It’s hard to describe my experience for the All Star Game weekend…fun, chaotic, some regrets, awesome, and potentially once in a lifetime. I had the privilege of working as a photographer for the Minnesota Twins the entire weekend so I had some amazing access to events and special privileges that I don’t normally experience. Although temporary, it was great being a Twins staffer for a weekend.

There were four photographers on the Twins team, Brace Hemmelgarn and Bruce Kluckhohn were covering all the game action, while myself and Wayne Kryduba would try and capture behind the scenes and ASG atmosphere. This is something completely new to me as I’m usually limited to a few spots on the field and its 98% game action. For this assignment I was free to roam wherever and try to get creative and new, so I was slightly nervous.  So my blog post has no action shots…none! Since I’m usually on assignment to cover game action and you never want to miss any, it was very foreign to me walking around the concourse and the stadium looking for new things to photograph. Fact: before this, I had never been on the north side of the stadium or even seen Target Field Station.

I was assigned to cover the TCF Bank concert with Atmosphere and Imagine Dragons (first ever concert), two days of Fanfest and the insanity of following around Joe Mauer, the red carpet parade, and pre-game activities for both the Home Run Derby and the All Star Game. In the end, they were long days with sore feet.

My regrets… few and totally minor.

1. I totally missed the rainbow shot over Target Field during the Home Run Derby. I was walking the concourse when I heard the PA announcer mention it but I wasn’t in a position to take a good picture. Next time I’m at Target Field, during the All Star Game, field painted with ASG logos, and there’s a double rainbow in the skyline, I’ll be sure to capture it…so I’m guessing once in a lifetime shot. F!
2. Next minor regret, I wish I had taken the flyover shot from behind home plate. Since there were four of us shooting for the Twins and there were multiple remotes, we all got assigned a spot on the field so we had it covered from multiple angles. I was on the first base line facing the scoreboard. Is it a bad shot? Nope, I like it and it turned out great. Just for my personal collection I would have liked to take the shot behind home plate but Brace had a remote there so it made it pointless for the Twins to have multiple images of the same thing. FYI…it looks really good too. Team player and the Twins got some great shots.
3. I wish I was down on the field a little more to meet some of the other photographers. It could have been some great networking and I could have met some people face to face I follow on Twitter and Instagram.
4. Lastly…I lost my UND sunglasses. So some lucky fan scored a very used pair of sunglasses…lucky Sioux fan!

Positives….so many. The biggest was I got to work alongside some of the Twins staff including Dustin Morse,  Andrew Heydt, and Mike Kennedy. The amount of organization it took to pull off this event was unbelievable and I think they did an amazing job.  I’m glad I was a part of it. The way they utilized the space at the facility was insane and the accommodations they had to make, I’m sure at the time seemed completely unreasonable, but they made it all work.

Enjoy the pics!