On Thursday, Columbia Missourian reporters Michael Shaw, Wade Livingston, and Seth Boster and I started a 13+ hour trip from Columbia, Missouri down to Columbia, South Carolina (via a stop with Wade's wonderful family in Sylva, North Carolina overnight) to cover the Mizzou game against the Gamecocks. Early in the week I pitched a photo essay of my time on the road. I appreciate the edit that the Missourian made of my work and the fact that they were willing to publish my thoughts. You can read that here. Below is a wider edit of the scenes from my window (and a few when I got a chance to get out of the car). I hope you enjoy.
Cars drive along Interstate 64 in St. Louis, Mo.
A garage sits alone west of East St. Louis, Mo.
Two men talk along the side of the road in East St. Louis.
A man rides a bike along State Highway 111 in East St. Louis, Ill.
A man rides a bike toward State Highway 111 in East St. Louis, Ill.
North of Johnston City, Ill..
Construction equipment sits in a field outside of Metropolis, Ill.
A Superman cut out stands, waiting outside the Super Museum, for one of many tourists who visit Metropolis, Ill. for their ties (in name) to Superman's town. The town hosts an annual Superman celebration in addition to every day attractions like the Super Museum.
Bob Evans (CQ), left, and Jenny Dunham stop at the Super Museum in Metropolis, Ill. Evans and Dunham live in Independence, Mo. and were passing through on their way back from Evans' brother's funeral in Georgia.
Cars merge on to Interstate 40 above as other cars approach rush hour traffic in downtown Nashville, Tn.
A cross belonging to the River Community Church stands along Interstate 40 in Cookeville, Tn.
Just east of Cookeville, Tn.
Interstate 40 carves through the hills of Tennesse, revealing layers of crumbling stone east of Cookeville, Tn.
Bailed hay sits ready for the winter outside a barn south of Monterey, Tn.
Layers of trees paint the skyline as the rise and fall of hills and clouds in the sky create an added depth on the landscape west of Kingston, Tn.
Stacks for the Kingston Fossil Plant, a coal burning power plant, stretch above the bridge over the Watts Bar Lake outside Kingston, Tn.
Today was my second Mizzou football game day, after some time away from the team as a coworker took over the coverage. I hadn't been particularly happy with my work last game. I also saw a lot of inspiring work in the past few weeks as well including some great work from my friend Grant Hindsley, who went on the road to Texas from Utah and made some (characteristically) great work. I took that great work as motivation and went out and tried to make my best work and cover as many of the angles as possible while not missing anything key.
It was a tight game all the way through, tighter than any of the radio folks around Columbia expected. But coming into the end of the 4th quarter the Tigers has pulled away from what was supposedly a bad Indiana football team, just barely. With what could have been potentially the last play of the game, Missouri was called for pass interference on 4th down and gave Indiana a chance to run down the field and dive over the line for a touchdown. From there, even a lateral or two couldn't save Mizzou and they were handed their first loss, 31-27.
In the search for a sad moment from the players or coaches, I saw Marcus Murphy in the distance, sitting on the field next to the football he caught on the last play of the game but was unable to do anything with. I ran over but before I could get there to make the photo, an Indiana player picked him up. It was an appropriate way to end the game for me, as I felt like I shot Indiana better than Mizzou today, which doesn't help when you don't work for an Indiana paper.
Next week's road trip to South Carolina (and to ESPN College Gameday) will provide a change of pace and allow me a chance to hit the reset button on my work. College Gameday and a night game will be a blast. Plus, I remember something I heard at a workshop once, about seeing everything with your inner "child's eye" and a chance to go to a place I've never been before, shoot things I've never seen... I'm expecting it to be a lot of fun.
Today was my first day out shooting NCAA Division I football since the 2011-2012 Badger season. I felt pretty rusty out there but it seemed like the Mizzou Tigers were rusty too. Not a lot of big plays and clean moments to shoot but looking around at other work I can tell I've got some work to grow. With 6 more games to shoot this semester I think that things will only get better.
