Football Life
I've been photographing my boy's football teams for the past six years. It's totally a labor of love. Watching them on the field is about as good as it gets!
I've been photographing my boy's football teams for the past six years. It's totally a labor of love. Watching them on the field is about as good as it gets! I try to create images that I wish I had when I played. My youngest son is in his senior year and the last season he'll play football in high school. I've really been trying to the document this season in different ways.
On a recent away football game, I rented a Sigma 24mm art lens from my local camera store (Action Camera). I really wanted to get into the boy's space and not artificially. What do I mean by artificially well we all have a personal space that's probably an arms distance from the other person. If you enter the space with the zoom lens from a distance it doesn't feel as intimate, when you physically move into that space something changes and the image has more connection. It's something I try to do in my portrait work and wanted to bring that over to some of my sports images. I think is something that has roots in my early days with newspaper photography.
I have to say the Sigma 24 mm lens was a dream to work with it was very fast and I'm extremely happy with how it rendered the colors and tones. I think it's a lens that'll add to my bag permanently in the next year.
Friday Night Lights
Another football season has come and gone. My youngest, Ryan (#32) is a sophomore and on the JV team, who won the league with a 10 and 0 record. My oldest son, Ethan (#40) is a senior on Varsity. Varsity was 3 and 7, which made for a tough season.
I always struggle with the written word. I feel as if I can never do my thoughts justice. Hopefully this reads well.
Another football season has come and gone. My youngest, Ryan (#32) is a sophomore and on the JV team, who won the league with a 10 and 0 record. My oldest son, Ethan (#40) is a senior on Varsity. Varsity was 3 and 7, which made for a tough season.
This high school football season was very special for me. I had both my boys playing on Friday night for the first and last time. The pride and excitement I had on Friday nights was unbelievable. You would have thought I was playing. Several times I had to take a deep breath and relax.
Yeah thats me from high school.
A select few know the struggles I had growing up with severe dyslexia. In middle school I was placed in a different class, different recess, and different P.E from the rest of the kids. This lead to fairly heavy bullying and very low self esteem. I never participated in social or group activities until I played football in High School. Football was the one thing that kept me in school and led me to college.
I’m very fortunate I could document their actions and enjoy every game from the sidelines. As a photographer I get one of the best views on the field, roaming free. I tried to capture the whole team’s efforts. I approached photographing the games, by trying to get the kind of images I wish I had when I played. The only downside to shooting from the field is not sitting with my wife in the stands. I truly wish we could have shared our excitement together, but I can’t be in two places at once.
I took the opportunity at the end of the season to make some images for them and a few team members. I pulled out the full setup. 4 lights and the fogger. I wanted to give them something a little more "hero" feel.
I have two more years of Varsity football with Ryan. I’m not sure how I’ll manage when its all done, but I will enjoy every moment until then.
