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.