I shot Yankees spring training camp in 1982, but never attended a football Giants camp. Since yesterday's weather was so nice, I headed down to East Rutherford.
The Giants website says that the gates open at 12:20pm and the practice starts at 1:20. I got there at 11:50am and there were already a couple hundred people in line........two lines, actually.
They opened up on time and - after being electronically searched - attendees could pick their spot: one of two bleachers, along the 10-foot-tall chain link fence (but not in front of the bleachers), or around the autograph area where you'd have to wait a couple of hours to maybe snag a signature from a wide receiver when practice was over (yesterday was that group's turn to sign).
I chose to be along the fence because my camera's lens was small enough to fit in the spaces between the links (though kids shook the fence, making things a bit more difficult). I picked the left side because that's where the team seemed to be heading when they came out early at around 12:35.
The fence wouldn't let the camera turn downfield, so I couldn't capture any shots of receptions, so I concentrated on Eli Manning for the short time he was in my limited range. They quickly moved downfield, however, and that was the extent of my Eli closeups - all of which were taken fully zoomed out (they weren't that close).
The rest of practice was played in other quadrants of the large field, so I looked for other things to shoot, like the footballs that had just been kicked and whizzed by the video guy in the 3-story-high cherry picker.
The pix:
1. The (in)offensive line
2. Eli on the receiving end
3. 2014 Giant's first round pick, wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr, hauls in a pass from himself.
4. My favorite shot of the day: Eli takes a snap as it passes head coach Tom Coughlin. This was especially difficult to time because of the camera's 0.6-second shutter lag. It was also my only straight-ahead shot as the offense moved downfield and my only shot of Coughlin.
5. The kick described earlier
6. My second-favorite action photo: a perfect handoff to RB Peyton Hillis.
7. Weirdest shot of the day: I have no idea how this happened - I took a picture of backup QB Ryan Nassib as he cocked his arm to throw and the shutter lag caught the ball in the air. I have no idea where the second ball came from. It was not PhotoShopped in.
8. This is the rectangle of humanity that is the autograph area - a pen, actually. The wide receivers work different sides for about 15 minutes and that's it. Most fans go home empty-handed, but at least they got up close to their heroes. I shot this from the top of one of the bleachers.
9. It was fairly easy to wade into the mob and get some up-close shots like this one of Victor Cruz signing. The kid in the lime shirt in front of Victor looks pretty excited.
10. While I was in the bleachers, I had to get a shot of the team's home stadium (and a bit of the IZOD Center on the right). All the cars in the near lot belonged to training camp attendees.
A formal count wasn't taken, but I was told that about 2,000 people were there.
If you're interested in attending, you don't have to get there early or get in line. I saw people leisurely stroll in during the entire time - even at the end during the autograph session.
Admission and parking is free. Best approach is from Paterson Plank Rd.
Here's the practice and autograph schedule:
http://www.giants.com/news-and-blogs/article-1/Giants-Training-Camp-practice-and-autograph-schedule/cdcf1ebd-3e0d-40cc-9fbe-721d128cf08f