My Favorite Sports Photos Of 2023

This was a good year making sports photos for me. Every year I just want to grow more, and this year I did that. I think that I grew more this year than I have in a long time. Part of that is taking what I started last year and building on it. In the past I was making photos for other people. I was making what I thought others would want. I started calling my new philosophy selfish photography. It was all about making photos that I would want to see. I guess if you think about it of course I would like this list more than other lists that I have put together in the past. With that in mind buckle in because I have gone way too far with this list this year. It is long, but I didn’t want to cut many more of these photos.

This year I photographed the NCAA volleyball tournament for the fourth time. I followed Purdue to Missouri years ago for my first trip and the last three times have all been in Holloway Gymnasium. All three of those times I have photographed Marquette. I really like this photo of their libero celebrating a big point. This photo is what the tournament atmosphere is. I am glad that Purdue was able to host again, and that I was able to work the tournament again.

This photo was part of my first sports assignment with the local paper. You always want to do a good job on your first assignment. I made this photo with my remote in the first half and I knew right away that I had at least one good image to send them.

This year Indiana State hosted the regional round of the NCAA tournament and it was a great day for the school. Things worked out to where I could get down to Terre Haute to cover that first game. I loved seeing the fans all pumped up and Bob Warn dressed up for the big game. After years of covering this team it was amazing to see them getting some national attention this past year.

Early season wrestling rarely has a lot of emotion to it. Purdue is usually using the early season opponents to tune up for the Big Ten season. Here though this wrestler won his match at the last minute to cap off a nice comeback. The pure emotion was not expected, but also very cool.

This year marked the start of the Coach Wood era for West Side baseball. I loved the way that his father coached the basketball team. The players loved him even though he was a coach that would be hard on them. He loved his players too. Aaron Wood seems cut from that same cloth. I can’t wait to see how he gets this team playing after he has had a couple of years under his belt. The sky cooperated to help me make this photos during his first game as the West Side coach.

Photos like this one are why I do what I do. While celebrating with the sectional trophy the player on it fell off. This brief moment was amazing, and I was very lucky to capture it. This is one of my favorite photos of the year.

Hopefully by the time that this post goes live I have made a better photo of Myles Colvin already. He is an athlete that will fill a lot of portfolios with great images before it is all said and done.

This is one of my favorite volleyball photos to make. With my 400 down to manual focus though it makes it much harder to make. Everything worked out here to make a photo that I really liked. Next year hopefully I will have a 300 and these photos can become commonplace again.

This game will always be the monsoon game in my mind. I went to the West Lafayette football game with the idea of making an image or two in the rain. Rain under the Friday night lights always looks so good. What I didn’t expect was the assault that the rain would put on us. This was one of my favorite photos from this game.

Every summer for the last few years I have made photos of the Lafayette Aviators summer ball season. You never know what to expect going into a season. Here is one of my favorite photos from this past season. Max Mandler had taken a pitch to the face the night before, and his eye was looking pretty rough. He was in good spirits though joking about the whole incident. He let me make this portrait of him on the rail of the dugout.

Last year I was lucky enough to photograph the Big Ten Tennis Championships here at Purdue. Tournament tennis is always full of emotion. This was one of my favorite images from those spring mornings making tennis photos.

I made this photo just before Jaydn Ramer walked off the game for Harrison. She was on deck with the stadium lights behind her, and I had a good feeling about how her at bat would go. She would walk off the game making this photo a little cooler to me.

The Purdue women’s team sold out Mackey Arena last year for the first time since the era around the national championship game. I wanted a photo to sort of commemorate that so I went up to the title banner and made a wide photo of the team runout. One of those last sellout games I sat very near this spot to see Purdue take on Notre Dame. I thought that the location fit very well for this photo. I hope that in this coming year I can come up with a spot to photograph the next women’s sellout.

We get two more seasons to get to see Eva Hudson play. Her will to win and drive make for good photos. I only photograph Purdue once this season, but Eva put on a show during that match. This year I hope to get to a couple more matches to get to see her play more.

