San Francisco 49ers defeat the St. Louis Rams 26-0

Headed over to the Stick for 49ers vs the Rams.

After a tough Thanksgiving loss, I was excited to see how the niners would bounce back. And bounce back they did, defeating the Rams 26-0 to clinch to NFC West title!

On days like these, I find myself shooting a lot of backlit shots because the light is so nice and you can get cool little starburst pings off the top of their helmets.

Or wrap the light around their faces like a halo (not just for leaves like yesterday)

And... also, as the shadow creeps across the field, it's warmer on the sunny side ;-)

One of my 1D Mark III bodies is having some technical issues, so I was forced to use my 7D. Since in theory the Mark III is a better camera than the 7D, I put my 300mm on my other Mark III since it's my most used lens, and on the 7D I put on my 70-200 which I rarely use during football games. When the play was in the red zone, I switched them so I could use the 70-200 on the Mark III for the possible touchdown play.

And thank goodness because I got Frank Gore's touchdown and celebration.

Oh except it wasn't quite a touchdown =(

But after the switch, I never switched back.

The 7D has a smaller sensor with a bigger crop factor at 1.6 effectively making my 300mm lens a (300*1.6)  a 480mm lens. So I thought since I shoot niners on my own assignment and don't have an editor looking for specific shots, I will risk the slower frames per second and sensor quality to experiment a bit with being tighter on the action. I was happy I did, especially when you can see the player's eyes.

Niners were trying to get to A.J. Feeley all afternoon.

And sometimes did!

Frank Gore had a great game setting the franchise record for all-time leading rusher at 7,396 yards.

Niners fans started doing the wave in the middle of the third quarter. Truth be told, I LOVE the wave. I love the community feeling and excitement of doing the wave. Anytime I am anywhere, and someone is trying to start the wave, I'm in. Kyle Terada can attest that I even discretely raised my hands a bit to participate in Sunday's wave. But Joe Staley wasn't too happy the wave was continuing while niners were on offense, as you can imagine with a consistent loud "Woooooooo" circling the stadium while they are trying to hear the play calling.

Michael Crabtree had a great game for the niners, even catching a 52-yd pass from Alex Smith for a touchdown.

What's funny about shooting backlit, and photography in general, is that a lot of times it's seeing what's there, but seeing it in a different way and showing people. To take a long metaphorical stretch, it's like writing a novel or writing music. Everyone has the words, notes, or scene, but you have to write it, sing it, shoot it, in a way that people can experience what you want them to feel, hear, see. So here's what I'm seeing point blank.

But here's what I'm seeing in my head and trying to create.

Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you drop the ball... sometimes you get to do a touchdown dance =)

With a comfortable lead, niners put in Colin Kaepernick. Always great to see the second string come in!

After the win, Frank Gore waved the niners flag.

And as they went into the locker room, I went to photograph the fans cheering them in.

Then I unknowingly captured this beauty of my buddy Nhat Meyer who works for San Jose Mercury News. Thanks Nhat :-P

As some of you may know, I like to entertain myself with tweeting my feet through instagram and see if people can guess where I am.

I'm excited that not only are people are entertaining me with guesses but also tweeting their own feet! Like Joe Nuxoll and Alan Kwan

Another silly person in the Cox family entertains himself by trying to find Kelley on the Telley.

And my dad's game has also taken off, and now other people are finding Kelley on the Telley, thanks Jim Riddle who found me in action running down the sideline! haha.

All in all a great day for me, Kelley =)

Oakland Raiders defeat the Chicago Bears 25-20

Headed over to O.co Coliseum for the Bears vs the Raiders

I always arrive early to set up the DSL cables I transmit from, claim a good spot to sit in the dugout, get some food, etc. It's funny because the pathway to the field goes right by the visiting team locker room, so a lot of times they are heading down the stairs for the field to warm up at the same time as me. Once I had a player offer to carry my bag down the stairs for me (such a gentleman, but I carried it myself... girl power!) this time I got to witness, won't name any names, a player in front of me trip down the stairs and almost fall. He caught his footing without realizing anyone saw him and stepped onto the field chanting about what a great game he was going to have because he so quickly recovered his stumble down the stairs. Haha. Silly boys.

As the players were warming up, Coach Hue Jackson was having a great time dancing to the music.

I also liked DeMarcus VanDyke whose mouthguard looked like a pacifier ;-)

But my favorite moment of pregame was Aaron Curry returning to the locker room...

Then hearing a girl call his name he gave this coy lil smile. haha.

Then it was game time.

Bears were without quarterback Jay Cutler,

I'm sure much to the dismay of Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith.

Last Raiders game I photographed, I made an image of Carson Palmer getting sacked and it was my very first photo published in Sports Illustrated (yay!) with the article "Give Him Time" Well, Carson Palmer's had time, and did a great job avoiding tackles and getting the ball down the field.

Only problem was he brought them down the field, only to be stuck kicking a field goal as Sebastian Janikowski scored a record 6 field goals.

Finally in the fourth, Michael Bush was able to run it in for a touchdown thanks to some great blocking!

Bears answered with a late touchdown of their own.

Bears tried for the onside kick.

But Raiders were able to gather the ball for the 25-20 win over the Bears much to the excitement of Marcel Reece.