of us getting all hyped up in the locker room, but who knows I might even get something that is a double truck since I have sweet access!