Rub Some Dirt In It

Just one frame from the Bills Patriots game on Sunday.  Have a lot of other stuff from the past few months I have been meaning to share but this will have to do.

Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller is elbowed in the nose while being tackled by New England Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo after a 12-yard carry in the second quarter at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on November 11, 2012.  UPI/Matthew Healey

New England Patriots - Season in review

As promised way too long ago here is a selection of my favorites from the 2011/2012 New England Patriots football season.  Thanks for looking.  All images copyright UPI.


New England Patriots by Boston Photographer Matthew Healey - Images by Matthew Healey

End of the road

So the New England Patriots lost on a nail biter in the Superbowl.  Well they still had a good season and I was lucky enough to cover almost all of their home games again.  Saw some great games and some well.....iffy games.  I will put together an end of the season gallery in the next few days to showcase some of my favorites but in the meantime enjoy this photo.  It's not new for anyone that is friends with me on facebook but I never posted it here so here you go.

Foxboro, MA - January 14, 2012: A member of the End Zone Militia walks into the players entrance during half time of the playoff game between the New England Patriots the Denver Broncos at Gillette Stadium. 

 

It's over now..

The Patriots season that is.  It was fun to shoot them as always.  I was able to see some great games and some pretty marginal games.   I just went back and looked at some of my photos from the season and put together a slideshow.

Hope you enjoy.

Oh, I suggest you click on that little icon in the bottom of the slideshow next to the word 'Share' to make it full screen.  Oh you can share it too, if you want.




Patriots 2010-2011 - Images by Matthew Healey

Football season

The football season is well underway and I am behind on this blog so have a football photo.  I will try and be better about my updates.

New England Patriots running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis (42) sails through the air with teammate wide reciver Wes Welker as Green-Ellis is tackled by Buffalo Bills safety Jairus Byrd on a carry in the second quarter at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on September 26, 2010.  The Patriots defeated the Bills 38-30.    UPI/Matthew Healey

Some football

Just thought I would put up some pics. Not much to say. Hope you enjoy.

New England Patriots Randy Moss has a ball swatted from him by Falcons safety Thomas DeCoud at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on September 27, 2009. UPI/Matthew Healey

New England Patriots running back Fred Taylor (21) is crushed by the Atlanta Falcons defense during a run at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on September 27, 2009. UPI/Matthew Healey

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason (85) rolls on his head after a 20-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on October 4, 2009. Mason was injured on the play and the Patriots defeated the Ravens 27-21. UPI/Matthew Healey

The boats.

Was at the Tall Ships in Boston this morning. Great weather, pretty amazing ships. Some good photos. Here is one of them.

Minor Leagues

PAWTUCKET, RI - May 21, 2009: Pawtucket Red Sox fans look at the day's line up posted inside McCoy Stadium before the Paw Sox took on the Scranton Yankees.

I recently had the pleasure of shooting a Pawtucket Red Sox game for a feature article for a paper. That meant, I didn't need to focus too much on action and instead had to focus on the experience of attending a game. The best part of the the Paw Sox games is the light. It just streams into the park and just looks fantastic. Thought I would share a few pics now that the story has run. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to leave a comment.

PAWTUCKET, RI - May 21, 2009: John Healy 9-years-old of Seekonk (L) and Shawn Cullen 8-years-old of Turners Falls lower a baseball glove towards the Pawtucket Red Sox dugout in the hopes of having some of the players autograph it before the start of Paw Sox game against the Scranton Yankees at McCoy Stadium.

PAWTUCKET, RI - May 21, 2009: Billy Pomfred (L) 17-years-old of Plainville and Sean Coleman also 17 of Plainville take in a Paw Sox game as the team takes on the Scranton Yankees at McCoy Stadium.


PAWTUCKET, RI - May 21, 2009: Pawtucket Red Sox starting pitcher Kris Johnson hurls a pitch against the Scranton Yankees at McCoy Stadium.

PAWTUCKET, RI - May 21, 2009:A group of young Pawtucket Red Sox fans move from their seats during the game against the Scranton Yankees at McCoy Stadium.

Small world

So a recent comment from an old friend on the blog has inspired me to post a fairly interesting story, in my mind anyway. I had a Patriots game to shoot for UPI back in December. A winter storm moved in that Saturday night before the game. I woke up early Sunday morning and sure enough the roads were really bad. So I headed to my car and was out the driveway by 9 am. The roads had not been plowed but I have all wheel drive so I put it to good use. It took about an hour and a half to get to the stadium. The highways were a mess but the Subaru handled it all pretty well.

