FC Dallas vs Houston Dynamo

After a few years of trying, I finally got approved with a media credential to photograph FC Dallas! I'm not sure how I got so lucky this time, but I was ecstatic when I got approved! It was one of the most exciting soccer games I've seen. Houston scored a goal early in the game and held the lead throughout the match.

In the final 10 minutes, Dallas made some phenomenal plays that secured the win! What was even more impressive was when Dallas scored the final goal in the 92nd minute! I have never seen someone come back from being down throughout the game like that. Dallas had many chances to score but seemed like they would never score.

I'm grateful to FC Dallas for allowing me to come and photograph this game. Looking forward to other opportunities coming in the future! I'll keep y'all updated.

Texas Legends vs Memphis Hustle

Well, for the first time, I've finally reached the NBA floor! This is only the second time I've photographed a professional sports team. The first was the Portland Timbers back in 2019 and now the NBA G League Texas Legends! I haven't photographed sports in quite some time so it was refreshing to get to do this!

I can't wait to get another opportunity to photograph another game. Not only did I get to photograph this game but, Memphis Hustle shared one of my photographs on their Twitter and Instagram accounts! Y'all be on the lookout for more events that I have coming up!

Portland Timbers

I totally got to photograph my first professional sports game ever, y’all!!!! I couldn’t wait to finally cross that off of the list of things for me to accomplish as a photographer!  It was such a good time and with Portland being a city where they love their soccer, it made the experience that much better!  The crowd was rowdy, the teams played hard and I met a bunch of really cool people too. 

What really put the cherry on top was that the game was against FC Dallas!  It was like watching old home versus new home so that felt pretty good.  A couple months ago, I reached out to FC Dallas and asked if I could shoot a game or two but they denied my request because I don’t shoot for any publications.  After two months of being in Portland, I emailed the Timbers and asked if I could photograph their game against FC Dallas.  They happily accepted and allowed me to come and shoot. 

When I got there, I do what I also do!  Get there early, walk around and network.  I ended up meeting Craig, the Timbers’ team photographer.  He was a pleasure to talk to and it was a true honor to meet him as I’ve been keeping my eye on his photos for years!  It was nice to finally put a face to the photos. 

A challenge that I faced was not having a 300mm lens to shoot the game (if anybody has $6k to spot me, that would be great!).  It was rough trying to shoot a soccer game with just a 70-200 because you miss a lot of the action because everything is just so far away.  Another challenge was missing a lot of the action because the ball would be played on the other side of the field and moving back and forth would’ve been way too much work.  It was almost like I was fishing.  Just waiting for the right moment to get a shot.  Occasionally I would move around but would still feel restricted by a 70-200 lens. 

The next professional game I want to photograph is a Portland Timbers game so maybe I’ll test the waters when basketball season rolls back around! 

SMU Men's Basketball vs Wichita State

What a wild ride 2019 has been so far in terms of the opportunities that I’ve had with my photography.  I’m still trying to figure out what’s next on my journey as a photographer!  I don’t know what the rest of the journey will look like but it’s been pretty sweet thus far.  You won’t find a blog post from the second basketball game that I shot at SMU, mainly because I got caught up with doing some other stuff and didn’t have time to make a post.  So, you’ll get this one instead!

The game against Wichita State was one of the best games I’ve seen in a while.  The intensity that each team played with was beyond amazing. These guys were going at it in the first half and at one point, I was hoping that we could take the game into a double overtime, jump start my excitement for March Madness! Unfortunately, the double overtime didn’t happen but it was still a great game nonetheless.

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SMU’s game against UC last night was by far one of the most exciting games I’ve ever seen! A1 performance by both teams!

A post shared by Londen Wheeler (@londensbridge) on Feb 28, 2019 at 9:32am PST

One other cool fact about this game was that it was their senior night and the last home game of the season.  President Bush didn’t show up to the past two games so I’m really lucky that I got a few photographs of him while he was there… Well, he could’ve been there but just not courtside like he was when I saw him.  Who knows.  Anyway, the senior night was pretty cool.  It was a packed stadium, intensity was there, the crowd was excited and all four seniors got to start together.  Being an athlete my entire life, I know exactly what it feels like to be playing your last home game and feeling how you’ll never go back to play there again as an athlete.  Wild, right?

Well, that’s all for now! Stay tuned for more to come this month! Lots of things moving and manifesting right now and I’m super excited to see where things will go.  Also, if you don’t already, give me a follow on Instagram to stay in the loop with what’s going on when I’m not posting blogs!

SMU vs Cincinnati

What’s up, guys! Can you believe that it’s almost November?!  I swear it feels like we started October yesterday.  It’s all good though because we’re getting closer to my favorite holiday… THANKSGIVING!!!! Anybody else a big fan of doing nothing but eating and sleeping your life away?

So about two weeks ago, I applied for a photo credential on Southern Methodist University’s website. They messaged me and asked who I was shooting for and I told them that I was just shooting for my blog.  Per their policy, they only grant passes to people who are shooting for a media outlet.  Well, they messaged me back earlier this week and told me that they made an exception and that they will let me photograph their game against Cincinnati!  Super stoked?  Heck yeah!

I do remember when JMU came down back in 2015 to play SMU during their homecoming.  It was the first time I had ever heard of SMU but JMU came and managed to beat them in an upset!  Ever since JMU came to play them, I’ve been wanting to go to SMU for a game and check them out.  I must say that the school has amazing facilities!  I always drive past the football stadium but I never stopped to check it out.  Now that I’ve seen the stadium, I want to go walking around campus and see what else it has to offer.  Seems like a pretty cool school to be.

The best part about this entire experience was meeting one of the photographers who has been a Staff Photographer at the Dallas Morning News since 1989.  Steve is one of the photographers whose photos are always running through the DMN and I have always wanted to meet him and some of the other photographers.  Steve was so cool and talked to me for a few minutes about his career with DMN.  Right before the game started, I asked if he would take a selfie with me because he was one of the photographers who I look up to! So, we took our selfie, got ready for the game, and he told me that I have a great career ahead of me.  Talk about filled with joy.  It meant a lot to hear that from someone who has been in the field longer than I’ve been alive.

Moving to Dallas and making the connections that I’ve made so far is truly amazing.  I am forever grateful for the connections that I make and people that I meet.  One of these days, I’ll get my breakthrough and when I do, y’all will be the first to know!