The Week That Was Win Sports

This week started off and ended with football with a little soccer in between. This week was kind of packed in the best way possible. As this post goes live I will be leaving for volleyball for what will likely be the only event that I cover this week. Here are a few stories that I liked from this past week.

Purdue Loses A Tight Game

The week started off Saturday morning at Ross Ade Stadium. Purdue took on Wake Forest and it took two overtimes to decide the game. To be honest I am just happy that the game went to overtime as Purdue was down ten a couple of times in the game. They showed some fight and came back to tie the game as regulation ended. As a fan I wish that they had shown some guts with the last few plays and actually took a shot at the end zone. This is a conservative team though so they pretty much played for the field goal to tie the game up. As a photographer it gave me more chances to make photos. The schedule just gets harder ahead for Purdue so this felt like a game that they had to have. There are some gamers on this team, and I can’t wait for another chance to photograph them again.

Details

I like this photo of the Wake Forest center before the game. My friend and fellow photographer Zach pointed out his gnarled hand and I decided to make this photo of the hand and the tattoo on it. It was about the only pregame photo that I liked. I did like it a lot though.

To The Pylon

I don’t often pick the right side of the field for these pylon shots. I am often at the other end of the end zone. Both teams seemed sort of easy to read though so I was getting lucky picking sides last week. The Wake Forest player did not make the pylon, but it still made for a fun shot.

Fame!

Purdue has a new fan favorite running back in Fame Ijeboi. Purdue would not have forced overtime without his runs late in the game. He turned plays that should have been losses into gains. He has no quit, and was fun to watch. You can see just how beat up his jersey is here, and it was just the third quarter. He still had his best and hardest running ahead of him.

Going Wide

I had my grab camera around my neck in case something happened in front of me last week. For most of the game it was just dead weight on me. A photo like this one makes it worthwhile to have though. I like how this turned out, but I have ideas to make a better photo like this in the future. Hopefully the football gods can help me make that happen.

Using The 200-600

I took the 200-600 to the game to get a little more versatility for my coverage. My 300mm lens just isn’t enough most of the time. For a night game I need it though. During the day the 200-600mm lens lets me get right into the action and gives me a ton of versatility. Paired with my 24-105mm lens I really have a wide range covered with just two cameras. I think the 2PM start for the Notre Dame game will allow me to do this same thing again. I really like how this let me shoot on the day. I felt faster and lighter moving without a third body on me.

Another Senior Night

Monday night I was out at Harrison for their soccer senior night. These are always bittersweet. It is always fun to capture moments for athletes that I have watched for a while now. Knowing that my time photographing them is short is the hard part. They had another photographer come out to document the night so I moved out of their way and tried to capture a different angle of the senior night festivities. I will often see photographers stack up and all make the same photo. At some point you have to try and give them something different. Hopefully I did that Monday night.

A Little Emotion

This was always going to be a lopsided game in Harrisons favor. That meant that the goals didn’t mean as much early in the game. As the game got later and players that don’t normally score put some in the net I was able to capture some nice emotion.

Raider Field

I always love sunsets at Raider Field. I usually get lucky to make a couple of throw in photos during the good light. Harrison was so good on this night though that the game ended early so I just got this one. It is a fun one though.

A Quick Start

I was able to finally photograph my first flag football game of the year Wednesday night. I have tried twice before, but weather stepped in the way of my game. I got to the stadium a little later so that I didn’t have a chance to photograph any pregame. I had the thought that I could warm up on the first drive. Of course the first play for Harrison was a double reverse for a touchdown. I didn’t have a ton of time to warm up on that one. That kind of set the tone for the game, and it made me change how I photographed the game.

Heat Waves

This turf field on a hot day can make things hard. With the sun out for most of the game I stood to photograph this one. Luckily the distortion was not bad and just standing helped me avoid it. It does feel weird to not be kneeling when making photos though. Kneeling gives you a better perspective and makes the athletes look even more athletic. Sometimes the conditions don’t allow it though. On the plus side my knees loved having the night off.

The Flag Pull

One that this I don’t think photographs well most of the time is the flag pull. It rarely works that the athlete is looking at you with the flag. Here things worked out for a flag pull photo that I really liked. Most of the time I don’t think they work, but this one really did.

The Spin

I love this spin photo. Like the flag pull you can’t always tell what is going on. Here the flags are fully out and past the defenders so you can see that she spun past them. It was a good move, and I lucked out being in a good place to photograph it.

A Little Luck…And Near Death

I positioned myself to make this photo and at first I for some reason was going to use my 16-35mm lens to make this photo. I would have been way too close, and probably been trampled. I moved back and used my 50-150mm lens and ended up with a photo that I really liked. This was one of my first photos on the night, and by far my favorite. The light was perfect here to make a photo that you can only probably make once a year because of where the sun is. Luckily for me the team came out in time so that it could be made.

The Captains

Captains are the heart of a team. They are the leaders that keep a team together. For this game I made two captain photos. One was in great light as they headed out to the captains meeting. Then late in the game they were together again. This time one of them needed help off the field. In good times or bad they are there for each other.

Chasing The Light

I spent much of the 2nd quarter chasing the light. This team has a photographer who works his butt off to capture everything at the games. That means that I can kind of mess around at times when the situation is right. I like to capture the action as much as the next person, but when the sky pops off and I can break away I will. It won’t be long and the entire game will be played under the lights. By the time I photograph my next game in two weeks that could be the case. I will take this light when I can.

Where Are The Action Shots?

I really feel like action wise this was my worst game of the year. I was covering one team, and both touchdowns went in the other direction. I just wasn’t feeling the flow of the game last night. I think that I was having too much fun with everything around the game. I made a couple action photos that I liked, but not the volume that I am used to. Of course when you take nearly a quarter off from game action to chase the sky that tends to happen.

More Photos From The Week

Here are a few bonus photos from this past week that I liked. This is long one so strap in. If you make it all the way through grab one of your favorite fall treats. You have earned it.