The Chargers have been playing uncharacteristically of late.  Their usually high powered offense has sputtered all season long and their usually stout defense has been rather pedestrian in the first three games, making it hard to imagine that the Chargers actually led the NFL in offense and defense last year.  But going in this week’s game, the Chargers are 2-1 and that is also uncharacteristic for the historically slow starting team.

With the Dolphins coming into town on Sunday, the Chargers hoped to reignite their sputtering offense against the win less cetaceans.  Unfortunately, hopes for a touchdown explosion fizzled to a field goal kicking contest with the Chargers winning four field goals to three for the Dolphins.   Final score, Chargers 26 – Dolphins 16.

The Chargers have a ways to go to be considered a good team, but with the win the Boys in Blue lead the AFC West Division by one game over the Raiders.  At least that is something to smile about.

And another thing that brings a smile to my face…the absolutely fabulous Charger Girls!

As is customary in these game day reports, we begin our weekly coverage of the Charger Girls by featuring the Line Captains: Katie, Tiffany, Natalie and Lauren O.

Continue reading Chargers Kick The Dolphins Into Submission

Most NFL fans expected a blow out win for the Chargers on Sunday.  After all, they were playing the 0-2 Chiefs who had been out scored 89 – 10 in the previous two games and were without star running back Jamaal Charles, lost for the season due to a knee injury.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the AFC West Title…the lackluster Chargers played just good enough to beat the lowly Chiefs.  Philip Rivers continued his recent poor play by throwing two interceptions and generally looked out of sync.  Perhaps the loss of Antonio Gates, out due to injury, and Darren Sproles, lost to free agency, has limited Rivers’ options this year, but his inconsistent play kept the Chiefs in contention on this day.  A last minute interception by Safety Eric Weddle saved the day for the boys in blue.  Chargers win, 20 – 17.

Now I am not going to suggest the weather had something to do with the Chargers poor play, but it did affect my shooting of the absolutely fabulous Charger Girls.  The day started with overcast skies and then proceeded to fluctuate between bright sun and dark shady conditions.  I struggled to find consistent lighting all day long and would have preferred it to be either sunny all day or overcast all day.  I put on and took off my flash gear all game long and perhaps missed some important dance moves.  Oh well.  Its not usually like this here in beautiful San Diego, but we photographers have to adapt and overcome, to paraphrase the Marine Corps.  And I did.

I suspect the Line Captains are selected because of their leadership, but I would also suggest that they are chosen for their exceptional dance abilities as well.  I get consistently good shots of the Line Captains.  Oh well, enough of my musings, we got some Charger Girls to showcase.  And we begin with the aforementioned Line Captains: Tiffany, Katie, Natalie and Lauren O.

And speaking of Line Captains…this week’s Charger Girl of the Day is a native of Taiwan and a third year member of the Charger Girls…introducing Tiffany.

Continue reading In Escaping Loss To Lowly Chiefs, Chargers Receive Wake Up Call

My heart belongs to the Charger Girls.  They are my hometown squad.  They are quintessential California Girls and I’m a native Californian.  So you can say, I love the Charger Girls…but…I lust after the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.

The Washington Redskins Cheerleaders are an impressive group of young women.  They are intelligent, talented, and very beautiful.  For the longest time, I have wanted to come out to D.C. and photograph them in a game environment.  This desire was reinforced the past two years after seeing them in person at PRO.

Continue reading Road Trip: The Washington Redskins Cheerleaders

Fatigue, thy name is…mine.  Just 24 four hours earlier, I was in Sacramento, covering the 2011 Sacramento Kings Dancers open call auditions (more about that later this week).  Sunday and 504 miles later, I was in San Diego to attend the Chargers home opener against the Minnesota Vikings.  Now being an old geezer of 48 years, I seriously considered skipping the Chargers game to rest and start working on my photos from Sacramento.  I am no longer a 20 year old road warrior, who can do over-nighters and burn it at both ends.  No.  I am getting long in the tooth and need my rest, but I dragged my tired ass to Qualcomm Stadium to support the Chargers and, more importantly, the Charger Girls.

