Good grief! Now that was an experience. One frustrating experience. One stressful experience. But an experience that I'm glad I have had, if for nothing else, to be able to say that I can competently do it.
This past Saturday, I arrived at the Missourian at 2 pm to get our ducks in a row before heading over the Memorial Stadium for the 6 pm game against Colorado. (I didn't want to be there at 2 (rather 3), but Brian and Caitlyn (the sports photo editor) felt like this was a good idea, so that "it wouldn't be stressful." We would be able to catch the shuttle and get there and get settled with plenty of time to spare.) The Colorado game was 'kind of' a big deal because, after this season, Colorado is leaving the Big 12 to go to the Pac 10. I was feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing, because sports photography is not my favorite thing. But it was me and 3 photographers out to cover football.
We got to the parking lot out by Reactor Field at around 2:45, expecting the media shuttle to start at 3 pm. On Saturday, the temperature got up to about 86*. There was nice breeze, but the sun was HOT. And I hate baking in the hot sun. Which is what I did, because there is no shelter by where the shuttles (public and media) pick up their passengers. But we waited, and waited. And waited. Another photographer, who covers the football games for a Mizzou website, mentioned that the Missourian folks always seem to be around waiting 30-45 minutes before the shuttle would start. Another interesting tidbit - the media shuttle driver is not affiliated with MoX and she seems to always be late, even if she's supposed to start 2:30 hours before the game starts.
One of the photographers, Rob Bratney, had an assignment photographing a girl in MU's marching band at 3:30. And by 3:30, the shuttle *still* hadn't come, even though it was 2:30 hours before game time. So we got on the regular shuttle and then walked all the way around the stadium to get to the press entrance. While we were waiting for the shuttle, Rob informed me that he only had one battery, so I arranged with Erica (the editor back at the Missourian) for her to bring the other battery out to us. When we got to the stadium, Rob broke off to take his pictures of the band girl, and I took his gear. And, guess what? The camera I took was the one with battery in it, so Rob ended up photographing the girl and not doing pre-game pics.
Per the time table that Caitlyn sent out, I went out to take pre-game pictures. I ended up being the only one who took anything decent. I never thought I would have anything published this semester, but I got 4 pictures on the Missourian website. One of the sports reporters decided that it would be cool to have pics of the empty tailgating spots right after kickoff, so Christina ended up spending most of the first quarter doing that, rather than taking pictures. (When we talked about this in class on Monday, Brian was not happy about that.)
Right: ELISA DAY/Cecily Pickering, of Kansas City, builds a plate of fruit while tailgating before the MU football game against the Colorado Buffalos, on October 9, 2010. || I thought this was really unique; Pickering brought healthy food to a tailgate.
I also discovered that, because I didn't have a 'P' on my media pass, I couldn't go onto the field to collect the cards like I was supposed to, and so that part of the time table got pushed back, waiting for me to be able to connect on the phone, when there is totally spotty coverage and 9 times out of 10 I have no signal, to be able to get in touch with the 2 photogs on the field to get their cards. Christina was going to do it for me, but she still wasn't back from that project with the sports writer.
Another complication for the evening was the EXTREMELY slow internet. It was insane. I let Erica know but it was ridiculous. And it made what could have been an okay evening very frustrating. Because it would take several minutes (10) to upload one picture. The Print Desk got really antsy at the lack of pictures that had been sent and shortly after the game was over at around 9:30, and right as the internet started to be faster, Erica's getting pressure and then the Print Desk editor gets on the phone and basically commands me to send someone with pictures on a jump drive in the next 15 minutes. 'Because if they don't have the pictures, there won't be time to set the page, and then Jeff-City won't be printing the paper.' As if I didn't know that. And even though I tried to explain what was going on, including how the problem with his request was because of post-game traffic and even if one of the photographers happened to run down the hill to her car, it would take at least 15 minutes to get there, running downhill, and then she would have to contend with all the exiting traffic, I got cut off with "No, this is where you tell me, yes, the pictures will be there in 15 minutes." So I said, "okay."
What was really great is the fact that right around then, the internet really started to pick up, so I was able to get the pictures to Erica so that he would have them. So his order was totally stupid. Luckily, Christina (the one who drove) called Erica to communicate about the traffic and Erica told her to go back to the press box.
That reminds me - the Print Desk editor also had to put in a jab about how I was dragging my feet in agreeing to comply with his request because I didn't want anyone to drive my car. Isn't that lovely? Like I would care.
At the end of the day, the double truck ended up looking nice - and I was happy that I was able to pick out pictures they liked and not once did they have to ask me for something else. (I was nervous about this one, since I've never really paid attention to sports photography, at least in the same way that I pay attention to other types of photography.) I was happy about that. I wasn't happy with the fact that I basically got another lecture during my follow-up conversation with the Print Desk editor, where he (talking quickly) explained his side of the stress and didn't apologize, nor did he ask any questions to make sure that his take on the situation was accurate, but did reiterate how I would have needed to physically send something, even if that meant walking something over. Fun times.
At least I can say that I have football editing under my belt and I can put it on my resume.
Here's some pictures from the game:
Captioning this one was a little frustrating because I didn't know who the coaches were. I could figure out who the players were because of their numbers, and with the help of the media booklet they gave out, but the coaches? And when I asked the Sports writers for help, they told me wait for halftime. I ended up taking them a picture and getting Stekel's name and luckily a (former) player was in the press box to identify Ivey.
This one was another one that was hard to caption because I couldn't quite tell what his number was. I ended up first thinking he was #80. I didn't find out until I was able to talk to the photographer.
The photo that ran on the Missourian's website was cropped into a vertical, but I liked this better, I think because of the background.
I loved this picture because of the reactions of the people being sprayed. The looks on the faces of the cheerleaders, especially the blonde, and the girl in the teal who is guarding her hair...
Like any good quarterback, Blaine Gabbert is not afraid to run with the ball. And normally, he doesn't get tackled, either.
This was another one that was fun to caption. MU's nice in that they have more than one player use the same number. And since you can't see faces, you can't really tell by number alone. And since I don't know exactly when in the game this play happens, guessing based on positions (which I'm not totally familiar with the names of the positions) is kinda hard. On Monday, I asked Brian what I could do differently, and his suggestions didn't really help with this situation.
Right: CHRISTINA MANOLIS/#82 Michael Egnew leaps and catches the final touchdown of MU's game against Colorado on Saturday, October 9, 2010. MU won 26-0.
One thing that was really great about this game is the number of blocks that the MU defense perpetrated.
One thing that did bug me, besides missing the action because I was looking at images, editing, trying to get images transmitted, is that ESPN didn't bother to talk about on either SportsCenter or the College Football Roundup. I guess it just goes to show that what seems 'important' in mid-Missouri (that MU-CU showdown before CU leave the conference) isn't quite as important to the rest of the nation. They were much more concerned with discussing Alabama's loss and Ohio State's performance. I mean, there wasn't even a recap or a mention. Annoying. No respect.
Photographers featured in this blog post:
Rob Bratney
Alex Giddings
Christina Manolis
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