Playoffs Week 3, Day 1, Game 3

The final game of the weekend for week three was a rare home game for Cooper playing Denton Guyer, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year. The game started out pretty bad and Cooper was down 28-0 early. They did make an effort to come back but it just wasn't going to happen. Luckily their offense looked a lot better in the second half. For the third quarter I decided to change things up a little since I still had daylight and some nice light was coming in, so I went up to the camera deck in the pressbox and thre the 2x teleconverter on my 400mm lens. I shot the whole quarter from up there and made some nice images. This works really nicely when there are deep passes and the players are looking up for the ball, which Cooper does plenty of... especially when they are down.

Playoffs Week 3, Day 1, Game 2

The great thing about the day after Thanksgiving (yes, I'm that far behind on my blogging) is day games and often I get to shoot a doubleheader. On this day Wylie was playing a night playoff game about 15 minutes away from where Abilene High played their playoff game. Unlike the Abilene High game there weren't many people doubting whether Wylie would win or not, and they didn't disappoint. It was a pretty ho hum game, but I was able to get a few nice frames from the first half. Also, I was shooting the game for one of our other papers, so I had to get photos to tell the story for both teams. It's not a whole lot more involved since it usually goes hand in hand, but requires paying more attention to what is going on with both teams.

Playoffs Week 3, Day 1, Game 1

Last Saturday I had a football doubleheader to shoot in Ft. Worth. The first game Abilene High was playing Cedar Hill, the number 1 team in the state and ranked #3 in the country. I was the game I was pretty sure would end the Eagles' season, I guess no one bothered to tell them they were supposed to lose. Despite the 41-17 score the game was a lot closer. It was tied at 14 at halftime but the AHS defense, which at the beginning of the year I didn't think had a chance against a really good offense, played probably their best game of the year. Including an incredible defensive stop that Cedar Hill couldn't punch the ball into the end zone in four tries from the 1-yard line, still only down 10 in the fourth quarter. Right after that stop Abilene running back Herschel Sims took the Eagles' first play after the stop 95 yards for a touchdown.

The best part about covering an upset of massive proportions is the emotions that come with the game. After Sims' 95-yard run, I think Cedar Hill had pretty much given up and the AHS bench was going nuts. I figured with less than 5 minutes left in the game it was time to take the long lens off and start shooting some of those emotions running wild. And, despite missing another long touchdown run, it was worth it, I was able to get some really nice stuff of all the celebrations from the game.

Fingerless Picker

Ray Pack is an amazing person. He lost his fingers when he was 11-months old from an accident that burned his hands so bad his hands are just nubs. But that never stopped him from doing anything, including learning how to play guitar. The 69-year-old Pack, who is self-taught has been playing the guitar since he was 10. He has a style all his own but it seems to work. He has played with a number of famous classic country musicians and has even played at the Grand Ole Opry.
It was really cool to sit down and talk with him while I was shooting his portrait. The man was just full of really great stories about his past and even played a couple of songs. Some of the stories about him touring were really humorous, especially hearing about playing a gig in a mining town in Arizona on a stage that had chicken wire up to prevent flying beer bottles from hitting the band... reminded of a scene from the Blues Brothers movie.
It had been a while since I'd shot a portrait of anyone, and even longer since I shot someone other than an athlete (not that I'm complaining). So shooting Ray's photo was kind of fun. He was real easy to work with. At first I wasn't sure how he was going to be about me shooting a detail shot of just his hands, I didn't want to make him look like a freak, but I felt it was important to show what he had to work with. I started shooting the full shots and showed him a couple when he asked if I could see his hands well enough for the photo. When I told him I wanted to do the detail shot he was really open to it. I only needed about 5 frames to get the shot I was looking for (top). Here's a link to the story we wrote about him for the paper: A style all his own

Playoffs Week 2, Day 2, Game 3

The nightcap of my three game trip to Midland was Cooper playing El Paso Del Valle. Last year Cooper beat the snot out of Del Valle and this year was supposed to be the same and I was going to see yet another one of those blowout games that would be over at halftime. Well, that's not quite what happened. Cooper came out about as flat as they could an Del Valle was on fire. By the end of the first quarter Del Valle was winning 24-0. I guess the good thing about getting down this early like this is you have three quarters to make it up, and that is just what they did. It certainly made the game a lot more enjoyable.

By the end of the second quarter Cooper had made up the deficit and tied up the score. Del Valle came back and took the ball down the field to open the third quarter and kicked a 50-yard field goal. After that Cooper took over. They scored a touchdown on the next drive and never went down again. It made the game a lot more fun to watch than the 2 blowouts I had witnessed in the two previous games.

Playoffs Week 2, Day 3, Game 3

Saturday's games were pretty nice, both Abilene High and Cooper were playing their playoff games against a pair of El Paso schools and, I guess, in an effort to get more fans (both teams usually travel pretty well anyway) to support both teams they played a double-header in the same place. No matter what the reason it sure made things nice for me since I never had to leave the stadium

Grande Communications Stadium in Midland is about 7 years old, and in my opinion, is the nicest high school football stadium in the country. The people that run the stadium are very friendly and allow you to stay as late as you need to, to finish writing your story/filing your photos, the light is GREAT (it was great before I got my D3, now I can use a teleconverter if needed), not to mention seating for 15,000 a nice press box and lots of parking. My only complaint is it has the WORLD'S SLOWEST elevator ever made, which means when I'm on deadline my fat ass has to climb the stairs to the press box, since if I wait for the elevator I may miss deadline. I guess I need the exercise, so I can't fault the stadium too much for that.

Saturday's game was typical of what I had seen of Abilene High all year... They beat the hell out of another team. That coupled with harsh daytime light didn't make for the most wonder game of the year. But I was able to pull out a few decent frames regardless. The nice thing about day games is I don't have to keep watching the clock and run up to the press box the minute the game is over, I can hang out and get post game celebration, school song, etc. Probably my favorite photo from the game was of the team doing their postgame chant (below). Even though the game pretty much sucked, it was fun and the team moved on to next week which should be a better game.

Playoffs Week 2, Day 2, Game 2

So far, my playoff miles haven't been nearly much as last year, now granted we are only 2 weeks into it. But, a lot has to do with all three Abilene teams were playing their opponents in Midland, so after a Thursday night game only a mere 90 miles away, my Friday and Saturday games were all in the same place.

This game wasn't much different from last week's game. Wylie won pretty easily in a game that was never really close. The problem with this was pretty much everything I shot in the first half was all the really great action I was going to get. Now, I know coaches love these kind of games as do some fans. But, I'd prefer something a little closer. Actually they did still keep the starters in for a little bit in the third quarter since Wylie's quarterback had been out for the previous 2 weeks with a knee injury, so he could shake what little rust he had away.

The good part was, since they played vanilla in the second half they mostly ran the ball and killed the clock quickly which was nice and allowed me to shoot some post-game stuff before sending my pix back. I do have a superstition though, even though I'll shoot celebration photos and use them for slideshows and even on inside and photo pages, I won't use them as the main photo on the section front in a game the team is supposed to win. I think I kind of look at it as the Sports Illustrated curse. Not to mention I have always kind of found it to be stupid to give a separate trophy for every round of the playoffs.