"ARMY Football, Bobby Knight & Air Force One..."

Well, it was some weekend, and I am just getting around to recapping the assignments. First of all, thanks to my colleague & fellow Vet, Scott Strine. Scott loaned me his 400mm f/2.8AF for the ARMY - Akron game down the road at West Point on Saturday. Regardless of the game's outcome, I had a good time lugging that 'artillery piece' (left) around on my shoulder, making images from a different perspective on the field w/ that big-gun, even stretching the limits of the lens by utilizing a 1.4X tele-extender occasionally during the game. Pay close attention to some of the images in the slideshow shot "long" from the end zones and you'll actually see the heat waves rising in the background from the stadium's new turf. Three hours before game time, I'd installed a 4th. camera up in the press box to capture the pre-game arrival of the Army parachute team landing again at midfield. That's always a neat picture have on the fisheye, as it's a handy file image of the stadium for the sports dept. guys to reuse during the season, or when just writing about Army sports in general.
On Friday night, we covered Bobby Knight's induction into West Point's Sports Hall of Fame, during a black-tie banquet on post. Duke University & recent Beijing Olympic Dream Team Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was the presenter, as they both were previously Army Basketball coaches. Isiah Thomas, who played for Knight at Indiana, and is currently a NY Knicks suit, was also in attendance. That was a nice affair, albeit a long night, but still fun to socialize a little with the Army brass in their dress uniforms and such. Knight, college basketball's winningest coach, was his usual sometimes callous self, but still kinda cool to be around a sports legend. He was also at Saturday's game & shows up again in the slideshow below. Finally, yesterday afternoon after returning the loaner 400 & heading to the office to upload a photo gallery of the Army game to the paper's website, I spotted a rather large aircraft circling over Stewart Airport's airspace here in my area. When the plane went on final approach, I sped to a parking location where I knew I could get a clean view of the Boeing 747 on the runway. Remembering that the UN General Assembly was in session this week, I knew instinctively that it was Air Force One arriving, with the President onboard. Although I couldn't get anywhere near the aircraft when it was parked, it was worth the effort to make a few file images of the plane. You certainly don't get to see Air Force One everyday, particularly in your own backyard...








Here's the slideshow from the game. -cg.


*(Use the arrows at the bottom of the player or click the image to scroll forward through the slideshow. Enable full screen viewing by clicking the 4-way arrow icon above the credits button at lower right of the player. )