My Ten Favorite Track and Field Photos of 2014

I only shot two track competitions this year, but I spent five days doing it. Over the course of those five days I made many images that I really liked. Purdue only has one home outdoor meet this season. That is a shame because I really enjoy shooting track and field. I may have to shoot a couple of indoor meets this season. I have put together a few of these ‘best of’ posts. There are more on the way. You can view everything that I have published so far by clicking this link here.

10. I had never shot the triple jump before in my life before the Big Ten Championships. With that in mind I shot a few athletes before Purdue came up. I wanted to see what looked good, and what did not, and to get some sort of timing down. This athlete from Nebraska just had a look that I liked. I went out of my way to make a few photos of her jumping.

9. Chukwuebuka Enekwechi is a long name. His list of accomplishments at Purdue may be even longer. He had a great season throwing for Purdue. Here he celebrates his second place finish in the shot put. He had some fans in the crowd cheering him on, and he let them know that he appreciated them. Chuck E. will show up on the countdown again.

8. Raheem Mostert was a force in the running events. He won both the 100m and 200m titles during the tournament on the way to becoming the Big Ten Athlete of the Year. I chose this photo of Raheem because it shows you just how dominating he is. He had already opened up a large lead on the competition at about the one quarter mark of the race. He was just crazy fast during the events. That speed would later turn itself into some long touchdown runs during the football season.

7. Here is a shot of Cierra Brown competing in the triple jump. I started off photographing the event head on. I made a photo that I love from that position that can be found later in the countdown. I then moved to the side and laid on my stomach to make this photo of the first jump. I thought that it had a grace to it that I wanted to capture.

6.  Dani Bunch is one of the best athletes that I have seen in person. She had a dominating season in which she was named the Big Ten Female Track Athlete of the Year. She was very fun to cover, and from what I understand she will be competing indoors this season. I may have to go and photograph her one last time. 

5. The top five. Sometimes a list like this will be filled with action shots. Sometimes for me though the moments happen in between the action. In this case it was after the events had completed. I had just photographed Penn State winning the overall women’s title when I saw that Wisconsin was ready to receive their award. As the head coach was being interviewed on TV a couple of athletes were standing behind him with the Gatorade bucket ready to go. As soon as the TV man bailed the Gatorade bath came crashing down. I was in the path, but I held my ground to make this photo.

4. Coming in at number four on the countdown is this photo of Purdue thrower Chukwuebuka Enekwechi. For the purposes of my sanity I will call him Chuck E. again. After Chuck won the hammer throw on day one he capped off a successful Big Ten Championship with a second place in the shot put. I made this photo of Chuck after he was awarded his Big Ten Championship for the hammer throw. He was feeling pretty strong, and this photo was a quick moment that I was happy to capture. 

3. Third on the list is the long jump and Nikki Nunn. Nikki won the Big Ten Title on this day, and I love the look of this photo. There are a few great places to make pictures during a long jump. You have the peak of the height, the landing, and sometimes the strain of the run in makes for a great photo. 

2. I had never seen the triple jump before let alone shot such a thing before the final day of the Big Ten Tournament. I knew that I wanted to get low, and that I wanted two different angles of the event. This was the first way that I shot the event, and the second can be found above. I love this photo because it looks as if she is smiling at me as she strains to make her distance. Cierra Brown finished third in the event with a late jump.

1. On the first day of the Big Ten Tournament the photographers battled rain and grey skies. As the final event of the night came about the rain really started to come down again. I had the photos that I needed, but I stuck around to shoot in the cold rain. I knew that the rain would make for some good photos. I like this one of Matt McClintock in a pack of runners. The rain just added to the event, and this might be my favorite photo of the two days.