Ole Miss at University of Memphis

September has finally arrived and that can mean only one thing, college football! Sunday was my first game of the 2009-10 season. Dianne, Emily and I traveled to Memphis on Saturday to be with our oldest daughter, Jennifer, her husband, Joel, and our twin grandchildren, Sterling and Mary Presley. The best of all world's, spoiling the grandchildren, visiting their parents and taking sideline pictures of an NCAA football game.
The University of Memphis plays its home games at the Liberty Bowl, which sponsors a post-season bowl game. The forecast earlier in the week was high of 79 degrees, with a 30% chance of rain. Wrong again weather man on The Weather Channel! The temperature outside the stadium was hovering around 88 degrees. Once inside the concrete laden stadium it cruised on up into the 90's.

Before the game I visited with the referee and head linesman to review their number one task for this game--provide a continuous cloud cover over the sun to reduce the temperature!










Pre-game included taking digital images of the Rebellettes, the spirit squad for Ole Miss and their cheerleader group. Such a tough job, but someone has to do it.

When the referee signaled for the game to began, it was all professional business for me. My mission, looking for those special moments to capture an image none of the other photographers on the sidelines noticed. It is difficult to accomplish when you consider there are over thirty photographers with the same mission.
Typically, this type of photography requires three things, being in the right place at the right time, using professional equipment and taking the image.

As you can see from a few select images with this blog, I had some success. One case was the Memphis runner being upended, landing head-first on the artificial turf. My photographic timing caught him before landing with his legs at a ninety degree angle forming an "L" with his body!










With less than six minutes left in the fourth quarter, Ole Miss was driving toward another touchdown. When there was a timeout on the field, the head linesman came toward the sidelines for a water break. Seeing me near the water person, he came over and said, "I think I did ok on the cloud cover for the second half." He was right. After halftime the clouds moved in from the west, the temperature dropped a few precious degrees and before the game ended rain fell.

Once again, I didn't suffer any injuries from the action. But, when I arrived at our daughter's home, I noticed a stone bruise type symptom under my right heal. When did it happen, I couldn't tell you. Just a part of life, I guess.

Sunday's game featured Jevan Snead, quarterback for Ole Miss, former high school quarterback from Texas. He's the quarterback in the images with this blog. This week's Texas Tech game will feature another former Texas all-star quarterback that is a strong candidate this year and the next two years for the Heisman Trophy. His name is Taylor Potts from Abilene, Texas.

This Saturday, it's off to West Texas and Lubbock, Texas, to shoot digital images of the Rice vs. Texas Tech game. Yes, I anticipate the same 90-plus degree weather with no rain in sight before you touch the shores of the Pacific Ocean!