Remembering Yeardley Love
Today, May 8, at the 2010 NCAA Women’s Golf West Regionals at the Stanford Golf Course, the University of Virginia women’s team played with their balls marked with the number 1 and the name “Love” in honor of Yeardley Love, the UVA women’s lacrosse player who was allegedly murdered by UVA men’s lacrosse player George Huguley earlier this week. This image is of a par putt by Brittany Altomare on the 10th hole.
Sad Day in Charlottesville
Today’s news from Charlottesville is very sad indeed. Yeardley Love, a fourth-year on the #4 ranked UVA women’s lacrosse team was apparently murdered overnight. She is pictured above from a game March 2009. What makes this story even more shocking is that fellow Wahoo George Huguley has been arrested and charged with her murder. Hard to believe this happened at UVA.
George Huguely – Images by Jason O. Watson
Against the wall – Baltimore Orioles at Oakland A’s
The struggling Baltimore Orioles defeated the Oakland A’s 8-3 on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon. The shot above is of Rajai Davis seriously leaping up the left-center field wall for a fly ball. While he didn’t make the catch, I was really pleased with the image. It’s somewhat rare to get an outfield play with such a clean background and I’m happy this turned out the way it did.
View entire gallery of photos from this game
20100418 – Baltimore Orioles at Oakland Athletics (Major League Baseball) – Images by Jason O. Watson
Playoff Hockey… Almost…
Last night the Vancouver Canucks came to town to face the San Jose Sharks for the penultimate game of the NHL regular season. The Sharks ending up winning the top seed in the Western Conference. Once the Sharks were up 4-0 in the game, the gloves came off — literally. The third period brought lots of fights and penalties. At one point, the Sharks had six players in the penalty box and had only 3 skaters on the ice. It was clear that both teams are gearing up for the playoffs — lots of hard hitting. Good fun in the Shark Tank.
View complete photo gallery of this game
20100408 – Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks (NHL Hockey) – Images by Jason O. Watson
NHL Hockey: St. Louis Blues at San Jose Sharks
I’m starting to have a lot of fun with this whole hockey thing. Last week, I shot the St. Louis Blues vs. San Jose Sharks at HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA. I shot at the Sharks Head ice-level photographer hole locations for the first and third periods and up top for the second. Fortunately, great things happened on my end during the third period as the Sharks tied the game up 1-1 to send it to overtime (the Blues were shooting on my end the first and third). I got very lucky with this particular image — the NHL/Sharks photographer was sitting next to me and shooting with the arena’s strobes — I some how managed to catch some of his light in this frame. Enough to pop the color and create a bit of a shadow, subtle but it definitely helps this frame. Usually when this happens, all or part of the image is completely washed out — less than 5% of the time it actually helps. This was one of those lucky times. The Sharks went on to win 2-1 in overtime on a Dany Heatley breakaway goal — to the other end of the ice.
More images from the game…
20100106 – St. Louis Blues at San Jose Sharks (NHL Hockey) – Images by Jason Watson
NFL: Washington Redskins at Oakland Raiders
December 13, 2009; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders running back Justin Fargas (25) leaps over Washington Redskins defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin (96) for a touchdown during the second quarter at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Washington defeated Oakland 34-13.
The first half of the Redskins/Raiders game was pretty enjoyable — the teams were evenly matched and the score was close. Then Oakland’s quarterback Bruce Gradkowski was knocked out the game for the entire second half with injuries to both knees. The Raiders brought in JaMarcus Russell who, despite throwing 10 for 16 for 80 some yards, was intercepted once, fumbled, and was sacked SIX TIMES in the second half. As such, the Redskins rolled.
This game was particularly fun because of the on and off rain showers that kept falling before and during the game. It would rain, and then the sun would come out (and I’d take some of the rain gear off) and then it would rain again, put the rain gear back on. So far, rain out here, compared to back in Virginia, is light and misty, which makes shooting tolerable. Regardless, the weather was MUCH BETTER than the 20 degrees and negative wind chill the last time I shot the Redskins last December at FedEx field.
