The blogging photographer

The referee held the ball while waiting
for the chain gang to bring the markers
to measure to see if the offense
had earned a first down.

I photographed the recent California Lutheran University football game against the University of La Verne. The game was played at La Verne or I would have been calling the game on CLU’s CLUtube internet live streaming site.

            The images here are from that game. CLU and La Verne are NCAA Division III schools and they play in the SCIAC conference here in Southern California. The games are typically a lot of fun to watch and this one was really fun for CLU fans. The Kingsmen clobbered the Leopards.

The playing surface at La Verne is natural grass. At the end
of a long game on a hot day, things get a little dusty. I
like the look when mixed in with the intensity of the
game action.

            The shoot provided some challenges. The day was very sunny and the sun was directly in my lens for half the game. By that I mean the sun was behind the same end zone all game long. The sun moved from one sideline to the other, but it remained behind the same end zone and I had to overcome that issue for four quarters. There were times during the game when the field position of the line of scrimmage made shooting pointless.

            I could have been more productive working the La Verne sideline, especially during the second half, but I’m not comfortable doing that. I was wearing a CLU baseball cap and I did not feel it was appropriate for me to stand on the La Verne sideline when I was obviously associated somehow with the visitors. Had I been on assignment for a newspaper, I would have been wearing a different cap and might have changed sidelines.

The body language during a football game tells a
story all its own.

            I recommend you catch a small college or Division III game at your first opportunity. The games are a lot of fun and the ticket prices, where they charge anything at all, are family friendly. I have found the people to be very welcoming, especially among the SCIAC members.

            Day time football is a blast for a photographer. I used a fast shutter speed, mostly about 1/1,600^th of a second. Next time I’ll drop the shutter speed and play with the f-stops a little in order to blur the background a bit. The La Verne stadium is so open that you can end up with a parking lot in the background unless you are careful. Mark that as another lesson learned by your blogging photographer.

A runner following his blockers.

            I’ve posted a few images here from the game and I hope you enjoy them. You can read more about CLU’s football team (ranked 12^th in the country this week) at CLUsports.com. I’ll have more images from the game up on http://www.speedylee.com/ in a few days. I hope you enjoy the images I have displayed here.

            Thanks for reading.

RIP Dan Wheldon

Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Dan Wheldon, the IndyCar driver who died in Las Vegas over weekend.

Wheldon won the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year but died Sunday after crashing during a race.

Wheldon leaves a wife and two young children. He was 33.

Update!!!

If you look back a few blogs, you’ll see one I wrote about Anthony Calvillo, the quarterback for the Montreal Allouettes of the Canadian Football League. Calvillo broke pro football’s all time record for passing yards over the weekend.

Calvillo, who grew up in California and played junior college ball before moving on to Utah State and then the CFL, surpassed the mark held by Damon Allen over the weekend. Allen is another American who spent his professional football career in Canada and thrived.

Calvillo’s career record is now 72,381 yards, but don’t bother to memorize that figure. He’ll add to it with his next completion. The record-breaker was a 50-yard bomb to Jamel Richardson, Calvillo’s favorite target in recent seasons.

And Calvillo is not slowing down at age 39. His touchdown-to-interception ratio at this point in the season is 28-4. Remarkable.

Thanks for reading.

Taking it one blog at a time

I don’t know exactly what California Lutheran University football coach Ben McEnroe told his team during the halftime of the Kingsmen game against the University of Redlands Saturday. Don’t know, for sure, the precise wording he used to address his players in the locker room.

But whatever McEnroe said, I wish he could bottle it, seal it and send it to corporate America. The man knows something about comebacks.

The Kingsmen went into the game ranked 20^th among NCAA Division III schools. They played host to the 13^th-ranked Bulldogs, CLU’s arch rivals. The game was the first ever held at the new William Rolland Stadium on campus at CLU. Fans jammed the place (including a good number of spirited Redlands fans who made the trip to see the game).

Big crowd for a big game in a new stadium between two ranked teams that are rivals to begin with: Wow, what atmosphere.

And it opened with a thud. Redlands raced to a 17-0 lead and then, in the final minute of the second quarter, scored a touchdown to make the score 24-0.

I had the play-by-play on CLU’s online coverage (www.clutube.com), working with CLU students David Brown (color) and Nikki Fay (sideline). Other CLU students worked the cameras.

Fay interviewed McEnroe as he came on the field to start the second half. The coach talked about winning one play at a time, a standard thing to say.

Are you reading, corporate America? One play at a time. Work out how this applies to you.

And, building on the theme of one play at a time, the Kingsmen came back and won, 28-24. They scored the winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining and had to intercept a Hail Mary pass in the end zone on the last play to wrap the win up.

One play at a time. CLU finished the first half with 87 total yards of offense and finished the game with 434. Redlands had 307 yards in their explosive first half, but CLU’s defense allowed just 63 total yards in the second half.

One play at a time. CLU managed just three first downs in the first half and finished with 23. Redlands’ offense, led by an outstanding quarterback named Chad Hurst, compiled 13 first downs in the first half but finished the game with 17.

Win this thing one play at a time: CLU quarterback Jake Laudenslayer is not known as a running quarterback, but he had a big run for a first down on the final drive and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a quarterback sneak.

The final CLU drive started at the Kingsmen 3-yard line. I remember calling it “First and 97,” which was not in keeping with the one-play-at-a-time mantra, but it summed up the situation pretty well.

After the final play, the CLU students rushed onto the field (possibly thinking they’d take it one celebration at a time, I’m not sure) as I stood at my announcing position. I tried to make sense of it all for the viewers but I’m not sure I did so.

Guess I should have taken it one sentence at a time. I’ll work on that.

CLU hosts Whittier next Saturday at 1 p.m. You can catch the game on CLUtube.com. Until then, I hope you have a good week, taking it one day at a time.

Thanks for reading.