(All images taken with an iPhone 6s+)
This weekend was busy for me! On Friday, I met with a couple of my high school friends and my brother for my friend's birthday lunch at RAM restaurant and then later went to a bowling party celebrating the 60th birthday of all of my high school classmates (I'm one year younger than they are since I skipped 3rd grade). On Saturday, my daughter's alumni association held a get together at the Cubs game (we lost 2-1 to the Cardinals). Not the greatest seats there, but still a good time as always at the ballpark!
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend the Chicago Bulls vs New Orleans Pelicans Pre-Season game this evening. My wife's company gave her four tickets and VIP parking! Each ticket was worth $499! I don't know what the parking cost, but it was right next to the building. In fact, somebody's Lamborghini was parked about 50 feet from my car!
My niece and nephew along with my wife and I were seated in section 111, Row B which is on the floor of the stadium! Most would say these were GREAT seats... just shy of being courtside, but I found them not ideal for photography. They were good if you wanted to be really close to the players and the action though!
From past experience shooting games a bit higher up in the stands, I found that being higher up gives you a better angle to take photos if you have a telephoto lens with you since other people heads don't really get in your way. But we were at floor level this time and people in front of me made it harder to get a clean shot.
Also, due to a new ruling, my camera and lenses were denied access to the game, so I had to take all photos with my iPhone 6s+! Just entering The United Center, the security guard took one look at my camera and lenses and said she would need to call to see if they would allow my "professional" camera into the game. I told her I have been taking this camera into games for several years, but after getting confirmation from the head of security, she said they changed the rules this year and that only cameras with non-detachable lenses were allowed in. That means Point and Shoot cameras or Smart Phones! Because of this, I had to return my camera and lenses to the trunk of my car.
We were really too close to use a long lens, but it would have been nice having my DSLR camera with at least a 24-70mm lens. But that too was a detachable lens, so it was banned along with my camera.
I did see at least one person in the stadium that had a DSLR camera, so it seems if you have a small enough camera and lens on and security doesn't recognize it, you could sneak it in. But at this point, I'd have to say you are best to leave your good cameras at home. The United Center is no longer letting you bring the gear in. Very sad!
The best I was able to get was some video of the game and of the cheerleaders (The Luvabulls) with my Apple iPhone 6s+ and a couple of shots of the game, but not much. These were the only "decent" photos I was able to get with my phone! The rest were either blurry from too slow a shutter speed or they just were not good because other fans heads were in the way. Had we been higher up, I could have avoided the other people's heads in the shots. The iPhone just is not good for action shots!
The only reason I was even able to get the shots that you see here is because I have an ap on my phone called "ProCamera" that allows me to change the shutter speed and ISO. I had to shoot at 1/320 second or faster to get anything worthwhile. The players move too quickly and even the Luvabulls move too fast. The standard camera ap on the iPhone does not allow you to make shutter speed adjustments. The images were also cleaned up in Lightroom to fix noise and color.
So while being so close was good as a spectator to get closer to the action, it wasn't good as a photographer with only a smart phone to use as a camera. I did note that if you are down in the VIP section where we were, servers bring you your food (if you want some) instead of you having to leave the game to get it in the concession stands! Plus, the padded folding chairs on the floor are actually quite comfortable and spaced apart better than the seats in the stands.
The Bulls beat the Pelicans with a score of 128 to 116. It was a pre-season game, so it didn't count, but it was definitely a high scoring game!
Oh, I almost forgot... my wife and I were featured on the huge video monitor above the stadium! You can see a shot of the monitor in the last photo above. We were on the "Kiss Cam" segment during one of the time-outs! Seated just to the left and one row in front of us was some VIP who every waitstaff seemed to know. Well, he waved over the cameraman to him so that he could kiss his wife (I'm assuming it was his wife) and after that, the camera panned over to us since there wasn't anyone sitting directly in front of us. I noticed we were on the huge monitor and that the video camera was now pointed towards us, so I told my wife we needed to kiss. She wasn't really paying attention, so when she saw the camera she allowed me a quick kiss. Well, that did not sit well with everyone in the stadium who quickly gave us a "boo", so I told her, we will need to kiss again. This time, it was a lot longer and that got a huge round of approval from the fans! That's the first time we have ever had to do that in front of thousands of fans!
While I wasn't able to get any good photos of the game, we all had a good time anyway and at least I can say I was on the big overhead monitor!
