Hail Raisers
We are officially at the halfway point of the 2024 NFL regular season, and the Cardinals finished Week 9 with their third straight win.
There was definitely a lot to capture, from touchdowns to sacks to an indoor hail storm (and a Hail Emari too.)
Here's my point-of-view on the day:
Familiar face J.J. Watt made a pregame appearance and greeted his former teammates and coaches:
He definitely fit right back in on that sideline and in front of my lens, making sure to tell me if any of the players ever give me trouble, I know who to call:
I took a different approach to the pregame warmup run-outs by setting up right outside the locker room doors:
There's actually a mini-hallway in between the two doors that I don't think most fans have seen. There's an amazing mural painted on the inside:
I wanted to use it as a backdrop, so I squeezed into the corner inside the second set of doors before the last group of players walked out:
The roof was open and the sun was shining (remember this for later), so the traditional photos during warmups had way more backlight than usual:
Back in the locker room, I was really looking for anything I haven't captured before, or new angles I could take.
I zoned in on Starling Thomas V holding his bible and listening to his headphones with his eyes closed:
With the defensive starters being introduced individually this week, Paris Johnson Jr. led the team intro.
It's difficult to isolate players while they're in that big group, but I was able to use the flags for this one ...
... and landed my focus on Kelvin Beachum in the next:
I stuck with my 70-200mm lens the whole time since I was down about halfway past the tunnel and could get a good reach with it.
I thought I had a low enough angle for most of the photos like this one ...
... until Budda Baker challenged me to go even lower:
Once I notice that a player does something unique, I try to follow up on it and see how I can capture it differently.
Since Paris screamed after the National Anthem last week in Miami, I focused on him again on Sunday and got a slightly closer shot from a different angle:
This game was full of what I've been calling "double cellys," where two defenders take down a player and then I have to frantically choose which one to focus on during the celebration.
I lucked out on the sack by Xavier Thomas and L.J. Collier because they were pretty close together:
But Dante Stills and Zaven Collins were all over the place so I had to act fast to catch them both:
And finally, I didn't really even catch Budda Baker and Jesse Luketa tackling together, but saw them both celebrating so I just switched back and forth between them:
After all those, it's nice to get just a "solo celly." Thanks Dortch!
I was in a great spot for Trey McBride's rushing touchdown and caught him fighting for the end zone:
I loved the celebration too, until I realized it was blocked by the broadcast camera.
Not a total loss, but definitely not something I'd wish for.
About one second before this photo was taken, I looked up at the sky through the open roof and saw the dark clouds roll in thinking "That doesn't look good."
It definitely was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that made for cool photos, but since I didn't bring rain gear for my cameras (who would bring rain gear to an indoor stadium?), I only captured a few plays:
When the rain started to hurt, because it wasn't rain, it was hail, I took about three big steps backwards off the sideline and magically, I was dry.
The opening of the roof only covers the field and a little bit of the sideline, so I was totally fine.
The roof closed again and we were back to our regularly scheduled "James Conner running through people" programming:
Personally, I hate short rushing touchdowns. I can't ever seem to get a clean shot of them actually scoring.
For example, this was my best Trey Benson touchdown photo:
Don't even try to imagine what the worst one looks like.
The celebration was good though!
I usually move to the side angle to capture the extra point, but since I stayed in the end zone to capture more celebration, I tried shooting for the front angle.
This one actually turned out pretty cool:
From that position, I also caught coach Jonathan Gannon high-fiving the whole defense before they took the field:
Emari Demercado scored his touchdown right after I moved down the sideline.
At first, I was regretting not being in the end zone, but I do really like what I was able to capture from the side view.
It shows the desperation of the defense, the scoreboard and the six seconds on the clock:
The hype never died down after that play.
The special teams unit would run down to the end zone and pose for photos, cheer into the stands and high-five the nearby fans after nearly every fair catch:
There was a sense of calm as the players headed back to the locker room at halftime, one that I haven't seen in a while:
I'll sandwich in my biggest "missed photo" of the game here so maybe less people will notice.
I was too far down the sideline to get Trey McBride's hurdle, but it didn't help that I was also blocked by Zay Jones.
Anyway, back to what I did get.
Garrett Williams' tackle and celebration:
Chad Ryland and team celebrating his 55-yard field goal:
And Joey Blount jumping into the field-level stands after downing a punt inside the 1-yard line:
After that, I moved into the end zone to get the front-facing view of our defense.
Using the 70-200mm lens I was able to get some great shots of the team celebrating the safety:
I turned back to my 400mm for the onside punt situation where everyone signaled for a fair catch:
But then I quickly had to grab my 24-70mm lens as the celebration came in fast towards me:
Because I was using one arm to hold my larger lens on my shoulder, I couldn't zoom out past the 48mm's I was on.
That caused photos like these that are still nice, just extremely close:
I went to drop my 400mm lens off on the side during the two-minute warning, and while I was deciding which side of the bench to return to, I caught Budda Baker taking off his finger tape while saying hi to some fans:
I didn't stay long at midfield as I knew players would quickly return to the locker room to celebrate.
I made my way towards the ramp, taking photos along the way:
There was definitely no shortage of fun photos to be found once I got in there:
Once JG enters after the last player, the team gathers around for the prayer.
I don't want to be disrespectful during this time so I just snap a few photos of the group and some details.
This one is my favorite:
JG makes his postgame speech and hands out game balls, this week one went to special teams coordinator (and assistant head coach) Jeff Rodgers.
I captured his emphatic "NO" to chants of "speech! speech! speech!"
Another went to defensive coordinator Nick Rallis who, in addition to coaching a great defensive game, welcomed he and his wife's second child that morning:
When it came time to break the team out in a huddle, JG pointed to Joey Blount who then screamed his head off and led to the whole locker room screaming:
Three wins in a row down, one more to go before the bye.
