Two months of hard work.

Trying to get back into blogging some photos again. This slideshow is compiled of images from the NFL games I've photographed through the first 7 weeks of the season, including the preseason games I did. I got to add a new venue to my list of places that I've worked (Buffalo), and a couple new teams. I have my yearly trip to Minnesota in a couple of days, and then I get to go right from there to Dallas! I love football season! Enjoy the photos. :) ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT OF EVAN HABEEB/USA TODAY SPORTS and Photo File Inc.

Catching up.

With 'my' baseball season coming to an end-ish, I'm gonna post images from 3 more games. All have a little something different in them, but they should provide a nice look into what I have been doing at 'work'. Just look at the images. It'll be fun.

More Baseball

What a wonderful time of year right now. I'm covering all sorts of different types of events, from baseball to horse racing, and NASCAR. I am always moving around, and have found it difficult to stay on top of the blog posts, but I thought I'd share a few more baseball games. First up is my first trip to Yankee Stadium. I spent a little time around the outside of the stadium before the game, and it was just a fun experience seeing all of that and being there. One quick note....image #11 I wanted to include the way I did. Alex Rodriguez was taking batting practice, and when he came out of the cage during one of his turns, he must have walked into......shall we say....somebody's flatulence. If you look at the images, he definitely said, "did you fart?" Haha. The little things... Next up, is my second trip to Pittsburgh for the season. Lots of ground balls, and subsequent bobbles in this game. Also, the kid in image number two. What can you say about him? He's got his Andrew McCutcheon hair on. He's adorable. And, he hit me with that foam disc! Good times.

Smells like baseball!

Since it's been 100 years since my last post, I'm gonna make this a big one! It's baseball season and I've gotten the good fortune of covering a handful of games so far. Started my year in Pittsburgh, followed by Baltimore the next day. Then I was in DC and Philly the next week. Here are 4 slideshows with about 20 images or so. One from each of those games. There's some good action, and funny moments in pretty much each game. Let me know what you think!

Back in Baltimore

Before I get too backed up with my blog posts, I wanted to put my images from the Cardinals and Ravens game I covered a few weeks ago. As a Ravens fan, it's always difficult for me to photograph one of their games and not get too emotional. Actually, I suck at not getting too emotional, but what are you gonna do? However, I didn't realize that until this game because the other Ravens games I've photographed, they won and won pretty easily. :)

In this game, they were down 24-3 in the first half, and I just wanted to go home! Haha. But, I stuck it out and got to witness the largest comeback in team history! The team is 3-0 with me there, so you gotta think that I should bring that to somebody's attention to make sure I be at every game. No big deal...

To the images...

#5 was a cool thing to see. That's Todd Heap signing an autograph for a man and his kids. One of the kids had a Heap Ravens jersey, and the other had a Heap Cardinals jersey. Todd is such a great guy, and is good at recognizing stuff like this. :)

#21.....yea....he caught that.

#38 I love Ray Rice.

#41 I just thought was funny because it looks like McPhee is standing on air...

#44 Torrey being BIG TIME!

#48 is one of my faves. I didn't realize how close Holliday got to my camera. The answer? Um...close.

Enjoy!

The not so frozen tundra....of Lambeau Field

It gives me great pleasure to create this post. There are a handful of stadiums in professional sports that carry a certain level of historical awesomeness to them, and I have gotten to photograph at two of them this past year. First, was my trip to Fenway Park in Boston. This time, I went to Lambeau Field in Green Bay. As a sports fanatic, I just want to see and experience everything I possibly can. A year ago, I thought it would only be a dream of mine to be able to photograph a game at Lambeau Field, and a couple weeks ago, that actually happened!

It was such a cool feeling to be on that field with all the history.....and the best team in football. And, living in Baltimore, you wouldn't think this next thing is true, but I've now photographed the Packers 3 times, which is equal to the amount of times I've photographed the Ravens. And, those two teams are tied for the most frequently photographed teams by me. Ok...enough nerdiness.

To the images. Just a few notes.

Number 4: Clay Matthews is awesome....but he's also a tool.
Number 5: We weren't really sure if the photographers were allowed on the field during intros. By the looks of Spags there, it appears he was not thrilled that me and a few other photographers were 'in the way.' Oh well. :)
Number 15: My first Lambeau Leap! Ehhhh........not great. He was on the other side of the field, of course, and I had a dancing plethora of other media members blocking the rest of the frame. Maybe next time.....??
Number 20: Lambeau Leap number 2. Not much better. Haha. I was approximately 125 yards away from Jordy Nelson for this photo. Not ideal. Nelson actually caught a 93 yard touchdown on this play, and since I was trying to photograph some Rams defensive players, I thought, "now would be a good time to get some tight shots of the Rams players, while they're so close to the back end zone." Thanks Aaron Rodgers for being better than everybody at football! Forced me to get terrible pictures of a big play! :)
Number 21: You Packer fans are crazy.
Number 32: He puts the team on his back, do.
Number 37: I'm pretty sure it's illegal to step on another players neck. Let me check the rules.
Number 41: Nobody made the catch. :(
Number 42: Ummm....somehow the Rams actually caught that pass. Probably the cleanest shot I've ever gotten of a wide receiver, and it bounced right off his hands.
Number 47: Best smile in the NFL.

Oh....and the Packers decided to wear their throwbacks which made my editor.....let's say, less than thrilled. I was hoping I could coax him to send me to another Packers game, but no dice.....yet! Enjoy!

First Time in New York...

Well, my goal in life (right now, anyway) is to photograph all major professional teams in every single venue. I got to add two more teams and one more venue to my accomplishments a couple weeks ago when the Seattle Seahawks came across the country and took down the New York Giants. First off, that stadium is incredible. It's perfectly designed inside and outside and made a potentially daunting task of getting in and out of the stadium, almost pleasant! New York is known for it's historically terrible traffic, and I thought, "man, it takes forever to get in and out of FedEx Field.....it's gonna take even longer to get in and out of here!" But....that just goes to show you that the people who run the New York franchises are a little...shall we say....better than the people who run the DC franchises. Just saying. Plus, I have never seen a larger photographer's wookroom. It had it's own set of bathrooms and people serving us breakfast before the game and lunch at halftime and at the end of the game. That's the way every stadium should be!

Anyway, to the game....

It was a pretty exciting game from start to finish, which is always good. I didn't like that they wouldn't let photographers get between the hash marks in the back of the end zone. That was irritating because there is soooo much media there, you really need that space. I would hate to have to work a super bowl or something like that there with those rules. Anyway, my only real note would be the catch that Victor Cruz made. Just an absolutely amazing catch, and if you saw the original tv angle, and you happened to see the photographer kneeling right behind him when he finally got control of the ball, then you saw me! Haha. I was the only person set up in that spot, and when the play happened, I felt like I had gotten the images, and they were in focus, but I was so blown away by how awesome that catch was, and the fact that it happened right in front of me, that I didn't want to look at the sequence until later. If those images were out of focus or something, I would have been livid and thrown things at people. But, I got some good shots and my boss made it a point to compliment me on that sequence, so life is good! Enjoy the rest of the images!