Cold Shoulder
The Week 13 game in Minnesota was a hard fought battle against the Vikings that didn't end in the Cardinals' favor.
Scoreboard aside, there was still some nice light, splash plays, and good photos to be found.
At U.S. Bank Stadium, the visiting team walks across the field to their locker room, which made player arrivals more photogenic than the traditional pre-security concrete walls:
There is also a long tunnel from the locker room back out to the field, so I brought out my flash for the first round of players during pregame:
I like to add variety to repetitive moments in any way I can, so I moved out onto the field to capture the next few rounds of players with the dark and moody tunnel lighting:
Defensive lineman Darius Robinson made his Cardinals debut this week after returning from injury, so he was a main focus during pregame warmups:
The locker room provided a lot of different views this week, from a personality pic of the tight ends ...
... to pregame preparation:
The Vikings turned down their indoor lights for their team introductions, and with the half-windowed roof, I got a couple of interesting portraits out of it:
I appreciate the time I have during away games to roam the bench area before the National Anthem.
While our team waits for the home team to be introduced, I can focus on more players and details:
One downside of an away game is that I don't know the ins and outs of their in-game entertainment, so when I prepare a shot in my mind, it might be affected by things like the giant flag being taken off the field:
I struggled a little bit during this game with getting clean action shots; "clean" meaning nothing blocking the action.
Nevertheless, she persisted!
Photos like these are sometimes more dynamic due to the added foreground and background:
One of my favorite celebrations is when the defense recovers a turnover and the group poses in the end zone.
Even though I was close to the right position after Roy Lopez's fumble recovery, I watched as they all ran towards the wrong camera at first:
But, once I moved more into their eyesight, they knew who they were supposed to pose for!
I also like to wait a little bit as more players move into frame:
Michael Wilson has been making some really exciting catches recently, and I was glad to have captured two this week.
The first was straightforward:
The second, however, was insane.
These snapshots don't show how he secured the ball, and looking back it's even crazier that he did after all of this:
Ironically, football is a game about hands.
I liked these photos focused on hands, from Trey McBride basically holding hands with the defender to a sideline handshake:
After halftime, I wanted to utilize the dark tunnel lighting one more time:
As the game went on, the half-domed stadium created dynamic light across the bench area, so I focused on getting a couple of portraits:
The defense was staying strong throughout the second half by forcing a missed field goal ...
... and Mack Wilson Sr.'s hard-hitting sack:
I have recently been choosing the 70-200mm lens as my go-to for red zone plays, and I'm glad that I did this week as it was the perfect lens for Marvin Harrison Jr.'s touchdown and celebration:
My positioning towards the end of the game allowed me to capture some symmetrical frames using the goal post, which I think creates a more unique portrait:
Once the game ended and all the photographers rushed towards midfield, I was looking around for Kyler Murray so that I could get the typical "opposing quarterbacks meet" shot.
Instead of following Sam Darnold around in hopes he would find Kyler, I put my head on a swivel and found Kyler sitting on the bench:
I kept a respectful distance as he was obviously emotional, but I continued to take photos as Michael Wilson came over to pick up his teammate after a tough loss:
The whole team feels a certain way after losing, but the real camaraderie is shown in the way a team responds.
This team will respond, and I will be there to capture it all.
