We only have one girls basketball team in our coverage area left in the playoffs. Hinckley-Big Rock (HBR) made an amazing comeback to beat Dakota High School by just a few points in the “Super-Sectional” play off game. Next is the state semi-finals in Normal, Ill. Not sure yet if I am going.
Here is a recap of the final quarter of night’s game:
1) Team has a final powwow to get themselves pumped up.
Canon 1D Mark 3, with 28-70mm f2.8, 1250 ISO, f2.8 at 1/320 of a sec
2) Dakota High School fans do not approve of the referee’s decision to give possession to HBR.
Canon 1D Mark 3, with 300mm f2.8, 2500 ISO, f2.8 at 1/320 of a sec
3) HBR’s Jenna Thorp takes it to the hole. Interesting decision by #13 to defend next to the person with the ball.
Canon 1D Mark 3, with 28-70mm f2.8, 1250 ISO, f2.8 at 1/320 of a sec
4) HBR wins the game and begins to celebrate.
Canon 1D Mark 3, with 28-70mm f2.8, 1250 ISO, f2.8 at 1/320 of a sec
5) The coach is swarmed by students and parents.
Canon 1D Mark 3, with 28-70mm f2.8, 1250 ISO, f2.8 at 1/320 of a sec
6) Obsessive fans congratulate the players.
Canon 1D Mark 3, with 28-70mm f2.8, 1250 ISO, f2.8 at 1/320 of a sec
7) Oh right, someone has to lose the game too…
Canon 1D Mark 3, with 70-200mm f2.8, 2500 ISO, f2.8 at 1/320 of a sec
Girls sports are so much more fun to shoot. Girls aren’t taught like the boys are that showing emotion is a sign of weakness.
Scott Strazzante was also there and posted his image on his blog.
Comments 5
I’d sure like to know how you approach this stuff. I can never seem to get a reaction photo quick enough and here you are with FOUR!
Are you using an off-camera flash at all?
I also disagree with “Girls aren’t taught like the boys are that showing emotion is a sign of weakness.” I have plenty of photos of guys crying! Very few of them celebrating… but that might just be because teams from my area tend to lose
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 2:24 am ¶When it comes to celebration shots I tend to choose one person ahead of time and start off with focusing only on them. I make the decision based on how important they were to the game, how important the game was to them and how visual I think their reaction will be.
Even though Jenna Thorp (#3) is the team’s best player, I knew from previous experience that she is not that expressive.
Here is break down of each celebratory photo.
#4
I was actually gunning for Melissa Hermann, a player behind this group of girls, but they got in my way. Thankfully I had my camera ready so I made this image on the way to Melissa. The Melissa image never came through.
#5
After I was done with the girls, I knew I needed the coach. So I found hims and stay in front of him until I got this one.
#6 This was after the coach image, I was stuck inside a group of joyful fans, so I looked for the kid with the most face paint on doing something.
#7 this was actually several seconds before the game was even over. HBR had pulled ahead by enough points that it was becoming pretty obvious they had the game. These two girls just sort of stopped playing. It was quite sad really.
I tend to run around like a headless chicken after a game like this. It’s really frustrating because after such a great moment, I think I must have something good on the CF card. But when I look at each image all I see is an ocean of smiling faces. None of the photos are telling me anything specific.
I have learned that I have to give up on 99% of the situation for each image. Focus on 1%, get it done, then refocus on another 1%, get that done, and then refocus again.
If I try to tell the entire moment in one photo, then the small details which make the moment special will get lost. I want to tell the view exactly where their eyes should go. And thus it is important for me to focus on one person, at one moment, then move on.
And yes, I did light this game. Sometimes I turn off the radio slave at the end of the game in fear getting in the way of the light or shooting into the light when making a celebratory shot. But I was getting such good effective distance with the light that I kept it on an made sure to keep it behind me.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 3:05 am ¶“Girls aren’t taught like the boys are that showing emotion is a sign of weakness.”
What the hell are you talking about?!?! I’ll cut you, you egotistical ho bag. Get those ugly foreground legs out of there.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 3:50 pm ¶Hi,
Would you give me permission to use this last picture of the loss for an agency promotion on alcohol and how it affects athletic performance?
Posted 29 Sep 2010 at 10:50 am ¶Sorry Erin, but I’m not allowed to give permission for these images. The newspaper I work for owns the rights.
The paper has never sold photo rights to an agency so I’m sorry but I doubt that would work out.
Thank you so much for asking though!
Posted 29 Sep 2010 at 10:59 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 2
[...] and have come back to win every time. I watched them do this three times in the past week: the super-sectional playoff, the semi-final, and then the state final championship game, Saturday at the Redbird Arena in [...]
[...] the Hinckley-Big Rock girls basketball team won the super sectional to go to the State Championships in Normal, [...]
Post a Comment