Huss
26 May 2006, 05:59 PM
Welcome to the birth of our new blog. Here's the first post from WADE:
After running a daily journal in two early issues of the Emerald City Gazette while spending four weeks at Euro2000, I agreed to a similar experience with BigSoccer. So hang on for a ride on a BigSoccer Blog through the World Cup 2006 - Germany.
Day ONE
Monday - May 23, 2006
Starting off the three match Send Off by USSF - Morocco in Nashville: Living near St. Louis, I drove off the lot of the airport Budget rental location at 8:00 AM on match day to start my 328 mile road rally to Nashville. Beautiful sunny day certainly put a cheery disposition into my cruise control. Minimal road construction was taken as another good omen. All is good.
Arrived at the Quality Inn & Suites at 1:00 PM, about ten minutes before my blogging buddies Scott Bales and Andy Mean (wadda ya mean we don't have a suite reserved?). We spent a couple hours planning our three man strategy to cover the night's photo coverage of the USA-v-Morocco friendly. With the match starting at 6:00 PM, the three of us were signed in and set up down on the field by 4:30, with our equipment dialed in by 5:00. [Note to self: Once again, the shadows and backlighting on the filed is going to be a real bear during the first half.]
I grab a few pre-game shots of the warm up session. Having staked out my game shooting spot behind the sign boards near the locker room tunnel next to a field level TV camera, I decided to take up a position in front of the USA team bench to be prepared to grab a good team shot after the national anthem. Other photogs begin to scramble for their turf, but the jostling is mild. I click off head shots of each USA starter, but the backlighting is a killer. I manage to get the lighting dialed in before the team shot. The team assembles, squats in place for maybe five seconds. YES!! I manage to capture a decent shot. Another good omen.
Turning to move back to my game station, I notice Jimmy Conrad on the bench sporting his Nike red warmups. Being a regular photographer at WIZards home games, Jimmy recognized me, and began to ham it up a bit for my camera. Ah, yes. Another good omen.
I am located at the USA defensive end of the field for the uneventful first half. So lets fast forward through snooze fest. There are several photographers spread around both ends of the field, but nothing like what I'll find in Germany in two weeks. Most photographers move to opposite ends during half time, but I prefer to grab shots of both the defensive and offensive players during a match (they ALL deserve to have their contribution documented).
The most significant move of the second half (besides the USA losing the match in the waning minutes - what was it I said about those good omens? Lordie, I missed that one!) was when Drew Carey moved to my end of the field and set up next to me. As you should know by now, Drew has been covering most of the qualifying matches during the USA's run toward Germany. So, seeing Drew settling in didn't come as a surprise. But, it did give me a brief break from a bleak game (plus it gave me another blog entry).
The post match photo ops were rather slim. Lots of long faces and no eye contact as the players and coaches moved up the tunnel. Packed up my equipment, bid Drew farewell on his personal road trip to Cleveland, then trudged up the tunnel to the photo workroom to process the night's photos. I pulled 25 potential shots out of 1600+ pieces of trash on the evening (darn it, I didn't click any of Drew), and uploaded to an online photo service by 10:10 PM. Scott, Andy and I manage to leave the workroom with two other photogs still struggling with some technical issues. Scott dropped Andy and I off at the non-suite around 11:00 as he turned back toward Durham, NC to get closer to home before flopping at a motel about three hours east of Nashville (well that was the plan, but after an extended amount of time is dead stopped interstate traffic due to an accident, I hope Scott managed to find a comfy bed for a crash of his own). Andy and I catch up on web news and emails that were missed during the day. In bed by 1:30 AM. Exhausted, but I'm unable to fall fast asleep until around 3:30.
I failed to mention that Andy will be making the trip back to St. Louis with me, where his father will be driving in from K.C. to pick up Andy AND his infernal cat. Oh yeah, Andy brought his cat with him for his father to baby sit for two months while Andy is on the road to the World Cup. My eyes started to clot up before Andy shared some major snot pills (maybe that's why I couldn't get to sleep... who knows?). That lovable evil cat had the run of the room and decided to strike up a rhythmic beat on my leg with its tail several times during the night. I decided to bear with the cat instead of sticking that bushy tail where the fur balls don't shine. Looking forward to the alarm at 6:00 AM to start the trip back home.
Ahhhh, yes. The memories of Euro2000 in Holland are beginning to flood my mind. Me thinks today is merely a precursor to the madness to come. Ahhh, yawn.
