It was cold and dreary most of the first day of the state golf tournament at Ohio State’s Scarlet and Gray courses on Friday. I actually wore gloves all day for the first time this fall. I had to get shots of almost 30 kids spread out over the 36-hole course, so there wasn’t a whole lot of time for creativity. Here are the least boring from the day.
Beginning with the Crew game on Saturday, this has been my week of soccer. I had a reprieve on Wednesday when the sports guys messed up my assignment by sending me to a soccer game that was on neither team’s schedule, so I basically got the day off. Last night was my fifth game of the week. I was at Marysville High School, which has its own soccer field, complete with lights… well, sort of. Read the rest of this entry »
When the LA Galaxy came to Columbus to face the Crew last night, one player stood a bit taller than the rest… at least to this photographer. David Beckham finally made his long-awaited Columbus debut in front of a sold-out crowd at Crew Stadium.
As soon as Beckham announced joining the MLS, I marked the date on my calendar that the Galaxy would be traveling to Columbus. There was a lot of hoopla around the league, and tickets to all the Galaxy games quickly sold out. It was mid-summer when he finally made his MLS debut, and shortly after when he suffered a season ending injury. My hopes were a bit dashed to see one of the truly iconic sports figures of all time.
My family spent a semester in Oxford when I was in high school, and I studied in London for a semester of college. Add a spring break trip and a month-long jaunt in London, and my time in England quickly adds up. For many soccer fans in the US, Beckham is a known star, but in England, regardless of your football knowledge, Beckham is a household name. From daily sportscasts and gossip shows to sidewalk billboards, simply put, his face is everywhere.
With the Crew doing so well this year, I figured Beckham’s first appearance in Columbus would be a big deal. The game sold out, and the Crew ran a “black out the Galaxy” promotion. Numerous fans hung over the railing snapping photos and shouting for autographs as he took the field for warm-ups. There were a considerable amount of No. 23 jerseys in the crowd, and flash bulbs erupted each time he ran down the sideline.
I have to give the Crew faithful a ton of credit though. They didn’t let Beckham steal the show. It was business as usual from the Crew supporters’ section in the northeast corner of the stadium, jumping, chanting and waving Crew flags throughout the entire game. “Go home Beckham” cheers rained down from the bleachers drowning out the gasps from the Beckham-watchers each time he touched the ball.
In the end, Alejandro Moreno’s goal late in the first half ended up being the difference in the game. Everyone in attendance, save for maybe the Galaxy team itself, went home happy. The Crew supporters got their win, and the Beckham watchers, myself included, got their first-hand glimpse of the man himself, albeit a year later than expected.
My assignment for the night, which I came up with on my own, was to show the frenzy Beckham can cause. We don’t normally cover Columbus’ professional sports teams, Buckeye football included, so the sports action part of the game was inconsequential. Fortunately, I got my shot early in the evening when Beckham took the field for the first time. He had a slight smile on his face, and the fans behind him went wild. That left me free the rest of the night just to sit back and watch him work.
Seeing Beckham play for the Galaxy gave me a similar feeling to when I watched Michael Jordan play for the Wizards late in his career. Both were a few steps slower than in their prime, but their remarkable athleticism caused me to hold my breath each time they got the ball. Beckham took a few corner kicks directly in front of me that sailed off his foot with a touch unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. For this photographer, it was definitely a memorable experience.
For the second week in a row, I shot my weekly Friday night football game at Crew Stadium. For the past few seasons, schools have been playing some of their big rivalry games on this neutral site. The main event on Friday was the Olentangy vs. Liberty game, but I shot the Orange vs. New Albany undercard matchup. It turned out to be a fun game to watch. Orange, a new school that just opened this year, doesn’t have any seniors, so they played the underdog role. After trailing most of the game, they cut New Albany’s lead down to less than a touchdown before running out of time and falling further behind in the fourth quarter.
Despite all the good action on the field, the best part of this game was its start time, 6 p.m. Normally the games here start at 7:30, and aside from the first week or two of the season, it’s nearly dark by kickoff. The early start this week meant I would have daylight for nearly the entire game. Once it started getting dark in the fourth quarter, the big, beautful banks of lights at Crew Stadium did a great job of illuminating the field. I’m sure for bragging about the light this week, I’ll be relegated to a City League game next week, but it was worth it.
Olentangy Orange junior Jason Hoskins, middle, belts out a cheer for his team during the football game against New Albany at Crew Stadium on Sept. 26.
The Olentangy Orange team prepares to enter the field prior to the football game against New Albany at Crew Stadium.
New Albany’s David Sharpe (29) leaps into the endzone over teammate Wes McKeever (3) and Olentangy Orange’s Ross Smith (8) and Alex Chekanoff (33) during the football game at Crew Stadium. New Albany won 30-21.
Olentangy Orange’s Chase Swisher (7) loses control of a long pass while being defended by New Albany’s Ryan Priddy (6).
Olentangy Orange’s Chaz Weisenstien (81) and Andrew Laws (71) team up to sack New Albany quarterback Jake Sullivan.
Olentangy Orange’s Chase Swisher catches a 58-yard touchdown pass over New Albany defender Chance Moore (2).
