Over the past 40 episodes of Hustle and Pro, we’ve talked about baseball, football and basketball, and memories and visual images that fill our minds as we reimagine moments and athletes. Today, we dive into the world behind the lens of those capturing the images. What’s it like from their angle?
For 28 years, Tim Heitman has been photographing college and pro teams and contributing to media organizations such as USA Today and Getty Images. Now, Tim talks to us about his career in sports photography.
Tim tells us about his favorite athletes he’s worked with (it’s no coincidence this is episode number 41), his favorite sports to shoot (Go Stars), and some of the dangers he faces that you and I don’t even think about when we enjoy a game (you might not watch an infield double play the same way again).
Show Notes
- [1:45] Quick hits with Tim Heitman
- [6:43] Teams Tim has worked with
- [10:30] Schedule of game day
- [12:34] What’s changed with digital and social media?
- [17:33] Assignments
- [20:00] Athlete relationships & danger zones
Resources within this episode:
- Tim Heitman: Instagram @THEITMAN714
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
Transcript: (machine-generated)
This is Hustle and Pro with Kelly Walker. Join Kelly as she talks sports with players, coaches, organizers and entrepreneurs from Peewee League to Pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker.
00:13 Ever noticed the photographers at sporting events? I definitely do. They seem to camouflage into the sidelines sometimes, but for me personally, I not only notice them, I’m really intrigued by them. I sit and I want to know what shots they’re getting, um, if they’re on a specific assignment, um, how much it hurts when they get tackled by the brunt of a out-of-bounds play or something like that. So we’re going to learn some of that today. So my guest today is Tim Heitman, sports photographer for Getty Images. Hi Tim. How are you? I’m good. How are you doing? I’m great. I’m excited to talk to you. Thank you. First, I kind of want to know though, how long or how and when did you get into the business of, of sports?
00:51 Well, I’ve been doing it a 27 or 28 years now and my background is actually finance. I had no training in photography whatsoever, happened to be playing in a band as a hobby. And the girlfriend of the guitar player used to be in the SID office of SMU. She said, Hey, I understand that you’ve taken some pictures and you’ve played baseball in college, would you want to be a sports photographer? So I, so I, uh, I kinda thought about that for a second and I asked what she was looking for and basically I started shooting SMU women’s basketball in about 1991 when the only people there were the coaches, the players and the parents.
01:32 Wow. I didn’t know that background, so that’s fascinating. So you’re 27 at 28 years, is that what you said? Which is a long time, which is. Now I’m curious to know some of these quick hit answers. So that being said, and you’ve been shooting sports for so long, I’m curious, who’s your favorite athlete of all time?
01:53 Probably Dirk. Dirk Nowitzki. I know it’s a hometown guy, but uh, that’s okay. I love Dirk. I started shooting the Mavericks about the same time he came to the Mavericks. Actually, I was there a little bit before, so I kind of grew up as a sports photographer as he grew up as a player and he’s, he’s unique on every level. What you see is what you get. He’s the nicest guy. And that was just to be the first superstar that I got to be that close to was probably something that I’ll always remember.
02:22 Right. And what a lucky, you know, connection to make all, like you said somebody that kind of grew up in this sport as you got into this sport and didn’t leave this town. What are the odds right that that you got to have a career with someone’s career?
02:37 That’s a good way to look at it. It was, we have co careers, although I think his is a little more successful. Maybe, maybe a few more, a few more people might know, know his name. One or two more. Alright. You mentioned um, playing baseball. So what’s your favorite sport to play?
02:54 Baseball probably is my favorite sport to play. Um, I played since I was five years old, something like that. And I played up until my sophomore year in college, so it was just the sport. My dad actually played basketball at Iowa, played with, um, Don Nelson of all people speaking of another Dallas Maverick. My list to ask you about also the Dallas Maverick connection there. Um, so my dad played it, played basketball, but he never said, Hey, I have to go play basketball. And I just always loved baseball. So baseball.
