The Week That Was In Sports
This was kind of a sad week because it was probably the last time that I will photograph baseball and softball until next spring. Those are two of my favorites so it is always tough to see them go. Well now that we started this Halloween post off on a couple of sad notes let’s check out some stories from this past week.
My First Purdue Women’s Basketball Game Of The Year
Saturday was the first time that I saw the Purdue women’s team on the court at Mackey. It was just an exhibition game, but it was one of the closest exhibition games that I have been to in a while. Purdue has another team this year that is mostly full of new players. They are just starting to get used to each other and playing together. With the new way that college sports is put together this will be more of what we can expect every year. As the season moves on the team will learn and grow together. Of course next year we will do it all over again.
One Last Time
Sunday I went to the Purdue softball fall ball game to see some softball one last time this year. I have come to really love this sport so I don’t want to see it go. It won’t be long and spring will be here with more softball, but I wanted to catch one last game before winter. Purdue is a fun team to watch, and once my kids seasons start up I can’t get to many games. The fall lets me get to games that I can’t normally get to.
A Great Catch
Catches up against the wall are hard to get. You have to be in the right place, and you can’t have anyone walk in front of you. Being in the right place can be easy, but having the way clear on a crowded field is not always easy. Here I was lucky enough to have a clear shot of this catch.
The Eyes Have It
Sports photography can sometimes be distilled to two eyes and a ball. When you are photographing Western Kentucky you have more chances to photograph the eyes. I love these cartoonish eyes, and right away I knew that I would try and find ways to work them into photos.
One More Last Time
Monday night I was at a local baseball field for the opening day of the park after renovations. I have photographed parts of little league games in the past, but never a full game. I had so much fun watching these young men play ball. The little kid in me probably enjoyed it the most. Nothing was as fun as a kid as being at the park playing ball. This was probably my last baseball game of 2026 so it was a great one to go out on.
Back Under The Friday Night Lights
Last night I was finally able to get to a high school football game again. This year it seems like more things have come up on Friday that have not let me get to the field. West Lafayette started the season off slow, but have really found their groove lately. The rolled a really good team last night. Early in the season it seemed like they just couldn’t catch a break. That happens sometimes. The luck is evening out now at the perfect time. They host another sectional game on Friday night giving me a very hard choice of what to photograph.
A Good Game
I had a really good game catching moments last night. When I gambled it seemed to pay off over and over. Here I stayed off to the side and was rewarded with an interesting photo. When the team that you are photographing is playing well though the photos seem to come a little easier. For this game it seemed pretty easy.
Trying Something Out
When West Side was ready to run out of the tunnel I decided to try something out. I have been in a slow shutter speed mode lately. I recently found the work of Alexey Titarenko who is a master of using motion in his photos. I have been using motion everywhere. Some of those photos will start to find their way onto the blog soon. For the runout I was not sure what to do. It was pretty dark so most of my usual things would not work. I came up with this idea and at first was unsure about it. It would probably fail. Then I would have nothing. I realized that the team has a photographer who was in his normal spot straight on. He was going to make that photo. I could pretty much do whatever I wanted because it really didn’t matter if I made the photo. I could gamble a bit. Here the gamble paid off.
More Photos From The Week
This is another long extra segment at the end of the post. If you get all the way through this give yourself a couple of those Halloween candies that you said that you weren’t going to eat.
