Weekend Football

Couple big games, couple big losses. Our local high school, Cedar, had their second-round playoff game Friday night and Southern Utah University was attempting to end their school-record 15 game losing streak. Both lost. Made some good images though!

Here's a few shots from the 0-9 Thunderbirds matchup against Cal Poly. They did manage to score a few touchdowns, this one coming from a jump ball in the corner:


Here's their running back running all over the T-Birds' defense for a touchdown, they just couldn't stop him:


Can't quite stretch far enough to make the catch:


The T-Birds were trying everything to make a tackle:


Now for a few shots from the Cedar High School playoff loss. Who says high school sports aren't rough?


This one got a little too close for my comfort, it took some dodging on my end to avoid a visit to the emergency room, but I still made a shot out of it:


Finally, the coach, Todd Peacock, glaring at the scoreboard for the final time this season, watching the final seconds tick off to put them out of the playoffs:

Backboard Cam-Attempt #1

So I decided to try something a little different this basketball season....a backboard cam. For those of you who don't know exactly what this is, it's when a camera is rigged to the backboard of the hoop and triggered from the floor either wirelessly or by hard wire. I decided to go hard wire (mainly because it's cheaper) and made a trip to Home Depot to build my rig. Here's what it looks like to the players:


After pre-focusing before the game, during the game I sit underneath the hoop with a trigger in my hand, and wait for the action to come to the camera. Here's a few shots that I liked.

Here's our power forward Tate Sorenson taking the ball to the hoop for a layup:


Although I think I like the next frame a bit better as a vertical:


Here's a shot of Oralndo Griego during their scrimmage a couple days before, from the other side of the hoop:


So, as you can see, it makes for an interesting angle on an otherwise ordinary game, although there are still some issues I need to work on. For example, there is a nasty reflection from shooting through the glass in the corner of most of the photos:



With some black cardboard and some tape, that should be a quick fix. There are other problems: 1) My 17mm lens just isn't wide enough for this angle. 2) There just isn't enough light in the arena to get the shutter speed I want, which means I would need to add strobes (extra lights) to the arena, but that costs too much (for myself and my paper). 3) I have to use my best camera for the remote, therefore I'm depending on my backup cameras to get the shots I need from the floor....oh the joys of working for a small paper.

This one works great for a feature shot of the team:


All in all I'm happy with my first attempt. After a few tweaks and some luck, I'll come away with a great portfolio image.