The Week That Was In Sports

The last week in sports was kind of last week. I made all my sports photos on Saturday and Sunday. Posting about them today kind of feels like old history. It was a fun couple of days though that gave me some really fun pictures to post. I covered two sectional volleyball matches on Saturday and half of a soccer match on Sunday. I honestly kind of took the rest of the week off of sports to kind of recharge the batteries a little. This coming week will be full and I wanted to go into the week a little hungry. Here are some of my favorite stories from the past week.

Moments

The first sectional game of the day was kind of like a glorified practice. Watching warm ups it was clear that one team was much better than the other. Knowing that I would have a second game to photograph that day I decided to try and find little moments. I really like this one from the pre game huddle.

More Moments

The match was over and I was packing my bag to hurry home. The goal was to edit the game one photos and then get everything ready for game two. I had just snagged the cards from my cameras when I heard a special announcement. The card went back into my camera, and I am glad that it did. I nearly left the match early knowing that I would be back at night. I am glad that I didn’t though. This is one of my favorite photos of the day.

The Details

I really like this photo. During warmups I noticed the painted nails, and I hoped that during the anthem they would be facing me. I knew that I had a good shot to make this photo, and I was thrilled when it worked out. Sometimes making a photo like this one off the bat can make all the difference. I knew that I had one cool photo already from the night. The rest could just be a big bonus.

Emotion!

Earlier in the season I said that I wanted to photograph this team again when they had a tough opponent. They looked like they would have some great emotion. The sectional title game against your rival is a pretty big game, and the team did not disappoint with the emotion.

Changing It Up

With some new signage in the building I wanted to show that in a few photos. I have been making photos in this gym for a few years now. It looks completely different this year which means that it will give me some new ways to make photos.

Chasing The Light

Last Sunday my day was going to be spent at Bittinger Stadium watching softball. The forecast was not great though so the game was scrapped. The sun started to show up a little later in the day though so I thought that we could have some good light at Folk Field. I will be here a few times in the next week or so for the Big Ten Tournament so I wanted to check out the light situation. If it is like this for all three of my nights at Folk Field this week I will be very lucky. The light was amazing. I made some game action photos, but for the most part I was there to chase the light.

A Little Jube

For many sports covering a tournament is easy. You just photograph near the plate or the basket. For soccer though any team can score at any time. I was trying a spot out that would let me cover both teams. I know that my odds of a good goal photo here are slim, but I would get the jube as the players turn to find other teammates. For both goals when I was in the spot I got the jube. This might be the move this week.

Into The Light

In the past even when I wasn’t at Folk for the team I would still cover the game as if I was to give the photos to them. That arrangement has changed so I really didn’t need a ton of game action. Just enough to prove that I could do it from my spot. When the play went into the light I could play around a little to make some photos that I really liked. I don’t know that teams will love this type of stuff in the gallery, but with six games in three days I have to have a little fun too.

Good Save

Part of my test at the field was to see how my 300mm lens would do from midfield. For most of what I would need it for it did just fine. On the Sony A1 I had enough resolution for a little crop to get into the action. This photo gave me the confidence that I can get whatever I need this week.