So, I volunteered to be the official photographer/videographer for my 8th grade son’s football team. Should be a snap. When my hand shot up to volunteer, I didn’t think about the bizarre, uneven stadium lighting, and the fact that the helmets would obscure most of those great close-up facial expressions I imagined getting. I quickly found out shooting football is a little different than shooting real estate. 
While shooting homes, I don’t need to worry about a 175 pound, fully padded 13 year old who is running in a trajectory that, if my physics calculation is correct, is sending him…directly into me. Shooting football means making that last second decision. Do I save myself or save my equipment? Or maybe I just stand there and get the shot? The news photographers I used to work with, would have gotten the shot, but well, I’m just not that tough. 
Last Saturday, I was having a wonderful day. I had videotaped a beautiful townhome a few hours earlier, and I knew the video tour would turn out great. And it was a beautiful night to shoot football, even if it did mean watching my son get sacked ten times. But there was a problem. The battery I had so carefully charged, decided it needed to die – giving me a blinking red light of death, warning me to “change the battery pack immediately.” In the first quarter. And since this wasn’t a professional shoot, I hadn’t bothered to pack extra batteries.
So, I did what any mom would do. I said a simple prayer over that little battery pack. And it kept on working, until two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Fortunately, it was not a night for a miracle comeback so I didn’t need to explain to all of the moms and dads why I didn’t get “the shot”. Thank God for small miracles. But next time, I’m bringing extra batteries.
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