As a sports photographer, there are few times, maybe more, where we get hired to help shoot for our favorite teams. I’ve been fortunate enough to photograph Tom Brady and the Patriots as well as the Boston Red-Sox and now I can add being hired to help shoot a game for the Miami Hurricanes football team. Sometimes dreams do come true!
With Miami Hurricanes coming off two come from behind victories against Florida State and Georgia Tech it seemed like the match up against Syracuse would provide the same drama. Just a week prior the Syracuse Orange knocked off the number 2 team in the country, Clemson. And truth be told, it wasn’t necessarily drama, but it did take the full game for the Miami Hurricanes to defeat Syracuse.
The Miami Hurricanes vs Georgia Tech game was filled with last minute drama as the Canes came back to win the game with a last minute field goal by kicker Michael Badgley. Of course how can one forget the torrential downpour in the 4th quarter that made the field and surrounding sidelines a gigantic kiddie pool. In theory it was just a typical day in the life of a Miami sports photographer.
The Miami Hurricanes vs. Toledo game came after a two week layoff for the Miami Hurricanes due to Hurricane Irma slamming into all of Florida. It was great to have some sort of return to normalcy with the game being played. For a few hours people didn’t have to worry about not having power or not having internet at home. For those few hours at Hard Rock Stadium, life seemed to be back to the way it was.
The second game of the season for the Miami Hurricanes brought about a lot of change and the majority was not with the team itself. While the University of Miami was getting ready for the Florida Atlantic Owls on the field, the photographers were in the media room listening about all the new rule changes the University and the Hard Rock Stadium security wanted to implement. It seems the photographers had to suffer the consequences due to other’s not doing their job properly. While the football team battled FAU on the field, the photographers had to battle off the field.
There are ways to open a football season and then there is the way the Miami Hurricanes opened their 2016 season; with a bang. A beating was a nice way to say what the FAMU Rattlers experienced when they faced the Miami Hurricanes, but a 70-3 score sounds a lot worse than a beating. It was a great way to open the new Hard Rock Stadium as well as the new era under new head coach Mark Richt.
I’ve always wanted to put together an eBook with the photos I’ve taken from the Miami Hurricanes football games and today I can finally say that I have achieved that goal. This free eBook contains photos from the 2015 Miami Hurricanes football season. This free eBook has been a work of progress since the season ended last November and I’m happy to say it’s done.
This past weekend’s Miami Hurricanes game was a special one. Carter Hucks had his Make-A-Wish Foundation wish come true. Carter wanted to meet his idol Duke Johnson of the Miami Hurricanes and practice with the team. For 3 days, Carter was able to practice with the team and on game day, Carter led the team out of the tunnel as well was the honorary captain. His wish came true and then some.