Football and Sleep Deprivation

Last week I covered three football games in four days for Sports Illustrated.

Thursday night was Redskins at Giants. The toughest part was finding a place to park.

I usually get my parking pass sent to me in advance, but I had to pick this one up on-site. I won’t bore you with the gory details, but let’s just say that it took three hours from the time I left my apartment until I got into the stadium. I live 20 miles away.

The game went fine, though, and I made a few decent frames including this shot of reigning Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning.

Here is Giants CB Aaron Ross upending Redskins RB Clinton Portis.

Saturday, I covered the Miami Hurricanes against the Florida Gators in Gainesville. I attended Miami, but I knew that the ‘Canes would have to play a perfect game to even have a shot of beating the fifth-ranked Gators.

They didn’t, and the Gators pulled away in the fourth quarter.

Heisman winner Tim Tebow celebrated with his teammates on the field after the game.

After the Saturday night game, I got into the car with fellow SI shooter Bob Rosato and our assistants for the five-hour drive to Miami. After a stop at Steak and Shake in Ocala at 2 am, I slept for a bit and arrived at my mom’s house at around 5 am. I had to finish transmitting my images to the magazine and got to bed just after 7 am.

I left for the Jets – Dolphins game at 9:45.

Even though I didn’t get much sleep, I’m glad I worked the game because the magazine ran a cover story on Jets QB Brett Favre. I didn’t get the cover this week, but I had the opener – a low angle shot of Favre dropping back in the pocket. I shot this photo with my 70-200 lens all the way on the ground. Some photographers use a right-angle finder to shoot these, but I just lie down on the ground.

I also had a full-page shot of Favre making a ridiculous hail-mary touchdown heave as he was being hit during the second quarter. It was the play of the game.

That’s Bob Rosato’s photo on the right. He also had the cover shot of Favre celebrating after making the throw. We were both shooting on the same side of the field because, at midday in Miami, the light is horrendous. The backlit side (in this case, the visitor’s sideline) at least evens out the light on the players – even though the background is still too bright.

After the pass, Favre got up on his knees and signaled the touchdown. I must have been about 10 yards away from Bob. His frame is clearly better because a) you can see more of Favre’s face from the front and b) the background is cleaner.

It was a great game for both of us. I guess Bob didn’t need sleep either.

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