It's my happy place: the six-by-five foot, rubber-floored, Plexiglass-surrounded spot nestled between the two team benches at the Sleeman Centre where for the past several years I have taken photos of Guelph Storm games.
It's as close to the action as you can get and provides a great spot to get action shots.
Unfortunately, due to COVID, that space and many others are off limits to media, at least to start the OHL season. Photos will be taken from several other spots, but not the ice-level spot with no glass in front of it that allows the best vantage point and clearest photos.
We will also not be allowed to interview players or coaches in person after the game. No more quick scrums outside the dressing room shortly after the game is over. Now it will be phone calls and/or Zoom calls from the press box, likely several minutes after the game is over.
I understand the OHL is guided by public health and is taking every precaution possible to protect the players, although it does seem a little odd that a fully-vaxxed reporter wearing a mask can't stand six feet away and ask a player or coach questions, players who spend six hours that day with 1,000 fellow high school students, some of them unvaccinated.
Oh well, it is what it is and we make the best of it. There will be photos, but they often won't be as good as one can normally see. There will be interviews, but they likely won't be as spontaneous and candid as we often get.
Like almost every other workplace, things have changed and we just need to adapt.