03:25 Okay. So two questions about your favorite sports to watch. One is what, how do you watch, what’s your favorite to watch as a fan? What’s your favorite sport to shoot as a photographer?
03:36 Actually they are the same thing, uh, hockey. I don’t know how to play hockey. I don’t know how to skate. Um, but, um, it’s the fastest sport. It’s the most random in terms of how the outcomes come. Uh, I think anybody that watches it on TV doesn’t get the sense of the speed and the power. You really have to go to a game. And that kind of flows into the, my favorite sport to shoot because it’s by far the most challenging. Um, a lot of the other sports are, I don’t want to say easy, but it’s relatively easy, because of the, the lack of speed and things of that. But between the reactions that you get from the players and then just the intensity in your, that you’re really closer almost to that as a photographer at that sport than just about any other also.
04:22 And it’s so unique in that, you know, the puck is small compared to most of the, the size of the balls you’re talking about another sports, which makes it harder to follow because it is so much faster. But then the scope of the playing space is so contained and small, you know, baseball, you got the whole baseball park and everybody’s stretched out and you can, you can probably set your sights on a player and camp out for a minute and when something happens, you’ve got that shot or whatever. But in hockey, no one’s ever still, obviously the goalie is a little bit still, but you know, it’s just gotta be forever moving. It is, and we kind of joke, it’s the only sport that you have to learn a different sport to play before you can play it. I mean, if you think about it, you have to learn how to skate before you can play hockey. Every other sport you can virtually walk right out on the field and play.
05:15 That’s one of the fascinating things to me about hockey players is these, you know, obviously strong grown, very tough men who can skate like it’s nothing. They’re so powerful yet fast and they moves and so agile they move and stop and change so fast. It’s like you said, seeing it on TV is one thing, but when you’re seeing them do that in person, it’s really fascinating. It’s, it’s unbelievable. Uh, and I mean football players are really fast and really big, but it’s just for me it’s not the same.
05:46 Okay. So then what about traveling? I don’t know if this job takes you traveling. I know you’re in this market taking photos, but what’s the farthest distance you’ve ever gone to, I guess work in sports or to, you know, participate or watch sports? As a fan?
06:02 I’ve been pretty localized because I shoot for Getty but I also shoot for the Dallas stars and USA Today and, and so they have kind of a regional focus that they hire people that work generally in each, uh group. I used to travel a lot to Oklahoma. I used to do on Oklahoma football and Oklahoma state football. Uh, I’ve done Kansas, so I used to have to go up there to do, football. So it’s generally a local, well I guess I’ve gone to Houston and shot so, but mostly a regional, uh, focus. I don’t like flying. So if I can drive there and not have to worry about how my photography gear gets there, that makes me happier.
06:41 Sure. That makes sense. Okay. I want, I’m curious to know, you know, a list of these sports and also the teams that you’ve covered. It’s probably really long, but you’ve already told us a few, um, of this sports and it started out with women’s basketball, which is fascinating. So we know you’ve mentioned the Stars already. You’ve mentioned, uh, the Mavs, well, I don’t know if you’ve mentioned the mavs. I know you because of the mavs. So, um, who else, what else do you cover or have you covered in the span of your career?
07:11 Uh, team-wise probably just about every team in every sport because I’ve gotten the, I’ve been lucky enough to cover all the big events. I’ve shot the world series twice when they were here, you know, for the Rangers. And I’ve shot the Superbowl and the MLS championship cup when it came here to Frisco for the first time and two Stanley cup finals. And I’ve pretty much, uh, the college football championship when it came here. So, uh, event wise, I’ve shot just about everything, but the Olympics is probably the only thing I haven’t shot.
