You know that opening scene in Ratatouille, the one where Remy is seen jumping through a window with a cookbook over his head, and he says “This. Is. Me. I think it’s apparent I need to rethink my life a little bit.” You know the one? Well, this. Is. Me. The one on the far left. Yeah, you see me.
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| That's me on the far left. The dangers of the baseline. (Photo: Chris Pietsch - The Register Guard) |
My name is John and I’m your trusty, sometimes reluctant resident Duck Territory photographer. Yes, I am the guy who frequently misspells players’ names because my hands are so freaking cold I can’t feel the keys of my computer beneath my fingers, and I am the guy who makes those pictures that largely go unnoticed because that is what a sports photo is supposed to do.But that's not the point of this article and many more to come. If any of you follow me on Twitter or Instagram—and I’m not deluded into thinking that any of you actually do, but if you do—you’ll probably see that, upon the rarest of occasions, I am a featured monolith of rugged handsomeness on sports networks and in newspapers during in-game highlights of both football and basketball … Okay, “featured” might not be the right word. I’m often … incorporated into the many backdrops of various momentous events in Oregon sports... Fine, I inadvertently photo-bomb national TV, making most people wish the camera had actually landed on the cheerleaders instead my ugly face. But, just to make it impossible for you to not at least glance at the sideline/baseline fashionistas in white PAC12 vests, here is what I look like from time to time:
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| The Sideline is my home away from home |
There, now we’re acquainted. Nice to meet you.
Frankly, if you’re still reading this, I’m guessing you have a serious amount of free time and/or your job is just that boring. At any rate, I’m glad you’re still here for at least another paragraph.
The whole point of my writing is really to introduce myself and the new segments we’ll be running here from time to time on Duck Territory. So far we’re calling it “Behind the Lens.” That’s at least until we come up with something better. The concept is fairly simple. Since I am your DT and 247Sports photographer, I have a somewhat unique perspective on our favorite sons of Oregon. In my opinion, I have the best worst seat in the house. Trust me when I say you never want to watch a football game from the sideline or sitting baseline at Matt Knight—and I mean literally sitting on the floor under the basket. It’s the worst vantage point ever. It sucks as a spectator. But at the same time it’s freaking awesome being that close when something happens, like this:
The whole point of my writing is really to introduce myself and the new segments we’ll be running here from time to time on Duck Territory. So far we’re calling it “Behind the Lens.” That’s at least until we come up with something better. The concept is fairly simple. Since I am your DT and 247Sports photographer, I have a somewhat unique perspective on our favorite sons of Oregon. In my opinion, I have the best worst seat in the house. Trust me when I say you never want to watch a football game from the sideline or sitting baseline at Matt Knight—and I mean literally sitting on the floor under the basket. It’s the worst vantage point ever. It sucks as a spectator. But at the same time it’s freaking awesome being that close when something happens, like this:
It was pure serendipity that I started shooting video for this one play. Sometimes you just get lucky.
I mean, think about it. Show of hands: who has ever been staring down Marcus Mariota through a telephoto lens when he’s either running right at you or throwing a pass directly to you? Okay, I’ll buy that some of you have experienced that, but let me tell you, as a fan and a sideline working man, it’s an exhilarating experience. But the downside is that it sends mixed messages. Case in point: take the last home game against Stanford. It’s the fourth quarter. Ducks have it on the Stanford twelve-yard line. Marcus keeps the ball and runs un-touched into the Promised Land. Well, that run came RIGHT AT ME. I mean, I thought he was running over to talk to me, you know, let me know where to meet up after the game, swap ahi pork recipes, normal stuff. I was transfixed on the man. As a photographer, I didn't miss a beat. I got the shot of him crossing the goal line, blah blah blah, but when he kept coming at me, I froze. I had my wide angle sitting on the turf next to me and that’s where is stayed. I should have dropped the telephoto and picked up the wide with someone coming that close to me, but I didn't. My professional brain was screaming at me, holding me by the collar and smacking me to do my job, but my fan brain had already hit the override switch. Fellas, you know what this is like; it happens to us in … other … situations … anyway, I digress. Needless to say I didn't get the shot of Super Mariota pounding his chest and pointing to the sky. That would have been a great shot, and as you can see here from the perfect shot created by my colleague Craig Strobeck, it really would have been a great shot:
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| (Photo: Craig Stroebeck - Craig Strobeck Photography) |
But, c’est la vie. It happens, and I move on. But like I mentioned before, there is a cautionary tale here for any of you who may find yourselves on the sidelines. So I didn’t get the shot, and that’s okay, but what I did get was a nationally televised shot of me looking like Gomer Pyle declaring “Gawwwwwwleeeee” at the end of a game solidifying run from our beloved Heisman hopeful that looked something like this:
Anyway, long story short, this is the kind of stuff I’ll be sharing with you. Everything from “what did Altman just say,” to “that Dwayne Stanford is a spectacle to watch through a 300mm lens, but not when he’s headed straight for you in the corner of the end zone.” At the very least, you’ll get a unique perspective on the games we all watched together and maybe even a decent photo or two.
In the end, all we have of the unforgettable moments are the memories, and if we’re lucky, the images we made; I want to share mine with you.