On this Sunday, it was the 10th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 and the NFL had planned numerous observances at all their venues.  It was important for me to be here, if only to pay my respects to the fallen and to make a symbolic statement that acts of terror cannot defeat us by making us cower in our homes.  Life goes on and it is to be enjoyed to the fullest.  And I enjoy watching football and I really enjoy photographing the Charger Girls.  So as tired as I was from driving over 1000 miles in four days, I wanted to be here for the Chargers home opener.

NFL glamor boy Adrian Peterson along with the rest of the Minnesota Vikings made the trek to sunny San Diego to try to steal a win from the Chargers.  In a nightmarish reminder of last season’s special teams blunders, the San Diego Chargers let Viking Percy Harvin take the opening kick off 103 yards for a touchdown.  But as the game progressed, the Chargers asserted their dominance, riding upon the three touchdown effort of fullback Mike Tolbert.  In the end, the Chargers limited Viking QB Donovan McNabb to a paltry 39 passing yards en route to a 24 – 17 win.

Now the game was not the only highlight.  The Charger Girls wore special uniforms in homage of 10th anniversary of the 9/11/01 tragedy.  They were nice, dignified and not too overtly sexy for NFL cheerleader uniforms and they featured a ribbon in a very apropos place…over their hearts.

Okay, I am sure most of you want to see what the other Charger Girls look like in these special uniforms.  So let’s begin with the Charger Girl Line Captains: Tiffany, Katie, Natalie and Lauren O.

This week’s Charger Girl of the Day has always given me great shots and I appreciate her enthusiasm and spirit.   She is a former Laker Girl and current Line Captain, introducing Katie.

Continue reading Chargers Pillage The Vikings

I like to travel up to the Bay area.  San Francisco has a unique vibe and its a cool place to visit with lots of things to see and do.  So when I get a chance to visit SF and catch a Niners game, its all good.

Its a new season and I was looking forward to checking out the 49ers Gold Rush.  I read that they were getting new uniforms and I wanted to see the new girls on the squad.  And added plus was that the Niners were playing the Houston Texans and I wanted to see Texans RB Arian Foster in person…one of my keepers in my fantasy football league.

So how did my weekend turn out?  Arian Foster pulled his hamstring, but I got some great shots of the 49ers Gold Rush.  See for yourself.

Before I begin our regular coverage of the 49ers Gold Rush, I would like to recognize the Gold Rush Cheerleader of the Day.  For those of you who are familiar with my Charger Girl game day reports, you know I like to feature the cheerleader that has given me the best photographs of the day.  And in this report, I will continue this trend by recognizing an absolutely gorgeous 49er Gold Rush, who I think is named Taylor.  You will have to forgive me because as most knowledgeable cheerleader fans know, a girl’s profile photo taken the day of the auditions looks nothing like the cheerleader after their make over.  So, if I have incorrectly named our Gold Rush Cheerleader of the Day, my apologies.

So without further ado, our Gold Rush Cheerleader of the Day.

She kind of reminds me of an uber sexy Anna Paquin, Sookie Stackhouse of HBO’s True Blood fame.

Continue reading Road Trip: 2011 San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush

With the settlement of the NFL labor issue, football is back!  Preseason football, that is.  Every year I take the opportunity to rant about how terrible preseason football is and how that as a season ticket holder, we are about the only people in the stadium to pay full price to watch some crappy ass football.  With the loss of OTAs and mini camps due to the lockout, the caliber of preseason football is worse than ever.  Now my dear friend, our former Arizona Correspondent Max…I shall call him Mad Max because he made the drive out to the game from Phoenix and then drove home the same day, thought that this game was a good one because it came down to the last minute.  And in that sense it was exciting, but preseason football played by third and fourth stringers is not good football.  But as die hard football fans, we are suckers and we will pay top dollar for crappy ass football because we can’t live without the NFL.

