XLVI…

Indianapolis has been quite a buzz lately, and with good reason. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, then you should know that Superbowl XLVI was played here last night. The Giants vs the Patriots. Epic showdown, and rematch from 4 years ago was taking place at Lucas Oil Stadium here in Indianapolis.  If you remember, I worked on some promotional materials a few months ago including some footballs, as well as a night photo of the Stadium that you can see here.

Needless to say, the last two weeks have been exceptionally busy at the Indianapolis Star.  Everybody has just been wildly busy, as we were the forefront of coverage on Superbowl XLVI.  The last week I’ve been on loan to the Information Center  side of things.  Normally I shoot advertising, marketing and Custom Content at the paper, but this last week has been all about news; and my assignments have varied greatly from my normal day to day work, but It’s been a great honor to have been a part of the festivities, and the Editorial team assigned to cover this great event in our great city.

(Nikon D3 at 1600ISO set to Multiple Exposure mode to accentuate the moon’s size over the stadium.  The first exposure was with a Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2 and a TC14eII racked out to 280mm to make the moon as large as possible in the frame with an exposure time of 1/400th@F8.  The Second exposure was with a Nikon 28-70mm @50mm to make the stadium as large as possible in the frame from where I was.  Exposure settings were 1/50th@F8.  The Nikon Multiple Exposure mode is fantastic, and you can take up to 10 frames all into a Nikon NEF file, allowing you to do things like this completely in camera.)

Shot that last night, right as the game was starting.  My assignment last night was coverage of festivities in Superbowl Village as the game progressed.  My counterparts at the paper, who are hands down the best sports shooters and photographers in general that I’ve had the fortune to know were inside the stadium doing what they do best; recording history.  I had been outside on the streets for about 6 hours at this point and I had envisioned the shot above about a week prior, but was never down town at the right time for the shot to work.  My only complaint on that one is that I wish I’d have had more lens for the  moon.

(Nikon D3, 320ISO Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@70mm.  1/400th@F6.3)

That little girl there is named Mary Kennelly, and she’s actually the daughter of one of the Giant’s athletic trainers.  She was a little too light for the zipline it seems and got stuck in the middle.  It didn’t take the Ziptek folks long to rescue her; a matter of minutes in fact as they were prepared for such a contingency (as one would hope).  The crowd was pretty good actually and a lot of the people standing on the street below her called to her, letting her know everything would be fine.

 (Nikon D3, 900ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm.  1/320th@F2.8)

This young lady is from a band called “Holistic”.  Unfortunately I have no other ID than that, as It took quite a bit of effort to figure out who the band even was considering they weren’t on schedule for Game day at the Pepsi Stage.  It turns out they were scheduled for Friday where there were numerous injuries thanks to overcrowding.  Turns out they were rescheduled for Sunday, and I managed to catch them as they started their show.  If I hadn’t caught them when I did, I wouldn’t have been able to shoot them as I didn’t have a “PT” on my media tag, allowing me into the Photo Trailer to get me my wristband allowing me Photo Pit access.  The spot I got was the next best thing; on the railing outside the photo pit.

 (Nikon D3, 2500ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-4.5@18mm.  1/30th@F3.5)

The streets were packed.  For 10 days Indy might as well have been times Square.  Not quite as many flashing lights, or even naked cowboys but quite a few people to say the least.  Reports say that a million people actually went through Superbowl Village last week, and I’d believe it as I was in the thick of it a few times.  First experience for me was a week ahead of time when we sent our one and only Bob Kravitz down the zipline, which for the record was the longest temporary zipline ever constructed.

(Video shot on Canon 1D Mark IV, 7D, and 5D Mark II with a Veriety of Canon EF Lenses.  Contour Helmet cameras, and I believe there is some iPhone footage in there someplace too.  Edited together by Bob Scheer with Final Cut Pro, shot by Bob Scheer, Michelle Pemberton, and myself).

The rest of the week after that was a blur.  Tuesday I was at Media day on the field with all of the Patriots and the Giants doing their little song and dance for everybody that had any random questions including but not limited to comparing Tom Brady’s hair to Justin Bieber’s.  It only took about 9 bag checks to get into the stadium, and then back out (yes they checked our bags again after we left the stadium and re-entered the media drop off point).  This was my view:

After that my week was just as everybody assumes the lives of photographers in superbowl week are are.  Filled with Celebrities and parties.  Ok there were celebrities, but not as everybody would think.  Met Adam Sandler, Joe Montana, Joe Theisman and a few others.  Photographed Ludacris on the Red Carpet at Maxim’s party, as well as spent all week on Radio Row doing video to recap all of the celebs and athletes to come through.

(Radio Row Videos shot with a Nikon D3s, and a variety of Nikkor Lenses, and edited in Final Cut pro)

It was a busy week.  Very busy.  70 hours kind of busy to go into last week.  Loved almost every minute of it in fact.  Hardest part was being away from Shannon constantly, and really only seeing her in my dreams.  The last night down in Superbowl Village, Shannon came out to run around the crowd with me.  She hadn’t seen the village, and I can’t imagine what she must have been thinking since I had been gone almost day and night the entire week.  Obviously she had to wait outside a few places that I had to duck into while getting a few fan shots, but either way it was great to have her there with me for at least a little bit.  I didn’t make it in to shoot the game, but maybe someday.  Until then I’m going to keep the memory of having covered Superbowl 46 close as it awesome, even if i wasn’t on the field.  Until then, check all the galleries here. As mentioned previously, the Photographers at the Indystar are the best photographers I’ve had the pleasure to know and work with and it’s an incredibly humbling honor to be considered a part of their team.  Take a good look at the galleries, and as always.  More Soon.

(The game view from the Tilted Kilt Indianapolis.  Nikon D3, 1800ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm, 1/160th@F2.8)