Brock Mealer on the field of The Michigan Stadium!

All my time as a student at the University of Michigan, I never once got to step on the lush green field of the Michigan Stadium. I attended plenty of home football games, but always as one of the over 100,000 fans and none of the victories sparked a rush onslaught onto the field. Ironic that only after leaving the school do I get to skip around the field, doing what I love — photographing!

All that was possible because of this man — Brock Mealer, who is an uncontested mega-fan of the Michigan Wolverines, and also personal friend of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. But not only did Brock get us access to the field after the game against Indiana, he was also an absolute joy to shoot. We threw footballs to each other, every time a cheeky smile etched on Brock’s face.

There seemed to be limitless possibilities and poses and scenes to shoot! Granted, The Big House is an impressive sight any way you look at it. We went from end zone to end zone, and loitered around the 50-yard line a bit. I loved capturing the bright green of the field, the colossal stands where fans sit, and even the press and luxury boxes just were too sweet to miss out.

This was also the first time that I made use of my recently-acquired Lastolite TriFlip reflector. Those things aren’t cheap, but they certainly quite effective. For once I didn’t make creative use of flashes but sometimes truly less is more. We didn’t spend a great deal of time on the field, but we made the most of it. This was certainly one of my most enjoyable shoots to date, as everything went like clockwork. If this will be the only time I got to step on the field of the Michigan Stadium, there are no regrets.

Check out the rest of the images!

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Photographers don’t live the high life. We don’t get the business-class seats on a work trip, but we do — sometimes — get amazing access to locations/perks that otherwise would have completely avoided us.

Today my job was to photograph Brock Mealer, a big University of Michigan football fan whose brother plays for the Wolverines, and who ironically studies in Ohio State University, Michigan’s biggest and most hated (an understatement) sporting rivals. Because he rubs shoulders with the players and coaches, sometimes he gets the opportunity to run the field after a home game. The powers that be want to feature him in the magazine, so after Michigan narrowly edged passed Indiana 36-33 today, we were allowed on the field for about 45 minutes. I just snapped away.

Although the day started off wet and miserable, the sun Gods were shining down on us when we got on the field. Blue skies and a mostly blocked sun rounded off the good fortune. Shooting at the stadium is a real peach because everything there is so symbolic (if you know the school and the tradition), so there wasn’t any dearth of shooting opportunities. My only nitpick was a few other people on the field made shooting angles a little trickier (so as not to have them in the photo) and I was not entirely successful in exclude unwanted details.

Being my first time on the field after more than a dozen times watching from the stands, I understood how much pressure the players are under, what with 100,000 pairs of eyes staring down at you. Far from what you may believe, The Big House doesn’t seem as majestic from the bottom than from all those aerial views from media balloons or even from the upper half of the stands. That said I still thoroughly enjoyed myself walking on the golden ‘M,’ the 50-yard line, and shuffling my shoes over the synthetic grass.