Equestrian for the Big 12 Conference
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to cover this year’s Big 12 Equestrian Championship in Waco. The event is normally covered by a friend of mine, but she had a conflict this year and gave them my name.
COVID made sure that there were no fans in attendance and recent rain made sure much of the event took place under the covered arena. I’d never covered an event like this before but Liz, the staff at the Big 12, (and one former student) were able to provide enough advice for me to pull it off. It was kinda like covering any given (large) TAPPS event except with horses. I just needed to know where to look.
The light inside the arena was a challenge, but they moved some of the events outside on the second day. At least I will know what to do if I ever cover something like this again.
That last one was an attempt at a panning shot (I should have brought a tripod). Whenever I cover something like this there is a tension between wanting to try something that might not work and needing to cover as much as possible. So I only made about three tries at it. I used to make it a point to bring a non-standard lens to every job. Maybe a fisheye or a Lensbaby, but I don’t always have the time to use them. Especially if the client wants as many of the participants as possible.
COVID was another challenge. I was not allowed in the team areas and I was not allowed to get close to anyone. This meant leaning on long lenses to cover distances normally taken care of by my feet.
In case you don’t follow Equestrian competition, OSU won, but I was rooting for TCU. I didn’t attend TCU as a college student but I did learn to read at Starpoint School, which is a part of the TCU education program, so I will always have a soft spot for them. That reminds me…
When I was at Starpoint one of the projects they gave us was to make a newspaper. I asked for and was given the position of “photographer” which meant I got a Polaroid camera with three shots in it. This would have been in the first or second grade (or the yellow or red room, the way it was in Starpoint). One of the TCU football players was gracious enough to come to our school so we could interview him for our sports section. A friend of mine named Josh asked the questions and I kept butting in to take a picture and by the time we got though the interview everyone just looked pissed off in the photos.
TCU Magazine will have one of my images in the summer sports edition this May. I’ll have to see if I can dig out my old Starpoint scrapbook…