A few years ago I was assigned to cover my first soccer matches. My local team is the Philadelphia Union and this picture is from when the venue was called PPL Park. Fan favorite Conor Casey (6) was in the air and the sweat spray from his header is flying out from the impact. I thought it was pretty cool at the time, and I think it represents a throwback to one of my earliest professional soccer matches.
Philadelphia Union vs. Chivas 7-12-13
Friday night was a new adventure in my photography career. I was assigned the coverage of the Philadelphia Union vs. Chivas professional soccer match to be played at PPL Park in Chester, PA. It had been raining all day long and as game time neared the rain intensified. I haven't shot very much in the rain, but I put my big boy pants on, gritted my teeth, and got down to business. I usually wear at least two cameras to shoot an event, and this was no exception, except now they were both covered in water repellent gear. The reason for carrying multiple cameras is to make transitioning between focal points on the field fast. There isn’t time to change lenses during play action. In the rain, transitioning is fraught with increased delays. For example, wriggling your hands into and out from the covers, wiping water from the viewfinder, finding the eyepiece because it has been swallowed up by the bag, drying your eye so you can actually see what’s going on, and finally, trying not to let your pruned, water-logged fingers slip off the shutter button and camera grip. It was a challenge, but it was fun! I covered the match for Independence Sports Magazine, so you can read about the game by clicking on this link: STORY And you can see all my pictures by clicking on this link: PICTURES