Portland Timbers Internship

One year ago I watched the Portland Timbers inaugural MLS game with my roommates in Corvallis and was blown away by what I saw so much that I told myself then that I would make sure I was an intern for the next season. A year later I just finished up shooting the 2012 home opener for the Timbers and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season now more the ever.

When I got the news that I would be an inter for the season I was riding in a van with the OSU Soccer team as they were going to play the Timbers that night. The coach was surprised to hear that I had just accepted an internship while on our way to the game. I was super happy but didn't really know how to show this when the team I with is about to go play a team I just accepted an internship from, so I kind of played it cool and spent the rest of the night getting familiar with JELD-WEN field since I would be back there just a few nights later. 

The Timbers played a series of games at JELD-WEN in a tournament leading up to the season opener against the Philadelphia Union.  And I'm really glad they did because it gave me a chance to get up to speed.

February 27 - The first challenge was learning a whole new editing program. I had been using Lightroom for about a month by then and knew it pretty well, but after some complications with it the first night, Craig (my boss) suggested that I try using aperture. I could tell it was potentially better and much faster from the start but I still had to learn where everything was. Basically for the first night the screen above looked incredibly confusing and slowed me down so much it was embarrassing. At the end of the night I only had a few decent photos and was really slow when it came to editing. I felt as if I had been knocked to the ground and kicked in the teeth or something. It made me question what I had gotten into, but you have to stick with it.

March 1 - The following game things improved dramatically, and I even walked away the main photo for the night which was a big boost in confidence. Which I felt I needed at that point. Ryan Kawulok had just signed a contract with the team earlier in the day and then went out and scored a game tying goal for Portland. Thank god I was sitting in the right corner!

I also managed to get a nice shot of Kawulok as he left the field with his log slab after the game. Its amazing how fast everything happens during these games. I know that in soccer its pretty easy to see exactly how much time you have left in a game but it just seems so fast when your not coming up with images you would be proud to put your name on. But after the second game I saw that I could take the quality of images I wanted. I just needed to step up my game to produce more photos of that quality.

March 4 - The Final day of the tournament was busy. This meant I was going to be at the stadium all day. It started with a community event where Latino league and team representatives were able to talk with Timbers GM Gavin Wilkinson and academy director Mike Smith in some of the most frustrating light to shoot in, but once that was over it was onto a game between the San Jose Earthquakes and Chivas USA. San Jose won 5-0 so I had plenty of chances to get a celebration shot and I also ended up with a nice action shot that later ended up on the MLS homepage.

This is where shooting action seems to have taken a backseat and I'm now more focused on getting stuff of the atmosphere of the games that take place in Portland. 16K plus were on hand for the tournament finally and while, Craig shot the action I spent time on photographing the fans.

Although I do walk away this action shots from every game they just aren't epic enough to use most of the time. So shots of Timber Joey doing what he does best makes up for the boring images.

March 12 - This is it... the place I said I would be a year ago in my living room after watching the 2011 season opener. It didn't disappoint!

Since it is the start of a new season there are a ton of promotional photos that needed to be taken. I'm used to this after a few years of working with OSU. What I wasn't ready for was the rain. Just before the photo above was taken my 7D got a little wet and seemed to kick the bucket. Although it did eventually dry out and return to working condition, it was out of commission for the night (one camera down, two to go)

I wish I had worn a pedometer or something that night because I felt like I was everywhere. From the corner of the stadium for the fireworks to the gates for promotion shots then outside the stadium for a quick shot then back in so that I could pick up cards... Now I probably didn't have to take all the photos I did but I said I would pick up my game and I'm sticking to that.

I did end up with a great shot of Eric Brunner running into the Philadelphia goalie during the second half but then after I picked up cards again I headed up to the stands for a couple quick shots of the Timbers Army.

The one thing that does kind of suck about this internship is that it is unpaid, but I knew that before I applied. Sometimes I feel that to really gain the experience you need you have to make a sacrifice. Most of the people who ask me about the work I'm doing with the Timbers are seriously disappointed to hear it is unpaid which to some end frustrates me. It seems like many of my peers are not willing to work for free in exchange for some kind of experience which is very sad. These types of internships allow you to meet new people who may someday help you while still having the ability to screw up a little and its not the end of the world.

The other great thing is that the experience you gain working in an atmosphere such as the one in Portland is that you are learning in a very real environment. If you want to know how it is working for a team then you get a pretty damn good idea with jobs like this. I feel that in the four games I have shot at JELD-WEN so far have helped me so much. I'm faster at editing, and I feel that already I'm taking better photos and looking for more unique photos. After four days! I'm trying to get as much out of this as I can while I'm still in school and can afford to work for free.