Halfway There
This week's photo essay illustrates the Cardinals' Week 9 game, meaning we're officially in midseason form.
I feel like these get sort of repetitive each week, so I'll start off with something new: a black-and-white image!
I chose to edit this photo of Kyler in monochrome because the harsh lighting allowed for really deep shadows, and his dark outfit still stands out against the light pavement.
In contrast, here are my favorite pops of color from player arrivals. I think I'll keep going outside for these types of photos, since it's less crowded and the players seem more comfortable before actually entering the building.
This week was the Cardinals' annual Salute to Service game, so I was out on the field a little earlier to try and capture some of the players wearing branded gear.
I got lucky with this shot of Lecitus Smith flipping his hair back. It's hard to nail focus on photos like this, but I had seen him do it once before so I knew what to look for.
Here are two photos of players kneeling in prayer during pregame.
The first of Chris Banjo has a very clean background, and in this instance the giant "CARDINALS" logo adds to the photo.
The second of Antonio Hamilton is still a nice photo of him, but the background takes away from the impact rather than enhancing the image, in my opinion.
Team huddle photo time!
Markus Golden is always super hyped no matter when I photograph him, so I was excited to see him coming into the middle of the huddle for the speech.
Budda Baker was really into Markus' pregame message, so I snapped a couple of him with his game face ready.
Sometimes I get trapped really close to the huddle with my 24mm lens, but for the D.J. Humphries huddle speech I was able to be a little farther out and get all the hands in.
I went into the locker room to see what features I could find, and landed on a couple different ones. I usually stay in one corner so I don't disturb any players getting ready, but the few times I popped out into the middle I captured some cool moments.
James Conner taking time to gather himself, Zach Ertz stretching and a closeup of Trey McBride putting on his signature headband.
Since I stayed in the locker room until the players were ready to run out, I photographed the team introductions from right up front.
The angle wasn't great, but I like this shot of Isaiah Simmons with the smoke.
I also accidentally focused on Markus Golden's fist rather than his face, but I think it still makes for a cool photo.
There was a lot going on pregame, and with so much to focus on, I ironically didn't even photograph that much.
I did however capture the NFL Films crew almost being knocked over by the giant flag.
And if you were hoping for a cool flyover shot, look somewhere else because mine is out of focus. Those jets are fast!
For DeAndre Hopkins' touchdown, I parked myself in the corner of the end zone.
Our manager of content production, Graysen Choy, positioned next to me and said "Watch, it's going to come right in front of us."
I'll admit, I was skeptical, but she was so right!
I didn't love how wide I was zoomed out while the play was happening, but once he kept running and celebrated with the fans and James Conner, I was glad I had that 24mm on me.
Speaking of celebrating, I'm just going to focus on all the good things that happened for the rest of this essay.
Starting with Greg Dortch ignoring the grass in his helmet to scream his excitement over a big run.
Next, Isaiah Simmons and Markus Golden jumping for joy after making big defensive plays.
It's always cool when I get photos of players celebrating in isolation so you can really focus on their emotion.
On the other hand, after enormous plays, it's hard for the whole team to not jump off the bench and go celebrate with their teammates.
Zaven Collins' pick six led to a standing dogpile of Cardinals players.
Finally, Zach Ertz's touchdown left us with at least a little bit of cheer.
I was glad he landed in the middle of the end zone since I was holding my 70-200mm lens and was able to get him fully in the frame.
