Game Day: Pumas squeak out opener

One of the more enjoyable things I've done in this craft in recent years has been my autumn visits to Indiana small colleges to photograph campus landscapes -- and to indulge that annual fall sports ritual we know as college football.

This strictly personal project has taken me to nine schools already, five of which I've visited on more than one occasion (two of the returns were just for football-related shoots; two others were for basketball; one was both!). If you follow this blog regularly, you may recall that my football "Game Day" shoots had taken me to Marian, DePauw and Taylor universities; the universities of Indianapolis and St. Francis; and Franklin, Wabash and Hanover colleges.

The project began in September 2009 with a trip to Franklin, where I witnessed a very thrilling come-from-behind win by the Grizzlies over then-Top-25-ranked Trine University (which is on my "to do" list). That was when Franklin's gridiron surface was still natural grass; it had been converted to an artificial turf by the time I made my return visit last year.

I continued the ongoing project two weekends ago when I made my first visit to St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, the seat of Jasper County in northwest Indiana, a school founded by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood as a secondary school to educate Native Americans. It's also where the Chicago Bears of the National Football League held their preseason training camp in the 1960s and '70s ... and where motion picture producers filmed Brian's Song, the heart-wrenching buddy story of Bears' running backs Brian Piccolo and Gayle Sayers. Piccolo died of cancer on June 16, 1970.

My experience there on Sept. 7 had its ups and downs. The big, most important aspect of it is that I got some great action photos, perhaps some of the best in my project collection to date. The most unusual aspect was the hot, humid weather -- and how it affected my shooting. I had brought a couple water bottles with me, but elected not to lug them with me because I didn't know where I could store them. I figured I could buy some water (or perhaps find a water fountain at the stadium), but I was wrong on both counts.

Curiously, the concession stand had run out of water before halftime (I bought and drank a bottle of pop, but that was not hitting the spot; it simply made me more thirsty) -- and there was no public fountain anywhere that I could find at the stadium. I started feeling dehydrated late in the third quarter, and found myself lusting for the water bottles I saw lying next to each and every member of the flag corps standing in the north end zone. I was losing attention to camera settings, at one point inadvertently nudging my shooting mode off my intended shutter priority to the program mode. It adversely affected exposure on a lot of shots until I eventually noticed it. 

Once the host Pumas defense seemed to have secured the 34-31 win with a fourth down stop of the visiting Valparaiso Crusaders with under 2 minutes left in the game, I bolted the stadium for the Halleck Student Center, where I gulped copious swallows of water from a fountain there ... and bought a cold bottle that was for sale in the bookstore. I had that gulped down in another 10 minutes.

The biggest disappointment was a one-two punch I encountered during my pregame swing through the campus: The front facade of the impressive Romanesque-style chapel was covered with construction scaffolding, apparently in the throes of a facelift. Adding insult to that was the fact that the nearby reflecting pond was bone dry.

I carried two cameras with me -- my main, the Canon 7D equipped with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens with a 1.4x attachment. The backup, a Canon 30D equipped with a Canon mount Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC lens, which I used exclusively for the campus shots you'll see in the next post.

The photo of St. Joe's quarterback Billy VandeMerkt leading off the post isn't necessarily my best; it conjured memories of posed shots taken for NFL trading cards and promotional images that I saw in my childhood days -- that angled turn of a runner trying to dodge a tackle.

Today's post is about the game pictures, a full gallery of which can be found at my SmugMug site. There will be two subsequent posts -- one dedicated to the stadium environment (including cheerleaders and, especially, the St. Joe's marching band), and then one on the campus shots. I'm trying to get at least one of the three St. Joe's posts up today before I embark on tomorrow's next stop -- Terre Haute and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Above and below: There were several shots I liked from the group taken as the teams prepared to take the field before the start of the game. Several not seen here (but can be found in the gallery at SmugMug), for example, have one of the Pumas team leaders leading the full squad at the south end zone in swaying to and fro in a pep chant. That came after the Pumas' captains jogged onto the field (above) to meet the Crusaders' captains at midfield for the coin toss to determine who would have possession to start the game. The captains are, from left, Drew Byrd, Billy VandeMerkt, Gary Yeoman and Trent Hall. Below, after the St. Joseph's players marched onto the field, the cheerleaders and mascot followed close behind. In the batch of burst shots I fired off, I lucked out in getting this nice capture in one of the frames. 

