I sat through the game completely transfixed, watching it all through my camera lens. It's the closest I've ever sat to a soccer game (even DC United games in DC) and for the first time I could understand the appeal of being a sports photographer. I'm sure that my general lack of knowledge about sports has something to do with not getting the appeal of sports photography, whereas I could appreciate this better because I know a decent amount about soccer. I guess used to think it seems like a very detached kind of photography where you have to sit on the sidelines and just snap shots as they happen in front of you, but I see now that it actually gets you very involved in the game, trying to predict where the ball and the important plays are going to be and trying to capture the essence of the game. I was having so much fun taking pictures of the game that someone behind me asked if I was a professional! I told him I certainly wasn't, but he asked me to send all my pictures from the game to him anyway, since my perspective of the game was the same as his.

Most of these were taken with a telephoto lens and then cropped further. It was a night game, so the light was low even though my eyes didn't perceive it to be so low. So I shot at ISO-800 and eventually ISO-1600 and still got blurry shots (now with new and improved graininess!), but I think they were worth it.

Click on each of the thumbnails above to get a larger version.

(Too bad about Brazil losing yesterday. I was really hoping to see Brazil play in the final. But that's ok. My cheers are for Germany this World Cup.)