June 10, 2004

THE CUP ALMOST GOT
ME RUNNETH OVER

So, I'm standing yesterday along the street shooting photos of the Tampa Bay Lightning victory parade through downtown Tampa. Just shooooooting away, not a care in the world.

I shot a photo of the video coach. I shot the goaltending coach. I shot every player. I got shots of the crowd from the 22nd floor of a skyscraper. I got them at curb level. I shot men, women, dogs, babies. I even shot Thunderbug, the team's mascot.

And then the Stanley Cup starts to appear on the horizon. It's Dave Andreychuck, the Lightning captain who won his first championship after 22 years.

The cup is gleaming in the midday sunlight. It's coming closer. It's five feet away from me. He's hoisting all 35 pounds of it like he did the night they won. And I hit the camera shutter.

"MEMORY CARD FULL"

A river of flop sweat runs down my back. I've stood in near-100-degree temps waiting for this moment and it's now riding away on the back of a convertible with my camera and it's full belly now burping at me.

I take off running, abandoning my wife, child, mother-in-law and friends.

I'm deleting pictures along the way. Button, press. Button, press. Button, press.

I only pray I'm not deleting the one of Vinny Lecavalier signing my son's hockey stick.

I run parralel through the crowd, through an office building, pushing old women and paraplegics to the ground like Lawrence Taylor mowing through an offensive line.

I will not be denied.

I attempt to run through the set of the Sunshine Network's anchor panel. I am grabbed around my ribs by a TV flunkie. I brush him off like lint and limbo under the Looma crane. I see a Hillsborough County Sherrif's Deputy reach reflexively for his waistline.

A friend from my wife's work sees me and shouts, "JEFF, THEY ALMOST SHOT YOU!!!"

I don't care.

I will not be denied.

And then I realize I'm actually a block ahead of the cup. I stop. Gather my senses and aim to get three shots off, just in case one of them doesn't come out right.

And this is one of those photos:

ParadeCup.jpg

I will not be denied.

I will, however, post more photos tonight.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Jeff at June 10, 2004 08:47 AM | TrackBack
Comments

They guy at the beginning of this post "Just shooooooting away, not a care in the world." was definitely the guy I saw before Game 5.

Funny story - I'm glad you got the shots without getting tackled by Tampa's finest.

Posted by: Tommy at June 10, 2004 10:35 AM

EXTRA!
"TAMPA MAN ARRESTED FOR CUP STALKING."

Posted by: Parkway Rest Stop at June 11, 2004 03:42 AM

I like the songs on the Radio blog... nice touch :-)

Posted by: blunted at June 11, 2004 02:26 PM