Thanks to a photographer that I admire a ton, John Todd, I had the opportunity of a lifetime. John helped me get media credentials to shoot on the sidelines at the US v Spain game. How cool is that? The World Cup winners against the US. Wow. I was on cloud nine shooting. Unfortunately at the last minute John couldn’t make it but I was able to shoot the game. He had a couple of his colleagues there that I was able to shoot with them. How fun to go in the press box, the working room, walk around the field level, AND shoot the sport I love with some of the best players in the world playing in it. Awesome you say? Yes, awesome!!!

I learned a lot that day. I learned that I it’s really hard to shoot when the teams are red vs white, the fans are mostly wearing red and white and the ball is red and white. No matter how much I tried to isolate, it was hard. Depth of field was often difficult to manage when shooting mainly across the field with the ball in the air. The ball on the ground or against a player, that was another story. It was beautiful. I learned that I think my 70-200 2.8 is a nice long lens it’s NOTHING compared to the 400’s that these guys were shooting. I got the guy and the ball in the shot they got the sweat on their face, the look in their eyes and every muscle visible with a pair of intense binoculars. Crazy fast lenses and crazy long lenses. I had TOTAL lens envy. My left arm is much stronger that my right but I’m not even sure I could have picked that puppy up!

So, my thanks goes to you John, you made this MOTY’s dream came true! With Reilly and Shad in the stands I felt like I got to share it with two of the most important people in my life too. Doesn’t get much better than that.