The Week That Was In Sports
This is another week that started and ended with football. In between I photographed my first softball in quite a while and then a good rivalry soccer matchup. We are to that point of the year when there is always something to do. It is a fun time of year when I can pick what I want to photograph when I have some free time.
Photographing The Shillelagh Trophy
This is the first time that I have photographed this trophy. I don’t think that Notre Dame takes the trophy too seriously because there was not a lot of excitement as they held the trophy. Here though they held it up while the sing the alma mater so it gave me something after running around with it for a while. I don’t know how many more times I will get to see this trophy so it was cool to finally make a photo of it.
A Fun Moment
There was a fun moment after the game. I was following the trophy around when a Purdue player came up to dap up the Notre Dame player. In the exchange part of the trophy was broken off. As it happened their faces became a super fun photo. I went in for a photo of the trophy and came away with a moment.
Photographing Notre Dame Football
As a kid I grew up a huge Notre Dame fan. My dad would take me to games, and as a kid I could see myself on the field playing for the Irish. Of course I was missing a little talent and didn’t quite get there. It is always cool though to get to photograph them. I don’t follow them like I used to anymore. Over the years something happened and I started rooting for Purdue. This matchup may be coming to an end so I tried to savor this game and photographing the Irish. My dad was a huge Notre Dame fan. He would get goose bumps when they played the fight song in the stadium. I wore his White Sox hat to the game to kind of bring him onto the field with me. In the third quarter I had the thought that he would have loved how the game was going.
Son Of A Son
Part of the fun of what I do is seeing the sons of players that I grew up watching. Here Jerome Bettis Jr. makes a one handed catch during warm ups. I loved watching his dad play at Notre Dame as well as the Steelers. It is cool to see the next generation come through. As it keeps happening though I can’t help but wonder how everyone else around me is getting so old.
Another Son
For the first play of the game I focused on Bryce Young the son of Bryant Young. I loved watching Bryant play at Notre Dame, and then with the 49ers. Two years ago I made a fun photo of Bryce after a sack. For the first play I wanted to just focus on him and get a nice rushing photo. Of course he got right to the quarterback and sacked him. The ball came loose for a moment, but was not fumbled. This was the first of two sacks on the day by Bryce that I was able to photograph.
Getting The Leap
One of these days I will be straight on when a player hurdles another player. Here though I settled for this view off to the side of the action. I love these moments when the players show just how athletic they are. One of these days I will be lucky enough to photograph this head on.
A Cool Moment
In the second quarter Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne was sacked and fumbled the ball. A Notre Dame linebacker from Andrean picked up that fumble and ran the ball into the end zone. It was a cool series that I was lucky enough to be on the correct side of.
A Fly Over!
You have to love a good flyover. When I was walking over to capture the runout I saw a guy in a flight suit on what looked like some sort of a sat phone. I realized that we might be in for a flyover. I probably should have gone up into the stands, but if they don’t come straight over you could get hosed in the stands. I stood by the flag and came up with this idea. The planes are a little small, but I like the sun star and the flag.
Back At Bittinger
The last time that I photographed softball was our last travel ball game in June. When I started this journey I was labeled as a baseball guy because I photographed a ton of it. I worked hard to get better at everything, but of course with both kids playing softball I have photographed a ton of it. Talking to parents I can see where I have gotten pigeonholed again as a softball photographer. I really do enjoy the sport. It is fast and the players have to react quickly. There is also a ton of emotion. It was nice to get back to the park to photograph another game. Sunday I will be back at Bittinger again to see their game against Eastern Illinois.
A Familiar Face
Chelsea Parker was a huge part of a ton of good Harrison softball teams. Her sophomore year they played at the Bitt for the state finals. This is now the second time that I have seen her play as a member of DePaul at Purdue. On Sunday another former Raider will be on the mound for Eastern Illinois against Purdue. It is always fun to see good kids succeed.
Let’s Turn Two!
One of my favorite plays of the game was one that I nearly missed both ends of. ON a ball hit to the outfield I was on the center fielder and switched just in time to get the catch. I could hear the dugout say that the runner was tagging so I swung to the plate to get the play there. With such short bases you don’t have much time, but I got there in time for the tag. I was feeling kind of rusty so it was cool to get both ends of this play.
Everything In One Photo
I love it when you can see layers in the back of a photo. A runner rounding a bag with another in then background lets you know that many people were in motion. Here you can see the ball in the outfield just out of range of the shortstop in the bokeh as the runner heads to first. I love the little story that is told here.
Another Small Story
I took a lens that would let me get tight on the action, but also zoom out a bit. Here I zoomed out to show the people that had come to cheer Chelsea Parker on as she came back home. You have past and present members of the Harrison softball team along with her family and a few cameras on her as she bats. Another small story in one photo.
A Salisbury Rivalry
On Tuesday night I went to the West Side soccer field to see West Lafayette take on Harrison. This is a cool game against teams that don’t have far to travel to get to the game. The fields are just down Salisbury Street from each other. I was hoping for some great light for a few minutes of the game, and was lucky enough to have some of that to play with.
Photographing Both Sides
This was a weird game to photograph because I photograph both teams from time to time. When you are just there for one team you don’t care if you show the other team in a bad light. I tried really hard not to do that on Tuesday night. I tried to keep the photo even, but sometimes the play is the play.
Sectional Flag Football
As this post goes live I am hopefully getting ready to photograph a flag football sectional final. I have said this the last couple of weeks, but flag football is quickly becoming one of my favorite sports to photograph. Add in some sectional emotion and it becomes even cooler. This was such a good idea to implement as a sport. I hope that I can make some winning photos today.
A Little Panning
At the end of the game a storm was moving in and the light was fading fast. I already had some photos of the offense so instead of going to a crazy ISO I just started panning for a bit to try and get something different. I really like how this one turned out. It shows some of the speed that these athletes have.
A Fun Anniversary
This blog started at Central Catholic on the football field fifteen years ago this coming week. I was making terrible photos on the field, but in my mind they were amazing. I had been kicking around the idea of doing a photo 365 project so I chose a photo from that game to start this blog. It was only going to go for the year and then end. I found that I had so much fun writing the blog that I kept it going. This photo happened on about the same spot as that original photo 15 years ago. It is slightly better than what I did back then.
Great Light
The sky put on a show for a little during the first half of the game. This time of year you are lucky to get any good light as the sun sets so much sooner. Here the sunset is going nicely as the play happens. I couldn’t ask for much more here.
The Dreaded Lights
This is probably the hardest field that I make photos on. The lights are really hard to deal with. I kind of have to use every trick in the book just to get a usable gallery out. In the photo above you can see the light coming in from the left side of the frame is a different color than the light coming in from the right side. The mixed cycles give me a problem that I don’t normally have to deal with. My friend Mark photographs every single home game here, and has for years. I really don’t know how he does it.
Is Fall Here?
The weather last night sure seemed like fall, and the light on the trees here made it look like the leaves were changing a little early. This light only lasted one drive, but it let me make a fall photo a little early.
Down On The Ground
With the sky being so amazing I made this photo of West Side running a play from ground level. A handoff here was probably the best case scenario for me to have some of the players looking in my direction. I really like how this photo turned out.
More Photos From The Week
This was a fun week. For me I have been making photos about as good as I can. I feel like once again for me I am firing on all cylinders. Of course because I am me I always want more and to get better. It is a fun pursuit though. Below are a few bonus photos from this past week that I like. This is another long post of photos so grab your favorite fall drink and settle in.
