Most Saturdays will find us shooting, whether it’s a wedding at Watercolor or a family session in Rosemary Beach. One particular Saturday in October, however, brought a brand new experience as Ryan, our lead photographer, traded the soft sugar sands of the Emerald Coast for the fresh-cut grass of a North Florida field. And not just any field, mind you. This was ground zero of one of the most heated rivalries in college football. Goodbye, Destin; Hello, Tallahassee!
Though the roar of the stadium crowd left no question as to what was about to erupt, there was another, much quieter competition taking place behind the scenes, one that only Ryan was aware of.
Almost as close as the final score that day was the decision as to which medium to use for each shot. Each moment had a split second where that choice determined how the end result would be captured forever. While coaches paced the sidelines debating play calls, Ryan also paced the sidelines, looking for that perfect angle and making the call each time: film or digital.
While shooting digitally can be more forgiving, as there is an option to choose from thousands of shots, shooting on film requires more focus.
“When I’m shooting film,” Ryan explained, “it feels more intentional, like there is more purpose. I can’t waste it.”
“With digital, I can easily take 1,000 pictures and have 100 amazing ones. But if I take 100 film pictures and have 80 amazing ones, there’s so much more of a sense of accomplishment of capturing the moment as an artist.”
As you can see from the gallery below, Ryan was not documenting the game as much as he was memorializing the atmosphere and emotion of the event. From a completely different type of hair and makeup behind the scenes to the rush of the opening planting of the spear, we loved being part of this historic game day.
Special thanks to Larry Davidson, Creative Director at Rowland Publishing, for giving us this opportunity. Oh, and congrats to FSU on the win (sorry, Hurricanes)!