07:43 When that comes through next round, when we get that, and at least in the U S will you have the ability to get any of that? Yeah, because that would be through USA today, not Getty. Um, and there’s so many different events and it’s so long that it’s hard to have people commit. I mean, even though it’s a big deal to commit to that, plus sometimes depending on your skill set, I’m more of a, um, I mean if it’s the summer Olympics, I’ve, you know, I’m more of an outdoor shooter, so I would tend to do those kind of events or, or if they brought the winter Olympics here, obviously being a hockey guy, uh, that would be an advantage. I can’t ski. And, uh, like one of the things that I learned is you can’t cover the Alpine sports if you don’t ski because you, you have to ski halfway down the mountain or two thirds or wherever you’re going to set up. You have to, they don’t put you on a snowmobile and send you over there. So, uh, I was like, Oh, I guess I won’t be doing too many Alpine Olympic sports.
08:43 It’s a very narrow skill set, probably of people who can shoot it and ski down that mountain. I know two people in Dallas that can do it and that’s about it. Oh wow. Yeah, pretty narrow.
08:55 NFL? NFL, I shoot the Cowboys. I will be at the Thanksgiving game tomorrow. Uh, that’s the thing. My wife has been understanding about that. We actually have Thanksgiving this year on December 1st. Um, I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember. So I’ve probably done that game 10 or 15 years now. Something like that.
09:18 So you’re talking about shifting your schedule, your personal holiday schedule around, because oftentimes you’re going to go shoot a game that’s these big holiday games.This time of year is really hard because you’ve got the overlap of all, you know, four or five, six sports, college basketball, pro basketball, college football, still the bowl games. So, even though this is the joyous time of year, uh, my wife and I have to really plan ahead to make Christmas happen because like this year, for example, the Dallas Stars have the winter classic, which is, on, yeah, That’s going to be great. On January 1st I’ll be working that, which means I won’t, we won’t be going out that night or, or if I am, I may be working at, there may be a private party or something. That’s that we need to work. So, uh, so the only thing that we get to do as a couple this time of year is I shoot the cotton bowl every year. And they do have a private event where they have like, they go out to the Glass Cactus and they have, Oh, usually it’s a pretty decent name, country artists and you know, so that’s like the one part a year, one party we get to go to. It’s better than nothing better than nothing.
10:31 So let’s talk about that a little bit more on, on your schedule. So this is not a nine to five typical job where you’re working all day and then you’re off at night. Right? So what does a game day look like for you? Typically for a game day, most sports are similar in terms of how much time you need to prep for a game. And typically, well when I first started doing this and it was nervous and didn’t know what I was doing, I wanted to get there about three and a half hours before the game so that I made sure everything was set up and working. But now, for a football game, I may still have to get there about three hours ahead of time, especially like the Cowboys, uh, since they’re America’s team and there’s lots of out of town media and out of town photographers, there’ll be like the, the other team will bring in people too or, or the out of town newspaper. So to get a spot. You gotta stake your claim. You have to literally stake your claim at places. So, about three hours ahead of time because that gives you the opportunity to get settled and make sure all your gear works, get something to eat, and then you can have the opportunity to go get the players working out before they’re putting on their jerseys. Or you can go do fans tailgating or whatever. Then the game lasts three to four hours, a baseball, maybe three and a half to four and a half hours. And then, uh, you have to edit your pictures because generally speaking, I’m working for a news agency. They want captioned individual pictures to put up wherever and quick turnarounds, very quick turnarounds. And so that, that may take you another hour and then an hour, hour and a half before you get home. So what is that, an eight hour day, seven hour day.
