A Cold Start To The New Year

The temperature here in this little corner of Alabama dropped to 11 degrees this past Saturday morning. So, instead of staying at home and sitting by my warm and cozy fire, I headed down the road to go shoot the 19th Annual IceBowl at Talladega Short Track.


Now, I love all types of motorsports, but I must be out of my freakin' mind to want to stay outside for 2 days in these conditions.
It's not like shooting a football game where you get to go inside at halftime, out here, you get to stay out in the elements from the first green flag until the last checkered flag. No extended breaks between races, no quarter changes, just one race after another.




Now, it did warm up to a balmy 29 degrees on Saturday, and it felt like a heat wave coming through on Sunday when the temperature reached 34 degrees......BUT IT WAS STILL COLD!!!!!!!!!



I know that parts of our country have been snowed and iced in for the last few days, and I think that may have something to do with the low turn out of cars for this years Ice Bowl. I only saw a couple of cars from the Carolinas and one car from Missouri. The remainder of the cars came from Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. Local cars made up the majority of the field. Like I said, it was hard to tell if the low turn out was caused by the nasty weather or the nasty economy.



Despite the cold temperatures, the racing was still really good. It always is at Talladega Short Track.
This is where I developed my passion for photography. And motorsports was my focus(get it? develope....focus?). I shot several projects here when I was in photography school at The Art Institute of Atlanta. I even wow'ed one of my instructors with images from here and was even offered a photojournalism job from those same images, so I like to get back here every now and then.
Just wish it were'nt so danged cold.


As I was looking around for a different angle to shoot the days action from, I found this angle you don't usually see.



Everybody was bundled up tightly. It takes a real race fan to sit out here all day in this weather.


This is another new angle you don't see everyday. With the limited amount of equipment I took to the track, the amount of 'keepers' from this angle was low. But I still like it. Next time I'll go better prepared.



I think this little guy was pulling for car K9.......


I also found this little guy entertaining himself with his little yellow race car....or maybe he was replaying the last few laps?


These safety workers are looking for something that just buzzed by.


Yeah.......maybe that is what buzzed by. A barstool on a shortened racing go-cart frame. The driver told me it would run about 30 mph. I've gotta get me one of these.



The track workers have to water down the track to make the dirt tacky. Those big ol tires on the cars stick really good to a tacky track. Too bad the track was so cold the water didn't sink in.





And the winner is......Randall Walker from Pell City, Alabama.


One driver I missed seeing this weekend was the Legend himself, Red Farmer.
Red had someone else drive his car this weekend while he recouperates from double pnuemonia.


As I was talking to one of the magazine editors I sometimes shoot for, this driver pulled up beside us in his car. His race car had a flat tire, and the body was a little wrinkled. We could tell by his colorful language(directed at us), that he wasn't a happy camper.
Just then, another car was driving by and our new friend tried to flag him down.


Just as the other car was driving by, our friend made a few hand gestures and was saying something about his momma, and tried to kick the back quarterpanel of the car.


Yep......busted his ass.
He didn't think it was nearly as funny as we did.

The Third Time's The Charm

After a long, hard season, the Auburn Tigers made it to a New Years Day Bowl game. After finishing the season with 7 wins and 5 losses, they were invited to Tampa Florida to play in the OutBack Bowl.
It's not a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game, but it is one of the better bowl games to play in.


After arriving at Raymond James Stadium for a very early New Years Day game, I quickly found the photo work room and set up my computer and got my camera and other equipment in order.
I didn't have very much time to goof-off before the team arrived for Tiger Walk. This may not be original, but it is the biggest, the most fan friendly, and the best team entrance in college football.
Auburn quarterback Chris Todd and his mother share a moment before he makes his way through the thousands of people lined up for today's Tiger Walk.

Here is an excerpt from an ESPN article a few years ago.



The Best Walk in America

11/21/05 10:35 ET

By Ivan MaiselESPN.com

I have never covered a riot. I have never covered the police beat. The mayhem I witness is contained between the white lines.

I have covered the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals and the Final Four. I have covered the Olympics, Summer and Winter; the Opens, U.S. and British; the Bowls, Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange , Gator, and GMAC.

