State Golf Day 2...

The second day of state golf was a lot like the first one. I was running around my a chicken with its head cut off. Spending only a couple of holes with each of the local golfers then moving on to the next ones as well as throwing in running around Austin to multiple courses. Eventually ending up back where I started. The one nice thing about such a long day was the awful, cold windy weather that started out in the morning turned out to be a really great day for golf as everyone was finishing up their rounds.

State Golf, Day 1...

In the past shooting state golf has been a really busy, but not overly long day. This year, however, instead of the normal two teams qualifying for the state tournament, the top three teams from each region qualified. This made it a lot tougher since all the teams could no longer be on the course at one time. So, instead of state golf being over around 3 or 4, it was close to 7 or 8 when everything finally got finished. And with 39 players spread around over three different courses it made for a lot of walking (more than 10 miles) and not a lot of time to spend following any particular players.

One the first day the weather was cold and windy, like 25mph steady winds with gusts in the high 30's. This made for some interesting golf to say the least. It also made for a lot of shots coming up short or going off target, often landing in the sand traps. That may not have made for the best scores for the players, but it did make for some nice shots.

Golf Season Begins...

I've always enjoyed shooting golf. It's not the fastest sport out there and there are a lot of unwritten rules to follow (no shooting on the backswing, don't stand in the golfer's line of sight, etc.), but it's also really satisfying to get a nice frame from shooting golf. Plus on a nice day there are fewer places that are better to be than hanging out on the golf course shooting golf. Notice, I didn't say playing, mainly because I'm an incredibly awful golfer, I'd much rather prefer shooting players golfing... it's much less stressful for me. The one shot that I absolutely love to get are jube shots. It seems like the only time I ever get any real emotions from golfers if when they are upset or reacting negatively. So, when I get a nice shot of someone sinking a long putt with a fist pump and a scream I know I can leave pretty happy. The other thing I love about shooting the game is trying to find something other than the post drive "pose." Of course, I shoot that and probably use it more than I'd like. But, if I get time to work to get something else I'm a lot happier at the end of the round.

AJGA Golf...

I've said this plenty of times, I really enjoy shooting golf. I especially enjoy shooting golf when I have a couple of hours to spend shooting it. It gives me time to not only get the shots that I need, but also the ones I want to shoot. Spending a while on the course lets me find new places to shoot from and allows me to take a few chances and shoot from angles that may or may not work. But, when there isn't a time crunch I can afford for things not to work, allowing me another hole if I don't get the shot I want or it doesn't work out the way I want.

Last week I spent most of the afternoon covering the local kids at the Abilene stop for the Bob Estes AJGA junior at the Abilene Country Club's Fairway Oaks course. I did get kind of lucky with the guys that I was covering ending up in the sand a lot more than usual. Sand shots always make for decent photos. Then after that I was able to play around, let the golfers get ahead of me or shoot on the other sides of the trees etc. At the end of the three days I was happy with what I had and the slideshows I had produced. The only problem at the end was the lead group of guys didn't produce the winner since they all pretty much fell apart at the end of the round. Not a huge deal since none were local kids, if that was the biggest problem from the week I'll take it.

State Golf Day 2,

The second day of state golf was a lot more of the same that I had shot in the first day. I did try to change things up a little bit in trying to focus on the one local kid and the players who had done well the previous day. I was thinking being able to spend a little more time with them would allow my shots to be a little better. There were a couple of shot I did like. I was able to pull out my wide lens and shoot a few different things. While shooting over at the Class 1A tournament I ended up pulling out my iPhone to shoot a couple shot of the players teeing off. I did this since the camera on the phone doesn't make and shutter noise while allowed me to shoot during the player's backswing, which is normally a huge no-no. But, since it made no sound I was able to shoot it and the player never knew. I'm glad I tried to make a few practice frames since the shutter lag of the iPhone camera is quite a bit more than my Nikons.

State Golf, Day 1...

Going into the week, I was thinking that shooting state golf this year was going to be a lot easier than the past since I didn't have to split thing with tennis. Damn, was I wrong. This may have been the toughest time I've had shooting golf in a long time, mostly just because of the sheer number of golfers we had in the tournaments. Normally in the past we'd have a couple of teams competing and I could spend time shooting the better teams and then grab a few shots of the others.

This year, though, we had six teams competing in three classes and in Class A there were two boys and girls teams. Not to mention a bunch of individual players. To break this down: I had to shoot on three different courses, and when the girls start of the back nine, the boys start on the front. Basically, I was spending a whole lot more time walking the golf course (since in my 10 years of doing this, I'm yet to find the rumored media cart that is allegedly out there) carrying all my camera gear around with me. When it's just a couple of teams I can spend a few holes watching players, seeing how things develop. This time though, I was shooting a player for a hole and plotting where or who I'd be shooting next at the same time, it really kind of sucked.

The other problem I ended up running in to was most of our teams and players were all having bad rounds at the same time. It was rather uncharacteristic of what I was used to shooting in the past. The only good thing coming out of all of this was that golfers playing bad usually translates into sand shots or nice facial expressions. So, even given all of the time constraints, I managed to pull off a few decent shots, though it was mostly of players not pulling them off.

Nearing the End of the Week, Finishing Golf, Starting Track...

The end of Hell week is the reason why it gets its name. Mostly because of the long days, it's the second day of Class 3A golf and the start of track. That's part of the problem, having both golf going on and track. And honestly, if our local golfers weren't in medal contention, I wouldn't have bothered with fighting the traffic to get out there and shoot them. Luckily there was a couple hour break in between so, I wasn't going to miss a whole lot.

The longest part about shooting track is spending the whole day, usually about 14 hours, mostly in the sun (great way to work on the farmer's tan). However, at the end of the day and with the high level of competition and some of the great images there to be made make it all worth it. Even the golf shots, despite the local kids falling out of contention, turned out really nice and made it worth fighting all the traffic to make it over there.