Dreams for Kids - Washington Capitals

I spent last Friday afternoon at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex photographing Dreams for Kids Extreme Recess hockey clinic. Extreme Recess is a program that gives children with physical and developmental challenges the opportunity to participate in sports. This event involved ice, hockey, tons of volunteers and a few Washington Capitals. It was awesome to see the smiling kids enjoying themselves, playing hockey and generally having a good time.

After I put the camera down, I put on some skates because I'm pretty athletic and it can't be that hard, right? Wrong. I only fell once but the moral of the story is you should at least know how to ice skate before trying to play a sport while doing so.

Capitals and Canadiens

Last Friday I shot my first ever ice hockey game, high school, college or pro. I don't know if it was because it was my first time or what, but my final assessment of shooting hockey: fastest and most difficult sport to shoot ever.

I think there are about 5 ice level photo positions where holes are cut in the Plexiglas boards which the photographers shoot through. Being the low man on the totem, I was unable to shoot from ice level positions. I started the game up top in the 200 levels shooting down. The action was easier to follow up there, but the TV guys' heads kept getting in the way. For the last two periods, I sat next to John McDonnell of the Washington Post and shot through the glass. It wasn't ideal, but it worked out pretty well.

I had no idea what made a good picture so this is going to take some more practice to figure out. Shout out to hockey...I respect you, but I will conquer you.

See more photos here