I have covered nearly every major college football rivalry. And on nearly 90 campuses, from Hawaii to Boston College , Washington to Miami ; in six different countries, from Russia to Texas (It's Like a Whole Other Country), only once have I genuinely feared for my safety.

People pack the streets at Auburn for the Tiger Walk on game day, especially for Alabama .

That was at Tiger Walk in 1989.



In beginning, in the 1960s -- before Tiger Walk became "the most copied tradition in all of college football," Auburn athletic director David Housel said with pride, not pique -- it was just a bunch of kids running up to Donahue Drive to see the Auburn Tigers walk from their dorm to the game.

There are older pre-game walks at Stanford and at Williams College . But they don't generate the passion that builds as the Auburn team makes the turn from Donahue onto Roosevelt at the south end of Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Tiger Walk has become the signature event of Auburn 's pre-game ritual. It will be the highlight again on Saturday, when Alabama comes back to town. Those kids who lined Donahue Drive 40 years ago will be there again, and now they'll have their children and grandchildren in tow.

Tiger Walk goes on the road. Tiger Walk is listed on the players' weekend itinerary. Tiger Walk has spawned copycat walks at Tennessee , Georgia , Virginia Tech, and several other schools. Tiger Walk has spawned Tiger Walk Plaza , an enclosed courtyard paved with 6,000 bricks purchased by and inscribed for Auburn fans that serves as the entrance to the Tiger locker room.




Tiger Walk is also misnamed. It is no more a walk than a morning jog is the New York Marathon. A "walk" connotes peace, a stroll. But here, fans roll into Auburn on Friday night to park their cars on Donahue Drive for a prime viewing spot. They line up so deep that the street narrows to the width of a Venetian sidewalk. The Auburn faithful jam together so tightly that the university is concerned for public safety. They scream, they sing, they cheer, they fire up the Tigers and get fired up themselves.

Tiger Walk began to get legs a quarter-century ago, when coach Doug Barfield urged the fans to line the streets. Barfield, who now works at the Alabama High School Athletic Association, dismisses the notion that he has any ownership. But Tiger Walk didn't become Tiger Walk until 1989, when Alabama came to Auburn for the first time in the history of the sport's most fevered intrastate rivalry.

The rivalry between Auburn and Alabama is so passionate that the teams refused to play from 1907 until 1948. That year, the schools agreed to play every season ... but only at Legion Field in Birmingham , a neutral site. At the time, Auburn was so remote and inaccessible, and its stadium so small, that the Tigers played only one game a season there. But as Auburn football grew stronger and the stadium got bigger, and as the university's engineering graduates overtook the state highway department and built four-lane highways into the town, Auburn became a major university.

It was a major university, that is, everywhere but in Tuscaloosa . Coach Paul Bryant wouldn't deign to bring his Crimson Tide to "that little cow college across the state," as the Bear called it. After Bryant's death in 1983, one of his protégés, Pat Dye, built Auburn into a national power. Dye, wanting the symbolism of equal footing with Alabama , promised an ugly judicial or legislative battle if Alabama didn't agree to play home-and-home. The Alabama athletic director who agreed, former Tide All-American quarterback Steve Sloan, lost his job.




Jordan-Hare Stadium will be filled to the brim for the Alabama game this Saturday.

So on Dec. 2, 1989, No. 2 Alabama came to Auburn with a 10-0 record. The No. 11 Tigers were 8-2. Two hours before the game, an estimated 20,000 fans, nearly one-quarter of the 85,319 (a record that stood for 12 years), gathered on the east and west sides of Donahue Drive . A writer from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and I stood on the west side, about two-thirds of the way down the hill.

The Auburn fans roared, their eyes glazed with a mixture of fervor, pride, passion, and perhaps a touch of the Jack Daniels. We were five or six deep and couldn't get any closer to the street. We were also hemmed in, and didn't have the zeal-fueled adrenaline to ward off the elbows and other parts of the bouncing, heaving, deafening masses. I no longer had any interest in taking notes, which was just as well, because the noise and the lack of space made it impossible. My own adrenaline had kicked in.



Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka was a thorn in the side of Auburn all game long. He passed 78 times and had four touchdowns. I got lot's of pictures of him.


