The Sharpe Image

I love football, and I love the Panthers.  I grew up in Washington DC, so I grew up loving the Washington Redskins.  I gotta tell ya, both of those Teams (and I still love my Redskins) are hard to be Fans of.  You just NEVER know what to expect out of either one of them.  After watching the Redskins for years, you would think that I would have learned how to deal with this, but the Panthers still keep me guessing every time I watch them play.  It always make for an interesting time every time I have the pleasure of covering them.  Keeps me on my toes……………But I am glad to say that this week they won.  The game was truly a physical game, but it really came down to a game of field goals.  As images go, I was very pleased to come away with what I did.  I work very hard to shoot football, and it is not often that I am pleased with my results, but I think that I did OK this week.  The above shot was taken at the start of the game.  I shot it with my 300mm f2.8 lens, and it really seemed to catch the spirit of the day, the Panthers were not going to be denied.

Like I said, the game was a very physical game (not that football is not anything but physical) but this one really seemed to be a battle of the “grunts.”  Below are some of the images that I captured that seemed to drive it home…..at least for me.  I shot all of these with my Nikon D300 Camera Body.

In the above image, Linebacker Jon Beason nailed an interception.  I missed the catch, but I did get this from the return.  I hate that I missed the catch, because after all, that was the real “Editorial Moment,” but I missed it and this is what I caught.  I think it does pretty well to serve the purpose that it was intended.  This was shot with my 70mm~200mm lens, shutter speed 1250, at f2.8.

I think that this next image speaks for itself.  This just seemed to be the kind of day it was for both teams…….a real scrap.  This image was shot with my 300mm f2.8 lens.  It was shot a shutter speed 1250 at f2.8.

Like I said before, this seemed to be a game of inches as well as field goals.  There was only one touchdown scored the whole game, the rest of the time it seemed as if it was a “war” just to move the ball a few inches.  One example of this that I caught was a Quarterback sneak performed by Tampa Bay Quarterback Josh Freeman (5).  I shot this image at the goal line with my 70mm~200mm lens.  I shot it at a shutter speed of 1000 at f4.  I do not think that this image would have worked as nice if you could not see the ball as well as you can.  Quarterback sneaks usually do not make for great images, but I got lucky with this one.

Sometimes you get an image that really did not turn out the way you may have planned it…….but it works anyway.  The next is one such image.  I ment to capture Jonathan Stewart (28) with the ball, but the image really ended up showing the intensity of the defensive player Quincy Black (58).  I thought that it worked out well as an image of Quincy.

These next 2 images I believe show the flow of how the game went.  Like I stated before, this really was a game of inches……………not much in the way of “spectacular” plays. This next image was shot with my 300mm lens.  It was shot at shutter speed 1250 at f2.8.

This next image was shot with my 70mm~200mm lens at shutter speed 1250, at f2.8.

Like I said earlier, this was a game of field goals.  This is one that I posted, nothing special, but it tells the story of what went on as far as scoring during the game.  The reason that I am partial to this one is the fact that I caught the ball right off of the kick.

This next image is one that I have tried to capture for some time now.  It is of Jonathan Stewart (28) straight up the middle of the line in a draw play.  The hole opened up, and there he went.  I just like this shot, I thought that it worked well.

The passing game was not all that exciting.  I shot more “almost” catches than I did real catches.  But at least I was on top of it when I hade to be.  Here are some examples.

These next 2 images are from the same series.  it was Kellen Winslow of Tampa against Charles Godfrey of the Panthers.  I really like the image where you can see the one eye of Kellen.  These images were shot with my 300mm lens, shutter speed 1000, f4.  I think the image with the eye lends itself to more “intensity” than the other.

This next image was shot with my 300mm lens with my 1.4 converter on it.  It was shot at shutter speed 1000, at f4.  It was under exposed by 2/3’s of a stop, but it worked out well.

This next image was a catch.  It is Steve Smith, and he never ceases to amaze me on high he can leap in the air.  I shot this with my 300 2.8 at a shutter speed of 1000, and at f2.8. It was somewhat backlite, which allowed me to saturate the colors just a tick, I think that it turned out very well.

These next 5 images are some of the images that I sent with my final take to US Presswire.  I really like the one of Jonathan Stewart with the fog behind him.  I think that this image would be a very good “feature” image if someone were to write a story on him.  Maybe not an “opener” but certainly something that could be used.  I think that it is somewhat different, and that is why I really like it.

The other images or moments from the game.  I thibnk that they are just good “solid” images.

Thnaks for reading!

Sam