A Tale of Two Halves
The Cardinals' Week 2 game against the Giants started off great, and while they couldn't pull out a win during the home opener, there were a lot of great plays that hopefully can help build momentum for next week.
I'll start off this week's essay with some wholesome photos of Zach Ertz with his son, Madden, and his wife, Julie. One of the best parts of my job is being able to capture these types of moments for the players and their families.
Since home games are very predictable in terms of what the players will do during pregame, I tried switching up my angle for some of the pre-warmup shots. I decided to forego the wide receivers running out and chose to get up close to their huddle instead.
There are some photos I need to capture every single game, but there are always things I can change up to make that specific moment a little more interesting.
I didn't stay in the locker room too long this time because this was the first regular-season home game, which meant either the defense or offense would be announced individually, so I wanted to be out on the field in time to pick a good spot.
While I was in the locker room, though, I snagged a couple shots of Jonathan Ledbetter taping up his hands. When I got closer, he said he got nervous with the camera on him and started messing up his tape. Football players, they're just like us.
There was a new element to tunnel introductions this year: a giant metal nest with "PROTECT THE NEST" across it in red.
I liked the new addition, and I think it helped hype up the players a bit more.
I went a bit closer up to the tunnel this week, and I was able to frame a couple of shots that included the player's name in the background. These were honestly a total accident, but I love the detail it brings to the photo.
As I was heading to grab my long lens before kickoff, I noticed the running backs kneeling in prayer on the sideline, so I snapped a couple of frames. I'm not sure if they do this every game, but it's definitely something I have never noticed before.
Let the game begin!
During my Monday morning photo editing session, I came across this sequence of James Conner running. While it is a good few photos of his run, I love Trey McBride's face in the background while he's blocking for James. Once Trey's job is complete, he turns to celebrate for his running back.
Something annoying that happens a couple times each game is getting blocked by the opposing team during our celebrations. It happened almost every time we got a first down this week, but I was lucky to nail this one of Marquise Brown before the Giants player stood up:
It's also hard when you get what would be considered an awesome shot, but unfortunately the camera is only seeing the best moment instead of what really happened. Like in this shot of Zach Ertz that shows he is apparently making a one-handed grab, when in reality, it was an incomplete pass out of his reach.
I had my 85mm lens on me during James Conner's rushing touchdown, and I cropped my shot to what I think is an interesting frame:
And then I switched back over to my 400mm to capture the celebration from the opposite end of the end zone, before he disappears behind the giant red goal post padding:
Even Kyler Murray got in on the celebrating.
For Joshua Dobbs' rushing touchdown, I stayed on my 400mm because I didn't want to miss anything, so while the shots of him running are full-body, the celebration ones are pretty tight.
When photographing the Cardinals defense, it's difficult to choose where to stand (or, most of the time, kneel).
Either I stay where I start out each possession before the 50-yard line, or I move all the way around the bench area to be on the Cardinals' end zone side. If I stay, I have to crop in on my photos because my lens only reaches so far, but if I move, I risk losing out on a potential interception that moves away from me.
This week, I stayed in the opposite end zone pretty much every time, and I ended up with shots like this from afar that I cropped wayyyy in on:
But I also was in a great spot for Jalen Thompson's interception, so you could call that a win.
When Jalen ran towards my side to celebrate, I switched to my 24-70mm lens. It allowed me to get some wide shots of Jalen running to the sideline featuring Greg Dortch:
Jalen kept running, which meant I had to run alongside him (not as fast of course). I did not get many good shots while I was running, but I came across this one focused on the fans that I thought was pretty interesting:
While I was running, I couldn't look into my viewfinder so I had to blindly point and shoot, which did not work out extremely well. I ended up cropping a group photo like this:
When the original shot is this:
James Conner was really hyped during this game, which was fun to capture.
Marquise Brown's touchdown celebration was quick because the team wanted to go for a two-point conversion afterwards. I like that I was able to get the referee in the frame using my 85mm, then the coaches on the sideline in the background with my 400mm.
Joshua Dobbs' two-point conversion was flipping awesome! Pun extremely intended as you can see from his path to the end zone.
I will end this photo essay with a photo of Trey McBride and say peace out until next week:
