Gymnastics...

It's been a while since I've shot any gymnastics. The local schools haven't had any local meets here and it's been a few years since I've been assigned to shoot practice. So, it was kind of cool to get to shoot a pair of local kids being selected for the Texas team at the national high school meet. So, after spending a few minutes scraping the rust off I got to it.

The nice thing about shooting some of the secondary sports is they are usually so happy to have you there shooting pictures and covering them that they'll give you pretty much free run of things to shoot from wherever is good to shoot from. Having shot a lot of gymnastics in college, I've always enjoyed shooting the sport anyway. The nice thing about practice is you can shoot from the spots you'd never be allowed at during competition. Plus, if you miss something they usually do it 2-3 times. That always helps, especially when it's been a couple years since I've shot the sport. If there was a complaint it was the way the gym is set up there are windows all along the top of the building near the roof causing some really ugly back lighting that crews everything up, so I was only really able to shoot from one side. that and awful lighting in the gym didn't help either. But, crank up my ISO and stay on the right side of thing alleviated that.

Regional Track, Day 2...

The second day of regional track started early. I had to shoot a couple of the early field events before the running started in the afternoon. The good part about this was I'd be able to edit all the field event photos before the running got started, less to do after the meet ended. And since I had a 150 mile drive home afterwards everything I could do to save time was a good thing.

Normally there is a little bit of emotion at the end of some of the races, but the people who are expected to win their races aren't much for celebration. Either they were expecting to win anyway or have been to state already, etc. So, the few times there are nice celebrations at the end of races I make sure not to miss the shot. When it's a local kid doing the celebration I get pretty excited, mostly because I have the chance to make a nice image. So, when the Abilene High kid in the 800m made up a lot of ground after getting boxed in and moved from 7th place to 2nd in the last 300 meters there was a great celebration after he qualified for state for the first time.

Regional Track, Day 1...

I covered the Region I-3A and 5A track meets in Lubbock for the last couple of years now. It's a lot different from the state track meet in a lot of different ways. The biggest is there are both prelims and finals races over two days, at state, it's just finals. So, the first days is pretty nuts and bolts. There isn't a whole lot of emotions, mostly because even if you win your prelim race you still have to come back tomorrow and race again to make it to state. It often is time spent trying to figure out ways to make nice photos and stay creative. The one nice thing that I did have added over the last few track meets I shot, were field events. So, that was a nice change.

Another difference from past years is both the 3A and 5A meets were being combined instead of afternoon and evening sessions. This made things a lot easier for the deadlines since by the late session I was usually trying to edit from the earlier session and the late session both at the same time and send photos all at once. It made for a late night followed by an early morning. This time, though, I was finished and had everything sent by 9pm. In years past the late session was just getting finished at that time and made it for only a 12 hour day instead of 16. That helped a lot the next day.

District Track...

It's never been a secret how much I've enjoyed shooting track. The last few year, though the only meets I've been able to shoot have been the regional and state meets. And, while those are usually the best ones photo-wise, it's always nice to get a little practice in beforehand. So, I got sent down to shoot the District 2-5A meet in San Angelo. I've only been tot he Angelo State track a few times, but have always liked it. The track is sunken into the ground so there are some nice high angles to shoot from.

I only shot the last day of the meet which was just the running finals, all the field events had finished the day before. They also had the whole JV meet at the same time of the varsity finals. At first it seemed like it was just dragging the meet out longer. But, there towards the end it made for some nice time to be able to download and edit my photos, so hopefully I wouldn't be there all night. So, between 2 heats of the JV boys and girls 1,600m runs and mile relays, I was able to get most of my photos edited and cropped and toned. So, at the end I only had two races to edit and then caption photos and send. It made life a lot easier, though the track meet ending an hour earlier may have done all the same things.

Crosstown Hoops...

The local crosstown basketball games between Abilene High and Cooper pales in comparison to the crosstown football game. In the football games there is usually a district championship on the line, in this game it's lucky if there is even a playoff placement on the line. However, that doesn't mean there are no decent photos to be made. At least the rivalry between schools is still there so there's that. Even though this town isn't exactly known as a basketball Mecca, there is still a rivalry between the north and south side high schools and it doesn't matter what the sport is.

Soccer Season...

So, I've neglected my blog long enough, it's time to get back into the swing of things and start attempting to find some decent photos again, and try and get back on pace. Here I am nearly a month behind again. I shot the championship match of the West Texas Invitational Soccer Tournament. Cooper was playing Granbury. It is kind of crazy the difference a year makes. Last year Cooper was horrible and only won a handful of games all year. This year they open the season winning all four games in the local tournament and didn't look too bad in the process. They ended up taking Granbury to a penalty kick shootout.Well, at least it made for a few nice photos.

Back to Football Doubleheader, game 1...

So, after taking the first week of the football playoffs off to cover state volleyball I was itching to get back to shooting football. The playoffs are six weeks long, but they always seem to fly by, probably because of all the travel and how busy I am. With Thanksgiving coming earlier than normal this year, we were in the second week of the playoffs and most of our 11-man games were being played on Friday. The great part about the Friday after turkey day is since there is no school there are usually afternoon games to cover as well, which means nice light.

Cooper and Abilene High (they're a later post) were playing a doubleheader against a pair of Arlington schools on Friday in Arlington. Cooper had pulled the harder of the two draws playing a good Arlington High team. It was back and forth the whole game and it never looked like the Cougars were able to get into a decent groove. However, they did make quite a few nice plays, which made for some nice photos as well. One of the biggest problems with these games is the light. On one side if the field it is fabulous, then going the other way it is awful. Going into the nice light I didn't have to do much work at all. though when I was looking into the sun, it took a while to get the photos toned right and there were a couple areas of the field I just couldn't shoot at all, that's a pain, but something that needs to be dealt with.

Even though Cooper ended up losing the game 27-20 it was back and forth the whole time, which always makes for a more entertaining game than a blowout, going either way. They had the lead for a lot of the game, but a few stalled drives just couldn't make it work out of them in the end.