Taking Skills to the Next Level – One Harbinger Student’s Experience
Noah Markunas
Nov. 16, 2022
Editor’s note: Harbinger contributor Noah Markunas recently got an opportunity to show off his sports photography skills by attending a football game at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We asked him to write a reflection on his experience.
When I first started getting into photography when I was in high school, I would pay better attention to the area around sporting events and would notice the photographers sitting right next to the field or the court. When I saw these photographers, I wanted to be in the same spot as they were. When I was told about the opportunity by my photography professor Christopher Gauthier to photograph a University of Illinois football game, I knew I had to seize my chance. I quickly applied and my media credentials for the Illinois football game were approved.
With this being my first ever time taking photos at a college football game, I really didn’t know what to expect. I was also nervous because it was a Big Ten Conference matchup between Illinois and Michigan State. The last thing I wanted to do was be late, so I arrived an hour and a half early before having to pick up my media pass. Two hours before the game was scheduled to start, I had to stop by the ticket booth of the State Farm Center to pick up my media pass. The hardest part had just begun.
The part that I was most afraid of when I arrived at Memorial Stadium was that I would stand out because of how young I was and that I would look like it was my first time working there. When I arrived at the side gate of the stadium, it was as easy as showing them my pass and I was in. I made my way all the way down to the other end of the stadium where I was greeted by an elevator with “B1G Network” right above the entrance. I felt out of place as soon as I got in the elevator because there was a very professional looking man in a full suit going up to the same level as me. When the elevator opened and I took a step out of the elevator door, I looked over to my left. The view was amazing. I never thought the sight of a completely empty stadium would look so amazing. I took a quick walk down the hallway of the press box, and I looked over to my right to see an ocean of people tailgating and waiting in line to get into the stadium. I was in shock. Not because of how it looked, but how I grew up going to games like these and standing in the same spot that all those people were standing in. It was crazy to see that someone like me could get to the point where I would see something from such a place that I once thought was unreachable for a person like me.
The time I spent in the press box looking over the field didn’t last long. I had to take the opportunity of having the entire empty stadium at my disposal. I would walk around the stadium with my camera and a bag at my side with another lens that I would use for different shots if I needed it. It wouldn’t last long because the gates opened shortly after I began walking around the stadium. After about 20 minutes of walking around, I exited the stadium and made my way to a separate entrance that was only accessible to the media. This entrance would lead me straight to the field, and there I was – I made it.