A Year in Photos 2015 Comment Count

Eric

[Editor's Note: We consider the Harbaugh introductory press conference as the beginning of the photo year. We know that it happened in December 2014. Close enough. The Harbaugh presser will be eligible next year, too.

Also: all of our photos are Creative Commons (Attribution/Noncommercial) Licensed. That means that you can use them if 1) you mention where the photo is from and 2) don't sell them. We are delighted for you to use them. We spot them in fire dot emoji edits on the regular.]

For those of you that don’t know, I’m Eric Upchurch. I started covering games for MGoBlog during the 2011 football season. Bryan Fuller joined us in 2012. This past season we added former Daily photographer Patrick Barron as a regular. Here is the only photo that I’m aware of that includes all of us.

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Patrick Barron, top, Bryan Fuller, left, Eric Upchurch, right

Photo of the year

Fuller's shot of Amara Darboh's amazing catch against BYU. 

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This photo is now in Schembechler Hall.

On top of having a photo in Schembechler hall, MGoBlog photographers contributed more photos to John U Bacon's Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football  than anybody else. We’re also responsible for Jim Harbaugh’s wikipedia photo. 

We don’t get to say it much, but we wanted to thank the readership of MGoBlog for all of your support. Those of you that follow us on twitter and retweet and share our photos are a #blessing. We are very grateful for it. Bryan, Patrick and myself all have full time jobs outside of photographing Michigan athletics. We cover these games in our spare time and we love every minute of it. On a typical gameday, we arrive 3 hours prior to kickoff and we leave around 1-2 hours after the game ends. They are very long days. I live closest to the stadium out of any of our photographers and I’m 50 miles away in Sylvania, OH. Bryan drives in on gamedays from Kalamazoo. When Patrick covers a game for us, he’s travelling in from Appleton, WI. We take our work seriously and we are thankful that all of you support us.

It should be noted that this is the first season that MGoBlog has had a photographer at every regular season football game. Thanks to Patrick for putting this collage together.

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Alright, now let’s show some photos.

The introductory press conference was like no other presser that I’ve ever attended. They are typically low key. This one was like a party. It was great. I was honored to be there. It appears as though Coach Harbaugh is looking directly at me. I think it was because I was standing on a chair right behind the TV cameras. He probably was wondering who the 8ft tall photographer was in the back of the room.

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This photo is one that I try to get every season. This is one of my favorite moments before the team comes out of the tunnel.

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This one is from Fuller... sometimes a photographer is in the right place at the right time. 

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This photo got a ton of use; Harbaugh at his first spring game as the head coach.

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This from Barron communicates the importance of the Little Brown Jug better than anything else I've seen.

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Another from Patrick that I loved. I didn’t even see this on TV. Even on replay. This may have been a facemask.

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We cover more than just football and basketball games. Here are some photos from Bryan’s coverage of the softball team.

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Patrick also covered some hockey for us.

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We shot thousands of photos this season. It’s very hard to narrow it down to a few that we’d like to feature. Here are complete galleries of our favorite photos from 2015. Be sure to follow us on twitter for live photo updates during games. Eric Upchurch (@eupchurchphoto) Bryan Fuller (@fulloftwitt) Patrick Barron (@MGoDrone). Thanks again from all of us and Go Blue!

Eric Upchurch

Bryan Fuller

Patrick Barron

Comments

k.o.k.Law

December 23rd, 2015 at 11:37 AM ^

I am delighted to avail myself of this opportunity to heap warranted praise on your visual recording efforts. Some truly awesome shots, that preserve precious memories.

DonAZ

December 23rd, 2015 at 12:07 PM ^

Some of the best sports photography I've seen.  You capture the essence and drama of a Michigan football game.  It's been 20+ years since I've been to a game, but these pictures instantly bring my memories to the foreground.  Well done.  A hearty 'well done.'

Dolphonkey

December 23rd, 2015 at 12:14 PM ^

If Michigan football is indeed a religion and Saturday's the holy day of obligation, then you gentlemen are doing the lord's work. And sweet baby jesus you do it well.

The FannMan

December 23rd, 2015 at 12:18 PM ^

We, the MGoCommunity, need to thank you guys.  I will gladly put the photos on this here blog up against any sports photography out there, web or print.  Period.  Come at me, bro.

You guys do top shelf work and add so much to the site.  Thanks.

Bocheezu

December 23rd, 2015 at 1:12 PM ^

I have a sort-of indirect appreciation for the photos -- my cousin is big into photography, and when her son played football (4th-6th grade) she would take photos of each player for an end-of-the-season DVD that she would hand out to the parents.  She did pretty well, but a lot of kids would still be half covered-up by other players and they never had a nice, clean shot.

Football is a difficult sport to photograph.  It's a big field, a lot of the players are bunched up, and you really have to be in the right place at the right time.  Some of that is luck, but a lot of it is skill and being at the right place on the sideline.  That Darboh photo -- just amazing.

Neat to see where Fuller was on that shot -- 0:32.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2R_jsR9FRw

ST3

December 23rd, 2015 at 1:16 PM ^

You always seem to be in the right place at the right time to capture that iconic image. That's probably because you define the iconic image with your photos. In other words, without your work, it would just be another play in the game, but because of your skills, you make that play seem larger than life and a memory worth capturing and saving.

Thanks for all you do.

Black Socks

December 23rd, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^

Guys, 

I click through every photo each week.  You have great talent and work ethic.  Thanks for your contribution.

HarbaughToKolesar85

December 23rd, 2015 at 2:00 PM ^

MGoBlog and those of us that read it are way better off because of you. I look forward to the search for my new background photo after each game during the football season. Keep up the excellent work.