Day 32 (Weds., June 30)

Today I had to do a little thing called "work". It's amazing how much time I had off this past weekend. I usually do not spend such a long time away from work. However, today I got back to the office with lots of energy. The day started off slow as there were no assignments until later in the evening. I worked on some personal photography in the morning before heading into the office. Since the last two days were so wet, we expected to have flooding and/or damages in the area because of the rain. So, for the first part of my day I spent it driving around town looking for a good weather-type photo. However, today was pretty dry. Not a lot of raining to be seen. So the assignment was challenging. I was looking for the typical day-after-storm photo with kids playing in a puddle or something like that. I ended up shooting the next photo.

Telephone workers had trouble working through the rain and their jobs have been backed out because of the weather. The four workers that I found were working in a trench and because of the water and mud, it was very difficult to do their job. As a matter of fact, the guy whose muddy shoes are seen in this pic slipped and almost hurt himself as he was trying to get out of the trench. So, for about two hours all I did was drive around and find nice weather features. However, it was very sunny and the rainy photos were not there. Man, where's that rainbow when I need it!!!!

Later this evening, I shot the first photo and the next photo. These are the photos you take when you are bored. Seriously. I could tell you a very adventurous story of how I drove around for the perfect location and waited for the light to be just perfect. I would love to say I got chased by three big dogs, that were too slow for my fast-moving feet. I could say that I had to climb a pole to get up high enough to shoot these two photos. I could tell you all of that to make you say "wow". However, the photos make you say "wow", by themselves. Ok, here's how I can make you say "wow" with my description of how I got these photos: I was shooting a soccer game tonight. I shot the second half from the stands as I learned that shooting soccer from higher ground gives you better photography and less "accidents". More on the accidents later. Ok, here's how I will make u say "wow", hopefully. The game was 2-0 since the first half and it ended that way. Game was pretty boring. During offsides, out-of-bounds, balls kicked into the crowd, and/or injuries I did what any other bored sports photographer did: stare at the crowd. You always see some really odd fans that make you think you are glad you are not as crazy-looking as they seem to be. You also see a few very attractive female fans that make you want to have coordination and skills enough to be an overpayed athlete so you can be "wanted" by these hot women. So, during my scouting I noticed the sky was about to give me a lil gift called natural light. All of a sudden an overcasted and ugly day went beautiful when the sunset hit the clouds, spreading an orange glow throughout the sky. If the game would have been exciting, I would have not seen the sky and I would have missed out on this beauty. Ok, I'll pause now so you can say "wow!!!! Julio's not talented, he's just lucky when he stares"... I told you I'd make u say "wow" one way or another.

Finally, shooting a boring soccer game is difficult. Not because the action seems to be missing, but because you nearly fall asleep. I had my good action photo in the first five minutes of the game. So, pretty much, it was all downhill from there. With the sunset over and poor lighting at this small stadium, the photos were not coming out nice as it was getting too dark to be shooting action photography. With a good action photo already in the can, I was contemplating leaving early and calling it a day. However, most big-time sports photographers have advised me to get to a game 1 hour before and leave long after the game is over... So, I wasn't about to let my idols' tips go to waste. I kept shooting despite the awful lighting conditions. Then it happened! The most talked about scene of the whole game happened: a fight between soccer players (pictured below). As this happened, all I could think was "Julio, you're a lucky bastard!!!!" Ok, I'll pause so you can once again say "wow, Julio's not talented, he's just (a) lucky (bastard)!"

I would have hated myself knowing I left early and didn't get to shoot soccer players in a scuffle. I would have not slept and I would definitely put myself on the time-out corner. Probably punishing myself with a restriction on chocolate. So, I got a fight photo. WoooHoo! I'm a lucky bastard... Before I close out, I would like to go back to those little "accidents" in sports photography that I was talking about. I think I had a really good action photo today. I say I think because I am not sure. You would have to ask the players that cut in front of my view when this happened. The final photo shows good action, I think. All I could see is a guy in the air and his teammate's butts. Now, that's what I call an accident. That's why I love shooting from above at the stands now, because a lot of the people on the field are not as likely to step into your view and mess up an otherwise nice shot.

 

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