be like bruce

My photo buddy Bruce is the king of high ISO. The higher the better, nothing scares him. For the 6A State Football Championship game in late November - I decided to "be like Bruce." It was a very cold, rainy, dark Saturday at Washburn University. I didn't find out I could shoot from the sidelines until minutes before the game. I ran back to my car, grabbed my gear, and headed to the field. Of course, all of the other photographers had rain gear for their cameras. Not Doug. It was just a slow drizzle, and I knew the D300 and D200 were sealed - so I threw caution to the wind. How often does your kid get to play in a State Championship game, right? A couple of hours of drizzle and then steady rain was a true test for the Nikons - but they held up like champs.

The game started at 3:00 PM - but it was already dark. My first shots were wide-open, 1/640 at 800 ISO. I never like to shoot football at less than 1/1000, but I was cheating to keep the ISO a low as possible (not "like Bruce" yet). But, it just kept getting darker. By the start of the second half I was up ISO 1600 (more like Bruce), and finally I had to go for broke at ISO 2500 (now, that's like Bruce). And the images held up pretty well. Thanks Bruce.

While we didn't win the game, the guys left it all on the field. My son Connor had his best games of the year. And the writer from the Lawrence Journal World noticed:

Unsung hero: A tip of the cap goes to Free State junior Connor Stremel, a seldom-used wide receiver who came up with two of the game’s biggest catches on Saturday. Stremel, whose only other memorable catch this season came on a 20-yard touchdown late during a 35-7 loss to Olathe North during the regular season, caught the first pass of the game for a first down on Free State’s opening drive and added an even bigger grab on a second-and-10 during the Firebirds’ first scoring drive. Stremel soared high into the air to rip down a Torneden bullet with two hands before falling flat on his back after another first down.

Here are several high, high ISO images. The one with #20 catching the ball is Connor. It was an incredible catch, but I missed the actual catch because I was behind the yard-marker-guy. I don't imagine Sports Illustrated will be calling anytime soon. See more photos here.