12:08 So after you shoot your, your gear is all there with you to where you’re editing on, on the spot and submitting and then you go home. Yes. Yeah. I’m always wondering that. I always wondered if you’re, I mean, not just a photographer, but if you’re just assigned to taking the photos and then you upload them and they’re gone, or if you have to do some of the post-work yourself. Well, one thing that’s changed over the years, when I started out, I was doing film. So obviously, uh, it took two or three days for me to get the pictures back and forth. We could even do anything with them. And now with social media and the internet, they want pictures during the games. So in, in some cases after, like again, use an example of a cowboy game. If it’s the late night game, you know, the Sunday night game while they need pictures as soon as possible because it’s the only game and they don’t need them at two o’clock in the morning. So there’ll be times where if there’s a touchdown on the first drive, I will literally be running into the, the photo room and transmitting pictures five or 10 minutes after the play actually happened and hopefully ESPN will pick it up on their espn.com and so within 20 minutes there’s pictures now on the internet. Yeah, people like me enjoy. We see, I avoid lots of social during games usually cause I’m usually a little delayed. But so that’s how that works in, you’re on the sidelines taking it, you, you run and get them uploaded and somebody else behind the scenes is getting them submitted and out there wherever they may be on the wire, wherever they go. And then people pick them up and then they’re out for people like me to see within, not a long, few minutes sometimes.
13:51 Yeah. Like the Dallas Stars in the last couple of years have really up their game. And this year for example, they are actually putting up pictures. So if there’s a big play or a big goal or a celebration or hit, hopefully I have a picture of it. Or Glen the other guy that shoots for the stars, and they want to put those pictures on Instagram and Facebook by the end of the period, which is, you know, something that 15 years ago wasn’t even happen, you know, literally couldn’t happen. So, so our workflow has changed a little bit over the years. You just can’t sit there and shoot a whole game and then go home and edit everything. You are at the game almost like a sportswriter writing the story during the game. You’re actually trying to provide pictures that will tell whatever story you think he’s writing. Uh, and then sometimes the second half happens in the opposite happens and then you have to try to retell the story.
14:52 Right, right. Cause you don’t know how those first half, what, what implications some of those plays and celebrations have until the end of the game, whatever stories being told. Would you, would you say that that quick turnaround time is the biggest challenge from going to kind of how your job has changed as you know, print to digital shift continues to happen and things just get so fast? Is that, is that the hardest part?
15:18 Without a doubt. Because the shooting part doesn’t really change. Right. Although when you had film, I mean one thing that’s there is one thing that’s easier. When you had film, you had 36 frames on a roll film and there’d be times where you had a play, a play would happened, especially in football play, and you’d shoot a bunch of pictures and you’d have four pictures left on your roll film and they’re on like the four yard line ready to score. So now you’re now your decision is can I change film quick enough in case they score on this play or do I just wait and only take two or three pictures of whatever it is and hope that is the only thing that happens. So that’s easier now cause you have virtually unlimited space on your cards now, but having to, having to stop and not think about what you are shooting and then leave the field and then type in players’ names and a description and look at all, you know, look at your pictures and pick this one and crop it down and then go back out and get back in the mindset of okay where’s the play and what’s going on. That’s a lot harder because you really the best games I’ve ever shot where when you’re tethered, which means that your camera is actually directly tied to an editor, typically a big game like the world series or something like that where they want it even quicker. You usually have an editor that’s dedicated just to you or maybe two or three other editors. And the best games that I shoot are not those games because they’re bigger games. It’s because for the whole three or four hours, all I’m doing is thinking about making pictures.
16:54 Just focus on that action, not getting back and editing and. No, I’m not worried about, Oh, if I leave right now and they hit a home run, you might happen. Yeah. I never realized that you were juggling all of that out there. That’s what I mean when I say I’m always thinking, I mean, I know you guys camouflage and, and that’s, that’s part of it. But I notice it for some reason and I’m always kind of wondering what, what pictures did you just get? Like, did you just get that angle from that touchdown catch or goal or shot or whatever it is, or pitch, whatever you’re getting your pictures of and like, where’s it going and where is that? Am I going to see that on Twitter in a little while? Those kinds of things.
