LOVE – Despite my protests, we decided to do another BU Today photo essay about couples who met while they were college students here at BU. It’s a sweet photo column which gets a great response from readers, so I understand why we continue to do it. I feel like I struggle to make it interesting every year.
Perhaps it’s less about the creativity of the photos and more about the stories that come from the people in them, so I should worry less about the photos (but let’s be real, I will never worry less about the photos). We posted this year’s Valentine’s Day story today, and you can go look at it and read mushy stories and stuff if you want.
PUCKS – Tuesday night the BU women’s ice hockey team played in the championship round of the Beanpot, a tournament which includes BU, Harvard, Northeastern, and Boston College. The women’s team has not won the Beanpot since 1981.
We knew going into this final round that BU had a good chance of taking the cup. My editor came to me late last week and informed me that rather than showing up at the rink at Harvard and shooting the game as usual, I would be riding the bus with the team, and spending the evening shadowing them and covering the game.
The day of the game, I woke around 6:30 and was unable to fall back asleep. I felt lethargic, unmotivated and pretty blue. I tried to think of things to do to pass the time until I had to leave for my very late shift at 3:30 (the game started at 8PM), but was not very successful and occupying myself (I think I went grocery shopping?) or finding some way to lift my mood. I wondered how I would rally and have the energy and focus to do my job later that night.
I was conscious of what I ate all day, not wanting to consume anything that would make me feel even more sluggish and crummy. Coffee, I knew, would need to be involved when it came time to work.
We had some serious snow hit us, so getting to campus from home was a bit stressful, but I left myself plenty of time to get there and grabbed a mocha on my way to meet the team.
The plan was that I would ride with the team and cover the behind the scenes in addition to action once the game started. My colleague Andy would be covering the action too, and Joel would be writing a story to be published the very next day. We would edit and transmit from the rink itself when we were done shooting.
Once I joined the team, while I was tired, my lethargy and blues lifted. There were lovely moments and nice compositions happening all around me, practically being handed to me. It was extremely helpful that the coach and his staff were so welcoming to me, answering any questions I had without hesitation, and encouraging me to go wherever I wanted to go in order to do my job.
After my mood earlier in the day, I couldn’t have asked for a better pick-me-up. I posted this photo at right along with a comment in my Instagram account after photographing this player in the locker room before the game.
It was nerve-wracking (would they win?), fun, challenging, tiring, and thanks to the overtime – a very late night.
After the team finished celebrating their historic win on the ice, I made my way to a makeshift media lounge where Andy and I edited our selections for the story which would run the very next day.
I got home at about 1 in the morning and fell asleep at 2. After a good morning dose of ibuprophen, I spent the next day editing the remaining images to be included in a special gallery which was posted today. I’m really grateful I was given the opportunity to do it, and I’ve received some nice emails from “the powers that be” pleased with the outcome of both the hockey game shots and the love story photos.
All in all not a bad start to my Valentine’s Day
BEAN'S BABBLETORIUM 