Above: Billy VandeMerkt again, this time in an image taken two frames after the one leading off the post. VandeMerkt managed to elude this tackle and was brought down a few yards later by another Valpo defender. 

Above: Valparaiso running back Brandon Hall scored on a nice 12-yard end run in the third quarter that gave the Crusaders a 23-18 lead. 
 

Above and below: VandeMerkt (9) and wide receive Julian Walker (5) connected often; 10 of VandeMerkt's 28 completions -- including three for touchdowns -- went to the red-shirt senior from Southport.

Above and below: St. Joe's had only 109 yards rushing on 34 carries. Kobi Cook (8) led all Puma runners with 39 yards on 11 carries.

Above and below: Dropped passes stood out in this game. On the St. Joe's side, Tyler Callaghan had this pass in his hands ... before it slipped out for an incompletion.

Above and next three below: Returning the favor for Valparaiso was Fred Gladney, who was wide open for this sure touchdown, only to let it slip through as well. Moments later on the sidelines, a teammate gave Gladney an encouraging word. I don't know the Valpo players to know for sure who the teammate was -- and I didn't capture the player's jersey number -- but I believe it was the quarterback, Eric Hoffman. Fortunately for the Crusaders, not long afterward Kent Warren would haul in a TD pass from Hoffman, enabling the visitors to trim St. Joe's margine to 18-13 just before the half.

Above: VandeMerkt unloading a pass downfield. 

Above: Brandon Hall does his best balancing act to stay afoot after a St. Joe's defender tripped him up. Hall succeeded for a few more yards before two other defenders brought him down. Hall gained 34 yards on 5 carries on the day.

Above and below: Valpo's Tanner Kuramata leaves four Puma defenders in his wake as he heads downfield during a 58-yard scamper after catching a short pass from Eric Hoffman in the fourth quarter. He drags a Crusader into the end zone with him. 
 

 Above: St. Joe's head football coach Corey Sanders having an animated discussion with the field judge.

Above and below: St. Joe's Chris Edgerton (21) deflects this pass intended for Valpo's Tanner Kuramata.

Above: Edgerton (on ground) and Kuramata were together again for another missed pass late in the game. 

Above: A recurring theme in the photos in this post is a loose football; here's another.

Above and below: The game stopped several times to tend to injuries on the field. The one to fifth-year senior offensive lineman Bill Bodzianowski  (above) of Valpo appeared to be the most serious. Below, St. Joe's staff tends to offensive lineman Brandon Good along the sidelines after a play.

Shakespeare troupe tackles Tempest

With the fall production of the all-volunteer Garfield Shakespeare Company's The Tempest scheduled to open Sept. 27, I spent the past week or so shooting two practice sessions to garner pictures to promote the show online and in as many media that will have it.

The first shoot was an informal practice; most cast members were still rehearsing with the aid of the manuscript. No sooner had I completed the editing of those pictures -- and was preparing to post a couple dozen or so on Facebook -- when GSC artistic director Joe Cook scheduled a practice at which cast members would wear costumes for formal publicity photos.

When we did the publicity photo session for last year's show, A Midsummer Night's Dream, costumes for only a few cast members were ready. The pictures turned out wonderful, but only a few actors were featured. However, the shots were taken early enough in the evening to benefit from good natural lighting. For various reasons, this year's publicity photo session was scheduled later, which probably had a lot to do with why costumes were ready for just about everybody.

Unfortunately, we didn't get into the back area of the amphitheater (where performers could change into costumes) at Garfield Park until well past 7 p.m., and performers weren't ready to take the stage until almost 7:30. We lost valuable time at a point in the year when daylight gets shorter and shorter each day. If we'd started at 6:30 p.m. or thereabouts when practice was supposed begin, I'd have had some very nice ambient light to work with ... and wouldn't have been presented with the lighting dilemma that I ended up having.

My first thought was to use flash, powering down so that the intensity would be enough to provide nice highlight to faces. I slipped a Wescott Micro Apollo light modifier over the flash head to diminish any chance of harshness with the light. At 7:33 p.m., when we were about 10 minutes or so from starting, I tested the intensity settings on the flash (minus 1 1/3) on Mary Dando (right), who is playing Alonsa, queen of Naples. I had the camera set at shutter priority (1/160) and ISO at 200, and the settings rendered me f/2.8 on the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens I was using on my Canon 7D. The shot looked splendid. Note the ambient light -- still a bit left; that would turn out to make a difference between this shot and the ones I'd be getting in only 10 minutes time.

