Not to get ahead of myself here, but USA Hockey is heading to another gold medal game tomorrow. That makes two HUGE hockey games for the Americans in one Olympics, which is a first in a really long time! In order to get there, the men had to beat Slovakia in the semifinal game, and they did that with gusto last night.
As always, I will take you through my images and thought process once again.
And no...I did not make any calls for the refs this time around (referring to the NBC post which has gone viral, showing me calling a penalty at the women's game.) Ooops!!!
The team always wants warmup photos from me. At this point, I am running out of creative ways to shoot these. I hate giving them the same looking images every game. That is so boring!
I remembered that Jacob Slavin usually stretches before the game, staying in one place while everyone else is going around him. I saw that this was happening again, so I quickly changed my
Canon R1 settings to f/11 at ISO 100 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/25 sec. I held on really steady and got this shot. Honestly, it is photos like this that fill my cup. When other photographers saw this shot on my computer after the warmups, they all loved it. That is a real compliment when you are shooting here with the best of the best. Even though this is a warmup shot, it is added to my favorite list from these games.
I then switched back to my normal settings (around 1/1600 sec, f/3.5 ISO 1000) and shot images from directly behind the goalie, while focusing on the shooter.
Before the game starts, they always turn down the lights. I had already finished editing the warmup photos, and was just standing around. At that point, I thought to myself "This is pretty cool lighting...I should try a fisheye shot of this." Again, something different!
Jason Kelce was sitting right behind my photo position, so I grabbed a couple photos of him taking selfies with the fans.
Dylin Larkin took a shot from midway to the blue line and roped one in for the first goal of the game!
I was still holding my
Canon R1 with the
RF 70-200mm lens and he skated right in front of me. In pure desperation, I kept shooting even though he was so close to me. Not the best shot, but it still shows the emotion. Keeping in the spirit of shooting things differently...
Here is a photo of Quinn Hughes taking a shot, really showing the bend of the hockey stick. That is some real power in that shot.
Almost a goal, but a nice stop by the opposing goalie.
I always try to follow the skater with the puck OR whoever is wide open for a pass. In this case, Tage Thompson was all alone and thankfully I focused on him hoping he would get the puck passed to him. Sure enough he did, and scored on this play.
He was nice enough to celebrate a little farther from the glass, giving me a better shot of the celebration.
Photographing this type of emotion is so much fun!
During the first break, I asked Jason Kelce if I could get a photo of him, and he was nice enough to pose for me.
Then it was back to the action, this time on the defensive side for the second period. It was so weird to shoot this game with both teams wearing red, white and blue. All of us photographers (and probably some of you watching this on TV) had a hard time separating the teams. I took advantage of all the red, white and blue in this photo.
Connor Hellebuyck was solid in net.
Whenever we are on the power play and I am on the defensive side, I usually run to the offensive side to try and get another photo of us scoring.
Also directly behind me was Keith Tkachuk, the former NHL player and father of Brady and Matthew (who are both on the team). He was funny and gave me this pose.
The fans were really into this game and cheered loud and hard.
I was shooting during a power play and caught this shot of a broken stick. You can see the stick is facing the wrong way on this big slap shot attempt.
Jack Hughes scored once again for the Americans and put us in full control.
This is the type of defensive photo I am looking for, with the goalie making the stop (and the puck still showing in the frame).
And yes...I finally got a really good fisheye action shot with the
Canon RF 7-14mm fisheye lens! I got this during the second period when both players were right in front of me. In this case, it really works with them both wearing similar colors. It almost looks like a two headed hockey player. :)
Brady Tkachuk had a break away in the third period and scored on this play. The shot...
...the goal...
...and the celebration.
I really like the spray of the ice in this shot, with Auston Matthews crashing the net.
One last shot attempt and the game was over, with the US winning with a commanding 6 to 2 victory. It was really nice to have a game where we were in complete control the whole game. Less stress for everyone, myself included!
At the end of the game, I got some photos of the handshakes...
...and all the players looking for their families in the stands.
I was not going to shoot photos of the guys coming off the ice, because I have done this so many times. At the last minute I decided to do so, and I am glad that I did. I saw a post on social media saying that, unlike many other teams, the Americans did not interact with the fans. I thought it was important to show otherwise.
Right as I was about to put my camera down and head back to my
MacBook Pro to download and post, I saw Vincent Trocheck hand his stick to a fan. I quickly raised my camera for a shot. This is not a great photo, but it the first part of the story.
THIS is the photo with some young boy getting the stick. Look at the elation on his face!! This is pure gold to a photographer. Our job is to tell a story and this photo says it all.
And now...we head to the gold medal game tomorrow.
Since there is no game today, I am going to head to the MPC, where I have been only one time since the Games began. I need to return my loaner Canon R1 and the Canon RF 7-14mm fisheye lens. I will miss them, but I will have no time to return these tomorrow or Monday before I fly out of here. I still have the older EF fisheye lens and the Canon R6 MKIII for the second setup at tomorrow's game.
Let's go Team USA!!
Please excuse any typos. Normally I try to proofread everything before I post, but here at the Olympics, time is a commodity. I definitely miss some things. :)
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