It was the final - the winners would be made or lost in these next few seconds.
He was so nervous, he was looking up at the posts, then down again and he could feel his palms sweating. His brow furrowed.
"Let me check the wind"
He leaned over and plucked some from the ground, letting it drift from his fingers, but his head was pounding with excitement and anticipation; there was SO much riding on this kick that he hadn't been paying attention. Which way did the grass go? He scratched his brow looking up at the posts again. The crowd had gone much quieter as if they were holding their breaths with him.
He checked the grass one final time. Ok, now he paid attention. East. Slight breeze. "I can handle that". He took a step back slowly, then another, still eyeing the ball. Everyone's eyes were now on the ball.
He hesitated, blew a prayer to the wind and started his run-up...
"Marty, come over here and bring me another brewsky will ya?"
"Sure thing mate"
"Oh sht oh sht oh sh*t... they've scored a freakin' leveller! The slimy bastards. How in the hell did they do that?"
"Oh shut up Marty, you've only got one eye - you're prob'ly seeing things"
"Yeah well, I wouldn't be able to make that penalty kick, but the missus ain't gonna be too happy"
"Why is that?" Asked Jonno
"I miiiiight have put down $3000 on the game?"
Laughing at Marty, Jonno pipes up "You're not the only one, I think I might have 'ta stay 'ere tonight boys"
Jason had become rather quiet. They both turned to look round at him.
"I might have just saved both your asses. I also bet on the game, but you might kill me if I tell ya."
.
.
.
"Nah mate, don't tell me ya put money down on the other side!?" Incredulous.
"Well, let's see what happens with the penalty kick. Seems at least one of us might win some back"
What do you think happened? Feel free to end the story in the comments 😁
These shots were quite difficult for me. The lighting was terrible, making my lenses misbehave.
The first image is my submission, it's more fun and the focus is clearly on the ball. I like how the teddy is leaning backwards as if he's about to kick it. The composition for this image was more important to me than everything being in focus as I wanted the focal point to be on the "ball" which in this instance was a jelly bean. The jelly bean was eaten after the making of this image. Long live the jelly bean!
The second image was a bit easier, but with a very slim depth of field, the two gamblers on each side were kind of lost in terms of features, but it was ok because Marty was the only one missing an eye in the story and he was identifiable in the frame.
Both images were taken with a 100-300mm macro plus tripod. (Bad) artificial lighting.
The penalty kick: ISO 320, F5.6
The obsessive gamblers: ISO 640, F13
Canon EOS & Sigma lens
This was fun 😁 Thanks 
