If you wish to follow me on social media, I post more than just football photos! In the offseason I photograph wildlife and landscapes at the national parks, so give me a follow if you like grizzly bears and foxes! And Michigan football, of course.
Twitter: @BlueBarronPhoto
Instagram: @BlueBarronPhoto

I also sell wildlife/landscape prints on FineArtAmerica if you'd like to support my photography! Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to sell Michigan sports photos due to my credential agreement. But click the link to go to my store! It's been some time since I've updated so watch out for more additions!
Link

Now with that being said, it's story time.

-----------------------------------------

On October 24, 2020 I checked into a cheap motel in Fresno, California. The walls were a bit moldy and the bed sheets gave the impression that I should lay out my sleeping bag on top of them so I wouldn't catch something. This was still marginally better than sleeping in my car again. It was the cheapest thing I could find at the time but all that mattered was that it had a 16” television that had ABC at around 480p. It would suffice. Michigan football would soon be on and despite everything going on, I would do whatever it took to watch, especially in the midst of a global pandemic when all of us were searching for any beacon of normalcy. Michigan's 49-24 smothering of Minnesota implied a bright but the reality of the season was one that paralleled my own situation.

I moved to Colorado in the Fall of 2019 to pursue better opportunities in my career and to chase a new love of the mountains. Flights from Denver to Detroit are also relatively cheap so I wouldn't have to give up my coverage of photographing Michigan football. The Denver area seemed like a perfect compromise location for all my interests. I was a contractor for an area aerospace company and at the end of March 2020 my contract was terminated for budget reasons. At this same time, Covid-19 lockdowns were in full effect and I was a sitting duck at home with no job. All I remember from the month of April was playing Animal Crossing and Age of Empires. At one point in May I got drunk and live tweeted the new Cats movie. By August the skies of Colorado were orange and the air smelled like a campfire due to all the wildfires. It was a rough (and weird) time.

[After THE JUMP: wilderness]

By September of 2020 my apartment lease was up and I had no full-time job. Not wanting to pay rent without income in one of the most expensive states in the U.S., I made a difficult but exciting decision to load up my car, a small 2014 Honda Civic, with essentials and camera gear and live on the road, true nomad style. I had a car, a some money saved up, and a determination to get through whatever was about to happen. On the one hand, waking up two weeks in a row with the Grand Teton mountain range outside of my tent and no responsibilities was an unparalleled level of freedom most people don't get to fully experience. But on the other hand, knowing you're unemployed and, actually quite literally homeless and living out of your car, just, like, kind of feels bad, man. Some days I would hike through the most beautiful landscapes you've ever seen. Some days I would get a job rejection email and wonder how long I could realistically keep this up.

Meanwhile, Michigan football had resumed but was having disastrous problems of their own. I don't have any photos from the 2020 Michigan football season. Very few publications were even credentialed for the year, MGoBlog was not one of them. Not that it mattered because in my experience, most Michigan fans don't want to interact with social media posts after a loss anyways. What was your sports fandom rock bottom? The 20-something favorite MSU upset? The end of the Indiana streak? A 38 point loss to Wisconsin? Giving 0-5 Penn State their first win? Going to 3OT with Rutgers? A cherished love of college football was reduced to a shrug and an “oh well,” much like my feelings of most things that year.

Somehow I managed to watch every game. Once a week on Saturdays I would either get a cheap hotel or stay with someone I knew if I was in a familiar area. It was something to at least look forward to. It seemed sublime in a way that Michigan football, a thing I've loved since I was nine years old, and I were both having our own relative versions of hardship at the same time. Sometimes it was fun! I photographed island foxes in the Channel Islands and explored the forests of Olympic State Park! Donovan Jeter scored a touchdown off of the ashes of an eviscerated Minnesota quarterback! But also at one point I was sleeping in my car somewhere around Washington/Idaho in November and woke up every 2-3 hours to start my car and run the heater for a bit because it was getting too cold, which made it easier to forget about Wisconsin's 341 rushing yards I guess.

I camped/slept in my car in I think14 states. I sold nature/wildlife prints and stock photos to make up a bit of the money I was losing. I applied to jobs on my phone anywhere I could find a signal in deserts or forests. I interviewed for a job at a rest stop in Iowa.

