One Game at a Time

I wrapped up my proposal by 5pm Friday afternoon and headed down to College Park to shoot the first home game for the Maryland men's soccer team. It was an exhibition game but I thought some other photographers or reporters might be there. I spotted a couple of guys I recognize from men's basketball and it was good to see them out there. I didn't see any photographers though.

Fortunately the Terps wore their jerseys so we can use some of the photos I grabbed for stock purposes later on in the season. The shoot went pretty well - I wasn't too happy with the lighting conditions but those are often out of your control. I was looking for a really bright sunset but that wasn't in the cards. It was overcast and there wasn't a lot of sharp light.

A lot of photographers prefer an overcast sky because it diffuses the sunlight and allows them to avoid blown highlights and dark shadows. I agree with that but at the same time there's nothing like getting a full face illuminated with orange sunlight. You fight with shadows on their faces from noses, ears, arms, and other blockages. But if you can snag that one image where the light is unobstructed it makes for a great photograph.

When I got home I packed up my things and got started on my story and photos as quickly as possible. Julie and I are heading out of town on Saturday morning and a late night is not the kind of thing I was looking for. I got through the photos really quickly and used the box score to type up an article. Earlier in the day I installed Lightroom 2 and there seems to be some kind of bug related to audio sidecar files. For whatever reason when I import a file with an audio sidecar the file disappears in Lightroom. It appears in the filmstrip preview in the bottom but then disappears when I try to view the photo. Argh...

My story and photos from the Maryland Terrapins vs USF Bulls men's soccer game at Ludwig Field in College Park are up on the DC Sports Box. You can also look at my photos of the Terps and Bulls over on Flickr.