Music City Bowl and an Epic Video Gaming Adventure

So this update is a little over due...but let me explain to you what I have been doing for the past few days...

Of course I have been bouncing around everywhere with like no internet for the whole break and it has been pretty annoying, but Wednesday me and some friends decided to start a gaming marathon to bring in the new year by playing borderlands until we beat it. So we start off and learn that you have to have one xbox 360 per person playing, and we only had 2 (there were 3 of us). So, we concoct a brilliant plan to go to gamestop and buy a 360 used, and then return it when we are finished the next day for a no questions asked refund. While we are out we rent Borderlands from Blockbuster.

So we get back and we hook up the xbox and it red-ring-of-death's on us. We take it back to gamestop; they have no more used 360s, so we just buy an arcade version an be done with it. Then we go back and get ready to play, and the 3rd Borderlands disk (the one we rented from Blockbuster) is really scratched, so we can't use that disk. We also check while we are at my friend's house that we are staying at, and see that the internet isn't working to update the new xbox, so we have to go back into town one more time...

We head to Walmart to buy a new Borderlands disk, and then to my other friend's house (the one that has been buying the xbox and the game and all) to update the thing so that we can play. However, when we get there, we realize that we don't have a controller to navigate the menus to update the xbox. So, after calling ourselves stupid for a while and about going out to get another controller (since we had left all the ones we had at the house we were staying at) we try to use a usb keyboard to control the 360...and it worked! So then, about 5 hours after our adventure started, we were finally able to play...and what an epic night of gaming it was...

Anyway, on to the Music City Bowl. We won this one, but I still don't really have much to say; I do have a lot of pictures though, and so I guess I will just jump right in there with those. Sorry that I haven't posted this as I have had the pictures ready for 3 days now, but with all the New Year's festivities and no internet and all I am doing the best I can lol.

The night before the bowl game there was a battle of the bands in downtown Nashville where both the bands and cheerleaders when and play songs/did cheers back and forth at each other. I think it was pretty fun and I enjoyed it though I did about get kicked in the head by the TigerBand dancers about 8 times. Anyway, here are the pictures, enjoy!

Their mascot was a very tall fellow...

They also had a dance off between the school's mascots. I think we won (cause we are just that awesome).

It was pretty cold at the game - it was snowing the whole second half. Sure not like heavy accumulating powder snow, but it was 24 degrees and there were white flakes coming down. But we made it though and pulled out the win which was really good.

This is a pretty cool series of photos here I think.

This one I am adding to my portfolio, really love this shot.

Rumor is the band is getting pretty shiny (literally shiny) drums next year and I am pretty excited about that haha. I think it will make for really cool pictures.

I have been wanting a good picture of a handoff all season long and I finally got one here. Spiller is out of focus, but Parker is sharp and you can really see the determination on his face. I really love this shot too.

This was after a fumble that followed a punt by us. It was really good that we recovered this, and this drive put us on top when we scored.

This guy was really old school; he was shooting with film. I have thought about what it would take to shoot sports with film and what it must have been like back in the day and it is just crazy to me to think about that. But anyway just was interesting I thought.

I know that I said I wasn't really happy with the pictures I got at the ACC Championship, but I really liked the photos I got at the Music City Bowl. I think it was definitely an awesome end to a great football season.

So, hope everyone has a happy new year and that school starts off good for everyone. I will be posting some on the basketball game we had the other night probably Monday, so until then,

-joshua

ACC Championship Game

Well, this is a little past due, and unfortunately we did lose, but because this was right before my exams I didn't get around to editing these until this past weekend (I went on break a little and I have also been without internet for a while). But, they are edited now and so I am posting them now.

I really enjoyed going to the ACC Championship, and it was the first one that Clemson has been to in a long while. But I think that we will be back before my time here is up (I hope so at least). Anyway, it was a really fun experience and I liked getting to travel with the band and feel important lol.

There was a prep-rally the night before the game so we will start with those photos.

Because we haven't had enough rain this season it was raining during the pep-rally (thankfully it did not rain during the game) but that made for a cold and fun adventure that no one was around to see...

They paraded us into a small area surrounded by a bunch of (drunk fans) so that was good fun. I spent most of the time dodging in and out of the way of the instruments, which I actually kinda enjoyed lol. It made taking the pictures more interesting and challenging, and it also was like having true surround sound. I really do like tagging along with the band because they are such a big part of the spirit of the competition.

It was pretty hard to take pictures that were in focus as I forgot to bring my flash to the event (though I did catch some other people's flash in some of the photos which I think makes a pretty cool effect) but I kinda like this picture of the flags.

It was a pretty small place, but they did pack it in. Not everyone there was a Clemson or Georgia Tech fan, but I think that everyone did enjoy the show.

As I said above, that was (thankfully) the only night that it rained, so the photos I got at the game were not obtained in the freezing wet lol. Though I was actually a little disappointed with my pictures from the game. I got some good ones from before and after the game; but not too many action shots from the game. Though, really it is a photographer's job to tell the story of the game, and the game is sometimes (and really I would say most times) not just about the action. Something I have learned over the past year of taking sports pictures is that football, and all sports for that matter, is not just about the points and the plays - it is really an emotional game and sometimes it is those pictures that tell the best story.

The cheerleaders were doing a lot of different stunts and things before the game and I will tell you, even just watching them hurts me lol.

I really like this photo of the team from before the game.

After the first touchdown everyone was celebrating and usually I try to take pictures of the players but I guess they were just too far away from me because I snapped some shots of the cheerleaders instead but I think they turned out well too.

I have always loved the band, but especially since I have started traveling with them I have begun to feel like they are becoming another family to me. A good number of people on campus know me, and more and more people are getting to know me in the band. It really is a cool feeling.

Like I said above, I didn't get too many action shots but the ones I did get I thought were pretty good.

I liked this photo of Dabo talking with Spiller and Ellington after Ellington's touchdown.

I think that the cheerleaders were the most emotional during the ACC Championship that I have seen them, but that is understandable as it was a really big game for us.

Spiller had a tough game, and he really wanted the win and unfortunately it didn't come for him. But I do still really like the photos I got of him after the game - I think that he was good to his fans, and he really put his all into that game.

(This is another version of the photo)

Of course to the victor goes the spoils, but hopefully next year we will be in a different position. Though I did enjoy taking pictures of a team celebrating.

Anyway, about to shoot the last men's basketball game of the preseason and then I will be running around for a while tomorrow, but I should be able to get the Bowl Game photos up; I have started looking at them and I like what I got so far, so hopefully they will yield some pretty good ones.

-joshua