My Favorite Images From The 2023-2024 Harrison Raider School Year

This week the high schools started practices and really got things going for the 2024-2025 school year. I thought that it would be fun to take a look back at my favorite images from last year. At the start of the year I had this crazy thought that I would photograph every sport there. That turned out to be a crazy thought for someone who is doing it for fun. I still managed to get to quite a few events during the year though. Here are a few of my favorite images from this past year.

I will start off the countdown with a fun photo of Harrison athletic director Jerry Galena. Jerry loves his school and is there at every event that he can be at supporting the Raiders. Even on a rainy night like the one above he is out there for his teams.

Blue hour this year was the time to break out a slightly wider lens. Here it let me show off some of the blue hour and the play developing. When I started this whole thing I thought that every photo had to be tight action. Over the years I have come to love these kinds of photos much more.

This photo is all about having some fun. With the sun setting I decided to have some fun during the anthem. I really like how this photo turned out.

While on assignment for the paper I was finally able to see the Harrison swim team. I don’t photograph as much swimming as I used to so it was great to get out and make some swimming photos again.

For the boys basketball blackout game the fans really came out. Before the team came out the kids had their phones out waving them around. It was a cool scene that was happening in near dark. I had some fun with this photo to show off the great crowd.

The softball field was very dusty for my first game of the year this year. Nearly every play had a dust cloud of some sort around it. I am sure that it made it harder to play, but I thought that the photos were amazing from it. This was one of my favorites from the night.

This photo was a surprise. I was up hight to capture the action once the match started. I saw this developing and managed to make the photo. This was a cool pregame tradition that made for good photos.

Before a Harrison football game I was having some fun with my flash and slow shutter speeds. Here I ended up with a photo that I really liked from the night. The sky was perfect to have some fun with.

This photo is in here for multiple reasons. The first is that it was part of a great moment. Senior Abby Titlow put the ball in the back of the net with about two seconds left to win the sectional for Harrison. It was a great moment with a lot of emotion. The second reason that this is in here is because I made the photo. I was manually focusing my 400mm lens because the auto focus is broken so it wasn’t until a while after the game before I knew if I made this or I missed it. Thankfully I made the photo of a great senior moment.

The fun thing about the Harrison basketball intros is that it is different almost every time. It is nearly impossible to make the same photo because you are always photographing a different intro. Here the light worked very well for making a nice image.

For soccer senior night the team had hired a photographer so I was kind of extra. I decided to let them take all of the action photos, and I could instead focus on having some fun. With the sun setting I sat on a photo idea for a while. Just before it was about to disappear Joey scored a goal and gave me a photo that I really liked.

I wanted to make something fun for senior Rylan Gick on senior night. I stayed on the field after the anthem to make this photo. The pitchers circle is a cool spot to be in so I wanted to show her in it in a little different way.

This year for the blackout game I decided to have some fun. I created a special preset for the game, and I leaned into the blackout theme by making my gallery entirely black and white. This was a fun way to change things up during a basketball season that can start to seem monotonous. I really like how the gallery turned out.

This year I photographed a wrestling tournament early in the year at McCutcheon. When I first walked into the gym everything was spread out, and I was wondering how I would cover it all. I made this photo off the bat, and I knew that i would be alright. I love the ritual here as well as the shoes.

There is one game a year when the light is perfect for this photo during the runout at the Harrison football game. This year the team nearly waited too long for me to be able to make this photo. It worked out though, and was a fun way to start the game.

After beating Jeff is a tight rivalry game the fans stormed the court to be with the players. These are always fun photos to make. The emotion does all of the work for you.

This is the second year for the Harrison boys volleyball team. I only saw a couple of matches, but I had some fun doing so. I was testing out my new 300mm lens. I really think that it is made for volleyball, and I was excited for some spring volleyball to try it out. Here is one of my favorite plays at the net from a higher vantage point.

This would be the last time that I saw the Harrison softball team this past year. It was an exciting walk off. The best part about the photo is that everyone in it plays on the same summer ball team.

Before the wrestling match I love the stalking that the competitors do. It is kind of the match before the match.

One fun thing about tennis is the emotion that you see. If the player turns to the late day sun to show that emotion it is even better. Things worked out for me to make a good photo here.

After the Raiders won the sectional championship the trophy took a little damage. I really love this photo as the team realizes what has happened. These photos are the best ones in the end because you really have captured a moment.

This year I didn’t make as many Harrison basketball games as I would have liked. The schedule just didn’t allow it most of the time. I love the light in May Gym, and I need to make more games in this coming year.

A big goal in an elimination playoff game just makes for a fun photo. It is always nice when the player turns your way too.

This photo makes the countdown for a similar reason as the soccer celebration photo. I had the 400mm lens up top of the gym manually focusing on the action. If you have ever photographed volleyball then you know that it is a tough sport to photograph with autofocus. Add in wrestling an old heavy lens and manually focusing, and the odds of making a good photo go down considerably. Here it all worked out though to make a photo that I really liked.

Another fun photo from basketball introductions. The lights could be white or they could be Harrison colors. I never quite knew what to expect until they were turned on. Here they helped make a fun picture.

I thought that this was a good photo to close on. Some night you are just blessed with light all around. As the Harrison soccer team was getting introduced the sunset was amazing in front of them. Behind them there was a bright rainbow. I really was torn about where to point the camera. I chose this view, and I thought it was the perfect send off photo for the athletes.

Those are my favorite photos from the action at Harrison last year. There are sports that I didn’t make it too. This is the first year in a long time that I didn’t photograph a single Harrison baseball game. I saw a couple from the softball field, but never made it over the fence. These kids have a lot of fun playing their sports and it is always fun to cover them doing so. I can’t wait to get back out on the field again this year.