This year I had the goal of making more detail photos to add to my overall stories. Here senior Jake Parr tells his mother that he loves her during the National Anthem. Jake did this every game for her, and it was fun finding a few ways to show this. This tight photo of the moment was my favorite of those photos.

One player that is always good for a photo is Whitney Duell. She is a two sport athlete that brings the energy and fun to the game. That makes for good photos. Above you can see her making a great play at second base during softball season. The bottom photo was made just after scoring the game winning goal that would send the Harrison soccer team to the sectional title game. If you are covering a Harrison softball game this spring just point your camera at Whitney and something good will happen.

This year working for the wire meant covering both teams. For the first Purdue home game of the year I was up in the stands for the team runouts. I went to grab my long lens from under the TV stand and saw this scene in front of me. I was a little nervous as this was my first time photographing for the wire. After I made this photo I relaxed a little. I would be doing the same thing that I have been doing for years, but just captioning at the end of the day. I really like the idea of this photo.

This year I had a blast making photos during the inaugural season of boys volleyball for Harrison. They were a fun team to watch, and here they celebrate winning the first ever sectional championship. I look forward to making a similar photo this year.

This year Purdue added some new features to the stadium. My goal this year was to work as many of those into my photos as I could. Here I got lucky to get the new tunnel in the background of a photo that I really liked. I love that you can see the concentration on the players face as he hauled this pass in. The tunnel in the background is a lucky bonus. A lot of luck all around to make one of my favorite action images from this past Purdue football season.

Riley Flinn was a fun player to cover as she played her senior year at Harrison. She was one of those players that just made for good photos. No matter what she did it seemed to translate to the camera. Here she drives to the basket with a Jerry West style lean. I had the camera on the ground for this photo, and I really like how it turned out.

I love this flip by Bree Johnson during a West Side softball game. I don’t know why I have liked it so much since I made it, but it was always going on this countdown.

This is a photo that I worked for a while to get right. I loved the reflection in the sunglasses, and I kept photographing this player until the angle turned out just right to get the ball on the racquet, and the reflection in her glasses. It was a sectional match that was pretty much decided at this point, but the matches had to finish out. This gave me a goal while I waited for the trophy ceremony. More athletes need to wear reflective glasses I think.

More football in the rain. After a Harrison sectional game win against Plainfield the rain started to come down. As the clock wound down I went out to make some celebration photos in the rain. This was my favorite of those photos. This year marked thirty years since I last played football so my goal was to photograph as much football as I could.

I like this pre match photo from the Kyle Osborn wrestling tournament. Aiden was into his music preparing for his matches that day. I loved the big school logo over his shoulder so I pulled the screen out and made this image. Aiden would go on to win his weight class that day so it helped tell the story of his winning day a little more.

This year I found film photography and loved the look that film gave me. Under the lights at Harrison softball games things had a bit of a film look to them.  A little mist in the air gave the lights the halation look which I really liked.

This is on here for a couple of reason. One of them is because with time running out in the sectional title game Abby Titlow parked the game winning goal into the back of the net. Her reaction was amazing. She came up big to give the Raiders another sectional title. The other reason that this is on here is because of the light I had my old 400mm lens out covering the game. I was manually focusing here and it amazes me that I got this photo in focus. With sports photography you want to be lucky as well as good. Here I was very lucky all around.

Two photos from a great football game this year. The first was a panning photo that I worked on for a lot of pregame. I was working on something new that I kept tweaking until I made the photo that you see above. The game started off rough for West Side with them going down 21 by halftime. They stormed back in the fourth quarter to win and take the sectional championship. The second photo is of Chase Taylor proudly hoisting the sectional trophy after the win. It was a very fun game to cover.

Loeb Stadium gives me a nice little area where I can make photos of the on deck circle very easily. I usually head there during sunset and blue hour to make photos of the team on deck. This is one of my favorites from last year.

Late season light helps make photos much better. Here during the anthem I was able to use that light to make a photo of the Harrison soccer team that I really liked.

