In this new weekly feature, professional photographer, Vincent Pugliese, shares his love of sports, one picture and one memory at a time.
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Editors Note: Vincent Pugliese has spent the past 20 years traveling the country taking sports photographs for a living. Each picture tells a story. Each picture stores a memory. Each a window into sport, and how we connect to it. In ‘Beyond the Lens,’ Good Men Project Sports selects one photograph and tells the story behind the shot. With spring baseball in the air, we kick off the series in sunny San Diego . . . .
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: April 9th, 2013
This was the final day of a four day, four stadium assignment throughout Southern California and Arizona. After landing at San Diego International Airport late Saturday evening, I made the beautiful two hour drive up the coast towards Los Angeles. The first game on the schedule was a day baseball game at Dodger Stadium, followed by a trip that evening to Anaheim to photograph the Ducks battle the cross town rival Los Angeles Kings.
Cutting across California the following morning, I made a five hour trek into the desert of Arizona to shoot the Pittsburgh Pirates take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at cavernous Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. The final game of the trip was the following afternoon five hours back to California in San Diego. I have yet to find a hotel which I can get a full nights sleep in, By the time I woke up prematurely in some sleepy, dusty western Arizona town, my exhaustion began to get to me.
Arriving in perpetually beautiful San Diego to shoot the Padres opening day game against the Dodgers, I was beat. But Petco Park, a gorgeous, modern ballpark nestled within the downtown, woke me up. Melded into an old warehouse that was preserved as part of the left field bleachers, it is a charming ballpark that had awesome light for the mid-afternoon tilt.
I really wanted to find an image that was unique and spoke of that venue, so after shooting two innings of the game action, I wandered around in search of a hidden treasure. After going towards the outfield bleachers, I noticed a mother and her sons walking towards the hot dog stand while wiping sand off of their legs. I know this is San Diego, but did they just walk in from the beach? I followed the trail of sand. Not literally- I just walked towards the right field bleachers where they came from to discover my hidden treasure.
The beach.
Seriously. Just beyond the right field wall was a white sand beach. Complete with about six rows of bleacher seating, parents watched the game through the fence while their kids built castles and made sand angels. I knew I wasn’t going back towards the field. This is where I would spend the rest of the sunny afternoon. As I photographed kids playfully throwing sand at each other and parents attempting to stop them, I hoped for a home run ball to sail over the fence to send the beach into a tizzy. That never occurred, but as the sun began to set behind the building, a group of little league kids loitered around the fence. I had been waiting all afternoon for someone to do something near the fence so I could blend them into an image with the stadium background.
Late in the eighth inning, I got my wish. One of the kids wandered up to the fence and got lost in the moment. He climbed up, grabbed the fence and leaned to the side. Watching his favorite team that close, he took in the scene fully. Until the security guard shouted at the boy to get down and off of the fence. I had my image already, but as a photographer, you always hope for more. But there was to be no more.
That’s the greatest challenge of this project of shooting one game in every stadium throughout the nation. Finding something unique in each place and having only one chance to do so. My flight left early the next morning, when I caught up on my sleep. If only I could sleep as well in hotels as I do on a plane.
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Photo Credit: Author
This post originally appeared on the Into The Uncommon Blog.
Good Men Project: This is a great choice for a weekly feature. I’ve been following Vincent’s work and blog for months. He crafts excellent stories around even more impressive photos.