My Favorite High School Football Photos Of 2022

This year it seems like I was able to photograph more high school football than in the last few years. The lack of volleyball on Friday nights freed me up to get out and make more football photos. I was able to photograph the same team a few times and learn more about the gamely ritual. At Harrison I tried to mix up my coverage of their run out each game. Today begins the last weekend of high school football in Indiana. With that in mind here are my favorite high school football photos from this past year.

The year started off with a scrimmage in great light. Just before the light was gone entirely I was able to make this photo of a Central Catholic player crossing the goal line. The light on the player combined with the dark background made for a very interesting image to me.

This year the Harrison team played the season for one of their own who was badly injured while away at Indiana State. Omarion Dixon was always on the minds of the Raiders, and here are a couple of photos of the team honoring him.

As the team ran out for the season opener against Plainfield the sun was in a perfect spot to make this photo. This only really lasts for a short time so I was lucky that everything fell into place to make this photo. My goal this year was to do something different with the runout each week. This really helped jump start that with a hard image to beat.

The home opener for Harrison was just a couple of days before my birthday, and the conditions were an early birthday present. The light was amazing early on, and a few plays came right at me so that I could take advantage of that light.

The sword game between Harrison and McCutcheon might have been the most fun game of the season for me. I have always wanted to make it to the sword game, but work always got in the way. This year things worked out for me, and I hope that I can keep making it to them every year. I love this image just before the team made their entrance onto the field.

Of course the actual run out with the sword was a great moment as well. Like I said above I have been wanting to photograph this game for a long time. Seeing quarterback Ben Henderson lead the team out with the sword was a very cool moment for me.

This year the Indiana State football team was shaken by tragedy before the season started. On of the players involved in that crash was Harrison’s own Omarion Dixon. The night before Indiana State was to play at Purdue Omarion came to the Harrison game to pledge his support to the team. The crowd really lifted him up as well. It was a great moment for sure.

The sword game is how a rivalry game should be. The players are giving it their all in order to take the sword back home with them. Here Ben Henderson gives up his body to gain a first down.

There is a reason that this is called my favorite photos. I don’t have a great reason why this photo is on here other than I just like the moment between quarterback and head coach. Part of your job as a photographer is to bring the viewers into the places that they can’t go themselves. To me this is a great example of that.

Okay, one last photo from the sword game. I love this moment after everything was over. You can just see the pure joy on the face as the sword is held.

The runout is always a great time to make a photo. For senior day I wanted to include some of the parents in the photo on this special day.

This was a strange year for sure. I was only able to get to see West Lafayette twice this year both in the post season. Pregame with the sun going down I was scrambling to find a photo. This just sort of happened in front of me, and I am glad that it did. A quick moment pregame almost could have been a staged photo. Last year Michael was very prominent in my best of post. This year I was lucky to be at this game to see him again.

A big moment gets big energy in the playoffs. Here I was lucky to make a fairly clean frame of the bench celebrating a big play for West Side in their sectional win at home.

My last run out of the year at Harrison was a fast one. During the playoffs you don’t usually get to do your normal routine so I found a way to have the team run by me while popping off my flash. It gave me a much different photo than I had made all year.

The season moves pretty fast, and my first and last games at Harrison had the same two teams playing in them. Late in the season the panning techniques come back out.

Here is one of my favorite photos from my last game of the year. It was a hard fought game where West Side came up just short.

Wyatt Curl is a fast man. Here he returns a kick during the semi state game against Chatard. Once again I went with the slow shutter speed to show just how fast he is.

Snow was the story of my last high school game of the year. The wind and snow really made things interesting. I had fun trying to make images that showed just how cold and snowy it was. It always seemed like the snow was falling hardest when Chatard had the ball. Here I thought that I did a pretty good job of showing the conditions. I need more snow games in my life.

The last photo on the countdown was one of the last that I made this year. I have liked it since I made it. Kind of a simple frame showing off the snow and part of the field. Everything that you need when telling a story.

Well there are my favorite high school football photos from this past year. As I said before this was a year when I felt like I was mainly covering one team. Things just worked out that Harrison was the team and place where I spent the most time. I do like seeing one team multiple times in a season as it helps as you start to learn their tendencies. It also makes it harder when that team is knocked out of the playoffs. My goal every year is to have this list be better than the list the year before. This year I feel like I accomplished that. Next year I will have to work hard to make a better list, and that is where the fun is.