Sometimes the light helps you tell a story. Here Jack Shaeffer pops the mitt of his catcher. The backlighting allows the dust from the mitt to really show up making it look like Jack is really throwing heat. He really can bring it, but the light helped me show that off a little.

I love the quiet moments before the game. Here a Harrison player watches the JV game while still working on some ball skills. This was my first game at Central Catholic in almost a decade so it was cool to add some of the features of that gym into my photos.

This year I had fun incorporating the sun into my early season football photos. Here early in the first quarter the sun was just starting to disappear as the quarterback was going over something with one of the West Side coaches. I really like how this image turned out.

This was one of my favorite action images from the Big Ten tennis championship that was held at Purdue. I love that look just after a player hits the ball. I try and put myself in a place where I can get the player after the hit and the ball. Sometimes you are lucky and it all comes together.

This year for every Aviators ice dump I tried to make the photo a little differently. The good news is that they did this a lot giving me many chances to try new things. This was my favorite water bath photo of the season on Toy Story night.

The Harrison girls bench made last year much more fun to cover. They cheered each other on so well. When the starters were in the reserves were amazing. When the reserves got into the game the starters gave them everything that they had as well. This is one of my favorite images from this past year of the bench.

There is a lot going on in this photo that I liked. I love the emotion. If you read this blog then you know that emotion is something that I always want to capture at events. I also love that little smiley face on the batting glove. I don’t know the story about it, but if it shows up again this year I will make sure to find out.

This year I covered far less Purdue baseball games than in years past. I tried to get to as many as I could though. Here is one of my favorites from the times I could get to Alexander Field. The light hits just right at times during the season. Here it lights up just enough of the player for an images that I really like.

This was a fun night as the Harrison girls soccer team won the sectional title on a last second goal. The boys had won the night before so both teams celebrated with their trophy at mid field. This impromptu party was fun to cover.

I have been lucky to cover Mike Bolton for as long as I have. Last season he set the Purdue career steals record, and this coming year he has the chance to make it an unbreakable record. Mike commands attention when he is on the basepaths. Here he slides into third in a cloud of dust.

I really couldn’t decide between these images of Cal Gick so I included them all. The first image was made with my remote at my feet as Cal gets a layup chance. The second was made of Cal as he waits for the intros before a home game. The third photo I made as Cal was coming down the team hallway prior to a basketball game. For the fourth photo I changed it up a little to baseball season. It was senior day and I could only attend part of the game so I had some fun pregame. Here the clouds and sky were perfect to make some of these head in the clouds type photos.

With all of the changes to Ross Ade Stadium this year I decided to try and photograph it from all of the angles over the course of the football season. This is my favorite of those photos. Just looking at this photo makes me want to get back to Ross Ade for another game.

I only made it to a few games at Bittinger Stadium this year, and most of those were for the opponent. Here I made an image that I really liked of Indiana State scoring a run against Purdue.

Years ago Evan Cooke was one of the coaches on my little ones t-ball team. After the t-ball practices Evan stayed after to hit. Right then I kind of marked his name in my mind as someone that I would see again down the road. Here he is pitching in the North-South All Star game at Loeb Stadium. All of that hard work paid off for Evan, and it was super cool to see him on this stage. Edit: Since I wrote this post Evan announced that he will be back in Loeb Stadium pitching for the Aviators this summer. It will be cool to see him play again. He can bring a lot to a team, and hopefully the Aviators have a good one coming in this year.

As I said above the Harrison boys volleyball team had a historic first season. This is one of my favorite action photos from that season. With volleyball photos you need to be quick, but also have a lot of luck on your side. Here I had some luck on my side to make this photo.

Ava is a fun player to cover. If you have followed this blog over the years you know that I have a soft spot in my heart for catchers. Ava is a good one that has one more season ahead of her at Harrison before she heads to Bradley. Here are three photos from a fun year making photos of Ava.