After running a daily journal in two early issues of the Emerald City Gazette while spending four weeks at Euro2000, I agreed to a similar experience with BigSoccer. So hang on for a ride on a BigSoccer Blog through the World Cup 2006 - Germany.
Day ONE
Monday - May 23, 2006
Starting off the three match Send Off by USSF - Morocco in Nashville: Living near St. Louis, I drove off the lot of the airport Budget rental location at 8:00 AM on match day to start my 328 mile road rally to Nashville. Beautiful sunny day certainly put a cheery disposition into my cruise control. Minimal road construction was taken as another good omen. All is good.
Arrived at the Quality Inn & Suites at 1:00 PM, about ten minutes before my blogging buddies Scott Bales and Andy Mean (wadda ya mean we don't have a suite reserved?). We spent a couple hours planning our three man strategy to cover the night's photo coverage of the USA-v-Morocco friendly. With the match starting at 6:00 PM, the three of us were signed in and set up down on the field by 4:30, with our equipment dialed in by 5:00. [Note to self: Once again, the shadows and backlighting on the filed is going to be a real bear during the first half.]
I grab a few pre-game shots of the warm up session. Having staked out my game shooting spot behind the sign boards near the locker room tunnel next to a field level TV camera, I decided to take up a position in front of the USA team bench to be prepared to grab a good team shot after the national anthem. Other photogs begin to scramble for their turf, but the jostling is mild. I click off head shots of each USA starter, but the backlighting is a killer. I manage to get the lighting dialed in before the team shot. The team assembles, squats in place for maybe five seconds. YES!! I manage to capture a decent shot. Another good omen.
Turning to move back to my game station, I notice Jimmy Conrad on the bench sporting his Nike red warmups. Being a regular photographer at WIZards home games, Jimmy recognized me, and began to ham it up a bit for my camera. Ah, yes. Another good omen.
I am located at the USA defensive end of the field for the uneventful first half. So lets fast forward through snooze fest. There are several photographers spread around both ends of the field, but nothing like what I'll find in Germany in two weeks. Most photographers move to opposite ends during half time, but I prefer to grab shots of both the defensive and offensive players during a match (they ALL deserve to have their contribution documented).
The most significant move of the second half (besides the USA losing the match in the waning minutes - what was it I said about those good omens? Lordie, I missed that one!) was when Drew Carey moved to my end of the field and set up next to me. As you should know by now, Drew has been covering most of the qualifying matches during the USA's run toward Germany. So, seeing Drew settling in didn't come as a surprise. But, it did give me a brief break from a bleak game (plus it gave me another blog entry).
The post match photo ops were rather slim. Lots of long faces and no eye contact as the players and coaches moved up the tunnel. Packed up my equipment, bid Drew farewell on his personal road trip to Cleveland, then trudged up the tunnel to the photo workroom to process the night's photos. I pulled 25 potential shots out of 1600+ pieces of trash on the evening (darn it, I didn't click any of Drew), and uploaded to an online photo service by 10:10 PM. Scott, Andy and I manage to leave the workroom with two other photogs still struggling with some technical issues. Scott dropped Andy and I off at the non-suite around 11:00 as he turned back toward Durham, NC to get closer to home before flopping at a motel about three hours east of Nashville (well that was the plan, but after an extended amount of time is dead stopped interstate traffic due to an accident, I hope Scott managed to find a comfy bed for a crash of his own). Andy and I catch up on web news and emails that were missed during the day. In bed by 1:30 AM. Exhausted, but I'm unable to fall fast asleep until around 3:30.
I failed to mention that Andy will be making the trip back to St. Louis with me, where his father will be driving in from K.C. to pick up Andy AND his infernal cat. Oh yeah, Andy brought his cat with him for his father to baby sit for two months while Andy is on the road to the World Cup. My eyes started to clot up before Andy shared some major snot pills (maybe that's why I couldn't get to sleep... who knows?). That lovable evil cat had the run of the room and decided to strike up a rhythmic beat on my leg with its tail several times during the night. I decided to bear with the cat instead of sticking that bushy tail where the fur balls don't shine. Looking forward to the alarm at 6:00 AM to start the trip back home.
Ahhhh, yes. The memories of Euro2000 in Holland are beginning to flood my mind. Me thinks today is merely a precursor to the madness to come. Ahhh, yawn.