PHOTO | up close
ODE images of the week

Game Day Extras

Shooting the Game Day Covers has its ups and its downs. While they get big play, the process is a bit harder then you think. Football players, especially, are pretty busy. You have to work through their schedule and pray that yours fits in.

A lot of the time, these guys are pretty quiet. Its understandable. After a long day of class and practice, the last thing you want is to have your picture taken. 

Photo by Dave Martinez

But not Spencer Paysinger and Casey Matthews. These guys were all about me taking their picture. Despite bad lighting, me forgetting my reflective umbrella and being slightly late, the photos turned out pretty well.

Here are some of the photos that didn’t get printed:

Set

The Ducks won 3-0 against Arizona this evening, and my camera performed like a champ. I’m quite happy with how the whole series turned out (but the competitive side of me wants to know what Mike caught that I did not).

The Bat & Jim Moore

The intense rumble from a comparably small crowd at McArthur Court turned into screams of terror as a dark-winged creature circled its way around the court. A small bat had found its way inside, interrupting the ferocious pace set by Oregon’s women’s volleyball team as they attempted to bring down then #5 USC. 

The bat circled the crowd. A few spectators attempted to throw a towel to smother it. Then, in a moment made for television, Oregon coach Jim Moore sticks out his clipboard.

The bat landed on Moore’s clipboard. He promptly wrapped it in a towel and walked it over to a group of students. 

Mural Madness

The Emerald is ran a story in Thursday’s paper (10/02) about Steven Lopez and the Youth Mural Collective. While I was there, I was struggling to find a way to give the viewer a sense of the size of this mural. I decided to try a panorama. Keeping my exposure and and focal length constant, I shot the following six photos: 

Pretty standard panorama. I took them back to the office and ran them in Photoshop’s “Photomerge” automation tool. It gave me this:

What’s wrong with this image? I mean, what’s REALLY wrong with the image, other than the bad exposure, terrible composition and uninteresting actions? 

Oh well, maybe the next mural shoot I go to will be clear of foreground elements.

The lone goal

At the Ducks girls soccer game yesterday against Weber State, the lone goal was a penalty kick because of a yellow card in the box. When in doubt, it can prove an effective strategy. Get yourself pulled down:

and then look to the ref for the whistle:

And oh yeah, I almost forgot. This is the first post on Up Close, the Daily Emerald’s new photo blog. If you are new school, you can subscribe via RSS. Otherwise, please check back soon for even more sweet images.