Beatdown in Miami

If you had told me before I headed down to Miami this weekend that FSU was going to knock off Miami at Miami 45-17, I would have seriously questioned your sanity. But, there I stood at Sun Life Stadium Saturday night watching FSU fans celebrating with players, Jimbo Fisher leaving the field with his family and a bag of turf from the field, and best of all, my cousin (a UM grad) up in the stands shaking his head. Yabba Dabba Doo. Oh, and I also had one of my best games ever in terms of photos.

Sun Life Stadium was sold out for the game and there was no way not to feel the electricity as things got started. Even though I hate all things Miami, I have to hand it to the 'Canes when it comes to making an entrance onto the field - it all starts out with their goofy bird/mascot Sebastian prancing around inside the tunnel (which is made of a giant UM inflatable helmet) followed by at least 8 fire extinguishers being set off to create an incredibly dense wall of white smoke. Sebastian then leads the team onto the field. I must admit it's a pretty neat thing to see, and it makes for great photos.



I'm also jealous of photographers who shoot Miami games on a regular basis. What great lighting. Until now, I had never shot a night game at Sun Life Stadium. Game time was 8:00 pm so I assumed I would be struggling to shoot at ISO 1600 and a fast enough shutter speed to keep from getting blurred balls, hands or feet. Not a problem. The lighting was so good I was able to shoot at ISO 800, 1/500th second and f2.8, and they didn't even have the banks of lights over each end zone turned on. I would bet that with those puppies on, one could drop the ISO to 640 and still shoot at 1/500th second. Sigh.

The sidelines were very crowded as one might expect and it was an ESPN game so there were the usual ESPN camera guys, dish holders and cable guys taking up space and blocking the view so I had to make do. There's nothing more annoying than finding a good spot with a clear view and then having one of the ESPN cameramen or dish holders walk up and plant themselves right in your line of sight. Just part of the challenge, so for the most part, I stayed close to the goal lines on either side of the field and they didn't interfere too much from those spots. A lot of photographers simply set up behind one of the goal lines and let the game come to them, but I'm too obsessive compulsive and I can't stand the thought of being too far away to get a good shot.

I finally made it to a game without forgetting anything. If you've been following my Blog, you know that until this game, I had managed to forget something important for each of the previous games, but not this time. Since I knew it was going to be a night game, I brought the rolling case with the 400mm f2.8, the 80-200mm f2.8, and the usual assortment of smaller lenses. I used the 400mm on the D3 and the 80-200mm on the D300 virtually all night, except that for pre-game and post-game shots I used the 35-70mm f2.8 on the D3. There were a couple of pre-game and post game shots where the 17-35mm f2.8 would have been a better choice on the D3 but I never pulled it out of the case.

When FSU got to or inside the Miami 5 yard line, I made a bee line for the end zone and set up directly facing the center. I figured from there, I would be able to cover either sideline with the 80-200mm and if there was a run up the middle, I'd get some good, tight shots of the running backs breaking through into the end zone. The plan worked out very well and I managed to get most of FSU's TD's with decent images.

I did not dare go into the stands for artsy shots of the stadium/field as I was wearing my garnet "FSU Sports Information" T-shirt. I intentionally wore it so the field staff would not keep me from going out to midfield for warm ups, the coin toss, etc. once they knew I was an official team photographer instead of a media photographer. But, by identifying myself as an FSU person, going into the stands was out of the question. I saw more fights in the stands than I could count, and there was no way I was going into the abyss with thousands of dollars in photo gear.

One of the best photos (in my humble opinion) that I was lucky enough to get was not a great action shot or a great art shot - it was a photo of Coach Jimbo Fisher and QB Christian Ponder just after Fisher finished his on-field interview with ESPN after the game. As Ponder was moving in to be interviewed, Fisher and Ponder suddenly hugged in an amazing display of affection and respect for each other. This was Fisher's first big game as FSU's coach, and on the heels of replacing a legend like Bobby Bowden, the pressure Fisher has been under to succeed has been very intense. It only made it that much better that Saturday was Fisher's 45th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Jimbo. It was quite a treat to be a part of your birthday celebration.

If you'd like to see more photos from the game, I have posted two galleries on my Facebook page (Mike Olivella).