Apparently, this woman wants desperately to get married to the guy at left.

Either that, or she's willing to marry Tampa Bay quarterback Tim Rattay.

Whom would you chose?

Neil posts a comment and asks:

"In your years of covering sports contests, have you ever been bowled over by a player - camera over teakettle?"

You mean like this poor guy who got run over during today's game between the Seahawks and Tampa Bay?

I'm knocking on wood as I write this, but luckily, I've yet to be hit on the sidelines at a football game. When I was just starting out as a shooter, I saw a friend get absolutely DRILLED during a Monday night game. He was photographing in the end zone of the Kingdome and an Oakland player ran right into him. He broke a rib.

We all watched it happened. And then, because we're so sensitive, we all took pictures of him lying on the ground in agony before we realized how injured he actually was.

Ever since then, I've been especially careful not to put myself into any danger. The great thing, is that you can actually feel the ground shudder and move as the players get close, so even if I'm looking through my lens, I can sense when to get out of the way.

Obviously, I want to hang in as long as I can to get the frame, and often I've relied on the players to recognize we're there and to avoid us.

Hopefully, I'll never get hit. I don't want to see myself on Sportscenter getting carried off the field.

And, I'd have to explain to my bosses why my cameras were wrecked yet again.

Thanks for the question!

Thanks for the great response to the blog, so far.

I really appreciate all the questions and comments, and hope to answer most of your questions either via email, in the comments section, or in a separate post, whichever will be most appropriate.

Many of you have asked about my equipment — what I use during a game, how I carry it, what I pack when I travel.

Here's a brief rundown of the gear I've brought to Tampa for tomorrow's game between the Seahawks and the Buccaneers.

(Sorry for the crummy quality of the photo — I shot the equipment on my bed in the Tampa Airport Marriott.)

As you can see, I'm carrying three camera bodies, four lenses, two extenders, and a flash unit.

It breaks down like this:

Canon EOS 1d Mark II N camera bodies (2)
Canon EOS 1d camera body (1)
Canon EF 400mm/2.8 lens
Canon EF 70-200mm/2.8 lens
Canon EF 24-70mm/2.8 lens
Canon EF 16-35mm/2.8 lens
Canon 1.4 II extender
Canon 2x II extender
Canon 550EX flash unit

Gitzo monopod

I don't have an assistant this week, or I'd likely have also brought:

Canon EF 300mm/2.8 lens

(For a breakdown of how each lens comes into play, I wrote about how each is used back in October).

Also, I bring rain covers made by Aquatech to help protect the equipment from water. And yes, I bring them everywhere I will be shooting outside. I'm from Seattle, but I'm well aware that there could be thunderstorms tomorrow here in Tampa, despite temperatures in the '80's.

Around my waist I wear a belt pack by Think Tank Photo, a great new company out of the Bay Area that makes bags and other gear for photographers. The folks behind the products are current and former shooters, including Pulitzer Prize winner Deanne Fitzmaurice, so they know what they're doing.

The one I wear is called "The Speed Demon", and it's just the right size to carry the extenders, a flash, some extra batteries and my compact flash cards.

As well, you can add pouches to the belt, which is where I carry the extenders. I will use the 1.4x extender (which makes my 400mm lens effectively a 560mm lens, with a loss of a stop of light) a couple of times a game, and I will rarely use the 2x (and only when I'm shooting in outdoors in the sun) because it costs me two stops of light, and is harder to keep in focus.

Here's a photo of the Speed Demon

Finally, I carry all of it in a rolling suitcase, especially designed for camera gear. It's also made by Think Tank, and is called the Airport Security.

The great thing about this bag is that it fits in the overhead compartment of most commercial airliners, and also importantly, it ROLLS. Trust me, lugging all that stuff on one's shoulder or back is a strain.

I carry my laptop, cables, etc., in a backpack or computer bag, and also check a bag with my clothes. I throw the belt pack, monopod, rain cover, battery chargers, and also my rain gear in that bag, so it gets pretty full. It's kinda funny to see me trekking for a simple two-night trip with all that stuff, but the rain gear is very handy in a thunderstorm.

Not sure how much more travel there will be this football season. If the Seahawks can win that wild-card playoff game at home next weekend, I'll be heading back to Chicago with all my gear, plus some cold weather gear that I didn't need this weekend in sunny Florida.

(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas,
And all through Qwest Field,
The rain had been pouring
But my cameras were sealed.

The Seahawks were all nestled with a tight four-point lead,
And the NFC West title already guaranteed.
The fans were all giddy, despite all the rain,
And they had shed the bad memories of the past two week's games.

When out on the field there arose such a clatter,
I sprung to my lens to see what was the matter.
The camera to my eye I brought like a flash,
And peered through the rain towards the line on the hash.

