Stepping Up
The morale is high again here at the Cardinals thanks to a ton of big plays and teamwork during the Week 10 game against the Rams in Los Angeles.
SoFi Stadium had an electric atmosphere even during pregame, and our players were putting on their game faces early. J.J. Watt didn't do his typical pregame pose for the camera, but Jonathan Ledbetter stepped up and gave us the content we were looking for!
I think J.J. was mentally preparing for his pregame speech in the huddle, and for good reason. Even I was ready to go tackle some Rams players after that one!
Sometimes, players don't realize the length of my lens and the capabilities it has. This sequence of Myjai Sanders starts off cool, and then he gets super close to the camera and fills the frame.
It is always fun to share moments like this with the players during pregame when they try to make my job even more fun for the both of us!
The SoFi locker room was set up in a weird way, instead of a large room with lockers lining the walls, they were spread out in a maze-like format.
It forced me to navigate the room like a paparazzi and photograph the players from behind corners, but I got some interesting photos out of it.
I roamed the bench area after introductions, and these next two photos show what it looks like when players notice I'm taking their photo and when it's time to get serious.
This next photo isn't very glamorous, but it does give a little insight to what being around an NFL team bench is like. Spit happens.
With Kyler Murray out with an injury, I turned my focus to QB1 of the day: Colt McCoy. I really like this photo of him standing under the pregame lighting.
This game really was so much fun. The defense started early with some big stops and celebrations.
Then James Conner waltzed into the end zone right in front of me, and luckily no network cameras got in the way of my shots.
It was nice to see how happy all the players were after James' touchdown, and even an injury couldn't stop Kyler from congratulating his running back on the score.
There were a couple of frustrating calls during the game, a huge one being when the referees called the play dead after Myjai Sanders forced a fumble and J.J. Watt recovered it.
Isaiah Simmons ended up grabbing the ball from J.J. and running into the end zone just in case.
After catching a great play on camera, like A.J. Green's touchdown, it's hard for me to choose my favorite frame. I usually lean towards ones like the first photo below, where you can see the ball about to be caught.
But, I also like when the ball is right in the player's hands like the second photo.
Either way, I think we can all agree that the best photo of that bunch is the one of Colt McCoy celebrating with A.J. while Rondale Moore looks on with a smile.
Lately I've been staying in the end zone a little bit longer to photograph the defense head-on, and sometimes I don't get a great angle of certain plays.
This was my view of J.J. Watt's sack:
While I don't hate that photo, the celebration was worth my positioning. J.J. was faced just the right way.
Let's talk about THAT Rondale Moore catch.
I was in a good position to capture it, albeit a little close with my 400mm lens, but I love that I got Kyler Murray and Marquise Brown subtly in the background of the celebration shot as well.
James Conner followed up that play with a diving touchdown, and the sideline knew he had it before he even crossed the pylon, as you can see in the background of the first photo.
Budda Baker came in clutch, as per usual, with an interception and impressive return.
I was moving to a sideline position when I saw the play and quickly had to run back to the end zone to catch the celebration.
At the end of all of the postgame jersey swaps, I waited for Budda to make his way to the tunnel and celebrate with fans.
Then I headed into the locker room to capture Kliff Kingsbury giving out game balls to the players who made the most impact.
Colt McCoy brought the team together for a huddle to cap off the much-needed win in the City of Angels.
