110th. ARMY - NAVY Game. Philadelphia, PA 12•Dec.•09

Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs (#4, center) joins Navy midshipmen in the crowd after Navy defeated Army 17 - 3 in the 110th. Army - Navy Game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, December 12, 2009. Dobbs ran for 113 yards on 33 carries and was named MVP of the game. He set the single season record for rushing touchdowns by a NCAA quarterback at 24, after he scored on a 1-yard run. Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON




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"The West Point Experience"

Covering the USMA in 2008. Since it's contest time again, I've been reviewing a lot of my work from 2008, particularly at the United States Military Academy. For the past few months I've thought about putting together a piece like this containing the best images I've shot there at West Point. Here's my take on covering the USMA at West Point during 2008:


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*Visit my paper's webpage on our West Point coverage by clicking here.

109th. ARMY - NAVY Game. Philadelphia, PA. 12•06•08

Just getting home at 1AM from Philadelphia after covering my second ARMY - NAVY Game on Saturday. I'll post a slideshow of my take on the game later today, complete with more on the weekend of preparation, notes & thoughts on covering this football rivalry between the two service academies.
OK, Here goes: My day for covering a 12-noon game like this starts with a 6AM wakeup & hotel checkout by 7AM (at left). Fortunately we weren't too far from the ballpark this year. (Actually, this stadium is really close to the airport, and I remember thinking how that might've been a well-deserved alternative in better financial times.) I like to arrive at the stadium before 8AM, especially working in a venue I've never been to previously, get thru press gate security; which means having every piece of gear x-rayed, just like at the airports, and find the photographer's field level pressroom. Hustle to get to the top of the stadium to install my remote camera for the fisheye view of the whole stadium; particularly when the cadets and midshipmen fill the field in full company formations, starting around 9:15AM. Yea, that's still 3 full hours before game time. This game meant a lot - particularly for a former U.S. Marine like me. Not because it was my second Army-Navy game, after Navy's rout of Army in Baltimore last year. Not because it marked the official end of football season coverage for me. Not because POTUS was going to be there. (POTUS: President of the United States. - more of that coverage later.) Not because I was again looking forward to installing a remote camera in another pro stadium. (The game was played this year in Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, and it's just an exceptional ballpark to watch & work a game.)
I guess it was a culmination of all the work this season covering games, practices, press conferences and the like. I was beginning to feel as though a great weight had been lifted from shoulders as I arrived in the photographer's workroom just after 8AM. I knew this was going to be it for me. I was sure I had my "A-Game" tucked away beneath the multiple layers I was wearing. Surely had enough practice traveling & dressing for cold weather games the previous two weekends. Regardless of the outcome of the game - I was there again to photograph an extremely important sporting event. The butterflies in my stomach never made an appearance, which was a surprising good sign.

Here's my edited take on the game:

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Army - Navy Football in Baltimore, MD. Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007.

8:45PM. I'm starting with this image and how I covered the Army - Navy Football game. After a long, cold day at the ballpark in Baltimore, MD, I ran into these Hispanic workers using leaf blowers to clean the stands. That obviously meant I was in the stadium way too long after a 12 noon football game...! I heard the howl of their blowers in the tunnel and knew there was a picture there somewhere for me to make. In fact, it's a picture I've seen a few times in stadiums thru the years, but never thought anything about it. yea, give these brothers some props too!

"Go early, Stay late..." (you should know the rest by now...)

7:30AM. My company car and luggage cart with gear as I arrived at M&T Bank Stadium for the 108th. Army - Navy Game in Baltimore, MD on Saturday, December 1, 2007.
Got into town on Friday night, and stopped by the stadium to familiarize myself with the entrance ways, pressrooms, etc. Since I knew I wanted to mount a third camera from an overhead postion first thing in the morning, I figured stopping at the stadium first would be helpful for a "look-see." Doesn't hurt to make yourself a familiar face with the security guys, and the one working press room member who was still in the stadium at 8PM setting up things for the writers. From him I got the name of head honcho at the stadium, so I could ask permission to mount the remote camera up in an overhead "Tee-Vee" box early Saturday morning. Thanks, Jim. Besides, I knew if I'd gone straight to the hotel after the 6 hour drive from NY, and relaxed a bit, I wasn't going to be coming back out in the cold. Nothing like trying to get through South Jersey and Maryland traffic on the NJ Turnpike / Route 95 on a Friday afternoon. I think I had my "game face" on somewhere around Exit 4 on the NJ Pike for the next 100 miles or so.

9:10PM. 13 hours at the ballpark. The car is still there. Leaving M&T Bank Stadium after the 108th. Army - Navy Game in Baltimore, MD on Saturday, December 1, 2007.

*This was much more than just a football game between the service academies...:
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As the Corps of Cadets from West Point marched onto the field at 9:30AM, (top three images) I shot from the field with two cameras (short & long lenses) and fired the remote camera mounted up in the press box for the overhead fisheye views... (top left image, from the remote Nikon D-1X camera & 10.5mm fisheye lens clamped and secured in the upper TV press box above the 50 yard line.)
*As a former Marine, I really got a kick out of shooting this game. It lived up to all the hype I'd heard all season long about the "Army - Navy Game..."

Talking shop with a Navy photographer on the sidelines in the second half of the 108th. Army - Navy Game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, MD on Saturday, December 1, 2007. Navy defeated Army 38 - 3. © Photograph by Scott Strine.