Today was once again the annual spring football classic at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn Alabama. Much like the previous two years (see A-Day 2009 and A-Day 2010), it was a beautiful sunny spring day in the south, mid-80′s no clouds with a nice breeze, oh and with 50,000 or so fans sitting there watching us play… ourselves. Every year I asked myself the same question. Why am I here, and why are we all watching our own team play ourselves. Of course this was also the day that the Alabama Crimson Tide play themselves, and the Tennessee Volunteers play themselves, etc. etc., so I guess it was fate. This year I really didn’t hang around much other than to take some photos, my favorite being the Auburn cops behind bars (at the bottom). Actually my favorite shot doesn’t appear here because my wife said she would disown me if I posted a photo of the men’s room, so cops behind bars will have to do. It was wonderful to get outside today and not have to worry about cutting the grass or anything else, just a relaxing time people watching (there should be a social networking game for that with points scored for… maybe not).
Over the last year especially, every single time I go to an Auburn game I have to question my own motives, and can’t help but watch all the craziness that goes along with what is an Auburn football game, even if we are playing ourselves. We are about to start a new series called Counterfeit Gods right after Easter, which loosely correlates to the book by Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, and I for one am glad (but in a way not) that we are doing this series in the spring and not during football season. The counterfeit gods of football are quite alive all over the south and for some reason the A-Day game always reminds me how important football is down here. Hard not to notice that when you can get over 100,000 people in two stadiums within two hours driving distance from each other. Still, it was an enjoyable afternoon in the tradition that is Auburn football that won’t be back again for about five months. War Eagle!
Posts Related to This Topic:
Today is opening day for Auburn Tigers Baseball, and for this Friday, it’s my Friday Feet post. It is always wonderful to see Baseball season roll around again since it usually means warmer weather is not far behind. Unlike many seasons that start in February, today it was actually in the mid-70′s and one of the most beautiful days of the year so far. Auburn plays again tomorrow along with the Basketball team who plays against Vanderbilt at the Auburn Arena.
Won’t be long before the Atlanta Braves are back from Florida and Spring Training down in the Grapefruit League. Looking so forward to some real genuine warm weather and longer days. Obviously the grass isn’t really quite green yet, except for inside the stadium but that will change soon.
Posts Related to This Topic:
Photo of the day today is the entrance to the new Auburn Arena, scheduled for it’s first grand opening on October 15th. Basketball season is just around the corner, can’t wait. We have been looking forward to the new Auburn Arena opening for years now and we are just getting our first look at the inside, it’s so shiny and new, should be a fantastic venue for a basketball game.
Posts Related to This Topic:
Auburn ended their home basketball season on an up note beating #11 ranked LSU 69-53. This ended a season that started off looking like all the others over the last 10 years and now looks like a possible NCAA bid. They will head to Tampa for the SEC Tournament and then hopefully on to the NCAA Tournament. We really enjoyed seeing a full house today. Last game of the season and finally the fans came out and supported the mens basketball team. It was loud, packed, and exactly what an NCAA game should sound like.
It was pretty hard to get the normal shots at the game today, but I did get a few below including one of LSU coach Trent Johnson just before getting a technical foul before the half ended. Looking forward to seeing Auburn finish well in the SEC Tournament in Tampa, War Eagle guys.
Posts Related to This Topic:
Auburn University football practice is in full swing now and although the second practice on Thursday was rained out, Friday’s practice looked good from the sidelines, and brought many onlookers and media.
As I understand it from the OA News and from the Auburn Tigers CSTV the scrimmage on Saturday went well with about 100 plays being executed. The play was closed to the public and media outside of Auburn relations. These four shots above were taken from the end zone of the secondary practice fields on Friday [full gallery here]. Auburn’s next two-a-day is on Monday with the later practice at 5:45pm, it has been a nice overcast day for football, nice for this time of year.
Posts Related to This Topic:
For a long time, both my wife and I, have had a love for sports. Since I have been a photographer for about 10 years or more, I have never really combined the two, but finally decided to take the plunge and attempt to join the photography ranks of sports.
I have now posted an update to the Sports Photography section that includes more gallery images of college sporting events, mainly from Auburn University athletic events, like swimming, basketball, and gymnastics. Just click the above link to view the images.
Each photography section will be updated with new images pertaining to each gallery. I know I am not going to have a lot of time to devote to sports photography right now, but hopefully in the upcoming years I can put some time and effort into it, and grow as a sports photographer.
This is one of the oldest types of photography, but also one of the most competitive, most expensive, most frustrating, and can be some of the most fun and rewarding types of photography.
Dominated by pool photographers from Getty and Sports Illustrated, it requires BIG glass, lenses that usually cost $5,000 on up, and access to events can be quite limited unless you an accredited photographer. Starting off small is what I intend to do. I live in a sports right area, and I can start off with high school football, and local Auburn athletic events that are not the prized position of photography of Auburn football.
My first real attempt came with this shot above. Auburn gymnastics. What a great venue. The intensity of the athletes as seen above is incredible. Access to the event was free for the general public and I was able to walk around in the stands and yet still get pretty close to the action.
Basketball is another sport I really enjoy and access to the Auburn Basketball games is pretty good just from the stands. Seeing that Auburn has not had a super great team in the last 10 years or so, the ability to move around in the seats is good, and you can get fairly close to the action.
I may not be able to do a lot of sports photography this year, but hopefully I can stick with it, find a way to get some of the equipment I will need, and start to create some worthy images.
Posts Related to This Topic:
Gabriel made the Beauregard All Star baseball team this year and we have spent the last couple of weeks attending his games. The team made it through the first bracket in Valley, AL and almost through the second bracket hosted in Dadeville, AL. The boys made some incredible plays and really fought hard right to the very end. The final score of the last game was Dadeville/20 – Beauregard/15. A few days ago I made Gabriel his very first baseball card. The stats are not completely accurate because they played after I printed it. Regardless, I thought it would be cool for him to have his very own card. Here is his card and another photo of the entire team. Enjoy.
