Something that I feel like I have to get past when it comes to photographing sports is my general uncomfortableness when shooting photos of players who have just been injured. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again, but I always feel like I’m violating some sort of basic rule or that I’m insulting their dignity. After years of playing sports and injuring myself in countless ways, I know that the last thing you fucking want when lying on the ground, squirming in pain, is for some asshole with a camera to come over and take pictures of it so that you can remember this in the morning. There’s always ways of tastefully pulling this off, but when you’re shooting university sports there’s this weird feeling you get where you start to feel too close to the players. They’re too much like you, too close in age, sometimes you know them, but most of the time you don’t. It’s just off-putting.

At this game, I watched a played be checked headfirst into the boards at my feet. She lay there on the ice surrounded by various support staff for about 7 minutes, and while I took a few photos at first, I eventually put down my camera and waited it out. There were moments where the photographer in my screamed, “This is a great shot! Look at the composition! It’s perfect!” but all I could do was watch her slowly move her fingers and toes, her face screwed up in pain, and think about all the years I had spent on the sidelines, broken.