I covered one Super Bowl. Let me clarify. I covered the referee crew who officiated one Super Bowl. 1987. Big Blue won, led by the wondrous Phil Simms, who chose to have the best day of his career in the biggest game of his life.
I had a contract with SI, and as I’ve always said, they sort of tolerated me, even though I couldn’t shoot action worth a lick. I mean, in those days of manual focus, there were photogs on the SI crew with names like Kluetmeier, Frakes, Biever, Iooss, et al. These guys had radar, sonar, telepathy, astral projection and the team’s playbook in their head. Me, not so much.
I shot the banner pic here with literally less than a minute to kickoff. I had made arrangements with the refs to gather at the end zone, so I could bang off a group shot. I stepped onto the field, with my assistant toting a 4×6′ Chimera soft box atop a monopod, which was fitted with Speedotron head that had been Frankenstein’ed into accommodating (and even firing, occasionally) four Norman flash tubes. These were in turn linked via cables to four 200B battery packs, hanging from the unfortunate assistant’s shoulders. Thankfully, it was not raining or I mighta pulled a King Ralph on these guys.
I was firing it, stupidly, with a Hawk radio remote, which was just a notch above a garage door remote in terms of range and efficiency. Of course my colleagues on the sidelines all found my discomfiture amusing and were shouting at me as I popped off 10 or so frames, “It’s not working! Flash ain’t firing!” They of course left the “asshole” unspoken, floating in the air, not articulated but very powerfully translated.
SI killed the story. Enjoy the Super Bowl everybody!
More tk……
You write as well as you make photographs, Joe. It’s always a pleasure to catch up with you, onn your blog, on video and in your books.
Oh that do reminds me of working with Ken when we did the coldest playoff game ever in Cincinnati
I had a hearty laugh with your reference and link to King Ralph. And your mention about the Hawk radio remote brought back my own memories of miss-fires and miss-adventures with that gawd awful POS! At least the gear today is more reliable.
Still relish the time I attended one of your superb workshops at the Adobe World Conference in Las Vegas back in 2014. Covid means no travel at this time.. You are such a treasure and wealth of valued info, along with your excellent books.
Thank you for your post Joe. Always enjoy receiving them and the stories behind the photos.
Hope you and your loved ones are safe and well.
Cheers from Montréal.
Frederic Hore
I’d never heard of “King Ralph” but I got a chuckle out of that clip. Now I’ll have to find the whole movie. As for the Hawk remotes, from what I remember – I could be wrong – is that the original ones _were_ garage door openers that had been reworked.
Yes on the Hawks….that’s my recollection as well….enjoy King Ralph!
Many thanks, Dan…appreciate you stopping by the blog!
Oh, yeah….nothing like cold weather games….
Many thanks for the kind words. Yep, that Hawk does not have great memories. We are so blessed with the gear we have now!
There is an enormous amount of comfort in stories where a master photographer relates his woes, his failures, and is able to do so in such a way as we understand that stuff like that happens even to the best of us.
It never ceases to amaze me that Joe has a story for almost any special date in history, or for so many famous people. I think I enjoy his stories about the people we might never have heard of had he not photographed them, even more than shots of the famous folks.
I’m not sure if you quite literally tasked with photographing the refs, or if it was more figurative, but I was assigned once to photograph this sideline and stands of a local high school football game. They were some of the best photos I got, sometimes we find the best photos away from everything, where our attention wouldn’t necessarily be drawn. It was also nice to hear that even as a professional, you were still susceptible to mistakes, and although we strive for perfection, perfection isn’t quite attainable in photography.
I once has the Hawks, and Norman 200Bs, and yes it is good it wasn’t raining and your assistant is alive today. Great story. ~TEU
I know the struggle photography can be when on a time crunch. Even with all of the gear updates I still find ways to make mistakes when getting a photo is the most important. It’s refreshing to hear that even professionals have mishaps. I love that you said you covered the referee team, now I’ve never covered a referee team, but I was once assigned to photograph the sidelines and stands of a football game, they turned out to be some of the best photos I’ve ever gotten. Sometimes when we take out attention away from where our attention is drawn, we find that new perspective people have never seen. This was a great little story I enjoyed reading!
Well, I love this shot. Maybe it’s good the flashes didn’t went off. Who knows… 🙂
Cheers from Austria
Many thanks!