nfl memories

I had considered doing all of my posts about my photography in chronological order but then I decided that was just too boring and well who wants to read another boring blog, so I decided that I would just skip around my photo archives like a little kid in a toy store and talk about what ever shiny and new or in this case old and dusty photographs that caught my eye.

With the NFL draft just a few short hours away, I decided to look back at the NFL images that I have been lucky enough to shoot. While scrolling through several folders of images I started to reflect on the first NFL game I got to shoot, the Cincinnati Bengals at the Arizona Cardinals back when the Cardinals shared Sun Devil stadium with Arizona State.

As I scrolled through the game shots I found that there was not anything special about what I had shot that day and then I remembered why. I was not prepared for the speed of a NFL athlete. When you watch a game on television or even in the stands you lose sight of how fast these elite athletes really are, even the linemen! I remember lining up a shot on a linebacker and before I could push the shutter button he had left my viewfinder. As I looked up to find him and line up my shot again he was already 5 yards past me in pursuit of the play.

With nothing in the Cardinals folder that I felt was worth sharing I turned my attention to the folder that contained shots from my favorite team, the San Diego Chargers. When I got access to this game I was like a little kid on Christmas, I could not sleep, I checked all my gear at least three times the night before to be sure I had everything and that all my batteries where charged. I simply could not wait for that Sunday to arrive and to make my way down to the stadium and to one of my dream photo opportunities. Ever since I took up photography I had thought about how great it would be to get a chance to photograph the Chargers or the Padres, and as luck would have it I got to do both however, more about the Padres game at a later day and time.

As I strode down the tunnel to the field I was so nervous, I did not want to miss a single opportunity to shoot my favorite football team.  My head was on a swivel constantly looking around for even the smallest detail to shoot. I never wanted this memory to fade and I wanted to make sure when I left the field that I had every player and everything I wanted in case I never had this chance again.

In between my scouring the Chargers folder for some images that I felt had a story to tell or that could really show the impact of the game, many memories of that day came rushing back me. The sounds of coaches and players barking out calls, the sound of helmets cracking and but most of all the memory of me telling myself to just keep shooting you can chimp later. For those of you who do not know what chimping means, it is a term used to describe a photographer who likes to look at their images on the back of their camera and when they find a stellar image they tend to get excited and jump up and down like a chimpanzee. Well maybe the jumping up and down part is slightly exaggerated. Anyway, after a considerable amount of time spent evaluating images I took a break to surf some of my favorite websites and just decompress for the evening when I came across some unexpected inspiration for this post.

While touring my favorite sites it came time to visit my Facebook page where I noticed that my good friend and shooting buddy Andy had posted some portraits of players from the teams in the Final Four for the NCAA basketball championship this past March. While looking at his work and commenting to myself at what a great job he did I was inspired to do a post that contained images of a few Charger players presented in a different way. Gone would be the classic action shot, gone would be the moment of maximum impact and gone would be the faces of the athletes. In its place would be tightly cropped images where the focus would be on the ball, the hands,  the numbers, and even the helmet which would be presented in my favorite way. I would present these images in a museum gallery style format.

Once the idea took hold I went back to my archives and selected images of LaDainian Tomlinson, Phillip Rivers, Antonio Gates, Malcolm Floyd, and Michael Turner to display. I hope you all enjoy a slightly different look of NFL players presented in a gallery style format.

Phillip Rivers, San Diego Chargers

LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers

Michael Turner, San Diego Chargers

Antonio Gates, San Diego Chargers

Malcolm Floyd, San Diego Chargers