Thursday night lights

[JohnG]

A nice rivalry game for a Thursday night. I thought it would be a blow-out and was looking forward to getting home early. no such luck - a 30-26 overtime victory including a blocket PAT, a 99 yard fumble return for a touchdown, a 78 yard pass play on 3rd and nine from inside their own 10 yard line, a recovered on-side kick. Oh yeah and I came as close as I've come to having my gear broke as a quarterback sweep ended up going thru yours truly :G(actually they barely grazed me but it sounds better when I say it went right thru me):



Avoids the shoe string tackle:



OK, not the sharpest photo but I don't care. This guy absolutely PLANTED the punt returner on this play:



Nice catch during the 2nd quarter to keep the drive alive:



Trying to keep the ball AND his helmet



Late 2nd quarter interception to stop a drive



Outrunning the defense to give the visiting Grizzlies a 13-6 lead



Now the lighting starts going downhill in a hurry - ISO 3200, 1/320 f2.8 towards the end of the second quarter - a quarterback sweep for a nifty 10 yard gain (which ended up in my lap as I said earlier):



The visiting team brought their cheering section:



99 yard fumble return for a touchdown - we're in full dungeon mode now :



78 yard play from inside their own 10 yard line

[Trojansoc]

You say #3 may not be the sharpest....but it's my favorite out of this sequence. The quality of the action overrides any imperfections in it. Others I really liked were #1 and #5.

Excellent series.

[Mark1616]

You just wanted to be part of the action that's all!!

Great shots, just wondering how much cropping you've done on the 7th one as it looks like you are shooting with width of the field.

At this size at least I can't really notice the softness in the 3rd one so can't be all that bad, great capture.

[JohnG]

Thanks Guys.

Mark - my playing days are long gone - no need to be part of the action any more :blah:

And yes that one shot is a fairly heavy crop.

As for the 3rd shot - it isn't bad at this size but noticable at larger size. It's just one of those things - when you're taking the shot you're thinking - "Oh yeah, that's the one" so you want it to be perfect.

[inneyeseakay]

JohnG wrote:

Trying to keep the ball AND his helmet

This is my favorite shot... It almost looks as if he is trying to pull his head back into his shell, much like a turtle. John, more great shots, but I knew that before opening the thread . Thanks for sharing!

[JohnG]

inneyeseakay wrote:

It almost looks as if he is trying to pull his head back into his shell, much like a turtle.

hahaha!
You're right - it does look very turtle-like. That's the great thing about photography - each viewer is different. It's always interesting to see what appeals to different people (which differs on a daily basis). That's the great thing about these forums is getting different perspectives.

Thanks for looking and commenting!
Happy shooting!

[airbrushjohn]

hi johng,

again amazing photos! awesome work!!