Early in the game, Kafka moved his team down inside the three yard line and attempted a pass to Zeke Markshausen in the endzone when Auburn defensive back Walter McFadden stepped in front of it.


Headlines and goal lines was all McFadden could see.


Northwestern receiver Lee Coleman gives Auburn defensive back D'Antoine Hood a handfull (i thought that was illegal).


After Auburn had scored twice to go up 14-0, Kafka hit Andrew Brewer for a 39 yard touchdown. OK, I know....too much lens.


Ben Tate runs for part of his 108 yards rushing.


Sherrick McManis (24) celebrates with is teammates after he intercepts a Kodi Burns pass.


It was raining all during the first half, and I had wanted a slow shutterspeed image of the raindrops streaking by the quarterbacks helmet. I didn't slow the shutterspeed down enough to get the effect I wanted. Or it may not have been raining hard enough to get what I wanted. I'll put that one in the memory bank for later use.


Here is another image of Kafka. It seemed like I was the only one gettin a shot at him. I was wishing the Tigers could get a shot at him too.


This is my favorite image from the day. It almost has a 3-D look to it. A foreground, middle, and background. Sometimes it works real well when you can layer your subject.


Synchronized tumbling, or a quarterback sack by Northwwestern linebacker Nate Williams. Why can't Auburn sack their quarterback?


Northwestern superback Drake Dunsmore gives Demond Washington a handful (didn't I ask earlier if that was illegal)?


And Dunsmore breaks loose and heads for the goal line.


Auburns Walter McFadden runs him down and tries to make the tackle, but slides off Dunsmore just before the goal line. This play went for 66 yards.


Finally, Auburn started getting to the Northwestern quarterback. Anytime Josh Bynes (17) and Antonio Coleman (52) start pounding on you, you're bound to be really sore.


See, I did get some pix of Auburn's quarterback, Chris Todd.


Chris Todd had 31 attempts for 235 yards. Not a bad day.


Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka completed this pass to Andrew Brewer as T'Sharvan Bell defends. Brewer made a spectacular catch on this play.


Here's the end of the play and the catch.


Sidney Stewart (5) almost brought this pass down in bounds.


Then, Coach C started working the officials.


Terrell Zackery took the ball around end for 50 yards late in the game to the Auburn seven yard line.


Ben Tate would score on the next play. Here he celebrates with tightend Tommy Trott.


The Auburn defense was starting to come alive as Josh Bynes (17) tackles Sidney Stewart(5).


Then Nick Fairley (90) started to get pressure on Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka.


As Northwestern's football team tried to close the score late in the game, I could hear their band doing what bands do best. I look around to see one of their drum majors / directors wearing his luck hat.


Auburn linebacker Antonio Coleman blocks the extra point attempt after Northwestern scored with 3:20 to play. The blocked extra point left an 8 point difference late in the game.


The Wildcats tried an onside kick but Auburn recovered it. On the next play, Onterio McCalebb ran for 11 yards.


Neiko Thorpe and Andrew Brewer continue their on field battles.


On a fourth and three, Auburns Nick Fairley sacks Mike Kafka for a 17 yard loss. Fairley was penalized for a facemask on this play. The unsportsmanlike conduct penality would give Northwestern a first down at the Auburn 18. The Wildcats would score on the next play.


Auburns Demond Washington (14) would fumble at the 50 yardline with 1:03 left to play.


Antonio Coleman is making it hard for Mr. Kafka to complete a pass.


As time runs out in regulation, Northwestern placekicker Stefan Demos reacts to missing a 44 yard fieldgoal.


Ben Tate carries the ball in overtime.


After Auburn kicked a 21 yard fieldgoal, Northwestern ran several plays which Auburn stopped short of the goal line. On a fourth and goal from the five, the Wildcats lined up for a fieldgoal, but faked it and pitched the ball to Zeke Markshausen. Auburn's Neiko Thorpe wasn't fooled and made the game saving tackle at the Auburn 2.


As the on field celebration was taking place by the Tigers, I noticed that a cooler of Gatorade was being carried by Darvin Adams (89) and Mario Fannin (27).


Clinton Durst (18) and Darvin Adams (89) gave coach C a Gatorade bath for his first bowl win as a head coach.