Sports Photography - Soccer

A day of partial redemption.  Better lighting, better backgrounds, better action.  Generally good shots, with a few standouts.  The game was very physical, but not competitive enough to get the best shots.  Add to that that there was an SI photographer there and the head games, all in my head, threw me for a little while.

 

No more games this week.  I'm off to Northern Maine for a little foliage photography.  It's one of those things that you keep saying you are going to do, but always seem to be too busy to do.

Sports Photography - Soccer

This was not my day, there was no mojo.  The day started with a 15 mile drive that took almost an hour to make.  Arriving as the players were being announced I scramble to get ready, knowing that I need to get good shots of almost all of one team, and get as many as possible of the other.  On top of all this there was shiny metal in the background in all directions (parked cars, bleachers, etc) and a hard, low sun running straight down the field.

I let it get to my head and through creativity out the window.  Just panic shooting, trying to get something safe, unfortunately, and decent of all the players.

Event and Sports Photography - Soccer

Andrew Bumbalough on his way to winning 

the Men's 5K

Got to wake up at 4:30 AM on Sunday to edit the pictures from the games on Saturday, then out the door at 6AM to cover the US National 5K Road Championship in Providence.  This was another "shoot everyone" event so you do your best to get a shot of around 5,500 runners and walkers.  

There were the serious racers, of course, and then there are those who are just trying to finish.

Molly Huddle pulls ahead of Emily Infeld on the finishing straight

 

 

 After that, it was a race to get back up to Boston for an afternoon soccer game.  Of course, being a day that ends in a "y" there was traffic in Boston, but that only lasted from the very start of the city limits to the address where the game was.  The parking lot was wide open.

 

Sports Photography - Volleyball and Soccer

Started Saturday with a volleyball game in Boston, then a quick 1 1/2 hour drive to New Hampshire for a soccer game.  Got to try out a new strobe configuration, after some initial hesitation.  It is certainly harder to cover a game when you are shooting one at a time instead of machine gunning a spike or block.

 

The soccer game went ok since I am suffering through a cold with a headache, stuffy head, etc.  The game went into the night under lights that left the ends of the field pretty dark, so I tried to get a bulk of the photos in the first half.

Sports Photography - Field Hockey

Another quick high school game to keep on top of things.  Starting to get a little more comfortable with the basics and trying some new things.  A bit of a lopsided game today, so the focus was on one defense and one offense.  Then, when the rare switch happened, you just blast away because you don't know when you will get the chance to get the players in action again.

Sports Photography - Soccer

I was supposed to shoot a game on Sunday, but the game time was changed and the SID did not change the time posted on the website.  So I show up with 5 minutes left in the game, and the day is  a loss.

Colleges are winding down some already since shooting 2 games a day gets everyone their early-in-the-season coverage.  So I headed over to a local high school just to keep active.  The quality of action definitely drops, so you need to look for more personal / personality shots.

Sports Photography - Soccer and Field Hockey and Soccer

A very busy day yesterday, but ultimately disappointing.  The day started with shooting my kid's soccer game, because if you are a sports photographer, or really any kind of photographer, you become the default team photographer.

Then off to a couple of college games, getting to the second with a generous 4 minutes to set up the remote camera and get ready.  These games were those were it seems that every shot is blocked by a player/referee, or you are just a moment too slow.  Very frustrating.  You catch a break here or there, but all you obsess about is all of the shots you didn't get.  And all of the missed shots just accumulate in your head during the game.

 

 

Sports Photography - Cross Country

A pretty easy day today, one cross country race, and only for one team.  With the race being a 5K things got spread out quite a bit, so it was easy enough to catch all of the runners. Lessons learned from the last meet, but I still need to improve, add that something extra.  It is pretty boring just shooting a runner running down the field.

Sports Photography - Soccer

Craziness again with only one game to shoot today, men's soccer. A pretty even game with some action, which always makes the shooting easier.  Too bad it was 90+ on the turf and humid enough that I was dripping sweat in the first minute sof the game.

Some good shots though. Especially with the goalies for some strange reason.  The remote cam is working well, I just need more luck.

Sports Photography - Volleyball

I know it is crazy, but only one game today.  The good news is that I was able to use strobes.  I don't care how good you think high iso images are getting, compared to strobed images, at iso 250 in this case, there is no comparison.  Of course everyone was not sure they would be ok, because it is new and all, but once the players settled in there was no issue.
The downside, however, is that I cannot machine gun the game.  Timing is more important as the strobes need time to recycle.  More pressure on me.  

 

Sports Photography - Field Hockey and Soccer

Sunday was the end of the weekend and another pair of games to cover. By now I am a little tired, and on top of that the games were less than inspiring. Here I am, supposed to cover the team, and they lose 0-8 (each game).  The action is mostly on one side of the field, but it is with the other team for most of the time.  Trying to make my team look good was the challenge of the day.