Saturday, October 27, 2007
On Sunday the Maryland women's soccer team played Virginia Tech. This was an important game for the Terps because their in-conference record up to this point has been 0-5. If the Terps can't get on the winning ways they'll be denied entrance to the ACC Tournament.
Unfortunately the ladies fell to 0-6 tonight. As usual there was only 1 other photographer present and that was Yuchen. It's frustrating to be denied credentialed entrance to these events and see that nobody else is covering them. I understand the need to keep the official credentials limited to legitimate media outlets, but at the same time it's difficult to see the wisdom in denying a credential request to an organization that has attended and reported on every single home game when the Terps are 0-6 in the ACC.
The game was another 6pm game and I managed to get some good shots before it got too dark. I took all of my good shots on the 400mm lens before switching over to the 70-200mm lens when night fell. I've found that I'm not struggling with focus or the mechanics of shooting very much anymore. I'm now looking at framing my shots, reducing the number of exposures, and trying to get quality shots.
I spoke with the father of one of the players for awhile this evening during half time. He told me that he purchased a Canon Rebel XTI with a 70-300mm variable aperture lens so that he could take pictures of his daughter playing. He said that he doesn't make it to very many games since he's from out of town, but that when he is there he wanted to take pictures because "there aren't many other ones out there". I gave him my card and said I attend as many game as possible and would be happy to send him any photo he is interested in.
As usual the CSC staff were present and the kind lady that works one of the media areas motioned me past the gate. I took her up on the offer and placed my laptop and Think Tank bag in the restricted space. But I then went back outside the gate to shoot during the game. Hopefully one day I can shoot from inside that gate...
The guys that guard the entrance to the stadium are aware of my plight and every time I show up with a ticket they say: "still not credentialed yet?" I nod my head and they say: "well stick with it. They'll come around..."
Once night fell it was difficult to shoot and I decided to try to take some shots from different locations. I went up into the bleachers behind the goal and took some shots. They were crappy because the lights on the sidelines created sharp shadows.
I tried shooting from the stands but people kept getting in the way. I went back up on the hill near the lights but the Terps didn't have very much offense...
I managed to get enough shots for my DC Sports Box article though, and I focused more on capturing the motion of the game. I thought that if my shots weren't that great (because there were not very many offensive opportunities) I could at least write in my article about the performance of the midfielders. I wish I had a MP3 recorder I could use to help me in that regard.
A lot of time there will be some kind of scoring opportunity that occurs and I'll take note of it and want to record some information. Most of the time the box score doesn't show this kind of opportunity, and the Maryland write-up doesn't have it either. It would be nice to have a little recorder I could speak into and say "#5 broke away at midfield and passed to #7 who shot from inside the box on the right hand side. Shot went wide left."
I could also use it after games when I try to get quotes from the players or coaches.
We had an MP3 recorder for awhile and I think we gave it to a family member as a gift. I think I'm going to ask for one for Christmas. The basketball players all do interviews after games and if I'm lucky enough to attend any of the games it will be cool to record them.
When I went to the Georgetown media day everyone used MP3 recorders. It seems like they are cheap and easy to use so that should work well.
Still no news on Maryland and credentials. We're going to try to re-submit a request this week and see how it goes. Given our experience I don't have high hopes. But you never know...