20091213 – Washington Redskins at Oakland Raiders (NFL Football) – Images by Jason O. Watson
Coach Al Groh
Today, my alma mater, the University of Virginia, dismissed Al Groh as the football coach after a 3-9 season. As a sports photographer, I’ve covered Coach Groh over the last five years — compiling a wide range of images. There are many who have been calling for this change, particularly after loses to Duke, William and Mary, and Southern Mississippi. It seems, for me, that for all the bad losses, there was an equal number of great games — the Thursday night victory over then #3 Florida State in 2005, the 2007 season where the Cavaliers won 5 games by 2 points or less, and victories over PItt and West Virginia in the Tire Bowl and Minnesota in the Music City Bowl. I was particularly impressed with how Coach Groh handled his final postgame press conference — an appropriately reflective tribute for how the Cavaliers were coached over the last nine years.
Al Groh – Images by Jason O. Watson>Photographs of Al Groh
A good football game in the WAC
I was assigned to shoot the Idaho Vandals at the San Jose State Spartans on October 10th. US Presswire wanted me to shoot Nathan Enderle, Idaho’s quarterback (pictured above). This turned out to be a great game with several lead changes and the it wasn’t decided until late in the fourth quarter. It was also a good opportunity to shoot some stock of players that don’t usually get as much exposure as other BCS conference teams. One of the things I recall was the the light really died off quickly from late afternoon to night and Spartan Stadium is a pretty dark place to shoot at night. The sidelines were pretty tight space-wise behind the benches and I was prevented from moving behind SJSU’s bench by the security guards. I had to walk all the way around, behind the much friendlier Idaho bench to get from one end zone to the other. I was also asked four different times for my credentials while on the field, despite that it was hanging around my neck for the world to see. The field security was pretty odd, but everyone was super nice including the SID staff up in the press box. Idaho won the game 29-25.
More photos from Idaho at San Jose State
20091010 – Idaho at San Jose State (NCAA Football) – Images by Jason O. Watson
San Jose Sharks NHL Home Opener vs the Columbus Blue Jackets
The San Jose Sharks hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets at HP Pavilion in San Jose, California on October 8th. This was my first NHL game shooting, and the first since I watched the NY Islanders play the Pittsburgh Penguins at Nassau Coliseum over a decade ago. I was impressed with the crowd – it was the home opener for the Sharks and the 17,000+ fans were certainly very much into the game. This game pretty much had a little bit of everything – lots of goals (the Sharks won 6-3), a hat trick by Dany Heatly, a couple of good fights in the second period, and a penalty shot (where Heatley netted his third).
I shot the entire game from above in one of the video booths, almost entirely with my 400mm f/2.8L. The Sharks are reconfiguring their ice level photo sports, and There were only three holes to shoot from and they were quickly taken by other shooters. All in all, very fast paced and a lot of fun to shoot.
More images from the Blue Jackets at Sharks game
20091008 – Columbus Blue Jackets at San Jose Sharks (NHL Hockey) – Images by Jason O. Watson
Washington at Stanford – NCAA Football
In my short time shooting PAC10 and WAC football, I’ve noticed a couple of key differences from the ACC, Big East, etc. The first, the weather — it’s almost always 70 degrees and awesome outside in Palo Alto. Second, there’s a ton of offense — or put another way, there often is lot less defense (i.e. no 7-5 UVa v UNC games). This second observation roughly held true as Stanford upset the Huskies 34-14 in front of the home crowd. Washington entered the game ranked nationally in the polls after defeating then #3 USC the week prior. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck (pictured above scoring a touchdown on a boot leg) and running back Toby Gerhart (below) dominated the game for the Cardinal. The recently renovated Stanford Stadium is a great place to shoot — especially with the stadium only a mile from my apartment 
More images from Washington at Stanford
20090926 – Washington at Stanford (NCAA Football) – Images by Jason O. Watson
Texas Rangers at Oakland Athletics – Major League Baseball
The above image is of Oakland Athletics infielder Daric Barton (10) sliding into home plate during the second inning against against the Texas Rangers at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on September 22, 2009. This was my first major league game — after shooting several years of NCAA baseball, it was nice to cover a late season MLB game. The A’s dominated this one, and won 9-1 — pretty much eliminating the Ranger’s hopes of a wild card playoff birth.