By the time we got the real show on the road, it had turned much darker, and those settings were giving me harsh face lighting -- and even shadows on the black backgrounds. I'd obviously overlooked the fact that the shot of Mary had the stray light going harmlessly into the atmosphere; on stage, that light was giving me shadow fits. I tinkered with the flash intensity several times, and I was getting either shadows and white facial features ... or not enough light at all. I was so irked, I didn't save any of those photos, not thinking they might be something I could use in this post. I chucked the flash and decided to shoot at a high ISO in available light. It was nearly 8 p.m., and I upped the ISO to 320, leaving the other settings alone. I got some good shots for a short while, but I had to keep boosting the ISO periodically ... I finished at 3200. The crew eventually turned on the built-in lights on the stage, but those were relatively weak ... so certainly better than none at all.

Actually, I've shot with available light at this facility before in the dark -- on nights when this troupe has done live performances. But the live shows usually have a bit more lighting, enough so that the 7D can use slightly less ISO -- maybe 2500. The 30D I was use for my backup or secondary camera, however, is in trouble in those situations. I can push it ISO 3200, but the 30D's noise is unacceptable (to me, anyway) at 1600 already, whereas the 7D usually does well through 2500 and, on occasion, even at 3200. I ran all of the photos through Noiseware noise-reduction software in post-processing, including the one leading off today's post, a shot from the wedding of the characters Miranda and Ferdinand, played by Stefanie Maier and Peter Catlin.

GSC is daring to stage the Shakespeare play's opening scene, a violent storm at sea and shipwreck -- something many producers skip over because of the complications of staging such a scenario (rocking boat, huge waves slamming into the boat, etc.). The Act 1, Scene 1 storm scene lead off the photos below.

The Tempest opens at 8 p.m. Sept. 27; there are additional performances at the same time on Sept. 28 and Oct. 4-5, with rain dates set for Oct. 11-12. Admission is free.

Above and next several below: GSC is counting on the audience to help visualize the setup above as the deck of a boat being rocked back and forth in a violent storm at sea. Cast member J.D. Bonitz, in his costume of the spirit Ariel (in white below), will assist audience members with the visualization. For this photograph, he stood at stage right so I could get him into the picture with the other cast members. For the live shows, however, he will be standing in front of the stage -- level with the audience -- and holding this model ship and rocking it back and forth (as well as gyrating himself) as if the ship would sway during a real storm.

The characters of Stephano (above left, played by Jay Brubaker), a drunken butler; Caliban (above right, played by Mike Merrick), a villainous island native and deformed island slave; the mischievous spirit Ariel (first below, played by J.D. Bonitz) who does Prospero's bidding; and jester Trinculo (the woman in orange, played by Heather Bartram) are featured in these next several photos.

Above and below: GSC was happy to welcome Eduardo Torres, who stepped in only last weekend to fill the important role of Prospero, the right duke of Milan, when the performer originally cast for the part had to drop out of the show.

The wedding ceremony (above) for Miranda (Stefanie Maier) and Fernando (Peter Catlin), officiated by the spirit Juno (Monica Verdouw), and an alternate post-ceremony celebration photo, where the three characters above are joined by spirits played by (from left) Sam Brandys, Elizabeth Fasbender and Nicolas Roberts. 

Above: Sebastian (played by Corey Shea), treacherous brother of Queen Alonsa, and Antonio (Sam Fogleman), Prospero's brother.

Adriana (left, played by Jean Long) and Queen Alonsa (Mary Dando).

Above and below: Monochrome and original color versions of a face-to-face encounter between siblings Alonsa, queen of Naples (Mary Dando) and her treacherous brother Sebastian (Corey Shea). I slipped to the back side of the stage and looked out toward the seats for this shot. Lighting was unusually challenging, rendering one of the noisiest images of the shoot.

Above: Ariel (Bonitz) along with flutists Sam Brandys (left) and Monica Verdouw.  

Above:  A depth of field composition, featuring a slumbering Queen Alonsa (Mary Dando) and her lady, Adriana (Jean Long). Mary prolonged the posed to indulge my setup of this one, one of the few times I leaned on the performers to step out of script for the benefit of photographs.  

Above: Two images from a sequence of Bonitz adding a beak, a black top and wings to his spirit costume, a stunning creation of GSC's associated artistic director and longtime costumer Bradley A. Jones.