17:32 But I also want to ask you, I wonder, um, assignment wise, are you, are you often shooting in general sense or do they send you out saying, here’s the list of marquee players that we need stuff, stock stuff of or whatever. Or are you on a assignment about a specific theme player, something happening? Yes. All of those. All of the, all of the above. Uh, there will be times, like with USA Today, there will be times where they’re gonna run a story on a player, a specific player. And so they’ll say, we don’t care about the game. We don’t care what’s going on. We just need 10 or 12 pictures isolated or him talking to a coach, whatever of this guy because we’re running a story on this guy. There may be other times more generally, whether for most of the things that I shoot for USA today or Getty with the, with the, like with the Legends that, uh, where we met, I am just there as a, basically as a photojournalist storyteller. So my job is to capture as much as I can. I don’t want to say equally about both teams because if it’s a hundred to five, it’s going to be really hard to send 20 pictures of the team that scored five points and other than maybe 20 sad pictures. But you have to try to be neutral. Um, when you’re shooting a general unassigned thing. And then there are some sports where, um, they might have the contract for the commercial license, which is the generally, the stuff that I shoot for is just for publication in a newspaper or something like that. But occasionally you’ll get an assignment where, um, the entity has the commercial contract. And by that I mean they, they have the ability to make posters or books or things like merchandise, right? So, so for branding and things like that, so there are times where they’ll say, Hey, I know you’re going to go shoot a, uh, an MLS game here. We’re going to go shoot a FC Dallas and the other teams coming in the galaxy and we don’t have really many pictures of these six guys. So pay attention to try to, so you try to work them into your flow and hopefully they do something spectacular while you’re there. Hopefully Ibrahimovich does some dramatic thing and you capture it all. He didn’t even come to Dallas out here this year and he’s done. I think he’s done. So I missed that. Yeah. Not your fault. Not my fault. But that’s, that’s part of the fascinating thing.
20:03 And speaking of some of these names, I mean some of the research I was doing after we met, um, you know, I saw pictures out there or you have a million obviously pictures out there, but like with Avery Johnson and Don Nelson and I mean, so much Dirk stuff. Anyway, we talked about Dirk. Um, but I’m just kind of curious, so how much, if any, access do you have to these guys where you have relationships with them or is it really, you know, behind the camera? When I was shooting the Mavericks, I had a little more access. I mean, I, you actually have a lot more access than just a regular sports photographer. But I always approached it that my job isn’t to be their friend. And I mean that sounds wrong, but I mean, my job isn’t that a lot of the places that I’ve worked the Dallas Stars included since I’m there all the time and I’m shooting them at the hospitals and things like that. They know, they know me.
20:59 Sure. They just organically, there’s a relationship I bet. And actually that does help. Um, because they trust you a little more to know that if they’re acting goofy or you know, they’re, you take a picture and their eyes are closed or what are, you know, whatever it may be. You, you do get a level of trust. Um, and if you’re the team photographer, like at the Dallas stars, they understand that you’re not out to get them. Like if you, or some other photographer doing, you know, shooting for some other organization where that guy might get paid extra because he’s got a picture that goes to TMZ or something like that. So, so I try not to get too close to them, but I try to be around them enough that they realize they can be more normal or more relaxed I guess is the word.
21:45 Is Dirk one of those guys though that’s just going to be a friendly person to you just because that’s his nature? 100%. I mean he uh, every year I used to do the, uh, Oh, I guess I still do them for them too. We, we met doing the headshots for the legends and I do the head shots for the Mavs and I’ve done them even though I don’t officially work for them anymore. I still work through the NBA to do that. And every year, so I would see him two or three times a year or a couple of times, a couple of games I do, but, and I’d seen what and every year he would recognize me in every year he would, hello Tim, how are you doing today? I mean, he just, that’s him and he doesn’t have to and he doesn’t have to. And there are other players that are like, what time is it? Let’s get this over. And he, he actually would spend more time than maybe his handler wanted him to spend with you. Um, but that’s Dirk. Right. And that’s why he’s got a street named after him. I love that. That’s why everybody loves them.
22:43 Last question. Do you have any crazy stories of getting injured? Ooh, almost so last year I was at a cowboy game and football is by far the hardest to get or the easiest, the easiest to get hurt at all. Yeah, I would think I would. You see the most football sideline crashes, I feel like, well you see under the basket basketball crashes too. But man, I feel like every football game, somebody getting pile drived on the sidelines accidentally.
