Ballad of the (non)Thin Man

If you look closely, Daniel McColl

(running the ball for the Vikings) is not

in sharp focus. The referee behind him

in is better focus.

By Ed Piper, Jr.

First quarter, Serra already has the ball after a La Jolla possession. I can't get my camera to work--each time I hit the shutter, the camera freezes and I have to turn it off to clear it. Click, freeze again. I'm juggling my monopod (stick to support my heavy camera), the camera, my notepad and pen for keeping play-by-play as the Homecoming game unfolds.

But it's not unfolding too well. I'm already behind in writing down the plays that occurred in the Vikings' first possession. I look up at one point, and La Jolla running back Alex Dockery is streaking by me near the sideline. I hurriedly aim my camera and take a shot. I get that one.

It occurs to me: This happened just after I got the shutter to unfreeze. That took several minutes, plays continuing, people on the sideline--a ton of people with cameras, I guess because of Homecoming--running around. Hard to find a spot to plant my monopod and take shots of the action.

I remembered that I had had this particular malfunction occur before. I tried to think through how to check what it was. I pushed the shutter repeatedly, having to clear it each time. I pressed "Menu" and began to look through the lists of functions on the device. Finally, I thought to look at the button on the top left of the body--in my hurry, with the National Anthem, following the introduction of coaches for the new Wall of Honor, that following ribbon-cutting done by senior Sadie Lee officially dedicating the new sports facilities, I had mistakenly set the shutter on "Mup", mirror up, which was causing my problems.

Now back to the game. Only the lens, my trusty 70-200 mm zoom, wasn't focusing automatically. I still don't know what was going on with that. It happens, though rarely. What I usually do is turn off the camera, remove the lens, and screw it back on. That can reset the contacts that interface between the camera body and lens.

But in addition, I was now juggling something else with the other items: my new La Jolla Village News press pass, in addition to my CIF media pass. I wondered from the moment my editor had it made for me if this would happen. Two small clasps on the neck strap, but nothing for the clasps to dig into. So one clasp kept slipping, the strap falling onto my chest.

Meanwhile, the Vikings were scoring on their first two possessions. Unheard of, this year. I was missing most of it.

I manually focused my autofocus lens. I took a shot of Daniel McColl lumbering downfield with one of his many great runs. When I got home later, the shot was not completely focused. A lost shot.

Finally, the autofocus began functioning properly and my confidence returned a little. It had already been a wild afternoon, like I said, with a 5 p.m. tennis pavilion ceremony. In between, besides taking shots of all the other ceremonies, I had squeaked in a quick interview at midfield of the opposing head coach, Dru Smith. He was totally cool.

Earlier, I had walked down the new ramp into Edwards Stadium from Fay Ave., and right there in front of me were some of the Viking seniors I wanted to get pregame comments from: Ross Martin, Nick Hammel (they're both quotable), Andrew Mitchell, Christophe Gish (his mom, manning the pregame food table for the varsity, told me I should interview him, too; I was obedient).

Then, three minutes left in the opening quarter, Paula Conway, athletic director, nicely sidled up to me while I was taking game shots and said, "I have a favor to ask. From the 'Tangle in the Tank', we're going to present a check for the Susan Komen fund after the first quarter. Can you take photos?" I said yes. So, hurrying past the bench to my camera case holding my 24-70 mm lens, I got it and was putting it on my camera--monopod having to come off, 70-200 lens having to come off--as the announcement for the check was being made between quarters. Paula watched as I came back down the sideline to the 50-yard line. Got it.

Finally, as the second quarter got rolling, I got rolling, too, and taking some good action shots of the Viking runners who were having a field day against poor Serra, a 1-6 team: Alex Dockery, McColl, even quarterback Cole Dimich, who really had a breakout game for his rushing abilities.

It was quite a Homecoming night: Four events, tennis pavilion dedication, ribbon-cutting on the newly-improved sports complex, introduction of Wall of Honor coach inductees, last but not least the football game. The falling press pass went into my pocket. The camera autofocus came out of its slump. And former San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory had the quote of the day: "Illegally," he said, after he was introduced for spearheading the tennis pavilion project with the words, "Jack McGrory, the man known for moving Fay Ave. so the (Coggan) pool could get built."