My Favorite Harrison Football Photos From 2023

Yesterday I looked at my favorite West Side football photos. I think that I saw more West Side games than I did in a while. On the flip side I did not get to as many Harrison games this year as I would have liked to. Our schedules did not always synch up. There were a couple of home games when I had other jobs that I had to be at. This was a fun team to watch so I wish that I had been to more games. The good news for the Raiders though is that they have a fleet of photographers that cover the team. They are never without photos. Here are some of my favorites from this past year.

We start with the season opener against West Side. At blue hour I always try and go a little wider to get more of that sky into my frame. Those orange jerseys just look amazing against a blue sky. Here I was able to get some of that blue sky into my photo to start the season.

This was an unexpected moment for me. I was able to see the end of a freshman game early in the year. Harrison was down, and all that the other team had to do was to run out the clock. They somehow screwed that up and gave Harrison a chance with just a couple of seconds left. Harrison took advantage of that chance and tied the game as the clock ran out. I love the emotion from the quarterback here as they celebrate the big play.

During the baseball season the school year prior the second baseman looked like an upperclassman. I was surprised to find out that they were just a freshman. When the football season started I saw him as the JV quarterback. I realized that maybe I was starting to photograph a fun career at Harrison. Now that football season is over I can’t wait to see what I get to photograph on the baseball field this spring.

Late in the season you lose the good light during pregame. You pretty much have every moment in the dark. When that happens I usually break out my speed light to try and have some fun. Here are a couple of my favorites from those moments.

One thing that I need to work on next year is my defensive photos. I love it when I make a good one like the one above. Next year I would like to try and get that hit rate up on defense a little more.

Here was a fun play on the opening kickoff of a JV game. The player for the other team fumbled the ball setting Harrison up early. I always say that I want to make a good photo early to get that out of the way. Here I made a fun series on the opening kickoff. Now I could just have fun the rest of the game.

This list is all about celebrating the photos that I made this year, but I also use it to find things where I can improve. Harrison has some amazing fireworks that they let off after every score and after a win. I need to find a way to get more photos of those during the next season. If that means missing a score to get a photo that may just have to happen. It is too cool of an opportunity to not find a way to capture it.

I love blue hour just after the half. It lets me get out there with the players and make some fun photos. I can get up close with the quarterback and pick my background. Of course I have to include a stadium light in the photo for a little separation.

I made more JV games this year than I had since I played JV over thirty years ago. Those early morning games fit into my schedule very nicely. I also saw some very good football which makes me think the future for Harrison is pretty bright. As you can see above there are some playmakers on that JV team.

Last year I had the goal of making photos of every runout a little differently. This year I really tried some things during the runout, and they didn’t always work out. I really like how this one worked though.

Carter Knoy was a fun player to watch. He was so quick that he would surprise the defenders. When they did get near him he had a fun way to make them miss a lot of tackles. Every team needs a player like Carter that can make plays. This photo makes the list because it was the only touchdown that I photographed that night. Every play for most of the game went to the other side of the field from me. It is a great thing when the team you are covering scores a lot of touchdowns. It is maddening when they are all to the other side of the field. Here though I finally made a photo of a score.

This was a fun photo to make pregame with a nice sky in the background. I think that I was at 1/15th of a second at the time letting my speed light freeze the players. It was a fun experiment that resulted in this photo.

Here are a couple of bonus photos of Carter Knoy doing Carter things on the field. With Carter you always had to keep firing because even if you thought he was getting tackled he would squirt out of the pile and keep going. I am going to miss photographing those moments.

I think that in both of these lists that I have pretty much put the photos in a random order as I found them. In both of these high school posts the last couple of days I left my favorite for the last photo though. After Harrison won a sectional game I was excited to make some celebration photos in the rain. Here I really like what I was able to capture. It was a cool moment after my last game with the team this season.

Those were my favorite photos from this past year with the Harrison football team. I don’t know that I have ever photographed a freshman game before this season. It was kind of neat to photograph all three levels of this team though as it let me see what is coming next for the Raiders. Next year if the schedules work out it would be cool to do that again. As I said above there is a fleet of photographers that make photos of these boys. I always hope that I can help contribute to those memories.