NFL Preseason: Texans vs Saints

[groovehouse]

Saturday night, August 20, was my first time to shoot an NFL game. I was assigned to shoot the whole game day experience. I shot some wild tailgating, pre-game stuff, the game itself, cheerleaders and fans. It was an amazing experience and if I walked away from Reliant Stadium on Saturday night with one thing, it was that I'm gonna need a bigger lens.

I did some research on shooting football before the game and realized after shooting other pro sports that I was really going to need to freeze the action in order to get good shots.

Keeping my shutter speed at 1000 or as close to it as possible, I opted to jack my ISO up to about 2000-2500, my f-stops at around 2.8-4.0. I ended up with some graininess, but overall, for web publishing, I think the shots are fine. Most will end up online, no wider than 565 pixels. So these pics will be just fine for their intended use.

The last shot in this post is the "feel good" shot of the game. I shot the girl and her sign early in the day. After the game was over, I was on the field getting shots of both teams and I happened to be shooting Andre Johnson and when he finished his interview, he told the people he was with that he'd be right back, he had to do something. He ran over to the girl with the sign and hopped up on the bench near the wall and gave the girl a big hug totally making her birthday. Best birthday ever.

Select game day shots:

1.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6183c by groovehouse, on Flickr

2.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6115b by groovehouse, on Flickr

3.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6245b by groovehouse, on Flickr

4.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6286b by groovehouse, on Flickr

5.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6201b by groovehouse, on Flickr

6.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6399b by groovehouse, on Flickr

7.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6085b by groovehouse, on Flickr

8.

08.20.11 - Texans v Saints - 5DII_6402_b by groovehouse, on Flickr



More photos on my personal blog post and HoustonPress.com

[Cathus]

Great shots, action in the first is really good & I like the down marker shot.

How did you get this assignment? I'd give some parts of my body to be able to shoot some NFL.

I've been selected to shoot the UK finals in 3 weeks time (they're paying me to do it). The nearest I could get is the NFL game at Wembley, this is the first year I have a weekend off when the game is played but it's the same day as my wife's 50th birthday and I figure if I try to get the Wembley game she'll cut off parts of my body that I'd prefer not to give in order to shoot it.

[groovehouse]

Originally Posted by Cathus

How did you get this assignment? I'd give some parts of my body to be able to shoot some NFL.

I shoot for a local alternative weekly and we cover sports. Another shooter and I trade off going to home games. We also shoot the NBA, MLB and MLS. My main photography gig for this alt weekly is concert and event photography.