My Favorite Sports Photos Of 2024

If you know me then you know that I love sports photography. There is a reason as to why this is the second to last of these best of posts. I love capturing sports moments. Last year I pulled back what I do a little though. I was spreading myself too thin, and the rewards just were not what they used to be. I have tried to concentrate on the sports that are paying me more this year, and I think the results are better because of it. Below are some of my favorite sports photos of 2024.

These might be my favorite sports images from last year. I was late in posting my favorite baseball images so I was just going to post them at the end of the year with all the others. For some reason though when I wrote the post up I decided to hit send and put it out there. I am glad that I did. My father is the one who taught me to love baseball, and he picked these two as his favorites from that post. We lost him two days later. Our last baseball conversation of the thousands that we had were about these two photos. My first baseball game next year might be a hard one. I lost my baseball buddy in 2024. It will be weird to photograph a game and not have that conversation about it.

We will end this post with a fun photo after Purdue clinched a Final Four berth. There was a huge crowd at the airport, and the players really enjoyed celebrating with the fans. This was a party that was a long time coming. It was awesome to be a part of it, and I hope that I can do it again sometime.

I don’t think that it is any secret that I grew up a huge Notre Dame football fan. I grew up an Irish Catholic boy not far from the stadium. One of my favorite players over the years was Bryant Young. Here his son Bryce celebrates a huge play on the field. That boy from LaPorte loved making this photo.

Another baseball stadium where I will say that I didn’t really get to photograph much baseball this year. Early in the season I made quite a few Purdue baseball games. When the weather improved though it always seemed like I had somewhere else to be.

One of the highlights of the year was seeing a sold out Mackey cheer on the Boilers as they won the Monon Spike trophy. I am going to be the first to admit that I almost missed this photo. I got a nice celebration photo that I liked. I was just starting to get out of the scrum when I heard someone say “Do you want this?”. It was the trophy, and I made probably my favorite photo of the year.

I love this photo of two sisters celebrating after a big win. These are the fun moments to capture. The game action stuff is okay, but these are the photos that stick with you.

For the last home football game of the year I went wide a couple of times. For the runout I wanted the starburst in my photo. The timing of it was a little off, but I think that the team running out late actually made the photo. Just after the half the sun was setting and the sky was lighting up. I ran up into the stands after a score to make this photo of the kickoff with the sunset. I like both of them, and they are both reasons why this countdown is fun for me.

The West Side rivalry with Harrison is a fun one. The fields are just down the road from each other, and the stands are always packed. This was one of my favorite photos from last years game. I had the camera on the ground hoping for some action to come my way, and things worked out for me.

I went to that soccer match to make a comet photo, but I ended up with a fun celebration photo as well. With the last light of the day in the sky Purdue scored a goal and gave me a fun photo. I wasn’t there to make game action photos. Those days are long gone. I had some wide photos in mind. The celebration made this a fun photo to make.

I love a good stiff arm photo. They can often happen far away from you though so you don’t get to see the impact of the play. Here are a couple of my favorites from this past year.

When you score the game winning goal the celebration is pretty good. Here I lucked out that it came in my direction. This was still early in the season, but it would be my final Harrison boys game of the year. It was a fun one to end on.

For one game every year at Harrison you get some great light during the team runout. I spend the final few minutes before the runout every year hoping the team hurries up before the sun goes behind the locker room. It always works out though so I don’t know why I worry so much. For this game I was photographing for the local paper, and this was a fun photo to have right away from the game.

Zach Edey turned Mackey into a madhouse with a three pointer against Indiana. I was fairly wide for the play, and that resulted in one of my favorite photos of the year.

The Purdue season opener was a game full of fun for the Boilers. Here the defense celebrates a bit play. When I look back on this season I hope that I remember these moments.

This past year I was lucky enough to photograph the Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships for Minnesota again. I had my friends 400mm lens so I could get right in on the action. As I write this I realize that I really need to get to a meet to try out the 300mm lens. I think that it would be perfect for swimming.

Sometimes you spend a lot of time hoping that a player will run into the good light. That doesn’t always happen. Here the West Side goalkeeper comes right into the great light at the perfect time.

Sometimes you make fun photos when you are bored. I was just kind of hanging out at this point of the game waiting for Illinois to clinch. I decided to have some fun with slow shutter speeds. I really liked how this photo turned out.

It is weird being in Mackey knowing that most of the fans are there for the other team. Caitlyn Clark was that player though that brought people in from all over. I had some fun during the day making photos of her and the fans that she brought into the stadium. This is one of my favorites from that night.

When the team you are covering has a potential Heisman winner on it you hope that the plays rolls to your side. Here things worked out perfectly for me to make a photo that I really liked as the quarterback rolled right at me. I gambled a bit hoping for a photo like this. I didn’t have the best angle of the score, but this was the photo that I was there for.

The late day light at Bittenger Stadium can be amazing. Here it helped spotlight the dirt flying in the air as this Purdue runner slides into third base.

When you have already made tight photos of your athletes you can pull back and make a scene setter photo. I already had some photos of the divers tight so I decided to zoom out a bit to show some of the scope of where they were diving. I really like these photos.

Sometimes you get lucky and the celebration comes right at you. Here was one of those times as the West Side players celebrated right at me.

