My Favorite Purdue Football Photos Of 2023

There were many reasons why this year was special for me around football. It marked thirty years since I last played the game. That is hard for my little concussed brain to comprehend. It really doesn’t seem like that long ago. It also marked ten years since I started making photos on the field at Purdue. The year before I kept being told that I had a season pass, but it never could be found. I only had a couple of chances to be on the field at Ross Ade Stadium. This past year I was back with a season pass making photos on the field. Gameday was fun again. Here are my favorite photos from this past season in Ross Ade Stadium.

We have to start this list from the stands. Years ago that is where my Purdue photography started up in the stands. This year I tried to move around the stadium a bit and photograph it from all of the angles. With so many new features it only made sense to try and capture as much of it as I could. One fun part about this set of photos is that one of the photos is from a film camera using one of my favorite lenses that I have owned. Getting a Canon film camera let me get my 11-24mm lens back out. That lens had made some good photos in this stadium in past, and it was cool to get it back out there again.

One day during pregame I looked over and saw this player standing right in front of me. Back in the day I knew every player on the roster. Being a photographer has taken some of that fan out of me. I should have known that we had a player named moon. I liked the idea of this photo.

There have been a few Thieneman boys on the Purdue team over the years. Freshman Dillon though might end up being the best of the bunch. He was a stand out player this year as a freshman. Here he celebrates a big hit on special teams.

This might be a theme on this list, but shooting for the wire this year I had to try and find ways to be different from the other wire guys. There is no sense making the same photo that they are making. Here I went a little wider after a Purdue touchdown to get Purdue quarterback Hudson Card and the fans in the photo.

I have made a few photographs of Caleb Krockover over the years. It started at West Side, and then moved over to Purdue for the last few years. It is always good to see a local boy doing good. Caleb did just that during his career as a Boiler and a Red Devil.

Another local family that ended a Purdue career this year was the Adams family. Kyle was fun to watch quarterback at West Side, and I was excited to see that he was coming to Purdue when he transferred in. I have captured a few moments for this family over the years, and it was fun to capture one more on senior day.

I said it before, but there is a theme here. I used to be part of a team on this field, but now I have to make photos with a different mindset. I need to find ways to make my stuff stand out in a crowded room full of wire guys. I started trying to go wider to do just that. If I make the same kind of photo that someone did on a more well known wire site I will never sell images. If I can differentiate myself a little though maybe I can get a foot in the door.

For the Illinois game I went up to the press box for the end of pregame and the start of the game. Imagine my surprise when I saw Andrew the Purdue photographer up there copying my idea. I don’t know how he could have copied my idea if he was up there first, but I am going with it. It was fun talking to him up there, and the shadows kept me going longer than I had envisioned.

This year marked five years since the Tyler Trent game against Ohio State. I have never wanted a Purdue win so bad in my life as I did on that day in 2018. This past year Ohio State came back to Ross Ade bringing back some memories of that day. There is now a Trent on the field for Purdue so it made everything hit home even more. Words cannot do justice to what Tyler meant to me and all of the Boiler community. He was only with us for a short time, but man he made an impact on everyone that he came into contact with.

Another example of trying to be a little different. I went wide here hoping for a jump ball near me. I got a jump ball in my direction but maybe not as high as I would have liked. I did like the sun peaking over the stadium though so the photo makes the list.

One thing that hit me this year is that I get to photograph the trophy celebrations no matter who wins. There was nothing worse than working on the Purdue side and the trophy going the other way. That meant no fun pictures after the game. Now I get them no matter who wins. It is a little more fun when it is Purdue holding that trophy though. Here they have some fun with the cannon after defeating Illinois.

Speaking of trophies Purdue got to hoist the Old Oaken Bucket again this year. Once again I was trying to make some different photos of the bucket to try and stand out a little more. I might have gone too heavy on my sunburst images, but I had fun making them.

I love emotion. This whole photography really took off for me after taking a scammy type photography course about capturing emotion. You don’t get much more emotion than scoring a touchdown against your rival.

Tyrone Tracy was fun to watch this year. He put this team on his back at times. Here the offensive line lifts him up after a touchdown against Illinois.

I will end things with a couple of images from senior day of receiver Deion Burks. He was all smiles during the team runout, and then made a nice grab right in front of me late in the game. Deion was fun to watch play, and selfishly I wish that I had another year to make photos of him.

This was a fun year being back in Ross Ade Stadium. In the past I would talk about photographing each game like it was your last. People would say that I was crazy for doing that as I could be doing this a while. 2022 was a good reminder that it could all end for no good reason. I tried to take that last game ever mentality into every game this year. This year I had a lot to learn off the field with filing photos and captioning. I had multiple places to try and improve, and I think that I did that as the year went on. I can’t wait to get out there on the field again next season.

That concludes this first week of looking back at 2023. I am going to take the weekend off with these posts and pick things back up on Monday. It is always fun going back over my year in photography. I get to see what I was good at, and what I need to improve on. It is also a good way to celebrate the fact that I get to do this amazing thing for a living.