Eventually I got the call and in January, 2021 I started a cool new job in Centennial, Colorado. And it was the job on my list that I wanted most.

Also in January, 2021 Jim Harbaugh agreed to a contract extension with a massive pay cut. He replaced a lot of his staff. Later in the year he promised to beat Ohio State or die trying.

Or die trying. What else is there to do when your back is against the wall?

I don't know that I posted a season record prediction publicly, but I was somewhere around the 8-4 crowd. I wouldn't have been surprised by 4-8 or 9-3. I was prepared to call this the Friendships We Made Along The Way season (this is not a good thing to be called). Michigan was given a 2% chance to win the Big Ten and many people I knew were selling their sesason tickets. None of this mattered much to me because I was just excited to be back, especially when I got the best email of the year: “your credential request has been approved”. Suddenly a huge part of my identity had meaning again.

Seeing a full Big House for the Western Michigan game felt like a surreal dream. When I left I wasn't exactly sure it even happened, as if it was something I had accepted a while ago might not happen for a very long time. But it happened, and it was only the beginning.

Seeing a full maize out proved even more surreal. (I mean seriously, I've never seen the fanbase more committed to a maize out, it was incredible, good work everyone).

My new job was going well. I saved up a decent amount of money. I got lucky with some investments. I saw myself in my current scenario for the foreseeable future. At this point in the season, I did something I did not imagine happening a year ago: I bought a house. A “cute” house, well suited for one person. It's in a quiet little neighborhood in Castle Rock, Colorado and I used probably the minimum down payment the lender would allow. The front looks like a bad guy from Super Mario Bros. 2.  But in one year I went from homeless to home owner. I closed on the house literally one year to the day after having to leave my old apartment and having to cook canned meals off a backpacking stove out of the trunk of a goddamn Honda Civic in a forest in Wyoming.

Michigan's football team climbed to the top 10. Hassan Haskins hurdled a fool in Lincoln, Nebraska and Erick All ran a crossing route and outran an entire Penn State secondary on an ankle sprain to save the season - especially crucial moments after a tough loss to Michigan State. 

--------------------------

*SIDE NOTE 1: Nebraska is the 14th Big Ten football stadium I've shot a game in. It's been a fun goal to shoot a game in every stadium.

SIDE NOTE 2: below is the most viral photo I have ever taken. I now introduce myself to Michigan fans as "guy who took the burned pants photo". I get a "OH! That was you??" every time. A lady I met on a plane said she was excited to meet a celebrity. Stephen Colbert posted it on tv. I've photographed Michigan football for six years and have photographed 54 national parks but burned pants was actually the winner the universe was looking for. I would like for any other photo to go more viral but this is where I am. 

I don't know how else to say it so I'm just going to say it.

Michigan beat Ohio State 42-27

After a 2-4 season and a pre-season where almost nobody gave this team much of a chance, Michigan beat Ohio State 42-27. 

If you told me in November of 2020 that Michigan would beat Ohio State I wouldn't have even midwest-nice chuckled or entertained the idea. But they did it. They said they would do it or die trying, and they did it.

I also bought a house. I did it, too. November of 2020 me would not have believed that, either.

When I work the sidelines I do everything I can to act professionally – don't wear team colors, I don't cheer. Half the people working sidelines have some sort of vetted interest but act like this, aside from the occasional comments to one another. At my heart I'm still someone who went to games when I was nine and graduated from the engineering school, but I've learned to internalize my sports emotion when working.

This time I screamed. For this team. For the fans. For everyone who fought from whatever battles they had in 2020 and knocked them out of the park. For this one moment, I broke composure and screamed. Holy hell they did it. I did it. We did it.

This Michigan team was given a 2% chance to win the Big Ten. They never backed down and never stopped believing in themselves. 

Look how far we've come. They did it. We made it.

Michigan made it to the College Football Playoffs and I'm living in a damn house that I bought. Michigan returns an elite running game in 2022 and I got a nice raise at my new job after a year. Aidan Hutchinson holding the Big Ten Championship isn't just a Fun Michigan Sports Thing, it's a testament to the bullshit we all endured in 2020 and got through. And got through stronger. A 2% chance is enough, no matter what situation you're in.

Go Blue