Patrick McDermott | Visual Journalist

For those of you who know me well, I don’t have to tell you how much I absolutely love photographing in the snow. At the 2010 Winter Olympics I covered every single alpine ski race besides the men’s slalom due to it conflicting with my coverage of the women’s 30k cross-country ski race. Ski slopes are my second home in the winter. I AM one of those crazy fools that gets super excited when the forecast calls for huge snowstorms…as long as I still can go skiing.

With that said, a few days ago I had the unique experience of photographing a college football game between West Virginia and Rutgers in the middle of the first snowstorm of winter. This by far was one of the most challenging assignments I have ever had. The snow was not the type that sports photographers get excited to see during Green Bay Packers games at Lambeau Field…this snow was the barely frozen variety. By the second half, the snow was so heavy that my D3′s autofocus was like watching a drunken college student stumble home from a wild Saturday night…and manual focusing was like the hangover that awaited the next morning. By the end of the game, I was left trying to photograph the coaches at center field with my 14-24 that had become more of a fancy tilt-shift lens with almost a holga effect creating a strong impressionism feeling and look to the work.

But the real story of the day was the return to the field of former Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand #52 who was paralyzed during a kickoff return in October 2010. For the first time since his injury he was given the honor to lead his team onto the field. Eric is by far one of the most amazing people that I have ever had the privilege to meet and photograph. I feel extremely lucky that I was able to document this moment in his life.

And now the snow…

This was my test frame attempting to find a focus point on my 14-24 before heading out to center field…

Please note: All images are copyrighted by Getty Images, 2011. It is illegal to copy, manipulate, print, distribute and/or use any of the content from this site without written permission from the copyright holder (in this case, Getty Images).

With the Yankees and Phillies out of this year’s baseball post-season, I’ve been spending a lot of long days and nights at some of the most expensive hotels in New York City covering the NBA labor negotiations or as I’ve started calling it: the 2011 NBA Labor marathon. It has been a ton of fun getting to know the small group of writers who cover the NBA on a regular basis. Their twitter feeds are priceless…especially at 2am.  We spend a lot of our time looking at a mic in front of an empty chair…

Please note: All images are copyrighted by Getty Images, 2011. It is illegal to copy, manipulate, print, distribute and/or use any of the content from this site without written permission from the copyright holder (in this case, Getty Images).

A small selection from the last two months of the 2011 baseball season in New York City…

Please note: All images are copyrighted by Getty Images, 2011. It is illegal to copy, manipulate, print, distribute and/or use any of the content from this site without written permission from the copyright holder (in this case, Getty Images).

Please note: All images are copyrighted by Patrick McDermott and/or Getty Images, 2011. It is illegal to copy, manipulate, print, distribute and/or use any of the content from this site without written permission from the copyright holder (in this case, Patrick McDermott or Getty Images).