The Week That Was In Sports

Hey I made sports photos this week! It has been a while since I made photos of sports that my kids were not involved in. I have played around for a couple of partial games, but I really have not made serious photos in a while. With the Prospect League playoffs in town it made sense to brush off the equipment and make some photos. Photography is a muscle, and you have to work it out a little. Making a good sports gallery for the wire is different from making photos of your kids. This is a weird time of the year. I don’t know when my next sporting event will be. In fact I had this post written and thought that I was done for the week. Then I photographed a high school football scrimmage last night.

Old Timey Baseball

The sports week really started off Saturday with some old time baseball at Prophetstown State Park. I thought that this was a unique enough event that I made a blog post about it already earlier in the week. I had some fun with the photos adding a filter to them to make them look a little older. You can read that post here.

The Prospect League Playoffs

The last time that I photographed the Prospect League Playoffs was in 2021. I had photographed that entire season for the team, and that playoff run was epic. This year the playoffs were in a more condensed format. I was also there for the wire instead of the team. I didn’t need a huge gallery from the game. I just needed photos that told the story of the day. I really wanted one that showed the rally towels in the background. The Aviators won the game due to an eight run eighth inning. That inning was capped off by a grand slam. I loved how the rally towels added to this photo. I kind of got all of my things in one picture.

Back In The Swing Of Things

I really haven’t been photographing much baseball this year. I always enjoy it when I get the chance, but I just haven’t had the chances to do so. This was a fun game to dust off the gear and finally make some baseball photos. I started off low in the opposing teams dugout, but the heat waves were a bit to much. I moved into the stands and luckily was able to make some photos there.

The Crack Of The Bat

I don’t photograph a lot of wood bat baseball. Shattered bats used to be a rarity. The second batter of the game gave me this image though. They cracked a couple of bats throughout the game, but this was my best image of one. The don’t shatter like they used to, but it is still something different.

Emotion!

The playoffs mean emotion. I loved this photo after a bases clearing triple. You get a little bit of that late game playoff emotion. I was gambling late in the game and missed the great emotion after the last out. I was banking on something else. I was glad that I made this photo though.

Round Two Of The Prospect League Playoffs

Because the Aviators won on Sunday they were awarded with another home game on Tuesday night. They took on rival Terre Haute. At the end of the day Terre Haute won, but it was still a good season for Lafayette. The extra game gave me an extra game of baseball on the season. That is never a bad thing.

The Details

I was walking up the stairs to a new spot when I passed by a guy with a cool maybe homemade Aviators hat on. I loved the logo and the pin next to it. I turned around and made this photo while he was sitting in his seat. Little detail photos are a great way to help tell a story. They also break up the look of your Instagram post.

Pitching Motions

I really love watching pitchers and coming up with the best way to photograph them. I started off in the opposing dugout, but realized that from straight on this motion could look cool. I really liked how he looks over his shoulder while delivering the baseball.

Using The Light

With no clouds in the sky I knew that I needed to spend some time in the dugout as the sun went down. Here things worked out for me to make a photo that I really liked. It didn’t work for his motion, but when he looked for the sign he would dangle his arm down. It worked perfectly for that.

Getting Really Lucky

I only had a couple of batters at the front of the opposing dugout. I hoped something cool would happen while I was there. A game tying three run homer is pretty cool, and the light was even better.

Showing Off The Park

Above are a couple of images that I made as the sun was setting. I wanted to show off this park a little. These wide photos are great scene setting images. They give a sense of place to the rest of the gallery. When I shot for the team these would be used for graphics and other things. Now they just help break up my gallery a bit and show off the park.

A Couple Of Local Arms

In the ninth inning I was able to see two former Harrison players pitch again. It is always cool to see kids that you photographed in high school come back to town. Here they both were able to pitch at least one more time in their hometown. I think that if the game had gone according to plan in the ninth inning I might not have had this chance, but it was a wild ninth with over ten runs scored. They were able to get in because of that, and I am glad that I was in a good spot to photograph them.

Welcome Tommy!

Thursday morning we got our first look at Tommy McClelland the new Purdue athletic director.  I went down to campus to cover it for Mike Carmin as well as sending some images to Zuma Press. You can read Mike’s take on the press conference here. I liked a lot of what he had to say. He seemed like he is thinking outside of the box when it comes to generating revenue. It will be interesting to see how those ideas come to fruition. Early on he also provided a sound byte that made the rounds on social media all day.

Feels Like The First Day Of School

Thursday was the first day of school for my kids. Before the press conference it kind of felt like the first day of school. I was running into all kinds of people that I haven’t seen all summer and catching up. It won’t be long and those faces will be seen often as the college sports season gets ready to get going. This was a fun way to see everyone all at once though.

Scrimmage?, We Talkin’ About A Scrimmage?

Friday night I went down to Gordon Straley Field to photograph a scrimmage. I am not normally someone who likes to photograph a practice, but this was enough like a game to keep me going. I haven’t photographed football in months so it was good to get out and knock some of the rust off. As I said this was enough like a game for me to try and predict plays just like I would in a game. More than likely I will be on this field the next two Fridays as well. They scrimmage another team next Friday, and then they open the season against rival Harison. That game against Harrison is the last scheduled time that the two teams play. I doubt I miss that one. My gallery from the game was not big. The scrimmage didn’t have tackling so the defensive photos were hard to come by. I was basically there to get my timing back and maybe have some fun along the way. It is always fun to be under the lights on Friday night.

More Fun In The Sun

Part of wanting to photograph the scrimmage was to see how the Prism Lens Halo Filter would act with the sun and the stadium lights. I probably could have tested the sun photos at home, but it is always best to just use it how you want to use it. Even with the team split in two it was hard to get a player by themselves. Making the sun work with the players was not easy, but when it hit I could see the potential. It is not something that you want to overdo, but this could be something fun to break out every now and then.

More Photos From The Week

As per usual here is my overflow of images from this week. It was a fun week making photos. It was kind of neat to get to get out and make photos again.