My Favorite Photos From This 2022-2023 School Year At West Side

I have been making photos at West Side since I first moved back here over a decade ago. This past year I attended fewer games than the past few years, but they gave me some great memories when I was there. Just like the Harrison list the order below really doesn’t matter. I found it hard to get the list down to 23 photos so I cheated a few times to add photos to the list. Today is the first day of school and the fall sports seasons are getting ready to start. This past year I had some fun chasing lights around the West Side fields, and I want to try that again this year. Instead of big galleries I was having fun making a few images that I liked. Here are some of my favorites from this past year.

23. I love having a baseball field in the neighborhood. It allows me to pop in when there is good light and make a few photos. I love the way that the area allows me to get more sky into my photos.

22. This year I only made it to a couple of West Side football games. The schedule just didn’t work out. In the playoffs though I had some fun making football images as the snow was falling.

21. This year I covered more West Side softball than I ever have before. They are a fun team that should be even better this season. They only lost one senior from a team that showed amazing improvement from the prior years. It will be fun to see what they can do with another off season under their belts.

20. I was having a fun first half of the West Side regional soccer game when halftime came. As the team prepared for the second half just enough of the storm clouds cleared to form a rainbow over the field. It was something very different from my normal sports photo, and that is always a good thing.

19. I was not at this game to cover West Side, but I was very impressed with the tough way that they played the game. They played a hard nosed version of basketball that was fun to watch. I haven’t covered a girls basketball game at West Side for a while now. I need to fix that this coming year.

18. This year at the West Side relays I was lucky and saw Wyatt Curl set a meet record in the pole vault. A short time later I think that he set the school record as well. This aspect of track always fascinates me as I see it as being just as hard as the other events with the guts factor mixed in as well.

17. The fence near the on deck circle at the West Side softball field gives you a great chance to make some cool photos of the players with the sky in the background. Here are a couple of my favorites from this past year.

16. I will talk about the light at the West Side soccer field more as this post drags on, but this is the first of a couple of photos showing that light off. There is a point during the game where the action doesn’t matter anymore. I just focus on players coming through the cool light.

15. More great light near the on deck circle. Above I talked about not photographing the action when the light is good. Here I did the same thing at baseball. I am not there to cover the event or any players. I am there to try things and have some fun. When the light gets good that is when the fun starts. This is one of my favorite photos from that good light.

14. This year I went with my little one to her softball pitching camp to learn more about the movement. I know that everyone does it slightly different, but it was nice to know what is good and bad form. I felt that it made me a better photographer when it comes to the pitching motion.

13. I only covered a half of West Side basketball this year, but they had a lot of fun while I was on their end. Here they celebrate a big bucket against Harrison.

12. On back to back nights I was lucky enough to see both the boys and girls soccer teams win regionals at West Side. The ending of the girls game was amazing as the goals and celebrations just kept coming. this is one of my favorite photos from the night.

11. I like these photos of Manny Gaeta on both ends of plays on the bases. You have one play where he is applying the tag, and one where he is avoiding it. At Bob Friend Field you have great access to make these types of photos.

10.  Another photo during the great light at the soccer pitch. I was waiting so long for the action to come through this area, and I was thrilled when it finally did.

9. This was one of my favorite action photos from this past year at the softball field. I just love the eyes and the concentration. This year I spent a lot of time finding angles to make photos from. Next year I will have more games at the field to dial in my action photos from those angles.

8. I was at very few football games last year for West Side, but I always tried to make the most of my time there. I had my 70-200mm lens with me so I really needed to get lucky and have the play come my way. I went to the game with the idea that there are a ton of people there with long lenses. I would take shorter lenses and just try some things. I liked the way that things turned out doing that so I may try it again a few times this year.

7.  This was a big highlight of the year for me. I made a point to be at the first game of the season for the West Side baseball game as Coach Aaron Wood was making his debut. I wanted to make a photo of him during that game. I really had failed for most of the game to make an interesting photo until the light started to get interesting. I really lucked out with some positioning here to make a photo with the sky so great. Sometimes you have to be lucky to make the photo.

6. It is always fun making photos at West Side soccer matches as the sun is setting. It provides a cool backlit opportunity. Both the boys and girls teams have photographers so I can just have fun and make images like the one above.

5.  Here you can see another example of the fun light at the West Side field as the sun is setting. Early in the year there is a window where you can do some very interesting things as the sun is going down. I need to just show up during this window more often.

4.  These little moments are what make photography so much fun. After a double freshman Izzy Ascarelli looks to the bench. The little details like the smiley face really make the image for me.

 

3.  This was one of my favorite images from this year so far. After a successful vault this West Side athlete had a great reaction. These are things that you do not expect so it is really awesome when they face your direction when they celebrate. This is the emotion that makes what I do so much fun.

2. I love this photo of a Jack Shaffer pitch hitting the mitt. The dust from the field just created something cool. I was not at the game very long, but I had an image that I liked right away.

1. I don’t do a lot of sport portraits anymore, but if I had time to set this up it is hard to believe that I could have set the photo up better than this one turned out. I was roaming the field before a West Side football game trying to find a good subject to use as the last light of the sun was going down. Just then I spotted one of my favorite subjects who knew the assignment and posed for me really quick. This developed so fast, but it was one of my favorite photos from last year.