Olentangy Orange takes on New Albany at Crew Stadium on Sept. 26.
My mom and sister got a new dogs last week from the same litter. We went to Muncie for Ball State’s homecoming over the weekend, so we got ot meet Tess, my mom’s two-pound, eight-week-old dachshund. I haven’t been posting personal pics here on the blog, but she’s too cute not to share. I was a little worried my dogs would think she was in the squirrel/chipmunk family, but they were really gentle with her… even when she was chewing on their tails with her razor sharp puppy teeth.
It’s not so much the distance of the odometer that was spectacular, as it was the outside temperature at the time. I’m a sucker for random number coincidences like this. I’m just glad I looked down at the odometer when I did.
As a side note, after I took this picture and started driving, the temperature went up a degree after I drove a mile. Spooky, I know. How crazy would it have been if it kept rising with each mile I drove?
The remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Columbus yesterday knocking out power to much of the city. Gusts of 75mph ripped off branches and uprooted entire trees during a five-hour span. It was pretty scary, to tell you the truth. I didn’t experience a hurricane while I lived in Florida, but I got my first taste here in Ohio. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for those in Texas who braved through sustained 100+ mph winds.
Glenn DeMott helps cut fallen limbs out of Denise Worthington’s Upper Arlington front yard on Sept. 15.
While walking to a friend’s house, Chad Mayhorn, 23, of Westerville stops to record a webcam video of a downed powerline and tree that fell on a car in the middle of Highway 161 in Worthington on Sept. 15.
While playing in Monterey Park on Sept. 15, Kornelijus Lesniauskas, 4, and his brother Emilius, 2, push their toys under a downed tree caused by wind damage from the remnants of Hurricane Ike that blew through town on Sept. 14.
I still don’t have electricity, so I’m posting as I’m getting ready to leave work. I think we’re going to make a campfire in our back yard and roast hotdogs and make smores for dinner. Hopefully the power will be back on before breakfast. The lines at McDonalds were ridiculous this morning. No one really saw this coming, so we were all caught unprepared.
Down 48-0 at halftime, I’d have a hard time getting up too. This Westland linebacker stayed down on his knee for a few moments as the teams left the field at halftime. Davidson’s b-team put another 10 points on the scoreboard in the second half to win the game 58-0 on a soggy Friday night.
For those keeping track, we’ve had rain three of the first four weeks of the high school football season so far.
I covered a brief ceremony in memory of the 9/11 catastrophe at the Westerville Fire Department headquarters yesterday. Representatives from both the fire department and the police department were on hand to honor the fallen officers as well as announce the acquisition of a piece of metal from Ground Zero in New York. I was under the impression that the metal would be on hand, but unfortunately it hadn’t arrived yet.
I’ll admit this was my first time covering a large political rally. I’ve done election night stuff and covered politicians (including presidents Clinton and W. Bush) but never had the opportunity to do anything campaign related. We don’t do a lot of news at our community weeklies, so it was nice being in this situation.
After waiting in the long line of traffic waiting to park at the football stadium, I met up with our reporter almost three hours before the rally was set to start. Media and VIPs were directed to the parking lot directly outside the stadium. After a quick pat down and dog sniffing of my gear, I made it inside the event. Media spots were ample, but we were cordoned off from the rest of the rally-goers. The crowd was fairly subdued (probably because of the mid 90-degree temps and blazing sun), so wading through the crowd wouldn’t have gotten me too much anyway. Several people actually passed out from the heat while waiting for the rally to start. One even passed out during Obama’s speech, and the presidential hopeful did his best to alert medics and even tossed the woman his own bottle of water.
Amazingly, the rally started promptly at the announced time of 6:45. After a few passionate speeches by local Democrats, Obama and Biden took the stage just after 7 p.m. to a roar of support. Due to the start time, the sun began setting directly behind the main bleachers just as Obama took the stage. I did the best I could to avoid the flare of shooting directly into the sun, but several shots were still unusable. Fortunately, as Biden finished speaking, the sun went down far enough to not be a problem.
I was able to move around freely during the speeches thoughout the large swath of the football field alotted to journalists. From the field level behind the supporters immediately in front of Obama, I was able to get the shot of him framed by the signs. I stood on the steps of the press riser at stage left to get most of my other shots. The riser itself was filled with TV journalists and cameras from ABC News, CNN, etc., but the steps weren’t blocked, so I was able to get more of a unique angle than the majority of the photographers shooting from the second press riser directly in front of the stage.
Once Obama was done speaking, I hung around for awhile while he shook hands and took pictures with supporters. He had a herd of secret service agents shuffling him through the crowd, but from atop the press riser with my 300mm lens and 1.4x teleconverters, I managed to get a few clean shots of him interacting with the crowd.
Fortunately I wasn’t under any deadline pressure to get the photos edited, because I got trapped inside the stadium until the entire motorcade hit the road and then waited again while the police officers figured out how to guide traffic out of the stadium lot. With the long holiday weekend, I knew no one was even going to be in the office for three days, so I took my time with the edit. They ended up using three photos on the cover of the Dublin Villager and another inside. In all, it was a good experience. With Ohio being such a hotly contested state, I imagine I’ll have a few more opportunities to cover the candidates before the November election.