So I get to the stadium parking lot find a spot and start getting ready. The weather had not subsided. It was sleeting and snowing and raining. Time to bust out the foul weather gear. Waterproof insulated pants, insulated waterproof boots, rain coat, and several layers. For the camera and lenses, well they make rain gear, but I am still using large trash bags with some tape and strategically placed rubber bands. Hey that rain gear costs big bucks. Anyway I get all geared up at my car and start to make the trek to the stadium.

I check in at media will call with no problems and make my way to the media filing center. Unfortunately I was redirected to the field because the players were hanging out in the hallway that leads to the media room. Not a big deal, it happens all the time, but I was just hoping to stay dry. So I head out to the field to walk around to the media room. As I am doing so I am confronted by a large truck clearing off the sideline. So I walk further out onto the turf to go around the truck. That was my mistake.

Okay, I should mention one of the other reasons why I wanted to get there early. The Patriots were playing the New York Jets. For some, reason enough to be excited. But for me it is because I went to college with Eric Mangini the head coach of the Jets. I played football with him. I lined up against him almost every day in practice my freshman year. He was a senior at the time, and played defensive line, I was an offensive lineman. I even hung out with him a fair bit in college. I wasn't a good friend of his by any means, but I figured he would remember me. And I thought the only time I could maybe get near him was during pre game as the teams warmed up.

The turf, was covered by a green tarp. The tarp in turn was covered in slush and ice and snow, making it really really slippery. I took one step and both of my feet just slid out from under me. Cue the slow motion machine and like a cartoon I just slammed completely flat on my back. At the same exact time the tail end of my 300mm lens, which weighs 7 pounds and was draped over my shoulder, nailed me in the forehead. For some reason the thing that stands out in my mind when it happened was laying on the ground for a split second and hearing the Jets players burst out laughing at me. So it probably looked pretty funny. Almost immediately some security people from the stadium as well as a firefighterrushed over to help me get up. I stood up and my legs buckled. This was a new feeling for me. I don't think in all my years of playing contact sports that I had been knocked out, or on the verge of being knocked out. I didn't like it. The firefighter said something to the effect of "Whoa there buddy, why don't we take you over and you can have a seat."

I followed his advice. I spent the next hour chatting with the EMT's and said firefighter. Oh and also with the roving insurance person at the stadium who took all my info. I had a nice lump on my head and was getting dizzy. The firefighter eventually suggested that I take a trip to the hospital but I declined. I decided to try and shoot the game. It went alright, I was a bit out of it. I tried not to run too much on the sideline but I wasn't as careful as I probably should have been.

So the Patriots beat the Jets and it was time for the post game handshake between the coaches. I am hustling to get in position and the next thing I know I get shoved by a security guard (Belichick was right behind me) and I am face to face with the same guy I used to play against every day in college, except now I was surrounded by national tv and print media, security, and 50,000 fans.

It was one of the strangest moments in my three year career as a photojournalist.




Follow up. The fall gave me a concussion. I was having dizzy spells for almost two weeks. Good fun.

An Update

Well I am back. I know you all missed me. Right?

I just looked at one of my invoices for last month and I was pretty damn busy. Which is always great. I was getting nervous there for awhile after being told that three of my 'clients' who are now owned by the same company were told by said company that they cannot use freelancers for the entire month of September. When did said big company announce this? August 28th. Real nice of them to give us notice like that. I got the call as I was moving into a nicer (read: more expensive) apartment.

I knew that this one month off that they were trying out would most likely last longer than a month. I knew it was just a test to see if they could get by without freelancers. Turns out I was right....partly. They have slightly lifted the ban, but only slightly. Work from them is very sparse.

But things have turned out okay so far. Well, I do have established relationships with the editors and certainly liked working for them, I have been able to find other work.

For starters I have been working a bit for a company in Providence that publishes a business newspaper every week. They have been fairly consistent.

Then things with UPI started to pick up. I have been covering the Patriots this season and of course the Red Sox. UPI usually has a hard time getting me into Sox games but they make room for a lot more shooters during the playoffs and series.

I have also started freelancing for the Boston Herald. One of their regular freelancers got hired full time and they needed some people to fill her shoes. It's been great working for them, I have learned a lot in a short period of time, and everyone has been very cool. The stress factor is a bit high because it is a daily with an early deadline and I am filing from my car or wherever I can but all part of the job.