The lights of the stadium gave such a glow
To the luster of players battling below.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But receiver going deep, with no defender near.

The Chargers! Phillip Rivers! Wide receiver Vince Jackson!
Oh Boulware! Oh Herndon! What the hell has happened?
To the front the goal line, at the end zone to the north,
Now see if you can put some pass defense forth!

And then, in a twinkling, I caught sight of a ref,
Racing downfield to observe from the left.
As I focused my lens and was ready to snap,
That ref blocked my view and my picture was crap.

(Canon EOS 1d Mark II, EF 400mm 2.8 lens, ISO 1000, 1/640 sec., f2.8)

He spoke not a word, but when straight to his work,
But my picture was ruined and I felt like a jerk.
I kept with the action and tried to recover,
And caught a decent moment when the players tumbled over.

(Canon EOS 1d Mark II, EF 400mm 2.8 lens, ISO 1000, 1/640 sec., f2.8)

Santa must watched from his sleigh as I cursed like a sailor
And made notes to himself to punish my behavior.
I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
"You didn't get today's picture, but next week you might!"

Just a quick update explaining the, well, lack of updates.

No power, no blog. I've walked around my cold, dark home for the past week, chanting those four words like the protesters who chant, "No Justice, No Peace." Hey, at least it kept me warm.

"No Power, No Blog! No Power, No Blog! No Power, No Blog!"

Kinda catchy, isn't it?

Seriously, I'm not comparing my blog to a protest. Not, unless, you're referring to those types of street protests where eight or ten different groups all wander around downtown each with their own agenda, leaving chaos in their wake.

In THAT case, yes, this blog is like one of those protests.

Power is recently back on, cable is not, so no broadband from the homestead.

The office? No chance. I'm taking some time off this week.

But I will post some new entries in a day or so.

(Btw -- I'm NOT complaining about the lack of power. Kudos, in fact, to the power people working 24/7 to get us all back online. I see them out there all hours, in the cold and rain. Hope they are done before the holidays so they can enjoy their families.)

Don't worry, this isn't another post about bad song titles from the '70's and '80's.

I received a number of comments on the photo of Neil Racker's field goal in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Seahawks vs. Cardinals game in Arizona.

Here's the photo in question:

(Canon EOS 1d Mark IIn, EF 70-200 mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 800, 1/250 sec., f5.6)

At the point of the game when this field goal happened (fourth quarter, Arizona trying to extend their lead to six points), I wasn't sure where I wanted to position myself.

What was going through my mind was this:

— Is this field goal going to CHANGE the outcome of the game? That answer was "not likely". If good, the field goal would extend the lead to 27-21 and the score would remain 24-21 if Rackers didn't make it. At that point, a block by the Seahawks that they would return for a touchdown would be the biggest possible play, and the one that would change the game.

As such, my instinct was to get behind the field goal — that is, to be behind the line of scrimmage with the Seahawks facing me so that if they blocked it and returned it they would be running right towards me.

But as I was evaluating the situation between plays, the sun caught my eye, and momentarily shone directly on me. I had remembered seeing beams of sunlight highlight players during an earlier touchdown, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from in the vast stadium.

I'd like to be able to tell you that I remembered the shafts of light and PLANNED to use them later in the game (see Shooting the Light, but it being my first time in the stadium, I had no idea where the sun would be later in the game.

(Heck, I had no idea where my rental car was even parked.)

With the light on my face, I reasoned that it might make an interesting photo, even if my angle on the field goal itself was less-than-ideal.

So, I sized up the scene using a 70-200mm zoom, and saw just that — the light was possibly going to be nice, but the moment of the field goal was going to be VERY so-so.

But hey, I've shot a LOT of important field goals this year, so I figured I'd take the interesting angle over the storytelling angle just this once.

Plus, our Director of Photography, Barry Fitzsimmons is always encouraging me to take risks, so I thought this was a good opportunity to experiment.

The problem was, I only had a few moments to figure out the exposure. Was I to "open-up" (i.e., overexpose) the photo to give the sun the most impact? Or was I to slow down the shutter speed? I took two "test frames" during the time out and decided to shoot slower.

Shooting at 1/250th of a second was risky because if the Seahawks did block the field goal and there was a scrum to recover it, the players might possibly appear blurry due to the shutter speed.

The photo turned out pretty much the way I envisioned it, but the sun looked best after the ball had been kicked, so I transmitted that one. At that point, I figured it was becoming an "artsy-fartsy" (can I say that?) photograph, so to hell (can I say THAT?) with the peak action.

As it turned out, the editors and designers liked it, and ran the photo unusually large on our weekly photo page, by turning the photo "on its' side".

Any comments or questions are, as always, greatly appreciated.

After a couple of weeks of winter weather snow in Seattle, and freezing temperatures in Denver, it's a nice change to be in the Valley of the Sun for today's game between the Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals.

