The Week That Was In Sports

This was a frustrating week. I was supposed to have five softball games in five days that would have ended today. The only game that we got in was the first game of the week that was the longest away. That was already a make up game from last week. I have been waiting for the outdoor sports to come back because you get more freedom to make photos at those. Of course then you are at the mercy of mother nature. This week she was not kind to us. Hopefully she will be a little more kind this week. Below are a couple of stories that I liked from this past week.

Keeping The Timing

Part of the reason to go to a spring volleyball scrimmage is to work on timing. Volleyball is a fast sport. It might be one of the hardest that I photograph. My favorite photo is when the player is about to hit the ball. They are looking right at it as it comes in. If you can time it right it makes for a good photo. The problem with that is that you have to already be on the player as the ball is coming in. That is not easy. As the ball almost gets to the hands the face will change and the hit and just after the hit don’t usually look as good. I spent a lot of the match just working on this timing.

Hair Clips For The Win

I loved all of these patriotic hair clips. I made this photo just prior to when I thought we would have the anthem, and of course I was ready to line her up with the flag when she was looking up at it during the anthem. For some reason they didn’t have the anthem before the game though. I still like this photo, and I will bank the flag idea until the fall when hopefully things line up for a photo.

A Little Jube

You can’t go to a volleyball match and not capture the jube. This was just a spring scrimmage, but Purdue was still very into it and celebrating. It wasn’t the big celebrations like I saw the last time that I photographed them in the NCAA Tournament, but there were still some good moments.

Opening Day

Tuesday night I was in Covington, Indiana for opening day of the West Lafayette softball season. This game had a few dates that it was supposed to be played on, but luckily the weather held off and they got the game in on Tuesday. When I made these photos I thought it was the first of four in a row for West Side this week. Of course the weather had other plans and it was the only game that would be played this week.

Sliding Into Home

A couple of times during the game I moved to this exact spot to hoping for a play at the plate. Here I got lucky and got exactly what I wanted. The player sliding into home through a cloud of dirt. More often than not you get a player just upright across the plate. When you get the slide the move is always worth it.

Working In Some Context

Not at all stadiums, but at most the scoreboard is placed so that the home team fans can look straight ahead to see it. That means for me that to include the scoreboard in the photo I have to be on the opposite side of the field. This year I want to get better at including more sense of place in my photos from the road. Here you get the scoreboard with some good news for West Side on it in the background of this pitch. I need to work the scoreboards and other identifying things into my photos this year.

Getting A Little Wider

Kind of with what I said above in mind at times I went a little wider during the game to show more of the surroundings during the game. A tight photo of the swing would be cool, but seeing the field and the fans all parked out in the outfield I think makes for a nice photo that is a little different from the other photos that I made on the night. This week we have two home games if everything stays the same so it will be about showing the home field off a little.