Holiday Bowl | San Diego | ASU vs. Texas

Texas reserve QB John Chiles (7) runs in for a score in the first half.



ASU tailback Dimitri Nance (#31) is wrapped up by a swarm of Texas defenders in the first half.




ASU QB Rudy Carpenter walks off the field in the second half, his shirt torn.


Last night I got to take a little walk down memory lane as I shot the Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

Thanks to my long time, good friend Tom Story who used to work with me at The Arizona Republic and now works for Media Relations at Arizona State, I had a field credential. This was the first football game I had shot for probably six years now (since leaving the Republic in 2002). Wow, time has sure flown.

It was good to see Tom, and also another former colleague Rob Schumacher who was covering the game for the Republic.

Not a good game for the Sun Devils. They looked flat, and couldn't seem do do anything right in the first quarter, especially. No running game and while they made some headway later in the game, a 21 point first quarter deficit was just too much to overcome. It was tough to shoot in the first half, because I was getting text messages from my friend Dan, a Texas alum, who took great glee in the thrashing of the first quarter.

After Hawaii I kind of had a hankering to get back and shoot some action and this game I took a bit different approach then I would have taken if I were covering it for the paper. Plus I'm fascinated by the psychology of fan, especially on the collegiate level. Football and Texas have a unique place in our culture and I wanted to be there to try and find some photos that might help me capture that sense.

In my newspaper days, I probably would've taken an extra long 400 2.8, extender, and a wide zoom and a telephoto zoom. This time I took a 300 2.8, and only a 50mm and 35mm lenses. I also had another camera for shooting b & w film, just for the look of film . These images were all made with a Canon 1dm3 with the 300.

The reason I chose the 300 vs. the 400 allowed me to work hand held (no monopod) and would also get a slightly different look than I would've gone for in the past.

I actually enjoyed working this way...the looser crop in shooting allowed for a bit of cropping in post and being able to work handheld just kept me a bit more mobile.

I had a great time and it was good to see old friends, especially. I can't wait to see how the b & w film images look. There are a couple images burned in my brain cells shot with film that I am just chomping at the bit to see.