Fun with Flickr

I like to go check out the photo sharing site Flickr every once in a while to see what is out there.

The sheer volume of images that people take and post is staggering. I went out there today because I needed some inspiration for a post and knowing full well there would be a bunch of new stuff from the spring game.

My first search criteria was "michigan football" -- was entirely too ambitious. It returned 24,508 results. On the first page was this image from a flickr user called marylea. The picture is from the 2007 Notre Dame game. Yes, those are real dead wolverines on this tailgate table next to the maize and blue candy. WTF ?

A couple of pages later I ran into this awesome picture of the baddest muther-focking punter in the universe taken by flickr photog gotjenks. This picture was taken before the 2008 Orlando Bowl game against Florida.

I'm pretty sure Mesko just punched Tim Tebow in the face, kicked sand in Urban Myers mouth, and stole Percy Harvin's girlfriend before he decided to walk to the locker room listening to Romanian gangster rap.

How Zoltan manages to walk down State Street without a body guard there to protect him from screaming co-eds wanting to satisfy his every desire is beyond my ability to understand.

I then changed my search criteria to "michigan spring game" and was greeted by a much more manageable 338 images to "creep on" (my 15 year old daughter taught me that term recently and I try to use it as much as possible now). The first one was this good clear wide angle view of the stadium shot by baklein62. It gives you decent feel for how many people were actually at the game on saturday. There looks to be a lot more people in this picture that I thought when I watched the video. The weather helped. If you look close enough, I think I can see T9.

The next one to catch my eye was this gem of an Obi Ezeh fan dressed in a bear costume posted by baklein62. I am sure there is a logical explanation for fur - I am hoping for something good like "Obi is going to be as good as Mike Singletary"... but like the comment stated on the photo there is no excuse for wearing a blazer (with shorts) to a game.

Dude.... Georgia plays their games a little further down the road.

After a couple of pages of recruit stalking -- I ran across the Michigan Daily set of images from the Spring Game. As a professional sports photographer - I always appreciate the images the student photographers capture for the Daily. In my opinion, they do a much better job than the guys at the Detroit Free Press or Detroit News. This one is very solid shot of Carlos Brown leaving everyone on the field in his dust in a scene that I can only hope repeats itself 10 or 15 times this year. Yes Sru, if you close your eyes tight enough you have seen Beanie Wells do the same thing with the same colors running behind him.

The next one that caught my eye was this very tight image of the Greg Matthews touchdown catch take by Daily Photographer Sam Wolson.

I know all too well the feeling Sam was having as he was firing away with his second camera body (equipped with a shorter lens for such moments) hoping that the players would stay in his frame and the camera would focus fast enough allowing him to get the shot.

There really is nothing like it.

Little did Sam know, a couple of feet behind him, sitting in the stands was flickr photog jptrack01 firing away at the same action. You can see Sam's shoulder and lens in the corner of this image.