Ruggerfest

I'm still recovering from last weekend. I drove to and from St. Louis twice, both times early in the morning going, afternoon coming back. The sun decided to shine like it hasn't in a long time, and I didn't think to bring sunblock, so I'm crisped. And I made a huge judgment error in only checking out the Mirantz for Saturday and not Sunday as well.

But covering Ruggerfest was amazing.

I got there, and I don't know what it was, maybe that this is the fourth week they've seen me around, maybe it was that I made the effort to wake up and get there before the game started, or even get there at all. But the team completely accepted me. They clapped my hand when I got there, chatted and joked with me. None of them was bothered by the recording equipment I was using, nobody tried to stage anything or hold back. I had free reign on the sideline with my camera. It was like a whole other world.

I have never had a reporting experience where people stopped looking at me as a reporter and just treated me as another guy out on the field. It's like I had become a part of their team. And even better, I was really, really pleased with my pictures I took. I wish I had taken more, is my only wish, and I took nearly 700 pictures between the 2 days. I didn't have problems with the lighting, put myself on the correct side of the field to account for the sun, got low, got high, ran ahead of plays to get them coming at me. It was the best I've done as a photographer in a long, long time.

I did have some difficulty getting audio while simultaneously taking pictures. There were several times I would be recording something and think, "Oh, I should shoot this," and by the time I had my camera up to shoot it was over. And Vice Versa. But in all, I was very, very pleased with how it went. And I learned a lot about the game to boot.

I look forward to blogging about the games. It will be the first time I've ever reported on an actual game, and it will be challenging, but I think I'll have fun.

I will post the video when I have finished it.



Yet again, the blog has cropped the edges. My apologies.