My Favorite Purdue Sports Photos Of 2023

This year was the start of something new for me around Purdue sports. I used to help out the athletic program, but last year that ended and I was without a pass. This year I started making photos for the wire to get the access to the events again. It is different, but kind of freeing in a way. I don’t need to make such big galleries. I can just try and make pretty pictures which is always fun to do.

Ross Ade Stadium had some new additions this year. With that in mind I tried to make as many photos of it from different angles as I could. This might be my favorite of those photos.

During the National Anthem Jake Parr would tell his mother that he loved her. He flashed this sign whether she was in the stands or not. I wanted to document it during his senior season. I found a few ways to do so, but this tight shot was my favorite. This year I set a goal to show more of the details on gameday, and this is one photo that I am very proud of for that reason.

I don’t get to make many wrestling photos at Purdue. When I do it has not been in a place where I could make a photo with some emotion in it. Here a last second win lead to a great display of emotion that became one of my favorite photos of the year.

Sometimes you get lucky with a photo. Here everything came together for a photo that I really like. You have the concentration of the catch with the bonus of the new tunnel in the background. A lot of luck at work in this photo for all of the elements to come together.

We are lucky to get to see Zach Edey play for Purdue again. He was the reigning player of the year, and he gets to come back to try and make that two in a row. Here are a couple of photos of Zach that I like from this year. I have been having fun trying to capture all of the parts of Zach’s game that make him so good. Sure he can dunk, but he also rebounds and blocks shots. He also is mugged every time that he has the ball so that is part of his story as well.

This year I was able to photograph the 1999 Purdue women’s championship team as they came back to campus. I was so star struck every time that I saw them around campus. It was really cool to get to make photos of them as they were honored.

Speaking of that 1999 team the Purdue women’s team sold out Mackey Arena for the first time since that era for their game against Indiana. I went up top near the championship banners to photograph the team runout. I sat way up here years ago during another sellout so it made sense to me to make my photo from about the same place.

Purdue has a good one in Dillon Thieneman. He came in as a freshman and left his mark on the season. He still has a lot of time ahead of him in a Purdue uniform so it will be awesome to see what he can accomplish. Here he celebrates a vicious special teams tackle.

Myles Colvin is pretty special. Here he throws down a big dunk against Iowa. Myles is the type of player that almost needs a camera on him all of the time. He plays the game with a passion that makes for good images.

This year barely made it to any Purdue softball games. When I did the majority of the time I was making images for the other team. The year they start a new era with a new coach.

I will admit that I was never a big fan of Gene Keady when he was the coach at Purdue. My Purdue basketball fandom started with Matt Painter. I can recognize a moment though. When they honored coach this past year I made sure to make a wide to document the moment.

This year marked five years since the Tyler Trent game against Ohio State. I have never wanted a Purdue win so bad in my life as I did on that day in 2018. This past year Ohio State came back to Ross Ade bringing back some memories of that day. There is now a Trent on the field for Purdue so it made everything hit home even more. Words cannot do justice to what Tyler meant to me and all of the Boiler community. He was only with us for a short time, but man he made an impact on everyone that he came into contact with.

Good light at Alexander Field is always fun to play with. There are certain times that the light just kisses the pitchers as they deliver the pitch. Then background goes dark too allowing for an interesting image.

A floor remote early in the season let me make this photo that I really like. Then scene setter images tell a story more than the tight photo that I would have made with my handheld camera. Together they help tell the story of the game.

I was only at Folk Field twice this past season. That is hard to believe looking at the previous ten years. The first time that I was there I was making photos for the opponent and then I made a point to get to the golden boot game. I was at the game years ago when they reclaimed the boot, and I had seen them keep it many times over the years. No matter who is the better team these games always have an extra level of energy to them. This year was no different.

I have made a few photographs of Caleb Krockover over the years. It started at West Side, and then moved over to Purdue for the last few years. It is always good to see a local boy doing good. Caleb did just that during his career as a Boiler and a Red Devil.

Similar to soccer I only photographed the Purdue volleyball team once this season. I was in Holloway a few times, but always for the opponent. One Sunday I made it a point to photograph the volleyball team. They had another great year, and I wanted to make some images of them.

I really couldn’t pick between these two images. I like them both for different reasons so I will lump them together here.  Some athletes just make good photos by being on the court.

This year Purdue tennis hosted the Big Ten Championships. They didn’t stick around long, but their lone match was the loudest of the weekend. Here I found some great emotion during a match.

The camera on the ground helped me make this image this past fall. This is one of those images that I can’t explain why I like it so much, but I just do.

Mike Bolton has had a heck of a career at Purdue. He set the school record for steals early last year, and he still has another year to play for the Boilers. If Mike gets on base then my camera is on him. For years now I have felt bad for the batter behind him in the lineup for that reason. Here he takes third base in a cloud of dirt. Lucky for me I get another year to photograph Mike.

My last Purdue game of the year yielded one of my favorite Purdue images of the year. It is not often that a player that won the player of the year the year before will do what Zach Edey does. He stays on the court after every game to sign autographs for every fan that wants one. Even when the students are gone over break the line is long as Mackey is sold out for every game this season. I struggled for a moment trying to put fans in the foreground and objects that were being held out to be signed. When I saw the first selfie that Zach took I knew that this was the photo. I walked down the line to find the next phone that was out and ready so that I could be ready. I waited and made my favorite photo of that night.

This was a different year for me making photos at Purdue. As I said at the top I didn’t need to worry about making big galleries. In the past I would hear about it when I made my galleries too big when I shot for Purdue. I always wanted to try and get something of everyone though so it was always a balancing act. For what I do now though that doesn’t matter. I can just go out and make the photos that I want to make. It is cool to still get to photograph these teams. That fact will never escape me. I used to always wish to be where I am now. I will sometimes stop and look around and take a look at my old seats at basketball and football. I have come a long way from those days.