Packing was a lot simpler — no heavy coat, no snow pants, no cold weather undergarments, no boots.

I stood at the baggage claim here in Phoenix waiting for my bag, only to realize after 20 minutes that I had brought a different, smaller bag on this trip, since my checked bag only contained some workout clothes, t-shirt and shorts for the game, and my monopod.

Yup, I stood there watching my own bag spin around and around the carousel before realizing that the bag I was staring it was indeed my own.

Some days there are no limits to my idiocy.

----------

On the drive to the stadium, the car radio was tuned to one of the "all-Christmas" stations that every city seems to have during the holidays.

Cruising along at 60 mph under a bright blue sky, past palm trees and desert brush, I was found myself listening to the dulcet tones of Bing Crosby singing "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas".

I had to smile at the irony of staring at palm trees while listening to the following verse:

...there's a tree in the Grand hotel, one in the park as well, the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow...

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Overheard in the parking lot, Part 1:

Drunken Seahawks fan in a Ken Hamlin jersey walking through a sea of red-clad Cardinals fans in the parking lot:

"NFC CHAMPS BABY!!!!"

Sarcastically slurred response from an Arizona fan (and ostensibly, native of the desert):

"300 DAYS OF RAIN, BAAAABBBBBBBBYYYYYYYYY!!!"

Arizona fan — 1, Seattle fan — 0.

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Overheard in the parking lot, Part 2:

"Shoot, why didn't they go after Mike Price? ROOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL TIIIIIIIIDEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

(In reference to news that former Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson will take the helm at Arizona State, and also a shot at former Wazzu coach Mike Price's brief tenure at Alabama before leaving in disgrace.)

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Here's an exterior shot of the new home of the Cardinals, a space-age looking behemoth in the middle of the desert. It's state-of-the art, and will host the BCS title game between Ohio State and Florida in January. Interestingly for a covered "indoor" stadium, the field surface is natural grass, which can "rolled out" of the stadium into the outdoors for sun between events.

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Former Arizona State and Cardinals star Pat Tillman, who turned down millions in NFL contract money to join the U.S. military and was killed in a friendly-fire incident, is a hero to many here in Arizona.

A memorial to him which includes a statue and a reflecting pool is located outside of the stadium, in an area known as "Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza".

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Lastly, this is Jim Nardone, a 20-year resident of Phoenix. Originally from Pennsylvania, Nardone was dressed for winter, with his jacket snapped to the top, and his hood pulled tight over his cap.

He was working in guest relations outside of the stadium before the game, marveling at the Seattle natives walking around in shorts.

"It's only supposed to be 68 degrees today", he fretted, "and the wind is making it even colder."

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Okay, enough for now. Kickoff is an hour away.

Well, I started to write an entry recapping my adventures shooting tonight's game between the Seahawks and the Broncos.

It was going something like this:

— Hey, it's freezing winter weather out here! Oops, talked about that before.

— Hey, Matt Hasselbeck struggled in the first half! Oops, we saw that last week, too.

— Hey, Josh Brown kicked a last-second, game-winning field goal on the road! Oops, I wrote about that before, too.

So with apologies to Lou Gramm, here's a brief rundown of the game, with the help of the 80's hair band Foreigner.

(This is hereby dedicated to my sports photo editor, who loves '80's music but is a great editor anyway.)

First of all, it was Cold as Ice. Sixteen degrees on the field.

Even the officials wore long black (!) pants instead of their customary white knickers.

Matt Hasselbeck still showed rust from his long layoff, taking a couple of delay penalties and at least one sack, feeling A Long, Long Way From Home.

Denver's rookie quarterback Jay Cutler, who started his first N.F.L. regular season game is Growing Up the Hard Way. To him, we dedicate Feels Like the First Time. He threw an ill-advised interception that resulted in a touchdown, and also suffered a couple of sacks, including this one by Seattle's Julian Peterson and Leroy Hill.

Headknocker Marcus Trufant continued his good play of late, playing Head Games while crushing Denver's Rod Smith and knocking the ball loose for a fumble recovered by Seattle's Julian Peterson, one of five Broncos turnovers.

Seattle's Shaun Alexander got Hotblooded in the second half, and rushed for 70 yards in the second half, including a big eight-yard run to set up Josh Brown's game-winning field goal. Steam comes off of his head in the fourth quarter.

Seattle kicker Josh Brown missed two field goals in the first half, and had to remind himself at halftime That Was Yesterday.

But Brown, never one to doubt himself, must have thought I'm Gonna Win as he came back to nail an Urgent 50-yard field goal Under The Gun with 0:05 left in the game, making himself the team's Juke Box Hero for the fourth time this season, giving Seattle a Tooth and Nail, 23-20 win.

(Okay, I promise NEVER to do that again....)