Souvenirs from my 'Game Day' visits

If you thought you had seen the last of my "Game Day" Indiana small-college campus posts, you were mistaken. I've been planning this bonus edition from almost the beginning.

At every campus I visited on my tour of Indiana small-colleges that field football tours -- a project I called "Game Day" -- I made a point to stop at the school's bookstore or at a vendor at the game to purchase a hoodie as a souvenir of my time there.

I've been collecting (and wearing) these as I accumulated them. Throughout the process, which started in 2009 but didn't kick into full gear until two years later, I've been trying to think of a creative way to photograph all the hoodies in the collection.

I'm chagrined to say that in all that time, I had no real bursts of sweet inspiration. But this summer, I did get an idea to line up the hoodies in the shape of a football on green grass, which happened to be embellished by a few yellow leaves that had fallen from my red bud tree.

There are 14 hoodies in the collection, representing stops, in chronological order, at the following (the list at the right includes the dates and final game scores):

*** Franklin College, 2009 and 2012 
*** Hanover College, 2011
*** Wabash College 2011 and 2012
*** DePauw University, 2011
*** Marian University, 2011
*** Taylor University, 2012
*** University of Indianapolis, 2012
*** University of St. Francis, 2012
*** St. Joseph's College, 2013
*** Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, 2013
*** Manchester University, 2014
*** Trine University, 2015
*** Earlham College, 2016
*** Anderson University, 2016

I arranged the hoodies in the two display photos in the order I visited the schools, beginning with Franklin College at the very top. The order is clockwise (refer to list above) until 2016. I put the hoodies for those two schools, Earlham and Anderson, in the center to represent the football seams. In the photo leading off the post, I folded the hoodies so that only the school's colors and logos showed. For the photo below, I brought out the hoods because I wanted to document that these were, indeed, hoodies.

Unfortunately, the hoodies for two schools -- St. Francis and St. Joseph -- didn't pick up well in the photos. The St. Francis hoodie's print was distressed to begin with ... except for the small, but very bold blue applique "USF" in the upper left corner. St. Joseph's print was a little better, but it's purple-on-gray was more of a lilac, so it might be difficult to read. In both instances, I should have looked for an apparel with more pronounced lettering.

You might wonder if I have a favorite, and I do: the Wabash College hoodie, because it's warm and comfy, the fit is just as I like it, and I really like the material. Note: I obtained the Earlham and Anderson hoodies only this year and haven't had a chance to wear them.

And if you are new to my "game day" project -- i.e., this is your first visit to the blog -- just click on the game day tag or follow the link in this sentence. Just be aware that this post about the hoodie shoot will be the first post to come up in the pretty long list. Be patient. :-)

Photo geek stuff: I shot the images with my Canon 6D equipped with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. I shot these in the late morning, so I needed no artificial light assistance.

As always, to see a larger and sharper version of an image, click on the image. This is particularly important if you access the blog using a mobile device.