Hamilton
Tiger-Cats

About the Event

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats need no introduction, but in case you somehow haven’t heard, they are one of the 9 grid-iron football teams in the Canadian Football League. This particular game took place on October 27, 2019 against the Ottawa Redblacks.

Game day was about as rainy and cold as they come. Nearing November’s winter, the air was frigid and the precipitation did nothing to help. Puddles everywhere. Hats drawn over heads. Gloves pulled on tight. Everything still got wet though, so I’m not sure how good it was.

But from kick-off to the final play of the game, I got to fulfill a lifelong (well, 4-year long) dream of shooting my favourite team in my favourite city. While it was one of the most difficult events I’ve ever covered (who am I kidding, it was thee most difficult), it was so rewarding to see the final product come together.

About the Project

I was given access to anywhere in the stadium minus the locker rooms. Shooting from the sidelines was unfamiliar to me for a million reasons, not the least of which was using entirely different photo and video gear than I was used to (namely longer lenses and new camera bodies). Couple that with a lot of manually-focused shots in the rain on a tiny monitor, and you have yourself a pretty difficult challenge.

Thankfully, it all panned out and we concluded with one of my favourite films I’ve ever edited together. I took a ton of inspiration from Hamilton legend Brooks Reynolds and his two phenomenal Ticats films. i owe him a lot of thanks for inadvertently giving me a ton of pointers on what and how to shoot.