An Interesting Week Of Sports

Basketball is really taking things over now. The week started with probably my second to last football game of the year. A little volleyball on the same day led in to the basketball that would take up the week. The week ended with a cold, but fun Big Ten soccer championship game. Below are a few stories that I liked from this past week.

Another Big Win For An Opponent

I always try to find the positives in things. One positive this season for Purdue football is that they have been bringing a ton of joy to their opponents. I think that this is the fourth team this year that got their first Big Ten win of the season against the Boilers. They are making memories for the teams that they play. This moment after Maryland won at Ross Ade on homecoming is a fun one for sure.

The Rockets Red Glare

Knowing there was a flyover let me pick a spot to photograph it a little better on Saturday. I went up to my Tiller spot to make the photo. I really wanted to find a spot to show everything in one photo. I really didn’t think that my spot on the field worked so well last time. Here the pilot banked just so at the perfect time to help make a fun image.

Looking For Color

During pregame I went out looking for some fun tailgates as well as some good color. I wasn’t too far out of the stadium when I made this photo. I love how the color tells a little bit about the day. I kept looking around for anything better, but it was this photo that I made just outside of the gate that I would like the best. It was still worth the walk. It was homecoming after all. I used to love coming back for these games. As I was walking around watching the tailgates it dawned on me how different I look at game day now. It really is all about the photos now.

Over The Line

When players go over the pile it does not always look good for the camera. In fact a lot of goal line plays up the middle just don’t photograph well. This photo here worked very well though. A little height by the quarterback on the sneak allowed me to be able to see the play. I was very happy with how this all turned out.

A Great Run

I love this series of a long touchdown run for Purdue. The light was pretty good for the run and celebration after. I don’t often turn in multiple photos from the same play, but these three were turned into my agency. I really like how they turned out.

Senior Night For Purdue Volleyball

After the football game on Saturday I went to Holloway to photograph senior night for Purdue volleyball. This is a special class for Purdue. Senior nights are always sad, but I think we may see some of these athletes play for Purdue again. Just looking at this photo I think of the Purdue volleyball history contained in it. This is a great class that hopefully has a ton of more games ahead of them. Maybe a couple more home games too.

At The Net

I love my photos at the net. I go into a match wanting at least one of these. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it does not. I ended up with two plays at the net that I liked from this match. There is always that point when you realize that the pass is a little long that you hope will end up in this. To have two of those plays in one match really makes me feel like I won the lotto.

Going Wide

I feel like this year I haven’t done a great job with my wide photos during games. My agency really doesn’t use them so I tend to stay away from them. Every now and then though I still go and make one just for me. Here I made my second wide photo of a stadium that I liked on the day.

When The Second Angle Works Well

After the Purdue win they always lift a player up. I really wanted to be head on for this photo, but that spot was very busy with photo and video. I had hoped to move off to the side and still make something good. I really like how this turned out. Sometimes the second location is the best spot.

Purdue Men’s Basketball Gets Their First Win

Monday night I was back in Mackey to watch the Purdue men play. This was the first real game of the year that I was at, and it was the first win. Maybe there is something to that. I need to attend more games. Purdue was tested at times during this win, but man when they needed to hit the gas they took a two point game and made it a twenty point game. The gear is there. Right now they are just learning how to shift into it.

A Fun Photo

I love a photo like this one. It is good action, but it is also fun. One player jumping as high as they can only can get even with another player up on their toes.

A Decent Night

I really was not happy with my take from Monday night. I had a couple of good photos, but overall it felt like the set was not that great. I went to bed not really happy with my take. In the morning though I picked twenty photos for Instagram and liked the set a little more. There is a lot to work on as the season gets going though. The good news is that I have a ton of games ahead of me to get better.

The Purdue Women Go 3-0

Tuesday night I was back in Mackey photographing the Purdue women’s team as they took on SEMO. They won the game to go 3-0. With that being said this team is still learning to play with each other. The record is good, but how they come together will really determine how this season goes. For now let’s enjoy this win and we will see how they improve from now until Sunday.

Slowing Things Down

I really have been way too into slow shutter speeds lately. I found the work of Alexey Titarenko and was using them way too much. Then the day of this game I watched a video about Ernst Haas. He was an early color photo pioneer that also had a slow shutter speed phase. I wanted to try and make a photo like one of his during this game. I have had a setting on my camera that lets me shoot at 1/30th of a second with a custom button. To get this done I changed it to 1/10th of a second to get even more motion. I spent a lot of the 2nd quarter shooting at 1/10th of a second. When the players would get close to the hoop I would let off the button to go back to my normal Mackey settings. Here though I kept going and made probably my favorite slow shutter speed photo of the night. Maybe I need to gamble more during the game.

A Big Ten Championship For Purdue

Last night I was able to photograph the Big Ten soccer championships for the Big Ten. Last year I photographed the entire tournament for them except the final games which were played in St. Louis. This year things were flipped. The whole tournament was played in St. Louis, but the final was played on the highest seeded teams home field. Thankfully that was Purdue. It was a cold night, but worth it for the photos. The photo above is one of my favorite photos that I have made this year. I lucked into walking right by it during the brief moment that it happened.

A Tough Game

It is hard to cover soccer for both teams. You kind of have to play the middle and cheat when you feel like a goal is coming. For some reason I was guessing wrong all night. Every celebration except the final one went to the other side of the field. I really was not happy with my take from the game, but I kind of lucked out with a really good celebration.

A Quiet Moment

During the chaos of the post game celebration I saw this quiet moment happening. Sometimes you need to just stop and take a minute to take it all in. The positioning was perfect for a really cool photo.