Hanging with Herbstreit
By now you’ve hopefully heard about the first college National Championship game played by The Ohio State University and Oregon. It was an awesome game to watch for sure, and the Buckeyes ended up victorious! I must admit, since my dad’s family is all from Ohio, I had to pull for those Bucks. The other great thing about this historic game is the fact that it was played in Dallas. As you can imagine, there are all kinds of events that come along with that, and I was fortunate to do Dallas event photography for a National Championship brunch.
Now, as if that wasn’t already cool enough, there was a celebrity guest brought in to talk to all of the attendees as well as do a photo op with each person in attendance. Who was this special guest? None other than Mr. Kirk Herbstreit, analyst for ESPN’s College GameDay and color analyst for college football games. He was doing color commentary for the game, and I was fortunate enough to get to capture some Dallas event photography of him.
The brunch started out with him getting his photo taken with each person. I provided Dallas onsite printing so that each guest was able to pick up his or her photo at the end of brunch. Due to the client needing the images as quickly as possible, I had one of my assistants in a backroom with the computer and printer. As the photos were taken on the backdrop, they moved wirelessly to him where he could make sure the toning and cropping looked good, then send them to print. A high-speed printer shot out high quality images that are instantly dry to the touch, and then each photo was housed in a premium black paper frame. Once all of the prints were done, the prints made their way to the outside hallway so that they could wait for guests to pick them up.
As far as working with Mr. Herbstreit, I was certainly impressed by his demeanor, as he was very down to earth and warmly welcomed everyone that he met. He was even quite nice to all of the Oregon fans, despite the fact that he is a passionate alum of Ohio State! At the end of the day, we are all people, so anytime I meet someone who is more in the public spotlight but still humble about it is notable to me.
I have to say; one of the best parts about being a Dallas event photographer is the fact that I get to learn about such a variety of very diverse industries and interests. I love learning new things, and always try to soak up as much information as possible when I am covering events. The topics vary from everything to the healthcare industry to insurance, direct sales or nutrition. There are so many niches out there of interests and careers, so getting to learn a little something about a particular industry or organization is pretty cool. Plus I have a very broad amount of stuff to talk about at dinner parties!
The brunch was a particular treat, as I got to hear Kirk Herbstreit do a full breakdown and analysis of the game, in great detail, right in front of me. I worked a variety of angles to get great event photography in Dallas while he was speaking, and also made sure to focus on crowd reactions. Kirk was very engaging, as you might expect from a television personality, and just all around great to listen to. He also worked very hard to remain impartial in his analysis, which has to be tough. All in all, it was a great shoot!