Week 30, Day 211, November 20, 2009, "The Season is Over, but Far From Forgotten"

Tonight was the final night of my son's High School football career.  The Groton Team had a fantastic year, and made it to the state semifinals.  They lost the semifinal game to a great team. 

We're very proud of the team, and I'm especially proud of number 80 my son.  He's been very sick the last few days, but he still went and played hard.  I think that he did not want to let the team down.  He had a great catch, and dive into the end zone for a 2 point conversion.

The stadium, Marina Auto Stadium in Rochester NY, has a large screen at the end of the field.  After my son completed the pass, the camera zoomed on him.  This photos is of that screen in the stadium.

Lessons Learned:

• Each stadium has it's own type of lighting.  It's important to keep checking the settings on a camera, because the lighting conditions change as the sun sets.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/3200 sec, Aperture f/4.5, ISO 800, Focal Length 115 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 187mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 29, Day 204, November 13, 2009, Sometimes You Need to Prove The Critics Wrong.

Syracuse Post-Standard columnist Neil Kerr predicted, "Why even bother playing this game? Westmoreland rolled through the regular season, it rolled through the Section III tournament, and it will likely roll all the way to a state championship."

Sometimes you need to prove the critics wrong, and tonight the Groton Boys Football Team succeeded.

I'm very biased toward this team, and enjoy photographing them.  My son plays for the team.  If they win the next two games they will be the state champions.  We're very proud of them.

Lessons Learned:

• Stadium Lighting can be very tricky.  Sometimes I'm getting very bright photos, and other times darker photos.  I think I need to switch the Metering Mode to include more of the field of view.
• The sign as a prop helps to make this photo.
  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/100 sec, Aperture f/4.5, ISO 1600, Focal Length 70 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 114mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 28, Day 198, November 7, 2009, Sectional Champions

My sons football team won Section IV D Class for New York State Football tonight.  This is the first time my son's High School Team has ever done that.

There was lots of celebrating in town tonight.  (Sometimes it's a lot of fun to live in a small town.)  The Team had a Police, and Firetruck escort back into town.  Main Street was lined with people cheering for them.  Norman Rockwell would love it.

This is one of those times of pure joy by all the people in the photo.  It isn't often that these types of opportunities come along.

Lessons Learned:

• I need to remember my memory card.  I arrived at the football game. The proper lens was on the camera.  I cleaned the lenses.  I had my press pass. My memory cards were at home on my desk.  Luckily there was a store over one block that sold them.
• I took horrible photos for the first several minutes of the game.  I was to excited, and wasn't paying attention to the camera settings.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/200 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 1600, Focal Length 70 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 114mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 26, Day 183, October 23, 2009, A Great Night in Football

It was a great night of football tonight.  My son's team won the division.  Congratulations guys. You did great!!

Although it was a great night for football, the rain made it difficult to shoot.  When the rain came down hard, I just hid the camera under my two rain coats.  The lights at the opposing teams field were fantastic.  They are much brighter than many other outdoor fields.  This helped a lot in getting tonight's photos.

Lessons Learned:

• I've seen a couple of techniques for keeping the camera dry during a rain storm.  I've seen hot dog roll bags, professional covers, and tonight I saw bubble wrap with rubber bands.  I get very nervous about having my camera out in the rain.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/160 sec, Aperture f/3.2, ISO 1600, Focal Length 110 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 309mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld, I used the tungsten white balance setting.

Week 25, Day 175, October 16, 2009, Leap Frog

Please Click on Image for a Larger View.  The flying mud and grass adds to the photo.


My son's team played football again tonight.  Next week is the final week of their regular season.  It should be an exciting game.  Both my son's team, and the team they will be playing has the same record.  The winner will be the winner of a Divisional Title.

I liked this photo because of the positions of all the players.  Number 33 on the left jumped over a player that was trying to block him out.  He was able to continue on his feet to continue blocking for 22.

It's a lot of excitement for $2.00 on a Friday night.

Lessons Learned:

• I just saw that there was an X-Large option for photos in blogspot (without having to modify the html by hand).  I'm trying that out with this photo.  I think it will be a great option for photos on this blog.  (It didn't work.  The photo was to large, so the sidebar was in the way.  I switched back to large.)
  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/200, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 600, Focal Length 170 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 276mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 23, Day 162, October 2, 2009, Return from the Battle

A week of rain, and rain this evening made the football field very muddy.  During one of the plays the opposing team kicked the football over into the muddy part of the field.  This player had to dive on the ball to prevent the other team from gaining possession.  He played it well, and became very muddy in the process.

Lessons Learned:

• It's difficult to photograph in the rain.  I learned a secret from the local TV camera person.  She used a hotdog roll bag, and rubber bands to cover her camera to keep it from getting wet.  I guess that's much less expensive than the commercial solutions.  I'll have to try it.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/160, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 1600, Focal Length 125 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 306mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 22, Day 156, September 26, 2009 Breaking a Tackle

My son's football team played during the day today.  For photography the lighting of a day game is a lot better than the lights of a night game.

My son's team won today, but it was a tough game.  Both teams played very well, and it was a real battle.

I'm amazed in this play.  The player carrying the ball was actually able to break the tackle and continue to run.

Lessons Learned:

• This lesson was learned after looking at the photos from the game.  Close up photos during daylight hours are really cool.  It's neat to be able to see the players faces in their masks.  I'll try and take more photos like that at the next daytime game.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/800, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 200, Focal Length 120 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 234mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 20, Day 141, September 11, 2009 Stretching

It wouldn't be fall without Football.

Here the team stretches before the game. They played a great game.

Lessons Learned:

• Sometimes it's easy to loose myself in the game, and forget to take photographs.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/500, Aperture f/3.2, ISO 800, Focal Length 70 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 114mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 19, Day 134, September 4, 2009, "Getting ready for the Game"

Tonight was the first football game of the regular season for the Groton team. They faced a formidable opponent, and played well. I took over 1000 photos at the game.

Here are the boys before the game has begun.

Lessons Learned:

• When the lights were on, and it was dark, I had the shutter speed to fast, and the photos were very dark. I'll have to use a shutter speed of 250 next time. I have to relearn the settings every year. Maybe with the blog, I can look up previous years settings.
• I find that I'm finding ways to more naturally stabilize the lens. Tonight I got down on one knee, and put my other knee up. I would then place my elbow on the knee that was up, and steady the bottom of the lens with my hand.
  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/320, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 800, Focal Length 75 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 122mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, hand held.

Week 18, Day 120, August 29, 2009 Football Season Is Upon Us

The skies were cloudy. There was a threat of rain in the air. Thundershowers were predicted. It must be football season in the North East. The Groton Team, on which my son plays, scrimmaged against 3 other teams in Homer NY. It's a great opportunity for the coaches to work with the teams as they play another team. The coaches are on the field, as are new recruits for the officials.

I enjoy this photo because there are many things going on. Number 22 from Groton is trying to avoid stepping out of bounds. The opposing team is trying to tackle, or push him out of bounds. The chain gain, is trying to get out of the way. The fans are very close watching the whole scene.

I'll be taking a lot of football photos in the coming weeks. The scrimmages are also a good time for me to practice my skills as a photographer. It should be a great fall.

Lessons Learned:

• Photography skills become rusty when I don't practice them. Sports photography requires different skills, and each sport requires a different way of shooting. The photography needs to be practiced to stay on top of getting the best photos.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/1000, Aperture f/5.0, ISO 400, Focal Length 108 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 176mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, hand held.