As the doors opened we were greeted to a hallway of memorabilia of St. Louis Cardinals history. From pictures, to articles, to plaques, signatures, jerseys, etc, “How Cool is this?!!” I thought to myself, and may have even said. But the excitement didn’t stop there. At the end of the hall all I could see was concrete. As we walked through the doorway we were in the area where the players would park their cars and make their way to the field! I mean, call me crazy, I’m not a professional athlete, so I’ll never know how it feels to enter the field/arena/court on game day for the first time, but I had that feeling. I mean to me, photography is my arena, and with this being my first shoot at Busch Stadium this was a nice taste of what it feels like.
The door was unlocked and as it opened it was kind of like a moment in a movie when the hero enters through the shining door way and disappears. Well, we found what was on the other side. 🙂 The door opened, we made a couple turns and BAM! We were on the field of Busch Stadium. For kicks, I had to do a spin like in the movies (yes, I’ll make a ton of movie references) when a player walks on the field for the first time, or a person experiences NYC for the first time. The feeling was surreal. And to top it off, the Cardinals had just won the World Series the week before, and the celebration took place just days before the shoot, so there were lots of confetti and signs of celebration all over! How fun!!
As Jakob, Leah and myself made our travels toward Busch Stadium the signs of rain was very much present, probably because it was raining nearly the whole trip down. We were allowed 30 minutes inside Busch Stadium, and if it rained there were some spots on the inside, but come on, we wanting the field as our backdrop. 🙂 Fortunately, for the 30 minutes were were in Busch, the rain held off. I think the clouds even thinned just enough to allow a little bit more light inside. And just like I say, “Clouds is a gigantic soft box provided by God.” Well, He was definitely on our side this day because the lighting was spread so evenly it didn’t even seam real. No sunspots ruining some of the seating, no sun spots right in the face, just even lighting throughout the whole field.
What a fun shoot, though. While the early morning hour wasn’t the most ideal, I think we were all more than ready for this shoot. I mean, it’s Busch Stadium. Not many will be able to experience this amazing shoot (although if I have anything to do with it, I say differently), so who cares that we had to leave early in the morning. We were given access to shoot in the dugouts, on the dugouts, in the seats, and the warning track. I think some of my favorites were on top of the dugouts. Inside the dugouts we had to move a few water bottles and gatorade bottles, and you know the thoughts going through all our heads?! lol “I wonder if this is Albert Pujols’?” Who knows? 🙂
Overall, it was a great shoot. And I’m so thrilled that we had the opportunity to photograph at Busch Stadium. And this was an important shoot for me personally, because starting next year there will be more opportunities to photograph at Busch Stadium.
