Yesterday the University of South Carolina football team announced that quarterback Stephen Garcia, a fifth year senior was off the team for good.  If you live in South Carolina or went to USC, then you no doubt have heard about all of the trials and tribulations this guy has been through over the past five years.  This year (2011) is the tenth season I’ve been photographing NCAA college football.  That means more than 100 games, thousands of players, and at least 50,000 images. During that time I can’t think of a single student athlete which I have photographed that has been as controversial, both on and off the field as Garcia has.  So with that in mind, I put together a gallery of 20 images taken over his five year college career at the University of South Carolina, from the first photo I took of him speaking to the media on August 5th, 2007, to the last photo I took of him leaving the field after his last play in the Gamecocks loss to Auburn on October 1st, 2011.

Once you’ve taken a look through the images in the gallery below, I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this. I’ll save any of my comments until everyone has had a chance to chime in, but most importantly I want a conversation to take place, and I want these photos to be a catalyst for that.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

-Brett

Auburn running back Onterio McCalebb, center, finds a hole in the South Carolina defensive line, during their game in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Brett Flashnick)

On Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011, Flashnick Visuals owner and photographer, Brett Flashnick was on assignment for the Associated Press to cover the Auburn Tigers as they came to Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. to face the No. 10 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks, some of his thoughts and a gallery of his images are available after the jump.

Below are a few of my thoughts from the game, a gallery of 20 images and a list of gear used. If you’d like an actual recap of the game check out the article by my AP colleague Pete Iacobelli over at usatoday.com.

While going through my mental gear checklist before heading out to the field to cover the Auburn at South Carolina I checked in with my editor at the AP Sports Photo Desk in New York to make sure everything was set. At the end of our conversations he said “… One more thing, be prepared for an upset.”  Being a “neutral third-party” here to cover both teams I knew that was a real possibility, even though I always want to see the home team (especially one I grew up watching) do well.  With that in mind my game plan was to focus on South Carolina during the first quarter. Over the past four games, I knew that their offense had been struggling, and realized that if they were showing the same signs of weakness during the first quarter against Auburn, the defending BCS champions and a team they lost to twice last year (once during the regular season, and once for the SEC title game), I knew an upset was a real possibility even though this was a much younger, and less experienced team.

After a very long first quarter with South Carolina only up by 3, I made the decision to start focusing more heavily on Auburn.  This proved to be a good decision by the end of the first half Auburn led South Carolina 9-6. The Auburn defense had found a way to contain South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore and quarterback Stephen Garcia’s passing was everything except accurate. Auburn’s offensive line had started to wear down the Gamecock’s defense, and quarterback Barrett Trotter and running backs Michael Dyer and Onterio McCalebb were finding holes on almost every play.  I began to doubt this decision when Lattimore scrambled for a 21-yard touchdown during the third quarter, but a last minute, game-winning touchdown by tight end Phillip Lutzenkirchen, erased those doubts.

Its always stressful for a game to be this close, especially coming down the the last minute and thirty seconds. But thankfully my editor had prepared me for this possibility and I listened. Even though all of my friends here in Columbia, S.C. left the stadium feeling dejection, I was able to walk out knowing I delivered the images AP needed to tell the story of this game.

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Gear Used

Cameras: Canon EOS 5D MKII & EOS 7D (both cameras with their respective battery grips)
Lenses: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L, Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS
Camera Support: (w/ 300mm f/2.8): Manfrotto 679B
Memory: Sandisk Extreme 8gb CF & Lexar Professional 8gb CF***
Computer/Software: Apple MacBook Pro, PhotoMechanic (workflow), Adobe Photoshop CS4 (color correction, cropping, etc.)

Error Message re: Corrupted Lexar Compact Flash card

***Ever since I got these cards I have been having issues with my SanDisk CF readers (both the FW800 and USB 2.0) reading the cards accurately.  When inserted the read indication light will flash rapidly indicating an inability to read.  Typically this can be resolved by removing, and re-inserting the CF card into the reader.  However during my ingest of photos at half-time the card from my 5DMK II was corrupted during this process.  I have tried running Image Rescue 4 on the card to recover images to no avail. I am planning to give Lexar a call this morning to see if they can advise on this issue, and help me figure out a way to recover the first-half images.  I will update with a post in the “Gear” section as soon as I have a definite answer.

I am completely humbled that I have been selected as the Columbia Regional Visitors Center ”Artist of the Month” for November 2010. Photographic prints will be on display and available for purchase throughout the entire month of November at the Visitors Center located inside the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center (1101 Lincoln Street).

We are kicking things off with a happy hour drop-in on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010. Please join us for beer, wine and light hors d’oeuvres from 5:30-7:30pm at the Visitors Center in the Vista.

If you can’t make it to the happy hour, I will be at the Visitors Center all day, so feel free to stop by when you have a moment. These photographic prints make unique Christmas gifts. To help you get started with your holiday shopping all prints will be discounted 10-25% from 8:30am-7:30pm on the 4th.

Last night I got to shoot an event that I never thought I would see, my alma mater (WKU) taking on the University of South Carolina in the first round of the NIT. It was a completely surreal experience. I don’t think I can count the number of times I’ve covered WKU at Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Ky. as a student, and USC at the Carolina Coliseum or their new home the Colonial Center, as a freelancer.

On one hand I have spent my entire life growing up around the Gamecocks, and on the other I have spent the last four years of my life, eating, sleeping (or lack thereof) and breathing the photojournalism program at WKU. So needless to say both schools are very near and dear to me.

The first two things I saw when walking on to the court made me do a double take, first the all too familiar red towel, and second a very good friend of mine from WKU, Tyler Pelan, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year.

It was nights like last night that make me thankful that I am able to be a photographer, because of the relationships we have with each other, the love we all share for making photos, and the ability to be in the situation where you don’t have to pick a team you are pulling for because you have to stay “neutral” to document the assignment.

Aside from all of of the business stuff I am finally shooting again. Enclosed are two of my favorite shots from the game.