The season is made up of hundreds of little moments. Some are small and you might not notice them. Some are huge and you remember them forever.
Every game day, every training, every road trip, these little moments –milliseconds in the camera – happen. Most people never see them. But I see them all. Sometimes I miss capturing them, sometimes I nail them. Last night had both.
I decided last night to shoot only with my 300mm and 70-200mm lenses. Two lenses I don't typically shoot during the game. I also shot the first half from behind the net...an angle I don't typically shoot at, but wanted to mix things up. Sometimes these decisions are good, sometimes they are bad...when Diego Chara received his 100th career card – a yellow in the 26th minute – I didn't have a long enough lens to capture the moment. When he scored his goal, I was in the wrong position and missed the shot and the celebration. I didn't worry too much though, I knew there would be more moments in this game.
I approach every game from a historians perspective. Yes, we need images that day for our social posts and website articles and videos but we also need photos that 5-10-15 years from now we can look back on and say, "wow, I remember that moment!"
Since 2014 I've seen I've seen a lot of Dairon Asprilla moments. I've seen Asprilla score on a bicycle kick before, in 2019 with T2. I've seen him try this in numerous games and even more in practices. But never have I seen a series of moments like we saw last night.
The bicycle kick in the 54th minute will be one of those moments that will never be forgotten. Because Asprilla has been on such a tear this year, because he is so fast to the ball and because I KNOW he wants to score more than anything, whenever he is around the goal, I make sure to stick with him. As Santiago Moreno's pass came into the box, I locked onto Asprilla and followed the play. The ball bouncing off San Jose's 'keeper, rolling outside of the box, Asprilla's eyes locked onto the ball the entire time, then the pass to himself and the acrobatic back flip.
Watching through the camera I had no idea where the ball was, but I just kept locked onto Asprilla and he looked back to see his shot bounce into the net. I shot these photos with my 300mm lens – the earlier decision to shoot shorter lenses for this game paid off as Asprilla scored his 10th goal of the season. I would have missed the photo completely if I had used a longer one like normal.
And then, the epic celebration – climbing on top of the log, arms spread wide as the Timbers Army celebrated one of the most amazing goals in the history of Providence Park. These moments seem to happen in slow motion while shooting them through the camera. It's only later when i watch the replay for that I notice how quick they happen in real time.
After he hopped off the log, he was joined on the log stand by the rest of the team and given a shower of sawdust – and a yellow card. Sometimes a yellow card is worth it for a moment that will be remembered forever.
More Timbers News
Related Stories
