"Through the Lens" will appear during the offseason. Packers team photographer Evan Siegle will deconstruct and give insight into some of his favorite images from the 2022 season. Each week will offer a new photo gallery of some of his best photos from the past season.

Those historic bricks

The tunnel is a creative avenue for pregame moments. Most of the time I concentrate on using the dramatic light, colors, and smoke/fog, but the real gem inside the tunnel are those historical bricks. So many legendary players have walked across those same bricks too, so it's kind of a cool piece of Packers history. During Week 11, a Thursday night game against the Tennessee Titans, I came across this moment of the returners huddling up before taking the field. It's a routine moment that happens before every game. Now usually I would be taking pictures like my colleagues are (Tyler Gajewski, left, and Mike Vandersnick, at right) but this time when I started documenting the players, I noticed how close they were standing to the historical bricks. I quickly rushed around so that I could get the bricks in the foreground, while using a wide-angle lens. I try to have the cleanest backgrounds possible but sometimes it's impossible, due to all the chaos and movement. I actually liked the composition with Tyler and Mike in the shot, depicting how they perform their craft while covering the team with one of them shooting from a low perspective and the other high. What I really like is the nighttime mood with the lingering steam from the late fall crisp air and how the bricks look highlighted from the lights inside the tunnel.

This image was shot with a Canon 1DX Mark III, 35mm lens (ISO = 4000, Aperture = f2, Shutter = 1/1000th).

Wide open spaces

For me, the biggest gamble when covering a game is where I place myself along the sidelines and how I chase the action. My usual shooting position is in the back of the end zone, and always in front of the team. Depending on how the game is unfolding I might move around a bit, like kneeling near the pylon with a wide-angle lens or positioning myself along the sideline directly in line with the line of scrimmage with a 400mm lens, in hopes of getting a nice tight shot of the quarterback making a throw or a receiver looking back while making a catch on a slant route. The gamble with shooting from those locations is that I could miss a deep ball downfield for a touchdown. Most of the time I do shoot in the back of the end zone, but I do love racing around trying different perspectives and compositions from the sideline positions. During Week 12 in Philadelphia, I took a big gamble, which almost backfired on me. Near the end of the third quarter Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers left the game with an injury, so I knew that I had to get some solid images of Jordan Love in action. Love, who entered the game just minutes into the start of the fourth quarter, and the Packers started their drive from their own 25-yard line. I took a gamble and placed myself near the line of scrimmage from the Packers sideline. I wanted to capture some tight shots of Love in action. After I felt that I had some good images of Love, I noticed the team was starting to move the ball quickly, I knew that I had to hustle to get in front of the team because the last thing I wanted was shots of only their backsides. As I was racing past the bench area I could sense and see that the Packers were about to snap the ball. I quickly found an opening along the sideline, I plopped myself there instead of racing to the back of the end zone and missing the play completely. Sure enough the Packers had a huge play by rookie receiver Christian Watson, he busted loose for a 63-yard touchdown catch. Luckily, I was able to grab my wide-angle lens and grab some frames as Watson raced past me along the sideline. I captured six frames as he ran towards the end zone for a touchdown. I was literally seconds away from missing that play entirely, but thankfully this time the gamble paid off and I came away with a sequence of cool images from the play. I love the perspective and ambiance of the photo. The wide view gives it a sense of place and shows Watson outrunning his defenders as he ran for open field and the back of the end zone.

This image was shot with a Canon 1DX Mark III, 35mm lens (ISO = 2000, Aperture = f1.4, Shutter = 1/4000th).

Game face

There are some advantages while covering the team on away games, and one of those perks is having extra time to look for player portraits/features as the opposing team announces their player introductions and gameday presentations. The Packers are introduced as a team, they just run out of the tunnel and onto the field, amongst the usual boos from the home team's fanbase. After they reach the visitor's sideline, they usually get into battle mode. Some players go up and down the bench area hugging or trying to get their teammates pumped up, some say a prayer or try and take a quiet moment for themselves. There are also a lot of players getting into their battle-mode mindset, which I tend to love to document. I captured this intensity on defensive lineman T.J. Slaton during Week 13 against the Chicago Bears. I love Slaton's demeanor, his eyes piercing over at his opponents on the other sideline. The smeared eye-black also adds a nice touch to the composition, too.

This image was shot with a Canon 1DX Mark III, 85mm lens (ISO = 100, Aperture = f1.2, Shutter = 1/6400th).