Rugby

Sorry I've been so quiet of late! I've been insanely busy and then the internet has been sick and dying here at the Stanford House, so I've been totally unable to procrastinate and update the blog. Life is rough. I have a good number of posts that I want to do before I leave, so hopefully the internet will hold up so I can cram them all in!

First up, some photography... namely, of boys trying to kill each other in an organized forum!

(Corpus Challenge day, where Oxford Corpus (which, ironically, only has one player from Corpus... and he's actually from Stanford) unfortunately lost to Corpus Cambridge)

(The aftermath of the scrum)

(badass)

I've got a friend on the Corpus/Summerville rugby team, and so I've enjoyed going out and watching a few of his games over the past few weeks. For the past two, I decided to bring my camera with me and try my hand at a little sports photography!

(By far favorite part of rugby... so poetic)

(ooooof)

(A rare moment where I got the ball meaningfully in the frame!)

Rugby is a CRAZY sport, complete with much blood and very uncomfortable-looking tackling procedures. I really like watching it though, because the rules keep the play moving a lot more than American football and the scoring is (slightly) easier for a layman like me to follow.

(Ahh, such beauty)

(Apparently this is legal...)

(...as is this)

And, it's very very hard to take pictures of! 30 men jumping all over one another, trying to grab an egg-shaped ball (that's usually tucked under someone's arm for safekeeping) and taking down anyone that stands in their way makes for SUPER chaotic shooting!

(Brief moment of sunshine on some pig-pile action)

(Leviathan-esque tangle of arms)

I had a good time, but certainly won't be dropping out of school to become a pro rugby photographer any time soon! It gave me a lot more appreciation for eventing, where you know where the subject is going and only have to think about one horse and rider at a time. Hopefully I'll be able to put my practice to work at Badminton in a few weeks!!

(More blood, more intensity)

(Love it)