Super Show!

Many of you who know me know that this year I got the chance to do my first Super Bowl for Knight Ridder, and of course I jumped all over it! It was not like any other event I have shot before. Not like Derby that happens in a two-minute span, but more like the last second shot in the NCAA tournament on EVERY play. The thing is you never know what is going to be THE play of the game. We are talking historical stuff here. That alone puts a lot of extra pressure on you.

The day began at 7:00 a.m. Remember that kickoff is actually like 6:20 p.m., and you can see where I am going here. The thing is, with so much security, and questions like, what is the access, how soon can I get in to mark a spot to shoot from or if I even can mark a spot. Most of the pressure early in the day not knowing if I would have a position in the end zone to shoot from like I was assigned too! Luckily for us, the Seattle paper, also Knight Ridder, got in the night before the game and marked spots for us! So the result was we had about 7 hours to wait, and wait. Talk about nervous energy. Luckily we had another Knight Ridder photographer, Patrick Schneider, on our team and he had shot 6 or 7 Super Bowls so he told me to chill out and I finally did. It was almost a relief to finally get into the stadium and get ready for the game. Once I was in and the game started it was all up to me to cover my zone. I was in one end zone. Patrick was in the other; two other shooters were on the sidelines and two in the seats up high. We were all pretty much responsible for our area.

When Hines Ward caught a pass from Antwain Randle El for a touchdown and jumped , gazelle like, into the endzone I knew it was probably the play of the game and definitely the best reaction of the day. Problem for me was I was shooting with a 400 2.8 lens, ( thanks D.R.) and was really tight on the shot, but my biggest problem was having a TV sound guy step out with his translucent dish right when he crossed the line. It would not have been the best shot either way, but would have been nice to have it rather than the unusable shot through the dish.
Enough said, this post is getting a little too long. Email me if you have more questions about the game, exposures, or whatever. It was a great day, great game and I only hope I get to do another Super Bowl in the future.

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