Favorite Season: BBQ Style

As I have mentioned in the past I really love shooting football, but when I moved to Raleigh I knew that I would have a limited chances to shoot and with the injury I've already missed the first three weeks of high school football. Now that I am back to nights this past Friday I finally got my chance to shoot.

Hobbton 19 North Johnston 7
OK I'm confused, did I some how come across a secret Ohio State Michigan game? No, it's just both schools wanted to confuse me. The game was at North Johnston, which is a haul from the station and I felt like I was working for The Network again. For the most part highs school football is the same anywhere you go. The only exception is the large schools that take the game serious. I don't think I'll get to see teams as good as Elder, St. X, Colrane, St Iggy or Glenville. But these kids played hard and it felt good to be on the sideline.

I got to shoot most of the first half and I got a couple of good highlights, but nothing spectacular. North had a decent touchdown run and Hobbton's tail back dove into the end zone which made the three yard run look better. Regretfully Michigan, I mean Hobbton won...stupid confusing uniforms.

Smithfield-Salem 41 South Johnston 21

So this game was Notre Dame versus Michigan? I know it's high school, but come on North Carolina be original! Well I guess the Smithfield-Salem Spartan (known as SSS) are the class of Johnston County and one of the better teams in the triangle. South was undefeated and looking to get their first win at SSS. I get there at the half and it's 34-8... ouch! In the second half South made it interesting scoring to make it 34-14, but could not grasp the idea of moving forward. They kept throwing screens and throwing passes no more than 3 or 4 yards. They were just out manned. For me the best part were the three touchdowns I got. I had one where the kid nearly fell down, puts a hand down, spins and runs 30 yards for a touchdown. The next was a touch pass thrown to the corner of the end zone and the wide receiver got a foot in and the touchdown counts. The last was a 86 yard run for a score. The big thing was my placement on the field. When shooting football you always want the play running towards you. You don't want to shoot from the behind the line of scrimmage. Another photographer from the dominate station did not believe in my rules. He shot from the line of scrimmage and had the play going away from him. His shot may have been pretty good, but no matter what more people probably saw his, so I guess it's a push.

A "LITTLE" BONUS GAME

Wake Forest Titans 16 Apex Cougars 0

We started a new segment called Pint Size Pigskin, where we go shoot a pee wee football games and make it look like NFL Films, but having fun with it because it's 5 year old's playing football.

In all honesty if you don't have a reason to be at one of these games... don't go. If you want to watch little kids trying to play football or little girls trying to be cheerleaders. My favorite part was the intro of the home team Apex. They had a giant inflatable cougar tunnel and had fire extinguishers blowing as the kids ran out of the tunnel and ran throw a banner. I missed this part but The Wife said after they ran past me made it to the sideline and three of the kids trip on each other and fell down. I enjoyed this shoot, the kids were trying to focus on the game, but my giant camera was a distraction and the coaches were trying to keep their attention, but it wasn't going to happen.