Wednesday, March 1, 2006

I can’t say I’ve had many experiences when I’ve arrived at home late, and reeking of alcohol; but tonight was one of those nights. I guess I can say it was a true “Brazilian soccer experience.”

Today I got to take pictures of the Avaí F.C. stadium, new uniforms, and match against Joinville. Unsurprisingly, it all started off pretty hectic. It was 3:30 pm and I was at the SRE office w/ David and Elder and Sister Cossios; I was expecting a phone call from the Avaí team so I called the hotel to see if I had any messages. They said that I didn’t, but that two men were in the lobby waiting for me! I guess they had called earlier and I wasn’t there, but had come to escort me to the game. It was Thiago from Marketing, and Aldeciu from Print Relations (?).

Needless to say I sprinted to the hotel, got my stuff together as quickly as I could, and we were off.

For a few hours I merely wandered around the stadium, inside and out, taking pictures for their official website.

After that, Thiago took me onto the field so I could take pictures of their new uniforms that they’re going to release in a few weeks. The pictures I took will be used for their marketing campaign.

Thiago was actually really worried about taking pictures of the uniforms because he didn’t want the press to see. But, as I did the shoot, a man came up and began chatting all natural like w/ Thiago, and before he knew it, the man was on live radio and talking about the new jersey I was photographing. Ha… ooops.

When it came to game time I was given a fluorescent-orange, press penny and meandered around the field snapping pictures. I made friends with an experienced photographer, Malfra, who has shot three world cups and now has his own agency that supplies photos to papers and such. He was way nice and very willing to answer my questions and give me tips.

Unfortunately, the stadium wasn’t lit as well as I would have liked, and most of the pictures game out pretty grainy. The game was a 0-0 tie, with about 8,000 in attendance. (13,000 is the stadium’s max capacity I believe.)

With about 20 minutes left in the game, I asked one of the security guards to open the gate behind the goal so I could go up in the press box and take pictures from above. As I waited by the gate, a half-full (instead of half-empty) cup of beer was pelted at my back. I’ll be honest, it ticked me off, but I didn’t give them the satisfaction of knowing it did. Instead I didn’t even flinch, and continued watching the game. When the gate was finally opened I walked off the field to the sound of these same fans cussing me out. Ha.. why? I don’t know, but it made for a better story :).

Here are all of the pictures that I took and submitted to the team:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EaNnLNs5Zsd8&notag=1

To get home after the game, I had to wait for a few hours until the entire stadium was cleared out and they were done locking up. I sat in their main offices, chatting online and checking email until about 12:30 am.

The cool part was receiving a free, official, long-sleeved Avaí jersey! I was pleasantly surprised. The guy, who gave me a ride home, also bought me a hot dog.

While I was busy taking pictures at the game, David was busy showing off his dancing skills at the local, Kobrasol church dance. From what I understand, he taught quite a few people how to swing dance and seems to have quite the following now!

So that was my day. Early in the day, after sleeping until about 10 am, I got showered and made my way, with Dave, to the SRE office to help train the new missionary couple, Elder and Sister Cossio.