Are you ready for some football?

[molander]

Oldest son goes to Ole Miss and we have season tickets. Played Auburn this weekend. As I'm not much of a football fan (and I graduated from the rival school) I entertained myself with my camera. Keep in mind that I'm still new to photography and I was really trying hard to apply as many techniques as I could recall!

The extent of our fall colors this year (taken through the dirty windshield):

Big Brother (small for his age) and Little Brother (big for his age) coming out of Big Brother's dorm. I see lots of things I'm not happy with (the shadows on their faces and the blown out columns on the left) but still really like this one. Will need to learn more PP skills to see if I can salvage the columns.

SEC or Ivy League??

Warming up. (I had background issues all day. We sit 9 rows up on what's traditionally known as the visitors' side. However, Ole Miss claims 3/4 of the stadium as the home side and gives the poor visitors one end zone.)

More warming up. Like the way the middle guy was hovering.

More warming up.

Band playing fight song. Like this but the white plumes are blown out. (I think I was using the sports setting.)

Some Rebelettes (dance team). All the colors look good here but we don't remember their tights appearing this gray in real life. I like the variety of expressions on their faces.

 

[molander]

Then we look up in the sky and there are 6 USAF Precision Jumpers headed for the field:

Blue cast or too many blue shirts?

Dennis Quaid on the jumbotron? Well, apparently he married somebody who graduated from Ole Miss (who knew?) and he started the game off. "Are...You...Ready...? Hoddy, Toddy, etc." Actually, it was a weird clip. He rode up on a horse, drinking a drink, talked and then went into a porta potty. <shrug> Those screens are hard to photograph.

Here's an example of why optical zoom isn't a great idea. Even ran this through Noiseware.

Trash talking:

Sea of Auburn Helmets:

My youngest adores football and I know he's going to be big, but looking at this makes me which he focus on chess. ***Special thanks to Justin (zackiedawg) for reminding me about continuous/burst shooting. I shot a lot, deleted a lot and kept the few I thought were worth keeping. That great tip can be found here: Kilimanjaro Safari Photo Shoot ***

And this confirms those fears:

 

[molander]

Funny how you begin to notice other things when you have a camera in your hand. Kept waiting for those cheerleaders to move but they wouldn't cooperate!

I worried about this guy. He ran back and forth - was on his knees one minute and up the next. I wish I could have seen the shots he got. Nobody worked harder out there.

This back tuck would have been better from a different angle but I do love her shadow.

Auburn's band... or at least some of them. I was using the practice of "filling the frame" but had to refine it with a crop.

Aren't you NOT supposed to mess with the face masks?

Halftime's over. Thought this turned out well.

Um... interesting fashion choice:

Quarterback in midair and "my friend" in the background capturing him in action.

Practice, practice, practice... thanks for allowing me to post these. All constructive criticism/tips/how-to's are requested and welcome.

 

[prettypixie]

Great stuff...I enjoyed looking at these!