20090922 – Texas Rangers at Oakland Athletics (Major League Baseball) – Images by Jason O. Watson
San Jose State at Stanford – NCAA Football
The nice thing about early season evening / twilight games is that there are often a few select spots in the stadium where late afternoon sunlight sneaks through the stands and on to the field. This image, taken on September 19, 2009, of Stanford fullback Owen Marecic (48) being tackled by San Jose State Spartans linebacker Travis Jones (14) and defensive end Carl Ihenacho (95), is one such example. The light here doesn’t even hit the field, but is just enough to highlight Marecic. Pretty cool. Here’s another example with Antonio Appleby from the 2007 season when Virginia played at NC State:
In the Stanford / San Jose State game, I was pretty impressed with how Stanford handled the Spartans. Definitely a different crowd atmosphere than what I’m normally used to. Stanford’s band has certainly taken the eclectic pep band genre to a new level and the students, while fully into the game, seemed a little more civilized and polite than the alcohol-fueled student sections at certain ACC and SEC schools. Regardless, Stanford won easily, 42-17.
20090919 – San Jose State at Stanford (NCAA Football) – Images by Jason O. Watson
Boise State at Fresno State – NCAA Football
The #10 ranked Boise State Broncos came to Fresno State for a Friday night NCAA football game under the lights. This was my first game since moving west, and I drove the three hours from the Bay Area for this game. Really glad I wore shorts because it was over 100 degrees at kick off (6pm). Fresno State really loves their Bulldogs and it was a lot of fun to shoot this one as there was absolutely no defense on either side of the ball (Boise St. won 51-34). There were multiple 60+ yard touchdown runs on both sides and lots of pyrotechnics whenever Fresno St. scored. Cool stuff.
Gallery of images from this game
20090918 – Boise State at Fresno State (NCAA Football) – Images by Jason O. Watson
A day at the races – Infineon Raceway – Sonoma, CA
A co-worker of mine generously gave me her ticket to today’s Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway. This was my first Indy Car race and I had an absolute blast! This unique 12 turn track is a photographer’s paradise… all of my images were taken from general access areas and I did not have credentials (which would’ve gotten me further down along the wall and a few other places around the complex). Got to the track early enough to watch the various pre-race races. In the development race before the Grand Prix, there was a massive crash in turn 2 (7 cars, 4 of which had to be towed). There was a radio broadcast deck over looking the uphill part of the turn and I parked it here for the beginning of the race. Lucky enough, there was a crash in the first lap. This actually helped pole sitter and eventual race winner Dario Franchitti hold the lead for the entire race.
The races and great weather (clear skies with upper 70s) combined to make an excellent day. Definitely need to head back to Sonoma next time NASCAR and IRL come to town.
Gallery of Photos from Indy Grand Prix at Sonoma
20090823 – Indy Grand Prix at Infineon Raceway Sonoma California – Images by Jason O. Watson
2009 Foxfield Spring Races
The weather treated the thousands of party-goers in the infield pretty well — it was 90+ degrees and sunny. The racing was fun and also sad when a horse had to be put down for breaking his leg. Toughkenamon jockeyed by Carl Rafter, pictured above on the second of three laps of his race, had his trail leg hit the timbers on the final jump of the race. It was a hard thing to watch and photograph. Needless to say, the rest of the day was a lot of fun — people in crazy outfits, watching students get drunk at 10AM in the morning and lots of beautiful horses (including the very successful Good Night Shirt).
Estimates were that 23,500 fans attended the races. There were new alcohol rules in place designed to limit the amount of consumption — namely the size of coolers were restricted, glass bottles prohibited, and random ID checks throughout the day replaced over 21 bracelets. From what I observed, that didn’t really have much of an effect on the party — people got drunk, some people got way too drunk, some people did stupid things and got arrested. Seems to happen every year.