23:16 There was a female intern two weeks ago, over a couple of weeks ago or three or four weeks ago. I can’t remember exactly one who got run over at a, like the LSU football game and had a concussion and went to the hospital. Um, I’ve never been hit directly, but in the last year at the Cowboys, I’ve come really close twice. Last year, the Cowboys were winning by 20 points or something like that. And we’re standing up in the end zone and normally you kneel in the end zone because you want to block the people behind you. Um, but there’s 30 seconds left in the game. You’re standing up because you want to run out on the field to get the handshake and all this stuff. And I’m talking to another photographer next to me who worked for the Fort worth star telegram. And we were just joking and you rarely let your guard down.
24:01 And we were like, wouldn’t that be great if they just threw a, the Cowboys through hail Mary pass over here and you know, we’ve got a great picture. Well they threw a hail Mary pass just to throw it. It was in our corner of the end zone. It was on the sideline. The ball got tipped and the two players came off the field. And again, we’re standing, they’re not ready for that to move quick. The move quick. And the photographer next to me got leveled, had a concussion, they grazed my shoulder but he stood up and then he went back in the back where the photographers are and he couldn’t remember getting there or anything that had happened. Wow. Um, that was probably the, that was the closest last year. This year, um, there was a, I guess it was the Green Bay game. Same thing. You’re in the end zone. They’re throwing a pass. So they’re still using their momentum to get in the end zone and you want to let you want to stay on that and as long as you can because that’s going to be a great picture. And the guy, the Packer catches it on his fingers and fumbles it so he’s not trying to drop down in the end zone. He’s trying to catch the ball and he, and he falls down and he and the cowboy slide into us in the end zone. And your first reaction is always get out early. And so I decided to get up to start backing up. I tripped over my other camera and fell backwards. And what was interesting was all my friends saw that on TV and I’m getting all these texts about are you okay? And, and literally I didn’t get hit, but the way I stood up, I fell. It looked like I just got slobber knockered. Well that’s probably just falling. Probably happens more often than they actually getting hit. Just so much commotion when those things go out of bounds and sometimes it’s even just the ball or you know, I’ve been hit by more balls than players.
25:55 You get hit a lot at Texas ranger games. Oh, probably two or three times a year. Oh wow. Yeah, I didn’t think about that. Baseball, I mean obviously there’s a ball out of play. I wonder how many times and when, cause you’re, you’re, you’re in one of those Wells, on the outside of the dugout, first or third base. And when you have guys like Adrian Beltre was notorious for just pulling the ball every time. And Joey Gallo was that way. Now, I mean there are some players where like one of the things that you like to do is shoot a double play, right? So if you’re outside first base, you’re looking at second base, you’re just hoping that the play ends up at second base, right? You’re not trying to follow things around, but there are certain players where, which means that you’re taking your eye off of the batter batter, right? Like if you’re, your shot is on like Elvis knowing he’s going to move over towards second if there’s a runner on first. So you’re not even watching what the batter’s doing. Cause you’re getting ready for that, anticipating that shot. Yeah. And so some, so you’re kind of half committed. You’re kind of looking out of your corner of your eye hoping that they don’t hit there. And there are times where there’d be other times where you’re actually on the batter and you’re using these long lenses that kind of compress everything. So you may be on a outside first base and you have a left handed batter and he’ll pull the ball fall and he may have just chopped it, but in your lens it looks like it’s coming right at you. So, so you’ll actually see times where a photographer that’s nowhere near the ball will be ducking out of the way because to him it’s right there. I didn’t think about that. I never thought about that one.
27:34 So I’ve, but yeah, baseball is way more dangerous for me than football as far as getting hit. Yeah, I’ve never thought about that. And then I think, man, then the runner that hits and runs to first, you just have to hope you’re not the ball. The play’s not happening right. When they’re crossing your path. And I mean there’s so many variables that can happen even in a quote unquote slow game like baseball. Like people think baseball is you. You see how fast it is, I guess, and up close and personal, trying to get the exact second that a balls being hit, thrown or caught. Right?
