One Foggy Christmas Eve
The result of the Cardinals' Week 16 game on Christmas Eve in Chicago was probably not on anyone's Christmas list.
Nonetheless, here's how it went from behind the lens.
I started off the day by capturing a couple of Cardinals fans that made it out to the game with their holiday spirit.
It was an unseasonably warm day in the Windy City (relatively of course), so the sun was shining and creating unique lighting for the pregame tunnel shots.
I wasn't able to squeeze in below the linemen huddle this time, but I actually liked the angle I was able to get of D.J. Humphries pumping up his teammates.
It's kind of rare to get someone's face in the shot with them breaking out the huddle, so it was nice to get this shot of Dante Stills.
James Conner took the lead during the all-team huddle, and I was able to get the below angle this time.
His speech was so quick that everyone wasn't even able to get in tight before he broke them out.
On the way back into the locker room, Jonathan Ledbetter walked over to his mom in the stands for a pregame prayer.
This game was my first time ever at Soldier Field, and with new stadiums, I always look forward to seeing what the locker room setup is going to be.
The locker room this week was one big long room with wooden benches instead of chairs, so it made for some nice shots of players facing me.
It was easy to navigate the room without chairs in the way, but Antonio Hamilton used the benches to his stretching advantage.
I caught a couple of pregame rituals this week, starting with the normal ones of taping hands.
The layout of the locker room provided an easy view of the mirror where guys were putting on eye black, and I was able to get Starling Thomas V before and after he noticed me.
The final ritual that I discovered this week was Matt Prater flipping through a scrapbook of family photos made by his wife. She makes a new one each year, and he brings it to every single game.
The tunnel from the locker room to the field was very narrow, but it was all blank white walls which I thought made for a cool backdrop.
I think I was crouched behind the wall enough for almost no one to notice me, but there's always going to be someone camera-ready!
To round out the pregame shots, I captured the captains walking to the coin toss and made sure to get some of the top of Soldier Field in it to showcase the oldest stadium in the NFL.
Pretty soon after kickoff, Jalen Thompson had a nice pass breakup that luckily happened perfectly in the gap between the referee and another player.
Almost an hour later, the Cardinals were about to hit the red zone for their first touchdown of the game. I prepped my 85mm lens with this test shot, hoping I was ready for the action after the next couple of plays.
I went back to my 400mm lens since they were still far enough from the end zone that I thought I could get one more play out of it.
I was immediately proven wrong, as evidenced by the not-quite-in-focus shot of James Conner.
I had time to grab my 85mm lens right as he crossed into the end zone, but the focus was all sorts of wrong.
I could tell without even checking the photos that they were bad, so I kept photographing the celebration in hopes of redeeming myself.
I liked this photo of Greg Dortch's kick return since you can see him looking back at the defenders as he creates separation.
And here's just another photo I liked of Kyler Murray in the pocket that makes me think I'm supposed to catch the next pass.
I saw Jalen Thompson's interception through my lens, but didn't have a good angle of him catching it, as you can see here.
Luckily, he ran towards the sideline I was on, so I caught the celebration.
Greg Dortch's touchdown run was impressive, and I liked that I was able to get him juxtaposed with the third down marker before diving into the end zone.
They immediately transitioned for the two-point conversion, which didn't pan out, and I had to capture the disappointment to show the whole story.
The fog rolled in towards the end of the game, which officially made it "one foggy Christmas Eve."
Another game down that didn't go as planned, but I'm looking forward to the next two games and trying to grow as a photographer with every passing week.
Because the next photo essay will be after New Year's Day, I'll see you all next year!
