Sports, Glorious Sports

Getting ready for another week to begin, here are some sports images from my last couple of weeks...

9/21



9/20



9/19



9/18



9/13



9/12

It's Been a While...

Plus, I really don't feel like writing all that much... so here are some pics to catch us up.

9/11



9/10



9/09



9/05



9/04



8/29



8/28



8/19

A Giant Parade!

Manhattan, 02/05/08. I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking really...

If You Can't Make it to Lambeau...

...do the next best thing. Visit the Green Bay Packers shrine that is Vince Lombardi's grave at a cemetery in Middletown, NJ.

History

It's late, so no story, but here are two pics from the historic Patriots/Giants game tonight... I (might) add more at another time...

Randy Moss (top) catches a historic TD pass against the Giants. Not only did this catch give Moss the NFL record for the most TD receptions in a season (33) but it also gave his QB, Tom Brady (bottom) the NFL record for most TD passes in a season (50). The bottom pic is Brady's reaction. Someone needs to teach the Golden Boy how to celebrate....

The Pats' 38-35 win also gave them a perfect 16-0 record for the regular season, something that's never been done before. (The 1972 Dolphins went 14-0 in the regular season, but that was before teams played 16 game seasons.)

Eli's Lousy Day

Vikings 41, Giants 17. What more is there to say? Eli Manning was picked off four times, three of which were returned for touchdowns. And I was in the wrong place for all of them. Why? I'm glad you asked...

When shooting a game alone, I always try to position myself on the Giants' offensive side of the ball. This way, when (if) the Giants score, they'll generally be coming right at me. Sounds like a good enough plan, but when there's a big interception, there's really nothing I can do. I can only watch helplessly as the play goes away from me, like this one, the first interception by Darren Sharper (42) that resulted in a TD.



I suppose after the second pick-six I could've switched sides and attempted to show the Giants' (and particularly Eli's) ineptitude, but I opted to try for something positive, and got burned. Besides, what's that old adage? Had I moved to the other side, the Giants would finally have started to play well, and I'd have missed that too. Like I said, I was shooting alone and it's a big field. Sometimes the plays come at me, and sometimes they don't. Not really much I can do about it.

So, failing to get any of the big Vikings plays, I basically stayed attached to Eli for the entire fourth quarter, looking for reaction shots more than action shots. I came away with a collection of images that perfectly described Eli's day, so even though I didn't have the big plays, I did end up with some pretty good story-telling shots. Here they are. Enjoy.

More About Yesterday

If it sounds like I was in a bad mood following yesterday's game, it's because I was. I was frequently on the wrong side of the field, or blocked from the big plays by TV guys, NFL Films guys, referees, and players. I missed all of the "big" plays. (Can there really be big plays in a game between a 1-3 team and a 1-4 team?)

So now that I've cooled down a bit, and had some time today to play with Evan, I'll give a little more level-headed recap. First of all, both teams were, as I stated, awful. Neither team could do anything inside the 20-yard-lines, and both were missing field goals left and right. (What was I thinking picking a Giants Stadium kicker, Nugent, for my fantasy team??)

The light on the field was literally black-and-white. For most of the game, half the field was in bright sunlight while the other half was in complete shadow. Opportunities abounded for creative, artsy-fartsy images that would never run (see below), but trying to cover the game was very difficult.




The in-camera meter was constantly being fooled by the extreme contrast, and completely underexposed everything that happened in the shadow areas. (This is nothing new.) So I basically had to pick an exposure manually and hope the majority of the plays happened within that area. Since the sun was on its way down, I chose to expose for the shadows, as more and more of the field would be in shadow as the afternoon went on. The image below is what happens when you're exposed for the shadows and the player steps into the sunlight. Everything gets completely blown out.




Anyway, the play of the game did happen in the shadow area, and I would've been in perfect position to nail it, but I was blocked by a referee. And not just a little blocked, where his hand was in my way, no, he was 3 feet in front of me, so his butt filled my entire frame. (The play was a Jets fourth-and-goal pass from Philly's 4-yard-line late in the game that would've tied the game (pending the PAT), and Laveranues Coles dropped it in the end-zone. And I had a perfect angle on it, but a view of the ref's rear.) What're you gonna do? Sometimes it's just not meant to be.

Finally, after the game, there was ungodly traffic. (Which I mentioned yesterday). Nothing like sitting on the NJ Turnpike for an hour to exacerbate an already cruddy mood. So there you have it, a quick recap of my day yesterday.

The good news is that there's no way I will get blocked quite as much next time. It would be impossible. :)

Now I've got two days off, and then Wednesday it's back to work. If you can really call this work.

Eagles 16, Jets 9.

It was a lousy game featuring two teams that really couldn't move the ball. The Eagles plays just a little less badly, and won. Oh yeah, and the Jets wore these stupid throwback jerseys. Save for the blue helmets in place of gold, the Jets looked like Notre Dame... and played like them, too. There's really not all that much more to say.

Oh yeah, and the Turnpike was a disaster on my way home, congested with all the Eagles fans leaving the Meadowlands. A perfect end to a perfectly crappy game.

Giants 16, Eagles 3.

I know it's a bit late, but it ended something like 11:30PM and I've been really busy ever since. Here are a few shots I liked from the Giants/Eagles game on Sunday night. The Giants sacked Donovan McNabb 12 times, with Osi Umenyiora collecting 6 of them. Six!






And since it was a nationally televised game, the sidelines weren't without celebrities. You might recognize these folks as Ashton, Demi and Cameron, though why Diaz wasn't at her "boyfriend's" game... you know her boyfriend, Brett? He plays football... (That afternoon Brett Fav-ruh eclipsed Dan Marino's all-time touchdown record... If I have to explain any further, just forget it...)