About a week ago, The Ohio State Buckeyes traveled to West Lafayette to face the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue was coming off two large wins over lesser opponents, and Ohio State would be the first real test after dropping an important game to the Illinois Fighting Illini in Champaign. The game in Mackey Arena came as somewhat as a surprise as an unlikely contributor helped the Boilermakers take down the Buckeyes. PJ Thompson hit several clutch shots and finished with 12 points, including a big three pointer in the second half. It was obvious from the tip-off that this was a significant game, as the crowd was outfitted in colored shirts for cancer awareness, the game was televised on ESPN and Purdue President Mitch Daniels even made an appearance in the second half.

After a while these games begin to starting feeling the same. You have your telephoto lens, and maybe a second body fitted with a 300 mm lens or a 24-70 mm lens to capture the players drive the basket a little wider. I've felt myself fall into the same rut, you just end up going through the motions every time. So you know what? I've tried to push myself a little harder. I've worked with Nikon Ambassador Andrew Hancock a lot over the past year, and I've begun to pick up some of the little things he does. Specifically this fall we traveled to Ann Arbor to cover Michigan face Michigan State in the Big House for The Player's Tribune. I saw how he approaches the game as a story that you have to tell. If you look at Andrew's work from the College Football Playoff National Championship game, it becomes obvious. Bill Frakes, another Nikon Ambassador whom I met while covering American Pharoah's journey to winning the Triple Crown in 2015 with Andrew, It was time that I started working harder.

The guys at Roberts Camera took care of me by setting me up with a new Nikon body, and some Pocket Wizards so that I could start doing some remote work. I put it to the test when the shot the game when Iowa came to face Purdue. I even broke out the 400mm, a lens I thought would have served its purpose and would be packed away after football season was over. I tried some new things. I went high in the stands, I went low with my remotes, I went into the tunnel, I was everywhere.