Nebraska Comes To Ross Ade For Homecoming

Saturday the Nebraska Cornhuskers came to town licking their chops thinking about what they would do to Purdue. The Purdue defense was not looking the best against the run, and of course Nebraska can run the ball. Purdue finally made some adjustments that threw a wrench in that plan for Nebraska for a while. The Nebraska offense was having trouble moving the ball. Luckily for them the Purdue offense cannot move the ball so even though they went scoreless in the first half the game was still tied. Nebraska pulled away late for what ended up being an easy win. The pick 6 above by John Bullock was the clincher in what a little bit before was still a good game.

Trying Something New

Back in the day my goal was always to make photos for Gold and Black Illustrated at Purdue. Tom Campbell was the photographer, and his images were what I looked forward to every week when the new edition came out. I had a chance to photograph for them years ago, but it would have conflicted with what I was doing with the university so I had to turn it down. At the time it seemed like the right idea. Looking back on how things turned out it was probably a bad call on my part. This past weekend I was able to sort of live that dream a little making photos for Huskers Illustrated. For the first half of this game I was wondering what I was going to give them. Nebraska was having a tough time scoring during the first half. In the second half though they came to life and gave me some great stuff to send them. It was really cool to have a specific assignment for an online presence with a ton of followers. It was a great way to get my work in front of more people as well. You can see the entire gallery from the game here.

An Assist From The Wife

After I told my wife about this assignment she was doing some research on Nebraska. She told me about a transfer named Jahmal Banks that was given the number four on the team. The single digits at Nebraska are an honor to have so what she told me stuck in my head. After the game was over I saw Jahmal waiting for what I assumed was an interview. It turned out he was waiting for the coach. My hanging near him to get a photo of him getting interviewed turned into a great picture of head coach Matt Ruhle and him embracing. I love my wife for many reasons, but helping me research a client is just another of those.

Finally Getting The Over The Pile Image

This has been an image that I have wanted to make for years. In the past when I was on a photo crew I found myself out of position when it happened. Other times I was too tight on the action. On Saturday everything worked out for me to be able to make the image of a running back trying to go over the top. He did not get into the end zone, but it made for an interesting image that I have been wanting to make for a while now.

Local Boy Does Good

Yanni Karlaftis is starting to come into his own. A little shift in the defensive scheme is letting the former West Side player show more of what he can do for Purdue. My focus for the day was not on Purdue, but when Yanni started celebrating right in front of me I knew that I had to make this image. It is always great to see kids that I have covered in high school doing well. Sometimes it is still on the field, and other times it is behind a camera.

Boring Gear Talk

This was the first football game this year when I broke out the 200-600mm lens. I really like the range that this thing has, and I wish that I could use it more often. It is not fast enough though for the Friday night lights so I have been using my 300mm lens. The noon start even with an overcast sky was still enough light to use this lens. I think that over the course of the day I made more images because of the range that I had with the lens. The next time that Purdue is at home I will have to use my 300mm lens because it is a night game, but for a day it was fun to get the 200-600mm out again. It really is a great lens that helped out a lot when I didn’t have a good long lens to use.