The Week In Sports Photos

This week I photographed four basketball games. It is that time of the year when things start to feel the same. I have been playing around with ideas to keep things fresh. There was a few things this week that kept me looking for photos in game. We had records to be broken, historic games in Mackey, and a top 25 win all going on. This is the really fun part of the season. Next week I don’t have any games on the schedule. I will have to figure something out to keep the momentum going.

Purdue Beats Penn State

Saturday was one of those Purdue games where it would take a great effort to win. At the half Purdue was only up one. Then Braden Smith took over. I have said for a while now that he could score 30 a night if he wanted to. He loves to pass though. With Purdue needing a spark he took over. We are in the Big Ten season now so no game is an easy one.

Having Some Fun With Flash

During pregame I have been having some fun with my new flash slowing things down. I have had some fun seeing just how slow I can get the shutter. When you get to the stadium early you have some time to try things. These are a few of my experiments.

Pregame Fun At Harrison

I have been having some fun trying new things with the pregame routine at Harrison. Here I tried a little fill flash with my star filter on the camera. I think that I can get this idea even better. I have an idea for the next game to try out. I still like this photo, but as with most it can be improved.

Getting Up Close

I really like this photo with the Harrison logo in the background. I was a little looser with the original photo, but I decided to use some of the 50 megapixels that my A1 gives me and crop in a little. I really like how this turned out.

More With The Flag

Speaking of cropping in. Here I had some fun with the flag again. The Harrison flag is not as big as the West Side flag, but it does look nice in photos. I really like adding it into my photos at Harrison.

A Record For Madison Layden-Zay

On Sunday Madison Layden-Zay became the all time leading three point shooter at Purdue. Here she is setting the record with a three pointer in the second half of a win over Washington. This bucket and the three that she made after this set Purdue on a course to win the game.

A Top 25 Win

For the first time since 2019 Purdue beat a top 25 team in Mackey Arena. In that game Karissa McLaughlin made a shot at the buzzer to beat Indiana. On this day Madison Layden-Zay broke Karrisa’s record and got Purdue another top 25 win. This team can be very fun to watch. Hopefully this is the first of many Big Ten wins at home this year.

The 100th Sellout

Wednesday was the 100th sellout in a row for Purdue. To commemorate the night Purdue hired Justin Vining to paint Mackey as it looked on the night. I went up to the crow’s nest a couple of times to check up on him. I really love his work, and seeing it done in Mackey is pretty great. This is a beautiful arena, and it is really great to see it on canvas.

Red Panda!

For the 100th sellout in a row Purdue had Red Panda as the halftime act. It really is amazing what she does on the court. It was fun making photos of her. I thought that I had made one that I really liked until her finale. She ended up right in front of me with the Purdue logo in the background. It was the perfect way to commemorate this special halftime act.

The Game

Oh yeah there was a game that happened on Wednesday. For much of the game I was making photos thinking about how they would be used if Purdue lost. They were down nine at one point in the second half I think. Things did not look good. They then used the crowd and some big three point plays to not only take the lead, but to give themselves a little margin for error. These are the kind of games that are fun to photograph. When Purdue wins by 30 I don’t get much emotion on my end. Here I made a nice photo because of how close the game was.

Remembering A Legend

This week the sports photography community lost a legend. Peter Read Miller was one of the best football photographers to ever set foot on a field. I didn’t go to school to learn photography. I learned from anything that I could get my hands on from the internet. Peter is one of those guys that I found early on. I still think about things that he said while making photos. I first found Peter through the Kelby Training site. I then found the treasure trove of videos that he is featured in on YouTube. His book On Sports Photography is one of the best that I have read on the subject. I never met Peter. His death kind of hit me hard though because he taught me so much. His photos that he made are one of the great things that he left behind. His wisdom that he passed on is another of those things. If you have asked me football questions over the years chances are at some point I was quoting Peter. Part of the reason this blog exists still is that I can pass down a little info that I find. Photography comes harder to me than it does to a lot of people. I really have to work to make photos. If I can save some people some of that work then I have done something good with it.