2009 Foxfield Spring Races – Images by Jason O. Watson
A Not-so Friendly Spring NCAA Soccer Game
This past weekend, NC State scrimmaged Virginia in a spring “friendly”. In the first half, there was a scuffle where Chrystel Bakong (8) from NCSU got into a mix up with UVA’s Jonathan Villaneuva (10). Here Bakong can be seen putting the choak on Johnny V… amazingly the official only showed Bakong a yellow. NC State went on to win the match on a second free kick just outside the 18 yard box that went over UVA’s wall and pretty much the keeper didn’t see it until too late…
More images from the UVA / NC State spring soccer game
20090404 – NC State at Virginia (NCAA Soccer) – Images by Jason O. Watson
Tony Bennett introduced as UVA’s new basketball coach
Today was UVA’s unveiling of it’s new men’s basketball coach, Tony Bennett. The whole festivities included a packed dining room at JPJ full of reporters, tv news folks, and a handful of photogs and lasted a little over an hour. I was really impressed with Mr. Bennett and liked that he actually answered the reporters questions with a degree of thoughtfulness and sincerity. It was cool that his family was there too — they seemed pretty happy with the whole thing, although I’m sure his kids were getting a little bored as the questions wore on.
2009 Jefferson Cup – Charlottesville’s Premier Cycling Road Race
This past Sunday, was the annual Jeff Cup bike races run on the rural roads of Albemarle County south of Charlottesville, VA. This road race has been going on forever and is hosted by the Monticello Velo Club and run by a bunch of cycling friends of mine. I raced in this a few years ago and had a wonderful time – I’ve also photographed the last four editions. This year’s weather looked iffy for the morning races (wet pavement, etc) but it cleared out and the day ended up being glorious.
The one thing I was really disappointed by this year was the behavior of the locals whose houses line the roads that the 10 mile course loops traverses. Apparently someone, the night before the race, broke glass all over the roads – resulting in numerous flat tires. Not only is this really disappointing but it’s pretty damn dangerous for the riders — there were several that had flatted and were rightfully pissed off. The second issue I had was with the farmer who threatened me with trespass charges for photographing on the side of the road — I had a really nice view set up, with great lines (see below)
Then a guy rolls up directly facing me / blocking the road with his Ford pick up truck and insists that I and the others near me leave. We tried to explain that he doesn’t own the shoulder of the public roads but he was having none of it. It was clear that he was going to do whatever he could to ruin my shots and not wanting a confrontation, I moved to the other side of the course – a nice spot but not as scenic as this — it would’ve been really nice to have the peloton stretched out along that hill. Oh well.
My Cycling Photography page… with photos from races since 2006
The Longest Lacrosse Game Ever – UVa defeats UMD 10-9 in 7OT
Yesterday’s NCAA Men’s Lacrosse game between UVA and Maryland was epic. Not because these two rivals were playing or because UVA is undefeated and ranked number 1 and Maryland is #9… but because the game went on forever. Virginia was down 9-6 with 6 or so minutes left in the game when they went on a three goal rally to tie the game and force sudden death overtime. The game seemed over 9 seconds into the first OT when Maryland quickly won the face off and put the ball in the net. UVA got a gift from one of the officials who blew his whistle (twice) just before Maryland shot the ball. The official thought Maryland wanted a timeout as soon as their player entered the box — apparently they didn’t. That then started a long afternoon – Virginia fought of several man-down penalties, while their GK Adam Ghitelman made tremendous save after tremendous save. Finally, in the 7th overtime, a NCAA Division 1 record, UVA’s Brian Carroll scored and ended the game. There were ~5,000 people in attendance — and it was a nice (long) afternoon of lacrosse.
Cavs crush Big Red… sweet save by Ghitelman
Adam Ghitelman made this ridiculous save in the fourth quarter as the #1 ranked UVA men’s lacrosse team dominated #4 Cornell in the second half to seal up a 14-10 victory. I’m still in awe of how UVA’s goalie was able to pull this off — he made the initial save off a Cornell shot, was on the ground and was able to throw his body/arm up enough to keep the ball from hitting net and/or bouncing back off the cross bar. A pretty sweet athletic move.
This was one of the more enjoyable sporting events I’ve covered in the past month or so — mainly because it was sunny with some clouds, a nice wind, and about 80 degrees. I got my first rays of sun for the year, hung out with just about every sports photog in town, and just enjoyed the afternoon. Spring sports are much more relaxing for me than Fall and Winter versions — in the fall football is very stressful (and fun) and in the winter basketball takes a large portion of my life (7 hours+ per game for set up, shooting, tear down, etc… but is still fun)…
Hopefully the weather will stay like this (my pear tree has started to bloom) and the snow of last week is behind us until next year.