For photos, I guess I will start with the Red Sox. So I had known that the Sox had been doing well but really hadn't planned on covering any of their playoff games. As I had said, the Red Sox credentialing process can be strict and I was rejected for quite a few games during the regular season. But for the playoffs they add a ton of space for photographers. The regular photo pits are just past the home dugout and just past the away dugout. For big games it gets very very cozy in there. For the playoffs and ALCS and World Series they add auxiliary spots that are literally on the field. One on each side of the field on the inside of the dugouts down towards home plate and one further out on the left field side past the regular photo pit. When I say on the field, I mean you are sitting in the dirt. This is the only photo I have from what I believe was the ALCS. I was sitting in the aux spot for the first inning so that I could get clean photos of the two starting pitchers, then run back to the third base well and transmit them and shoot the rest of the game from there. I dont know why the photo is backwards or why I didn't smile. Think its because I couldn't figure out how to work my stupid cellphone camera.

Anyway it was pretty great to be able to watch the games from these spots. For the World Series I got to sit in the third base line auxiliary pit next to the Rockies on deck circle for both games. I shared the 4 foot by 4 foot space with one of the Boston Globe photographers and in the next space was a guy I know from US Presswire. Both of them had at least three photographers there along with an editor. I was flying solo. Not the only one I am sure, but having at least one other photographer there would have been nice. Oh yeah and I guess I had a bit of face time on Fox because of my spot. I have heard about it from quite a few folks, which has been very weird.

Oh I forgot to mention one other thing....THE FRICKIN WORLD SERIES!!!!! W...T...F????

Seriously, two and a half years ago I was working my first newspaper assignment shooting a basketball game for the Holbrook Sun. I left my office job right at 5 ran to my car, drove to Hollbrook as fast as I could and shot the heck out of the game. The next week when it was published I drove down to Holbrook and bought 5 copies when I had some time off. I still have them all.

My first published pic. I remember seeing this on the LCD of my 10D
during the game and thinking "Wow". Still love this one.

I never in my life thought I would end up doing something like this. For the first 6 months when I went freelance full time I would leave an assignment and drive to the next one and every now and then just burst out laughing in the car. I couldn't believe I was getting paid to shoot photos. It was surreal. I have kind of lost that feeling a bit, gotten a bit more settled down, its become a regular job now, not regular in the traditional sense, but the dream has settled into reality. I don't or rather didn't view the World Series games as anything other than work. Chance and luck had a lot to do with how I ended up there, as well as help from really good friends and family. You know who you are.

Okay I have to admit, that when I walked into Fenway for the first game and saw the absolute media zoo that was in front of me it kind of hit me that this just wasn't a regular game. Oh and did I mention that the press dining hall had free lobster rolls, sushi, and beer? Yeah cause it did. I only went once though.

Anyway, here are some photos. We all like photos right? Trying for diversity here.

Some guy from Baltimore that was at the game with his son.

One of the first pitches of game one of the World Series.

Hi Papi!

Lugo

Pedroia.

I dont have much from the Patriots on this computer right now. But will put some of those up when I get a chance.

I will leave with a shot from an assignment for the Patriot Ledger. A guy named Domenic Yaniero from New Jersey who impersonates a once very famous professional wrestler 'Ultimate Warrior' who was huge when I was a kid. Now this guy dresses like him and bills himself as 'Warrior' and wrestles at semi pro matches held all over the place. They never actually mention that he is an impersonator at these shows just that 'Warrior' will be there. So people come from all over to see 'Warrior' thinking it is the 'Ultimate Warrior'. Some of them know it may not be the real thing, but don't care, others don't have a clue and hound him for his autograph and a Polaroid photo for a price. It was a great assignment. Seriously.

I photographed 'Warrior' behind the scenes walking through the upcoming match with his opponent. Another wrestler saw me do this and told the manager of the show. The manager asked me about it and I played dumb. He wanted me to delete the photos of them walking through the upcoming match because his opponent is a 'bad guy' and people will see them working together and may think that they are not really enemies. I was later told by the reporter that the manager follows old school pro wrestling rules and that no one pretends that whole bad guy good guy thing is real except during the actual matches.

QUINCY, Mass. - October 19, 2007: Domenic Yaniero, left, AKA 'Warrior' to wrestling fans, prepares for his match behind the curtain at the Quincy Armory while his opponent 'Prince Alad' watches the current match through an opening in the curtain. Yaniero who lives in New Jersey wrestles on weekends as his 'Warrior' persona.