The Week That Was In Sports Photography

This is always a fun week. You start off in one year, and you finish in another. All of my sports photos this week were in the 2025. As of writing this I am not sure how many best of posts that I will make this year. I will have at least a couple of best of sports posts for you though for sure. This was a fun year making sports photos. For the first time in a while I feel like I have gotten into a groove. This year has been probably my best year as far as making photos goes. That is a good thing. I are always trying to improve and get better. Below are a few stories from the past week that I liked.

A BIG Start To The Week

This week in sports started for me with the Purdue Big Ten game against Illinois. From this point out all of my Purdue women’s games will be Big Ten contests. That means that for the most part I will not switch ends at the half. I will photograph both teams. In fact for some games I may even stick with the opponent a bit longer if they have a player or two that is nationally known. For this game though I just stayed on the far end for both halves. It was a fun game that seemed like Illinois would run away with it for a while. Then Purdue kicked it into gear and made things very interesting. In the end Illinois won, but the fans had a few moments to really get into the game.

Breaking Out The 300mm Lens

For this game I broke the 300mm lens back out. For the men I like to go wide, but with a pretty empty stadium that doesn’t make sense with the women. Bringing the 300 out allows me to get a little tighter and grab some details. I think that for most of the Big Ten season this will be my setup for the women’s games.

Madison Watch

Right now Madison Layden-Zay is fourth place all time on the list for made three pointers. She is just behind her coach Katie Gearlds for the 3rd spot. The top four on the list are pretty tight so she could break the record before Purdue returns home. It seems pretty likely that she will take over the top spot in Nebraska or Wisconsin. I was really hoping for a barrage the last two games so that we could see the record broken at home.

Welcome Home Tommy!

When Kent State came to visit Purdue they brought along a fan favorite. Tommy Luce is an assistant on their squad. Going into the game I had the thought of trying to capture Tommy on the sidelines. That is not always easy with an assistant coach. I got lucky after a timeout to make a few photos of him coaching up his team. It was cool to see Tommy back on the floor at Mackey.

Another Week Of Wide And Tight

It seems like every week I try and show why I like my floor remote so much. It gives me options when plays happen at the rim. This week instead of the 16-35mm lens on my floor remote I had the 28-70mm lens. It was a change of pace, and got me a little closer to the action. I might have some fun this year trying different focal lengths every week to change things up a little.

A New Focus

This year I have been trying to work on getting the rebound photos a little more. This one from Monday night might be my favorite so far this year. There is a lot going on in this frame. I think that Cluff is fouling #14 while he is being fouled by #23. In fact initially Cluff was called for the foul. They ended up giving it to #23 after a brief huddle. It is still a fun moment and more importantly something a little different.

A Weird Game

This was a weird game. Purdue won by a ton, and there were dunks. For some reason though it seemed like something was off. The photos just were not there. It might have just been me. I just was not feeling like I was doing anything good for most of the game. Looking back at my photos they were fine. In the moment though I was just not feeling it. That happens sometimes.

Breaking Out The Halo Filter

I was playing around with my halo filter during the pregame for the Purdue game against Ohio State. I really think that this is a fun tool. I am trying not to overuse it, but at the same time trying to find new ways to use it. I wondered what it would look like with the pregame intros. Here it worked pretty well. It is hard to believe how long I have been doing this now. It is really cool to still be finding new ways to change up my game coverage.

The Last Game Of 2025

2025 was a really fun year for my photography. I was able to do some really cool things and I feel like it was one of those years where I really grew as a photographer. Some years you grow more than others. I really think that this was a year of exponential growth. I think it is due to the people that are around me. They say that a rising tide raises all ships. When photographers share and work with each other they can really do great things. When I started in this business the guys that had been around a while were terrible people guarding all their secrets. I was not treated great, and I swore that if I could do this for a while that I would never do that. When you help others and give to them something interesting happens. They give back to you. I have probably had more fun this year than I have in a long time. I can’t wait to see what 2026 brings.