So a few weeks ago I decided that enough was enough. I wanted to shoot some pro sports, and what the heck, I was going to see if I could do that. What else am I doing with my time? (Joking.)
I emailed the media coordinator at the Boston Breakers, the local women's team in the on-again, off-again NWSL. Please sir, I asked, may I patrol the sidelines for a game or two? I was actually somewhat shocked when he replied that I could.
Well, the rest of that week I had a hard time focusing on much else. I was amped up. I prepped by reading a bit about the team, scouting their social media sites, and examining imagery from previous games. The more I saw, the more I thought, "I can do this."
Finally, game day arrived. I was awarded an actual plastic media credential (!) for the game. I was legit. Then it was just me, my gear, and 22 of the top female soccer players in the country.
On a shoot like this, where literally nothing is expected of me, I try to have a game plan going in--a mental list of shots I want to try to get, or things I want to try. For this game, my personal challenge was headers. Why headers? Because that's the one soccer shot I have not been able to get in Newton, on account of the "no heading" rule that is now in place. (Thanks, concussions!)
Turns out that headers were actually easier to shoot than I had thought they would have been. Many of them happened off of goal kicks. So if I could track the ball, I could figure out where the header would take place...and voila, a picture I had never taken before.
After the game (a 1-0 victory for the home side), I stuck around for a bit because I saw that the young fans were lining up to get autographs from the players. Shooting the MLU prepared me well for this moment--player/fan interactions usually make for good shots, if only for marketing purposes. The key is capturing that instant where the player and fan make a connection. Ooh, Megan Oyster is taking a selfie with a fan...that will do nicely:
Well, after this experience I was hooked. Hooked! I started looking for more games to shoot as soon as I got home.
And wouldn't you know--there's a lower-level, semi-pro men's soccer team that plays up in Malden. Boston City FC has been around for only a couple years, but it seems legit because the owner is Brazilian, half the team is Brazilian, and a core subset of Revs supporters apparently show up to all of their games. It looked like a fun time. I decided to check it out.
Again, I somehow scored a plastic media pass (!) to this game, something which clearly gives me more of a thrill than it should. My shooting buddy Paul Rutherford (of UltiPhotos fame) also came along because neither of us had anything better to do than shoot semi-pro soccer in Malden on a rainy Saturday night.
Well, this game was fast. Fast. And not overly technical or crisp, as the Breakers game had been. This game was 22 young men flying at each other, booting shots waaaaaay over the bar, making ill-timed challenges, and basically playing as fast and as loose as they could. I found it harder to shoot this game and as I reviewed my shots at halftime, I didn't have many that I liked.
But still, with nothing expected of me, that was ok. In the second half, Paul was kind enough to lend me his Canon 300 f/2.8, the only lens I have ever really, truly wanted since I decided to try to become a better sports shooter about 7 years ago. This thing is a tank. But I'm a former Volvo driver, so I love tanks, and this lens is no exception. I dialed up the ISO on my camera, set the exposure at 1/1000 at 2.8, and tried to have some fun.
Thinking back to my shots from the week prior, I realized that I hadn't gotten many good ones of the goalie in action. So that became my focal point for the second 45 minutes--get goalie shots when I could, especially if he was punching the ball away, or otherwise clearing out a bunch of players.
The rain made for some cool shots. In the second one, I was happy to get the vapor trail formed by the player's finger as he slid out of bounds. In the last one--hey, it's another header!--I like the way the rain and sweat just explodes off the player's head. Shooting was definitely tough under these conditions, but I was glad I stuck around and didn't get too discouraged.
Oh, and Boston City FC won this game 2-0. This means that Boston soccer teams are undefeated when I shoot them...coincidence?
Regardless, I am now looking for even more chances to shoot soccer. It is definitely work to get the shots I want, but it's fun work, and it's work I actually want to do. I need to keep getting out there. And maybe, just maybe, I can convince someone, somewhere, that I am good enough to shoot the Revs one of these days, too.
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