Lakewood vs Inglewood / Locke High

This post marks the beginning of football season for me, but it didn't start on a good note. The JV game was scheduled for Thursday while the freshmen and varsity games were set for Friday. While I was preparing my gear for the Thursday game my camera and lens (Canon Mark IIn / 300 f/2.8) rolled off my bed and broke. Needless to say I was very depressed as there was no way I was going to be able to replace that lens. Once I got over the initial disgust with myself, I took a drive to the Canon Service Center in Irvine (thank god I'm within driving distance). After a brief talk with a service rep, who by the way was very nice and helpful, I got the damage. The lens would cost $300 and the camera was going to cost $1,000. Thanks to the very helpful rep I brought my gear home and signed up for CPS (Canon Professional Service) Silver membership, which would give me a 20% discount for all repairs.

The following day I contacted my insurance. Yes, I did have insurance on my gear, and after talking with them I was a happy man. My gear was 100% covered and the check was in the mail.

I received my insurance check the following Tuesday and on Thursday, a week after the accident, I brought my gear back to the Canon Service Center, where it is now being repaired.

Now that is said and done, on to the pictures. Since I was quite depressed on Thursday I didn't cover the JV game, but I did cover the freshmen and varsity game the following day. Just for those wondering, I do have a second Canon Mark IIn and although I couldn't use my 300 I did break out my old reliable 70-200 f/2.8, which didn't let me down as you can see below.

This first set of shots is from the freshmen game.

The rest of these shots are from the varsity game and again I will normally take some tighter shots of the QB's while their warming up. During the first part of the season I still have some sunlight when the game starts and have to adjust as the sun goes down.

I was prepared to use my flash during this game, but as the sun went down and the lights came on I found that the lights appeared brighter, so I kept the flash in the bag.

Note to self: Ask Santa for a Mark IV for Christmas.