PHOTOGRAPH/PHOTOGRAPHER

A PHOTO

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtdmsx/70334727/

I’ve always loved photographs of this hockey brawl, being that I’m a life-long fan of the Detroit Red Wings, and that they won the brawl, and the game. This is possibly the best one I’ve seen that captures most of the donnybrook in one picture.

This fight, which occurred on March 26, 1997, started off with a small scuffle between Peter Forsberg, number 21 of the Colorado Avalanche (blue and purple jerseys), and Igor Larionov, number 8 of the Detroit Red Wings (red and white jerseys). Using this as a distraction, Darren McCarty, number 25 of Detroit attacked Claude Lemieux (as revenge for Lemieux’s cheapshot the year before that put a Detroit player out of the season), which is the center of the photo, Lemieux doing what the media later called “turtling”. Behind them, Brendan Shanahan, number 14, of Detroit, Adam Foote, number 52 of Colorado, and Detroit’s goaltender Mike Vernon, number 29 are charging forward. This is in response to, off of the picture, Colorado’s goalie, Patrick Roy, number 33, skating out to try to help Lemieux (as the referees were busy trying to break up Larionov and Forsberg’s fight). What resulted afterwards was a mid air collision between Shanahan and Roy, then, while Shanahan and Foote squared off, Roy and Vernon had a spectacular goalie fight, arguably the best in NHL history. This picture shows the very beginning of the brawl, and brings back many memories of that game, and that season. I am extremely happy I found this photo of that infamous “Fight Night at the Joe” (Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit Red Wings’ home rink).

Here is a link to the video of the full brawl. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7DlAjrhm9s

A PHOTOGRAPHER

As for a favorite photographer, I don’t exactly have a favorite, but I’ve always liked Doug Blane’s extreme sports photographs, especially the base jumping and climbing ones, since a friend showed me them a few months ago. Being a climber myself, I especially like the image of the climber with snowy mountain peaks behind him. Something I’d like to do one day.

Doug Blane’s website:

http://www.dougblane.com/