I got to shoot a game between MSU and LSU at Tiger Stadium (or Death Valley) in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday night. Pretty impressive stadium, definitely one of the loudest things I have ever heard. It was at least twice as loud as my wife’s snoring. Just kidding honey, it was easily three times louder.
As huge as the stadium is, I have to say I was disappointed with the lighting on the field. There was plenty of light, it just seemed to be too high up, so the tops of helmets and shoulderpads were the only things catching light. Oh well. I’ll probably never get the chance to shoot there again since the chances of Illinois playing there are pretty slim and this was just a one-time thing.
Aaron is the MSU beat writer for his paper, the Starkville Daily News, and was able to get me credentials to shoot the game for his paper. Too bad they only ran one photo (and cropped it to death) the next day.
We got into town Saturday afternoon and checked in to the hotel. I got a pretty good kick out of the directions the lady at the front desk gave us for our room. She told Aaron he had to go down, around and then enter through the rear. Maybe I had been stuck in a car for too long, but I found it to be a little too funny. I couldn’t even get my usual “that’s what she said” line out because I was laughing so hard.
Even better, when we asked for a recommendation on someplace to eat with some local flavor — something unique to Baton Rouge — her suggestion was Bennigan’s. Seriously? We went with her second choice, the Cheesecake Bistro, because it was close. It was like walking into the Cheesecake Factory in downtown Chicago… only it was a cheap imitation with worse service.
My food was decent, but it definitely wasn’t a taste of Louisiana.
We made it to the stadium and walked through about a dozen blocks full of tailgaters. This town knows how to tailgate. It was unlike anything I had ever seen.
The game was like shooting any other game… here are some of the things I saw in Death Valley.
This woman had a tail. Unfortunately the condition was contagious. I spotted lots of other women wearing the tails, most of them were a little younger than this, but this was the only one that I happened to be walking behind. Sorry guys…
I always like to see what words I can spell when the game officials gather at the start of the game. This time it was SUB.
Some game action…
I found a girl dressed as Snow White in the crowd… maybe just for the yellow and purple?
This photographer got plowed over on the sideline… she took it pretty well. I don’t think I would be smiling after being run over by a couple of big players.
And here are some cheerleaders and Golden Girls for my single friends…
holy camel toe batman!