I shot so much baseball this year that I was going to take the fall off and skip football. I have a cell phone that I only use for my photography business and it's been sitting on my desk turned off since August. About a week ago for some reason I turned it and found a half dozen calls from a football director asking for my services. Each call was more frantic than the previous one. I called her back and tried to tell her I wasn't interested but it was so close to the event that she was concerned that she couldn't get another photographer. Embarrassed about not answering my phone and thereby putting her in this position, I agreed to shoot the event. Four games and eight hours later I remembered why I took the season off ... football is a ton of work to shoot. Way more running up and down the sidelines than my flabby old body likes to do, that's for sure. Anyways, since I haven't posted in here for a while, here are a few photos from the day. Feel free to critique! 
The day started off with flag football. These little guys are fun to watch but really hard to shoot. They play early in the morning so the fall sun in Michigan is pretty low, and pretty harsh. Plus, they play on a reduced size field with two on-field coaches and four referees to get in the way. Add to that, they never open up on the field, they simply swarm the ball wherever it goes.
[attachment 38003 f1.jpg]
This is the next level up called freshman. They play on a full field, no coaches, with better lighting, and they play real football. As you will see, I am partial to shots that feature the ball carrier fending off a tackle. I guess I just like the drama of that moment of two combatants meeting on the field of battle, so to speak.
[attachment 38004 f2.jpg]
I like to capture the personal moments too. I don't usually get a lot of these as I'm simply not in the position to get them very often. I think in a perfect world I'd have a second photographer on staff at these events just to capture these type of off-field moments.
[attachment 38005 f3.jpg]
I like this one just because it's tough to isolate a kicker at kickoff time. This shot didn't have a lot of distractions in it and I like the focus on his face.
[attachment 38006 f6.jpg]
Again, that moment of offense meets defense, cat meets mouse, enemy vs foe on the battle field.
[attachment 38007 f7.jpg]
Even with maximum DOF there is still a lot of distractions in this photo. As you can tell, I like sports photos with contrast and/or emotion. In spite of the background distractions I liked the calm focus of the holder vs the dynamic focus of the kicker. In my mind's eye it is kind of a William Tell and the apple on the head kind of thing.
[attachment 38008 f8.jpg]
Well, that's about it for me. I usually come in here a few times a week to enjoy the photos that everyone posts in here. But, as I am essentially pretty lazy I personally don't post very much. So hopefully this post makes up for all the lurking I've been doing lately.
The day started off with flag football. These little guys are fun to watch but really hard to shoot. They play early in the morning so the fall sun in Michigan is pretty low, and pretty harsh. Plus, they play on a reduced size field with two on-field coaches and four referees to get in the way. Add to that, they never open up on the field, they simply swarm the ball wherever it goes.
[attachment 38003 f1.jpg]
This is the next level up called freshman. They play on a full field, no coaches, with better lighting, and they play real football. As you will see, I am partial to shots that feature the ball carrier fending off a tackle. I guess I just like the drama of that moment of two combatants meeting on the field of battle, so to speak.
[attachment 38004 f2.jpg]
I like to capture the personal moments too. I don't usually get a lot of these as I'm simply not in the position to get them very often. I think in a perfect world I'd have a second photographer on staff at these events just to capture these type of off-field moments.
[attachment 38005 f3.jpg]
I like this one just because it's tough to isolate a kicker at kickoff time. This shot didn't have a lot of distractions in it and I like the focus on his face.
[attachment 38006 f6.jpg]
Again, that moment of offense meets defense, cat meets mouse, enemy vs foe on the battle field.
[attachment 38007 f7.jpg]
Even with maximum DOF there is still a lot of distractions in this photo. As you can tell, I like sports photos with contrast and/or emotion. In spite of the background distractions I liked the calm focus of the holder vs the dynamic focus of the kicker. In my mind's eye it is kind of a William Tell and the apple on the head kind of thing.
[attachment 38008 f8.jpg]
Well, that's about it for me. I usually come in here a few times a week to enjoy the photos that everyone posts in here. But, as I am essentially pretty lazy I personally don't post very much. So hopefully this post makes up for all the lurking I've been doing lately.