The Week As It Was In Sports

This has been an action packed week. It started with the Purdue football home opener on Saturday morning. Then it was a mix of golf and volleyball for the rest of the week. A little fall ball softball entered into the mix on Tuesday night. The week ended with football on Friday night. Eight events in seven days seems like a lot, and it was. A lot of sports going on is always a good thing. Here are a few highlights from the past week.

Back At Ross Ade Stadium

It is hard to believe, but this is my 13th year on the sidelines at Purdue. I got my first pass to get in a few days after my daughter was born. It was an amazing time. It really never gets old. Pregame I still had that feeling of excitement. I always hope that I can channel that into my photos. As I was walking back to my car after the game I started thinking about how excited I was for the following week. At that point it was still over a week away, but I couldn’t wait for round two in Ross Ade.

The First Win At Purdue For Barry Odom

Saturday was the first Purdue victory for Barry Odom. I have seen a few coaches up close at this point. Over the years I have seen many come through Purdue. I first came to the school at the end of the Colletto era. Some of the coaches have had great success, and some have not. Barry really seems to value the right things, and I hope that his teams can have some success. I wanted a post game photo for just that reason. If this was truly the start of something awesome I would have been crazy to start editing early. You can only make the first win photo once. That being said I hope that I can make a second win photo later today.

Early Practice

It is still early in the football season. I am needing all the reps that I can get. I spent some time pregame with the linebackers and the receivers to get a few reps in as they went through their drills. Once you learn the drills you can key in on certain parts that will look good. I loved this tattoo and this run gave me the exact photo that I was looking for.

A Legend Returns

I used to make photos of Ryan Kerrigan from the stands. He was the captain of the game for Purdue, but if you are not on the team those photos can be hard to make. They will interview those captains in the first quarter. I picked a spot off to the side to make a photo of Ryan. It was the only clear shot that I had at him. When he was introduced he looked every way but my direction. I lucked out as he was leaving the field that he gave the south end zone a look. It was a fun photo to make of a Purdue legend.

A Great Catch

Overall on the day I was not happy with my action photos. I seemed to keep picking the wrong places to photograph from. The action was never in the optimal place for me. For this photo though I did pick the right spot. It was one of the few times on the day when I really liked an action shot that I made. Hopefully I can pick better spots tonight.

A Good First Win

Purdue had a very controlled aggression on the field Saturday. They did exactly what they should have done on the field. This week is an opponent from a lower division so you would expect a ton of scoring for Purdue. The real test will be a week from now when USC comes to town. This season ultimately for me will not be judged on wins and losses. I am looking to see how the team plays. That USC game will be a fun one to watch.

Two Days Of Golf

Monday and Tuesday of this week I walked the course at Purdue with Xavier. This is the second year in a row covering this tournament for the Musketeers. This is a fun course to walk and make photos at, and it was fun seeing some familiar faces again. This course could be rough in the wrong conditions, but I lucked out and had two great days of weather to make photos.

The Details

Part of the fun of walking with the athletes is finding the little details of the day. Golf gives you plenty of those. Each golfer has their own ball marker, and some of them look pretty cool. It was fun finding the moments to capture these little details.

Walking The Course

I could have had a cart for the week, but I wanted to walk the course to find more photos. Moments like this one really make me happy. It was a quick moment, but something that I would have driven by on my cart.

A Good Start

On Tuesday I started the day off with some work against the light. The sun was still kind of low so I wanted to use it while I could. I knew that on the second hole I could have the sun at my back more so I had some fun to start the day. Making a cool photo to start the day really helped get me up to keep trying to top it.

Fall Ball

In the middle of this busy week fall ball started for my little one. It was good to get out and make some softball photos again. It has become my favorite sport to photograph, and I keep looking for more to photograph. Fall ball is a good chance to get back out to the local softball fields.

The Stacey Clark Classic

This week I was able to photograph the Stacey Clark Classic again. This is always a special tournament for me. Stacey was such an amazing human. She was one of the first people to notice and support my photography. She travelled with the team and photographed Purdue volleyball from the stands for years. I think about her every match in Holloway, but a little more this week.

Waiting For The Shot

Volleyball is a quick sport. Sometimes when I have a few photos already I will just find a player that I think is getting the ball and wait for the play. This is a good way to get shots of the players hitting, and every now and then you get them diving for the ball.

The Play At The Net

Every now and then the ball to the setter gets a little closer to the net than it should. The setter has to tap it back, and it always makes for a fun photo. Here are a few of my favorites from the tournament. I always hope for one of these, but I got really lucky this week with a few.

Diving For The Ball

Early in my Friday match I captured this image of a Bowling Green player diving for the ball. It was an early test for me as this happened very quickly. I lucked out and made the shot.

A Fun Week Of Volleyball

This was the last photo that I made at the Stacey Clark Classic. I think that it sums up my week of volleyball photography. I had so much fun being back in Holloway. I used to always love covering these early season tournaments, and this was a fun return to doing so.

Friday Night Lights

My week in photography started and ended with football. Last night I went out to Harrison to watch them take on Brebouf. You only get so many games with good pregame light. For this game a permacloud took out the pregame light, but it did give us a nice sunset. When the light is this good you go wide. After a couple of plays that went the other way I got lucky with a throw right at my camera here.

That Friday Feeling

This year I have been doing something different on Friday night. Instead of just trying to make a huge gallery I have been aiming for 50 photos or so that show the different parts that make Friday night football so special. This is one of my favorite photos so far this year. You have a little bit of everything that makes Friday so special all around the frame.

Halftime Light

As the teams were warming up for the second half the sky was putting on a show. I was desperately trying to find a player that I could put up against the sky. I kept having photos with too many distractions in them. I went out onto the field to find a subject that I could isolate more. QB1 warming up was the perfect subject. I really like how this photo turned out.

Finally A Pylon Shot

Harrison started to take control of the game with a scoop and score by the defense. It was a great run with an awesome dive to the pylon for the score. I have waited a long time to make a good pylon photo. This was a good first photo. Of course now that I made this I can see flaws in it so I want to make a better one. Maybe I will get lucky tonight.

The Moon Makes An Appearance

After the great light show the moon started to rise. Of course the photo that I came up with required me to be on the field, and the action was right in front of us. I settled for this photo, and I like how it turned out.

More Photos From The Week

This was a fun week making photos. It was also a long one. I photographed eight events this week. It was a lot, but made for a fun week that led to a ton of photos. This last section will probably show that in its length as well. These are a few bonus photos that I liked from the week.