2019 marked my 7th season of shooting for the Vikings and overall it was pretty good season and almost a great season. The Vikings made the playoffs as a #6 seed and won a thrilling overtime game on the road against the Saints to make it to the Divisional Playoff round against the San Francisco 49ers. Unfortunately, the #1 seed 49ers proved to be too good, so good in fact that they are in the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Talking about my photos, for whatever reason this season didn’t feel like it had as much variety as last season. Part of it was the lighting conditions. I don’t think there was a sunny home game during the regular season. That’s not an exaggeration. Every regular season home game was either at night or it was cloudy. With the awesome transparent roof at U.S. Bank Stadium, it was hugely disappointing every home game when it was cloudy because I don’t think there is a better stadium in football when it’s a sunny afternoon for photos. The other disappointing thing was that the fire pyrotechnics during player intros was banned this season because of a mishap at another football stadium where they accidentally set their field on fire. As a result, the NFL banned fire as part of on-field theatrics across the league for basically the entire season. It made the intro photos a lot less interesting this year.
Anyway, it was still a fun season with lots of exciting moments. One particular highlight is I made my first ever trip to Lambeau Field and was able to photograph the Vikings and Packers play another chapter in their historic rivalry. Lambeau Field really is an exciting venue with so much history. It felt like walking into Wrigley Field or Fenway Park for the first time.
The excitement of the playoffs was also very fun for a couple weeks. Prior to the Vikings playoff game against the 49ers, many sites and buildings around Minneapolis and St. Paul were lit up purple in support of the team. The Vikings hired me to photograph many of the locations, which wasn’t easy on a 10-degree night, but it was great to see the city all lit up in purple and I was happy to be able to capture some photos that I was very pleased with. All that being said, please take a look at my favorite photos I shot this season and I hope you enjoy them!