28:06 Uh, yeah. And I’ve actually been hit by a ball during warmups where, you know, the shortstop, you know, in between innings when they’re warming up, where the shortstop may have just been kind of messing around and short hops the first base when and he’s kinda messing around. And if you’re not paying attention, you’ll get hit by that too. So it’s, there’s a lot, there’s a lot less watching of a game as a fan than people realize. I mean I’ve told people a lot of times if you love a sport because you’re a fan and you love what that is, the vicarious nature and the instant, you know, the instantaneous reaction and living emotionally through the play and in all of that, if, if that’s why you want to be a sports photographer, then you better not be a sports photographer. Cause, cause it’s, it’s almost exactly the opposite. You have to be unemotional. It’s almost like being a, an offensive coordinator. If you’re shooting a football game, you’re trying to figure out where they’re gonna throw the ball or run the ball. Right. Cause that’s going to be the best picture. And so when they come up to the line of scrimmage, you’re like, you’re almost like a linebacker. Where’s their best receiver? Do they have their best? Yeah. Where’s their best running back? Um, you shoot a team enough like the Cowboys or when I used to shoot Oklahoma a lot, you could actually almost recognize plays before they happen. And you would say, okay, in this instance they like to go like perfect example, um, last year, two years ago, uh, when Jason Witten was on the team, they liked to with their, within the, from the 20 yard line in towards scoring. One of their favorite plays was just to send him down the middle of the field and, you know, throw him the ball. And so, you know, it’s like, I guess if I know that, then the other team probably knows that. But you were, your first read, so to speak was, is Jason Garrett running down the middle because, Oh, Jason. Jason Garrett. Yeah. See that would be, that takes us to be worth way more than a picture of Jason Witten. Um, so, so you’re looking at that and you’re like, Oh, he’s covered. So now did they hand the ball off to Zeke? No? So, Oh, Oh, they’re throwing it way over here on the other side. Darn it. That’s too far away from you to make the picture. So, so while someone’s going, yay, the Cowboys scored a touchdown, or you know, this is a great book. That’s the kind of process. And so if you’re a fan, you’re, you’re going to be, you never want to react. If there’s a saying that if you see it in your camera, you’re too late, right? Because the shutter, if I see the guy catch the ball, well I didn’t get the picture. So, and you can’t, you can’t just be going, Oh, I hope that this point, you have to try to figure out what’s going to happen.
30:51 And then if it’s a celebration, let’s say it’s the game winning photo, right? Well the fans going yay and high fiving people and chugging beer and doing whatever they’re doing. You know, your first reaction is, okay, I need to get a picture of that guy celebrating. Oh, he’s, I’m being blocked because all the players now can I find someone that’s sad instead of happy cause again, I’m trying to do the whole game. Right. Okay. Here’s the sad guy. Okay, where’s the coach? Or Oh I know Dak likes to do this fist pump, you know thing. Where can I get him? You know what I mean? So all of that is going through your head while everybody’s going, yay. High five. What’s party? You know, we need time for you to personally celebrate. The only thing that I watch where I’m a fan is the Dallas stars on the road. Cause you’re not there. Cause I’m not there.
31:37 That’s awesome. Well I will now watch games with the special eye on where these photographers are and if they’re getting, if they’re safe from getting hit and then I’ll pay more attention to when I see the photos on social or on the article the next, that night or the next day or whatever. And I’ll remember you and think of what all the things you’re going through to get all that done.
32:00 You and my dad. But I appreciate it. I appreciate you taking time. I know, obviously you’re really busy this time of year, like you said, when all these sports are converging at the same time here as we round out the year, so thanks for coming up to the studio and giving us a little bit of insight behind the lens.
32:17 Thanks for having me. I really enjoyed this.
The Past, Present, and Future of UNT, part 1