I am a little behind on posting so the post encapsulates two days of events.
October 02, 2007
The team had a dual lifting and practice today. In the weeks before fall ball, it is not unusual for the team to lift for an hour then drive over to Finley Fields or walk to the turf field for a scrimmage. I skipped the weightroom and arrived at around 4:45 at Finley Fields for practice. A couple of the guys said as I arrived, “You missed weights”. I said, “Well, I do have a real life beyond this!” Of course, that is getting harder to believe myself. With the time spent shooting, editing the photos once I get home, and writing in this journal, I seem to spend an inordinate amount of me “free” time on this project. That said, I would rather do this than come home early every day and watch TV. I’m trying to shoot as much as I can for the time being because I know that once basketball season starts, I will be fairly busy with that. ACC basketball tends to keep the local sports photographers busy with three schools near each other.During practice sophomore Michael Jarvis let me know that he and some other players were participating in a flag football game. Michael, Fletcher Gregory, Tim Kaiser, Grant Zimmerman, Nick Tintle, Jack Ryan and Sean Burke were on an intermural team playing another team of UNC students that was sorely over matched. Even though the guys had started lifting at 3:30 and then had practice, they showed up to the flag football game at 7pm looking like they were full of energy and had rested all day. They absolutely clobbered the other team. Out ran them, out played them, just out did them in every quantifiable aspect, including the final score. I saw Sean and Tim outflank the other team like Terrell Owens with sheer speed and scoring touchdowns. Only downside of the game was that it was at night under the lights of the Michael Hooker fields. The light was so dark that I was forced to pushing the film speed on the camera to ISO 3200, something I’ve never done since I’ve owned the camera. Hopefully the guys will have another game during the daylight.
October 05, 2006
This was another dual lifting/practice day. I got to the locker room a little earlier than normal as I’m trying to do a better job of getting photos of the players interacting in there. It adds to the “behind-the-scenes” feel, but it is hard to get photos in the locker room. Players are changing and such so there are lots of times that I have to keep the camera down. Then right after they change they walk out immediately to head to the weight room. Getting their earlier at least gave me a chance to get some photos of those who arrive early. Coach Haus spoke to the team for about 10 minutes and the guys then headed to the weight room. An hour later, the team drove out to Finley Field for a soggy practice under the rain. From the start of practice till about 10 minutes before the end there was a steady rain falling. North Carolina is still under a severe drought so it was hard to complain too much. It was hard for me to photos though under the rain. I’m always worried about getting my camera wet both from a electronics-and-water-don’t-mix standpoint, but also because water on the front lens of the camera will create blurry photos. So while the players ran and practiced in the rain, I walked around with my umbrella shielding my camera. I had the handle of the umbrella tucked in my belt while I braced the umbrella with my left elbow, and took photos with both hands. I looked like a complete geek, but I was a geek with a dry camera.After practice, Tim Kaiser had a load of water dumped on him by his teammates, presumably because today is his birthday. I didn’t realize that would happen so unfortunately I missed the event. Next time I’ll have to keep a better eye out for when people have their birthdays.