Zach Edey is amazing. This year we lucked out to get another year to watch Zach play at Purdue. Here he stretches out those long arms to grab a rebound.

Around the 4th of July during blue hour you get to see a lot of fireworks around Loeb Stadium. With that in mind I went to the outfield to try and capture one of those bursts. It is not the best action photo out there, but it adds to the story of the season.

One more floor remote photo from 2023. I love the way that it shows off Mackey Arena while also showing the dunk. This was from an early game in the season, and I was very lucky that everything worked out here.

Going into the Ohio State game at Purdue this year I had one clear goal. I wanted a photo of Marvin Harrison Jr. catching a ball. I knew that I would be gambling as I would be behind the offense a lot, and I might miss a touchdown. It paid off though with this photo of Marvin making a catch.

I have said it a lot, but sports photography involves a lot of luck. Here the sun glint adds to this photo to make it one of my favorites from this past year. Those orange Harrison jerseys just pop in the sun making them one of my favorites.

Cora Bassett was a fun player to photograph during her short career at Purdue. This year she came back as part of the Hoosier team so I went down to the stadium to see her play. She still played the game with a lot of emotion and joy which makes for great photos.

I love the idea of this photo of Ben Henderson sealing a big win at the free throw line. I already had some photos of Ben at the line from that day so I went into the student section to make this photo. I really like how it turned out.

Here are a couple of photos showing some good light in the on deck circle. I have always made portraits of the players on deck, but this year I took that up a notch.  The players are usually focused on the game so you can really have some fun making those in game portraits.

Joey Scheumann was a fun player to cover at Harrison. He played hard in a way that was very good to the camera. He also loved scoring goals. The first photo I made during intros of his last home game. The sky was amazing as he was introduced to the crowd. The second photo had a lot of luck to it as well. With the sun just about to disappear behind the clouds Joey scored a goal and ran towards the student section and into this cool photo. I was gambling on something cool happening, and Joey made it happen just in time.

I really like this photo. I made it early in the year, and it is still one of my favorite photos from last year. After clearing the bar on the pole vault this West Side athlete looked up to his parents with a little celebration. Before the vault I saw him looking up that way so I hoped that something like this would happen. This happy moment was more than I had hoped for. Everything worked out perfectly.

This is the last sports photo that I made in 2023. I had my edit done, and I just needed to hit send to be done for the night. I went out to try and make a photo of Zach with the crowd of fans waiting for his autograph. I don’t know that we will see anything like this again at Purdue. You have the reigning national player of the year staying hours after the game signing autographs. You can’t say enough about the person that Zach Edey is.

A Historic Year

This year will mark the ten year anniversary of my first paying gig. It is hard to believe that I have been making sports photos for this long. I am sure as this year goes on that I will have some posts highlighting some big events from that year. This past year I looked at 2013 and the events that led up to me being able to do this for a living. In 2024 I will be able to look at those first big jobs that really helped get this business off the ground.

A Change

After the pandemic I stopped charging for photos on my site. I would just have every gallery unlocked for everyone. My thinking at the time was that not everyone was doing so well monetarily after the pandemic so I would not put a pay gate on my photos. I still had the buy option selected and I considered any sales ‘tips’ for coming out. Those tips quit coming this past fall. I started walking into gyms with other peoples photos on the banners and I was getting no sales on my images. I covered an entire season for a team last year for free and then they hired a photographer who didn’t attend a single game to cover senior day for them. This past year I lost a camera due to a fall and I have been badly needing to replace my 400mm lens. Neither of those are cheap things to do. With that in mind I am going to go back to a locked gallery for my sports photos. This is something that I have struggled with for a little while now. I did not want to go back to this as not everyone can afford photos. I did knock the price down a bit with that in mind. At the end of the day though this is a business and I have to get some money flowing from the sports side. Right now everything else that I do is feeding the sports side. It would be nice to have the sports side contribute a little. If you are an athlete that I have made senior photos of you will still get images from games. They will show up in the folders that I have set up for your senior photos. This is back to how it used to be.