I don’t get to a lot of wrestling. It is one of those sports that is hit or miss for me. In 2023 I seemed to cover a lot of it. Last year I only saw one match. Winter gets to be a busy season, but this year I need to get to at least a couple of matches.

I didn’t get a lot of tennis in this year. I went to a Purdue match to try out my new 300mm lens this past spring. I was just trying things, and then this celebration shot ended up in my viewfinder. I am glad I went because it is one of my favorite photos of the year.

I don’t know that a cow patch is a stadium, but on this day it was. The Prophetstown old time baseball game is always a good time. I love the old rules and equipment. The barn is the perfect backdrop for the photo as well.

I don’t cover a lot of golf anymore. When Xavier was on the schedule this year though I knew that I would get another chance to walk the beautiful course at Purdue. I really enjoy covering golf, and this year I hope that I get a couple of chances to do so again.

This photo had a lot to do with my wife. She had told me a story of a Nebraska player during the week and what he had gone through on his journey to Nebraska. After the game I was next to him thinking he was going to be interviewed. Instead he went right to his coach to celebrate. It was my favorite photo of the day, and I made it because of my wife.

This was a weird job where I was booked, but things fell through at the last second. I still photographed the UC Davis upset though for a little practice since I was already at the stadium.

The West Side softball team was full of freshman with potential. Here is one of them making a great throw after a nice stop.

I have been making photos of this member of Lafayette Roller Derby for thirteen years now. It is hard to believe how fast time flies. Roller derby was the first sport where I covered an event for a team, and I try and get back whenever I can to keep going. Hopefully there is some roller derby in my future this year.

This year was a fun sword game to cover. It was the weekend before homecoming so some of the Harrison players were using that chance to ask dates to the dance. Here Ethan Karberg had a great game and was the player of the game. He had the sword and now a date to homecoming. As a high school player it probably doesn’t get much better than this.

I photographed a ton of softball this year, but not much at Purdue. We kept making plans to head out there, but it never happened. I was working for the school for the home opener and made this photo.

Golf is a sport where you can have some fun. You can get your photos pretty quick. From there you can play around and try and make some photos. Here I didn’t have my entire golfers body in the frame so I decided to have some fun with the frame.

I love the Raider introductions. They have spotlights, but they are human controlled so you are always getting something different. Sometimes these pregame routines can become all the same, but this one kind of changes every game.

For years I had fun watching Jack Shaeffer play baseball. This year I walked over from softball to see him pitch against Central Catholic. I love those old school road uniforms for West Side, and the late day light looked really good.

Ross Ade Stadium under the lights is tough to beat. For the Oregon game I went up top to get a runout photo with the pyro going off. One of these days we will get another runout during a sunset where we can really have some fun. This worked out pretty well though.

My favorite photo of the year might be this shot of the Big Ten trophy. The year before I was not on the floor making photos. For years I was in the stands on assignment when Purdue won the trophy, and then I found myself shutout in 2023. I made my mind up to do whatever it took to get back on the court, and I was very happy to finally get to make this photo.

This photo was part of a fun day. I started the day at Loeb Stadium watching a really good game between McCutcheon and Logansport. McCutcheon won to claim their first sectional title in a while. The team and the fans were super pumped and the celebration was great.

For match point against Indiana I wanted to be wide. It was a special match in front of a sold out Mackey Arena crowd. Being tight for the point could have been nice, but I wanted to show a little of the scene. I really like how this photo turned out. It tells the story of the day.

When covering a championship weekend you get much better photos when your team is doing good. Here I was lucky enough to have a swimmer win a race, and the emotion really starts to come out in those situations.

It was really fun getting to see Zach Edey play. He really changed things for Purdue when he was here. I tried to have some fun with the lights and a softening filter here to get the light to grow around him.

I was with the West Side softball game for nearly every game this year. This was a fun moment for a freshman to have during sectionals. It might have just been that breakout moment that starts something special.

 

When I made this photo Purdue was on top of the world. They were handling the Sycamores, and the quarterback was setting records. Who knew at the time that this would be the lone win of the season? The games felt much different after this.

Roller derby is so much fun to cover. This past year I was able to cover two games for the local Lafayette team. If you have never been you should give it a try. If you have been before go and see another one.

For the Harrison blackout game this year I thought that I would have some fun. I was not there for anyone so I made a new black and white preset, and I made photos throughout the night with that preset in mind. I really like how the photos turned out. I want to try that again this year when they do it all again if I am available.

We will start off with some emotion from Purdue baseball. This year the team was in the hunt for the Big Ten Championship for most of the season. They were having fun playing some good baseball. The big games led to some big emotion from the players. Above are a couple of my favorite emotion photos from this past year.

The light was perfect here for a nice photo with the sunset as my background. I just needed a moderately long run to make this photo work. I got my wish, and made one of my favorite football photos of the year.

We close with a couple of photos close to me. When you make photos of your kids it always means a little more. Here are a couple of my favorites from freshman year behind the plate.

There are my favorite sports photos from last year. It was a fun year making sports photos. It was also a weird year making high school photos. For the first time in a long time I pulled back my high school coverage. I have always said that the best photos are at the high school level. Unfortunately the pay is not there. I have to find a way to make what I do worthwhile when I go to a game. That is the goal of 2025. Finding a way to make the high school side worth the effort. This was a long post, and I am amazed that you stuck with it. You can tell how much that I love sports.