Slog in the Bog

A while back, I played at an Ultimate tournament called Slog in the Bog. It's really just the first tournament after winter; it's a sign that things are getting better and summer's on the way. Unfortunately, it's usually punctuated by freezing temperatures, harsh rain, and the occasionally flurry of snow.

This year was no different. It didn't have snow, but it was constantly raining and absolutely freezing. The fields had large puddles of standing water -- I'm impressed they let us play on those fields. But, they were grass fields, which always gets me excited about playing D. Laying out when it's wet and the ground is soft is the absolute best time to lay out.

I could go on about the tournament: We had crews there early and late to set up. We planned ahead and got reservations for dinner so we wouldn't be starving. We played well and ended up winning 2 of the 5 games that day. Fun was had all around. But that feels like the usual tournament recap fodder.

What I really want to show you is this:

Falling with style

In our third or fourth game, an older man was walking along the sideline. He carried a pretty big camera. It was clear he wasn't there to play, he was just there to take pictures. He noticed someone on the opposing team who also had a large digital SLR camera taking pictures of the action, and was asking him for advice. He seemed to be full of practical action photography advice that I hadn't ever really thought of: where to stand depending on which team had possession, what to look for, where to focus the camera. All interesting stuff.

Then I forgot about their conversation and went on playing our game. Due to the weather, there was a lot of swill. One point I was on was particularly bad. I was a side cutter in the horizontal. A throw went up towards a cutter in the middle, but the wind caught it and it slowly floated back down. I managed to attack that while the nearby defenders were waiting for it to fall, I caught it and fed it back to the nearest handler. Then I returned upfield.

A few throws later, it happened again, but without the luxury of time. A crisp outside-in backhand was heading right towards an in-cutter. Suddenly, the wind caught the outside edge of the disc, and it jumped up just above the receiver before she could catch it. As it was rocketing down the field, I saw it curving towards me. I sprinted towards the disc and made a flying leap to save it.

Then the old man snapped that picture.

He showed it to me when the point ended and we came off the field. He had all these photography based critiques about it. He wished he had captured a bit further in front so the disc wasn't cut off. I was a bit out of focus. I told him I didn't care; I thought it was awesome. This was really the first picture of me layout out that was absolutely clear it was me. Up until now, the closest I had was this:

...which you basically have to trust is me, since I'm so small & blurry in it (I'm the one in white).

I'm pretty sure my mouth was open in that shot too, because that's how I lay out.