The Best Part of Football Season... Marching Bands!

To some, the title of this post may not be true but for someone who has been involved with band, marching band and colorguard most of their life, it is what football season is all about. Before I fell in love with sports photography and photojournalism, I was on the field at halftime from 9th grade thru my second year in college at LSU (My third year in college I gave up Tigerband to shoot the games). So, now when I am editing and sending photos at halftime from the press box at a high school game, I always find myself glancing up from my laptop to see what the band is performing on the field.

With that said, about a month and a half ago I had the opportunity to shoot a marching band festival for the paper. The reason I am sharing these images now, I will get to in a bit. I was very excited for the assignment given how much of my life has been spent as a band or colorguard member. I had a fairly early deadline (had to have photos in before the competition was over and scores were announced) and I wish I could have stayed longer. Even though I had to leave early, I was happy with the images. Here are a few of my favorites.

While I enjoyed shooting the assignment, it also made me miss Louisiana. What I didn't mention earlier is that I was one of the colorguard instructors at Dutchtown High School in Geismar, Louisiana for about a year and a half before coming to Cedar Rapids for the internship. I loved working with the colorguard at Dutchtown and hated to leave them before even getting to see their first show of the season. I have been so very proud of everything the girls have accomplished in the time I have worked with them. Seeing the girls take first place in their class at the LCGPC Winterguard finals earlier this year was just the icing on the cake.

On Saturday, the colorguard will be competing at Showcase with the band. It is their biggest marching band contest all year and I wanted to write a marching band related post to be a kind of good luck post. So, if any of the colorguard members at Dutchtown are reading this, good luck on Saturday. I know you will make me and Ms. Amy very proud!! The images below were taken during last year's marching band and winterguard seasons at Dutchtown High School.

Best of luck to the DTHS colorguard on Saturday and I hope to see all of the girls in January for winterguard!





[Top 4 images of the post are copyright Crystal LoGiudice/The Gazette]