St. Louis, I hardly knew ye...

 
With Creighton leaving the Missouri Valley Conference this was my last year to be in St. Louis for the MVC Arch Madness tournament. Not gonna lie, there was a lot of beer consumed during Arch Madness. Call it a perk of having your photo call at 11am. But from 11am until screw-this-place-o'clock it's a wonderfully intense work day where you get to emerge from the arena wondering what happened to the rest of the world in the last 10hrs.

Hit the jump for a couple behind the scenes pics and what the daily grind becomes when shooting a tourney...

Email. So much email. Want to know satellite broadcast coordinates? Want to join in the coaches' phone conference? How about every game note ever?...ever. Pretty sure the only email not sent is the one telling you what's for lunch at the media buffet. But, in all of that spam there's a lot of useful information you'd better not miss. First and foremost, credential pick-up. That's an important email to have at hand. Your credential isn't only your ticket to get in but it's your meal ticket, hall pass and, frankly, the girls love it you get free drinks with it in the press lounge. But bring your ID or you're stuck. Can't phone a friend here.

Use your time wisely to prepare. The day before the tournament starts, when you should be getting your credential packet, take a couple hours to get everything technical in order. Format your cards, your backup cards and even that 2gig card from 2007 that you keep in your pocket as a last resort. Charge your batteries, curse the hotel for not having enough outlets, curse yourself for not bringing a power strip. Hop into Lightroom and preset your collections & metadata, get into PhotoMechanic and prep your rosters. Hard drive space? External backup? External backup backup? You get the point. Just have it all ready so when you walk into the arena you are ready to go.

At the College World Series you are rewarded for being early with first dibs at a spot in the photo pit. Same goes for the media room in basketball. Arriving for the day at the arena, the first order of business is grabbing a good spot in the media workroom. Remember that power outlet problem you had at the hotel? Not here. Your new home office comes well equipped. Grab
your info sheet for wireless, plug in and set your space up. Come halftime you're going to be in a rush to get out some pics and nothing sucks more than wasting time finding your card reader or trying to get connected to wireless. And then...the sheet. Somewhere in the bowls of the staffing room there's someone who decides where you get to sit on the baseline. If you're lucky there is a front row seat for you, a place where you may get landed on by a coordinated lurch athlete but always the best spot to have, IMO. If the photo gods do not smile at you then

grab some soda crates from the hospitality back room, because that's your chair for the next couple hours if you want to be able to see over the guy in front of you. Oh yeah, and don't forget your official photo sticker. This desirable fashion statement, and requirement if you want to spend more than 60sec on the floor doing your job, is taped around your leg and will stay there until you get back to your hotel and someone asks where they can get one why you have some giant neon sticker on your leg. It's okay. You have plenty of time to pick all the little pieces off your pants. Pro tip: don't wear shorts.

It's kind of funny, really, sitting with a group of shooters on the floor. Some guys are fully involved in the game, muttering under their breath about bad jump shots. Others pop in the ear buds and live in their own little world. For the most part though it's a good bunch,

working together to make the most of a cramped space and helping the less experienced. Get to know your fellow shooters, make friends, ask questions. Return the favor. 

Halftime is a mad rush to race back to the media room and get a few pics tweeted out and emailed to your writers/editors. The guys whose legs fell asleep on the floor do the pins

and needles shuffle. Social media rules. Know your tags, hashtags, blah blah. There isn't a lot of time during the break but one thing I will say is take the time to proof the images you're sending out. It sounds obvious but a couple photos that are tweaked to be straight and cropped well are worth a million times more than five or ten pics that look like you don't give a... It happens. Even halftime photos are a finished product. If you're lucky there's a timer on the wall that ticks down the halftime break. Start the ingest/import process so it runs while you are shooting the second half. Fresh cards. Race back to the floor.

After the game things go a lot like they did at halftime. One of the things I like best about shooting for White and Blue Review is it's a small group and everyone works together. Sitting in the media room afterwards, your writer comes back from press row and you have a chance to craft a good story and coordinate your efforts in person. From here on out it's getting your images out and fast. The media room is like a library at this point. Keyboards clicking, TV guys getting their packages assembled. It's easy to tell who the on-camera talent is. They're the ones going "Oh, yeah, I look good in that shot. Put it up". True story. 

Of course this is all preliminary games. If you're lucky and your team makes the championship game it changes a bit. Halftime is your chance to grab whatever gear you're taking onto the floor after the game and drop off anything extra. Once that buzzer sounds and the game is over it's every man for himself. It's like going into a mosh pit except you're with crazed fans and large athletes. Makes the TSA seem gentle with your gear. But get in

there. Take the time to be aware about what's going on around you and get good shots. As exciting as it is to be out there, holding down the shutter and rattling off pics of the back of someone's head at 10fps is not a good strategy unless you have a high paying client who specializes in hair products and likes sports. These are the best moments and they're the shots everyone will want. After a championship nothing else exists. Game pics? Forget it. They're an afterthought.  

Look for the key players, know what the agenda is. Don't be afraid to assert yourself. The guy next to you may be shooting for a wire or SI, but there's space for everyone. Don't be like these guys and get into a shoving match while the star player watches you and waits for you to finish so he can start the interview you're supposed to be shooting.

There's a lot going on after a championship game. Trophies, hugs, emotion everywhere. Guys walking across stages, nets being cut down. Fans galore! 

Over the season you get to know the guys you're shooting and you get to shoot and share some of their best and most memorable moments. Yes, get to. It's a privilege. There's a center who tweets at me looking for pics of his dunks after a game. Hook him up. Don't ever forget why you're there. Without those guys you're sitting at home cleaning your sensor. You meet their families at pep rallies and send-offs, reconnect every year and when you're on the floor after the game seek them out. Take their picture with their kid. Hit your deadlines but don't be afraid to go back out and linger. You might end up being the only photographer there to convince the team to huddle around center court for a winning photo.