Still working on my lacrosse shooting. Still prefer shooting the girls’ game to the boys’, although I do like the way the boys tend to make more use of the space behind the net.
Both teams had home games this week, so I got to do extra practice. Yay!
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?
I’ve photographed boys’ lacrosse twice, but yesterday was the first time (besides practice) that’d I’d shot the girls’ game. It’s…different. In a good way. It was easier for me to pick up on the flow of the game and follow the players around; it also helped that the varsity girls are a much more experienced team that the boys are and are scoring machines (the final score was 14-12, Vineyard).
Lacrosse puzzles me somewhat because on the one hand, it amazes me that the offense can score in such a small goalspace, and on the other, it seems like the goalie just doesn’t stand a chance once a shot’s coming at them. I can’t think of another sport with this strange balance.
(it went in)
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.
Not too much out of the ordinary here. I really wanted a good shot of a dive, though, and I didn’t get one, so there’s something to work on in the future…
Went back up to Choate today to practice some water polo photography. This is yet another sport I had no experience shooting, but I have (sort of) played before, and I know the basic rules, so it was pretty easy to adjust to shooting. Water polo is an intense sport; not only are you treading water or flat-out swimming the whole time, but you have to fend off fouls from the other team. The ref was pretty good at catching them, but I had a far better vantage point than he did (the viewing area for the pool is elevated, which was great for nice clean backgrounds), aaaand he missed a lot.
The lighting in the pool area is awful and dark (and red- what?), and I was already intentionally underexposing in order to get the shutter speed I needed…so there was a lot of color correction involved in these. I know that in a perfect world you’re supposed to shoot correctly in-camera, but it was more important to me to have that shutter speed (I was using 1/250, and in some cases even that wasn’t fast enough) than to listen to my light meter. 
It’s basically an advanced game of “Not touching! Not touching!”
After several failed attempts to actually get the ball in mid-air, I had a brainwave and decided to try shooting vertically instead. This led to a couple of compositions that I liked (I’m a big fan of busy compositions), as well as a freaking photo of a goal save, which I had also been trying to nab.
Color-corrected for the pool…not the sidelines, which remain bathed in red (why red? can some swimmer help me out?)
The football and soccer teams at my old high school played like polar opposites this weekend…football stomped all over NMH 54-7, but the boys’ soccer team lost 5-0 (I didn’t make it to the girls’ match. I’m hoping they fell on the stomping side of the spectrum).
I love how much closer you can get to the action at high school games. It makes up for only having a 70-200 to work with (regardless, most of these have been cropped).
I went up to my old high school today to practice some sports shooting, and had a great time roaming around all of the fields photographing whatever I felt like (such freedom!). It was a beautiful fall day, and the leaves have just reached their peak here in CT, so I tried to incorporate this into the photos whenever possible. I’ve missed New England falls…I haven’t been here during autumn for six years, and there’s really no place quite like it.
I’d never shot field hockey before (well, I’ve shot pre-season training. Not the same thing), and decided right away to stop by that game. And I can always, always use practice photographing soccer and football, so I went by those matches as well…I missed the water polo and volleyball games, unfortunately, but I’m planning to go back up to Choate later this week when they play again. Water polo should be especially fun.
Anyway, these are my field hockey photos- the field is in a little valley, so I had a great angle for shooting just by standing on top of the hill. This is a very strange sport; I don’t know how the girls don’t all break down with back problems. Plus, they’re wearing sneakers, not cleats, which I found odd (maybe it’s because they were playing on the brand-new turf field and didn’t want to mess it up? Discuss). I did find it easier to shoot than the last first-time sport I shot (lacrosse) though, which was nice.
…one of those times when you go through your take and wish you’d just stepped a foot over to the left. Argh!
I started playing a little with depth of field after a while, and I can’t decide which of these two photos I like best (I am leaning towards #2, but I think #1 definitely has merit, too). Thoughts welcome!
After three years using a Canon Rebel XT as my only body (when I didn’t have access to the MU photo locker), I finally upgraded to a 7D (video hooray!). I’d been looking forward to testing out the 8fps feature at the first home football game of the season…and then it poured that day, which put a bit of a damper (no pun intended) on my plans.
I was still assigned to photograph the game, though, so I wrapped the body and my telephoto in two layers of garbage bag, and taped everything down with duct tape. Then I went out to shoot.
But I had to leave a little bit exposed beneath the garbage bags so I could work the dials and change settings…and after about a half an hour, enough water snuck into the camera body that it stopped working. Just like that. My two-day-old camera that I had sunk my summer savings into. The only good thing was I had managed to get enough photos that I could still turn in something to the paper.
I was trying my best not to freak out, and I did know about the rice trick, so I decided to give it a go. I put the camera body in a giant Ziploc baggie with about a pound of rice, and let it stay there for six days. I tested everything after a day, but nothing happened; after three days, though, the display flickered a little bit, like it was trying to start up (hope!). By the end of the week the rice had absorbed all of the water. And the camera works like it just came off the factory line. I’m still floored by this; I really thought it would end up being one of those tricks that works for everybody but me.
So. Here are some of the photos that almost did me in:
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.
(this also went in. the game was pretty back-and-forth…)
