I used to do track in high school, and was pretty bummed to find out that the team here doesn’t compete in pole vault, which was my event (I was awful at it, but MAN was it fun!). But I still like photographing meets.
I’m not used to shooting in pea-soup-thick fog, though, and it gave the photos a strange look. Oh well.
I have yet to figure out how to get a decent tight shot of handoffs during the 4×100 (I did get *a* shot; it’s further down). The 4X400 is much easier to shoot.
Can you tell these guys train together?
In addition to the photography job with the Gazette, I’m also the high school sports reporter. I spent most of this past week chasing down the coaches so I could write previews of the upcoming season, but also squeezed in some photos at lacrosse practice before deadline.
I’m a little behind on blog posts from my assignments the past couple of weeks…
My first assignment as a staffer (hooray!) was a linguini bridge contest at the high school. The kids built bridges using a pound (or less) of linguini, and weights were stacked on top of the creations to see how much they could hold.
The winning bridge held 1500 pounds. I’m not even kidding. It was unreal.
(that’s my cousin on the left. she’s my inside source for all things high school.)
The winner! Didn’t even crack under the strain of 1500 pounds.
[I don’t usually post black and white photos here, but I started using Lightroom this past month for all of my editing and for the first few assignments found it easier to convert batches to b&w right away (since the paper publishes in black and white only). I’m trying to break myself of that, though; I like color!]
In addition to my regular photo and semi-regular photoreporting duties, I’m now the official High School Sports Reporter. At least until the end of the month, after which…I really don’t know what’s happening. I’ll keep you posted!
This weekend there was an invitational cross country meet and a girls’ soccer game. I haven’t shot cross country (or, “How many different ways can you shoot people running?”) since, well, high school, and soccer has never been my thing, so I was happy to have the chance to get more chances to shoot the sports.
I’m also a fan of working the high school beat because my cousin is a sophomore at the school and knows EVERYBODY (plus, she was on the cross country team last year). Not hard to do when you’ve grown up with everybody on this tiny island, but man, does it make figuring out names that much easier. Thanks, Texe!
Teammates cheer on Michael Osborn as he wins the JV race.
Kassidy Bettencourt outpaces her opponent to the finish line.
Thorpe Karabees nears the end of the JV race. (P.S. What is the finger thing he’s doing? Is that a runner thing?)
Emily Cimeno and Shelby Ferry congratulate Sam Oslyn on his medal.
Max Miner crosses the finish line in the boys varsity race.
I like this one the best, since it also sums up the game (in which the Vineyard defense was pushed to the brink by the North Plymoth power offense) nicely.
I don’t know how high schoolers do it.
Last fall I did a project for Picture Story about the Hickman High band, which practices four times a week at 6:30 in the morning. So I had to get up at unseemly hours just to get myself up to the school (this was before I had a car, so I had to walk). But I was only doing that for a week, not a whole football season. I don’t think I have that kind of motivation.
Of course, then, I was assigned to do a story about Hell Week at MVRHS- which is when the athletes do their preseason training. The field hockey team starts practice–yes, starts–at 5:45 in the morning. They don’t stop until past 8:15. The soccer teams are a little more sane; they start at 6:30. But still!
I admit I gave up completely on the 5:45 thing (reason #2353 why I don’t play field hockey). That was when I headed out the door to go up to the practice. (Besides, the light’s terrible at 5:45…right? right?).
This was taken WITH the lens hood on. Yep.