The only redeeming aspect of preseason football is the cheerleaders and to tell you the truth, I was excited to see the new squad of Charger Girls.  So if the football was crappy, the Charger Girls were amazing.

Oh and if anyone is interested, the Seahawks third stringers defeated the Chargers third stringers, 24 – 17.

As long as I have been covering the Charger Girls for this blog, I have started off my articles by recognizing the Line Captains.  So without further ado, introducing Katie, Tiffany, Natalie and Lauren O.

Continue reading A First Look at the 2011 Charger Girls

Friday, April 1st 2011.  The Los Angeles Clippers were in town to play the Phoenix Suns and so was I.  I was there to cover one of the hottest dance teams in the NBA, the Phoenix Suns Dancers.

Continue reading Sun Goddesses – Game Day with the Phoenix Suns Dancers

Fall weather returned to Southern California just in time for the playoff run.  The San Francisco 49ers flew into town to battle their in state rival, the San Diego Chargers, in a game that would determine their playoff fate.  A loss this late in the season would inevitably doom the loser to post season oblivion,

On paper, this game seemed to be an even match between two inconsistent, but talented teams in the midst of their division races.  But in reality, the Chargers showed that the 49ers have a way to go to be considered worthy of such an honor.  Philip Rivers threw three touchdown passes to Vincent Jackson and the Chargers defense stifled the 49ers, giving up only one meaningless touchdown in the last three minutes of the game.   The Chargers soundly defeated the 49ers, 34 – 7.

In the Battle for California…advantage San Diego.

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And now, we begin the stream of consciousness portion of our article.  I have often wondered if people read my articles or if they just look at the photographs.  We shall see, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Last Sunday in Qualcomm stadium, it was announced that the rock band Foreigner would be playing in the Bud Light Power Party at the final home game of the season.  I found it a little curious that they would play a pregame party, but I was up to hear them play.  I am more of a The Clash kind of guy, but a free concert is nice.  I would later find out that they were promoting a new album and during the game, their songs would be played while the Charger Girls danced.

While in the power party, CG Maria informed me that she and a few of the other Charger Girls would be performing along with Foreigner on the stage.  Now that’s cool.  Unfortunately they were scheduled to perform around 4:15 PM and I would already be inside the stadium.  I like to get in early to avoid any potential hassles and being that this was the last game, I was going to try to bring in my long telephoto lens.  If you have read my prior article, Odysseus and the Charger Girls, you may remember my difficulty in doing so.  Other ticket holders have reported to me that they had no issue bringing in and using such equipment recently, so I wanted to see if I could too for this special game.

Fortunately, I was able to bring it in and was able to get some decent shots of the Charger Girls in their famous Blue Velvet Christmas Uniforms.

Okay let’s begin this week’s coverage of the Charger Girls with the Line Captains: Tiffany, Katie, Giselle and Ashlie.

While in the Bud Light Power Party, I met several friends and family of the Charger Girls.  I met Giselle’s parents and her boyfriend.  I ran into Brianna’s mother.  And I had the opportunity to meet Kylie’s grandmother and her father, who knew of me from my personal website, thehottestdanceteam.wordpress.com.  It was nice meeting them and getting to chance to chat with them.

I visit the Power Party often, usually to get a calendar or photo autographed.  But I also hang out there to chat with the Charger Girls and garner a tidbit of information or two.  For example, I discovered Amy is 28 years old (she looks a lot younger, if you ask me!) and has a beautiful daughter.  I usually don’t include photos of children, but I had her permission, so I snapped one with my iPhone 4.

And in talking to the girls, I sometimes answer their questions about the blog or my articles.  Courtney asked me if I was still recognizing a Charger Girl of the Day.  Apparently, she missed out on last week’s honoree and wondered if I discontinued the practice.  I assured her that I still recognize the CGOTD and will continue to do so in the future.

Well I hope she catches this week’s Charger Girl of the Day.

Introducing Courtney, this year’s final Charger Girl of the Day.

Continue reading The Battle for California: the 49ers vs. the Chargers