I was not scheduled to shoot the CU Buffaloes and Utah Utes on Friday, but I had to return my Pac-12 media vest, and I wanted to get one more game in before heading indoors for basketball and hockey.  The other Cal Sport Media shooter was out of town, and with it being a Friday game, wait, not just a Friday game, but a Black Friday game, I figured there would not be a lot of shooters there, or a lot of people.  Since I was not scheduled, I did not have a parking pass, so I had to park a little over a mile from the stadium, and I had actually thought the game was Saturday and found out the night before that I was a day off, so I was already out of sorts a bit.  But I was right.  I got to the stadium about an hour and a half before kickoff, enough time to figure out my Code Replacement file with the rosters was not accurate, thank you Utah Utes for NOT updating your website.  So I quickly unpacked my stuff, got my computer up and running and got my sideline pass and some food before I sat down and started working on fixing the errors in the file I had been up until 2 am working on for the game.

I actually sat, for once, outside with the other photographers instead of finding an open area in the press room next to the food.  I am glad I did.  I met photographer Joel Broida, the SID shooter for Colorado, and I hope that will lead to something.  I also found I got more work done.  What I thought was amazing was the media/press room, had VIP’s and non press/media in it all season long.  It was very frustrating to rush up at halftime to find some kid eating food at my computer (it was locked and closed, but really, soda with no lids and a 9 year old??).  But I would get quarter recaps inside and once I chased people away from my stuff, I could try to get some work done.

Sitting outside though, no one bothered me.  All the photographers were on deadline, trying to get photos out as soon as possible.  So work was good outside, and it was not too cool.  But it was a long way from the soda machine.

With this game being on a Friday, during Thanksgiving break, CU did a great thing.  With so many students gone home for the holiday, if you bought a $25 ticket, you could bring your kid for free.  So there were a lot of little Buffaloes fans there.  The problem was, there were a lot of little Buffaloes fans on the sidelines too.  It seems like there were a lot of people on the sidelines who should not be there.  There was a photographer, I have no idea who he was, who I had not seen at a CU game before, and he was going everywhere that you should not go.  He started out right next to the CU coaching staff about a foot from the sidelines.  He was told that he could not be there, so he stepped back.  Not to the photographers area, but back in with the team.  Then was told he had to move back with the other photographers.  He then decided to go to the other side of the field, but instead of going up into the stands, he tried to walk through the team to get there….  And he liked just stopping in front of photographers to take a shot.

On top of this photographer, we suddenly had cable pullers all over the place for Fox Sports.  Normally for each tethered camera, they had 1 cable puller, but now, suddenly we had two per camera, and the camera people for Fox Sports all seemed to be new, and not aware of anything.  What I had experienced in my first three games, when a camera guy goes in front of the photographers, he would make every attempt to move quickly, and get to where he needed to be for his shot.  Yes, it usually meant he would plant right in front of you, but he would get to his spot, and stay for a couple plays.  And his puller would drop down to stay out of our way.  Well, one of the new Fox Sports camera people would just wander down the sidelines, almost got taken out by the sideline official, spent most of the time chatting with her cable puller, and would not even be shooting when she would stop right in front of still shooters who were shooting away.  And her cable pullers, one of them actually stood in front of me, looking at my camera lens while I was in the middle of shooting a run play asking me questions.  Really?  REALLY?  I had to reach over, grab his shirt, and pull him out of my way.  When the play was over I told him to stay right where he was, called the security manager over to me and told him if this guy stands in front of me again, he is going to find a dent in his head the shape of my camera.  I know we still photo guys need to learn to live with the tv guys, but this crew was just plain stupid and had no regard to their safety, or the fact that there were people there trying to work.  Someone is going to go postal over these people some day.

The game started out typical.  First possession by CU, interception/touchdown.  It was going to be a long game.  Other than fighting with the video guys and their cable pullers (did I mention there was a cable puller pulling a cable not hooked up to anything?), I was finding good angles, and getting some ok stuff.  I headed up to the press area with about 5 minutes left in the half with CU trailing the Utes.

I got up to the media area, was able to download images and grab some food while I picked about 15 photos from the first half, edited them, captioned them, and FTP’d them off to Cal Sport Media.  I missed Ralphie coming out at half time, and I guess I missed a snowball fight, but oh well.  In the second half, the light was starting to go.  Part of the field was lit by the sun, part was in shade, and the stadium lights were on.  This made for very difficult lighting.

Right before the shot above, I was on the sidelines, between the Utah team box and the CU Cheerleaders.  There was a big play that took CU into the red zone, and so I ran down to get to the end zone to shoot the next play coming at me.  As I ran by the cheerleaders, one of them nailed me in the face as she was cheering on the big play.  Dazed me, but I got to position to shoot the run into the end zone, when the photographer mentioned earlier, stepped across the photo line and got right between me and the play.  Security pulled him back, but too late.  All I could get was Tony Jones posing for the cameras.

CU actually took the lead in the second half, but was unable to hold on and ended up finishing the game 35-42 to the Utes.  So the Pac-12 ended with WSU at the bottom (as it should be) Colorado 11th, and Utah 10th.  This was an awful season and hopefully there will be some big coaching changes next season.  I do not see the leadership on the sidelines.  Being a UDUB fan, I would love to see the Buffs hire back Rick Neuheisel.

***UPDATE***  The Denver Post is reporting that Coach Jon Embree is out!  Buffs will have a new coaching staff next season!

With this being my last NCAA football game for the year, I learned a lot in the 4 games I shot.  I hope to shoot more next season.  I need to get up into the student section more to get fan shots.  I want to get a wide angle shot of the stadium from the press box.  I need to move more.  I need to get away from the pack of photographers and try different things.

I think I need more cheerleader shots too….

It looks like I am totally done with football this season.  If Ralston Valley High School would have won today and gone to the championship game, I was scheduled to shoot it for MaxPreps.  But, with their loss, I am done with football.  Next week I plan on starting to shoot some Buffs basketball, and wait for the high school hoops season to get started.  See you court side!