Catching the Catch!

Why is it so hard to get a good shot of a football player making a catch? The average National Football League game includes an average of about 37 passes per team. Completion rates average around 70% or lower. That means there should be about 50 catches that you could photograph. College football has some teams that pass much more, some much less. High school football is similarly variable depending on the team and their quarterback. Still, there are a good number of chances if you are in the right place at the right time on the sidelines. But catching a player making a catch has not been easy. At least not where it is clear that he just caught it or is in the act of catching. They drop the ball. The ball is not quite in his hands. It looks like he already caught it and is making a move.

Over the past 3-4 years I have been shooting a lot of high school football. This season, my shooting included a college game (Penn State at Maryland – Go Lions!!), an NFL game (Jets at Redskins), and the Virginia State Championship high school game. These games have produced a few shots of catches along the way, but the State Championship game was my big score as shown below. The Lake Taylor Titans beat the Tuscarora Huskies thanks to some great catches and an interception. I was fortunate to get these shots. 

Lake Taylor's Malik Newton intercepts a pass to prevent a touchdown in the Virginia Class 4 State Championship Game.

Lake Taylor's Malik Newton makes a diving catch for a touchdown in the Virginia Class 4 State Championship Game.

Darious Spreight of Lake Taylor catches a TD pass over the arms of Tuscarora's Mikey Marquez in the Virginia Class 4 State Championship Game

MY FIRST BIG 10 COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME

High school football has been a great training ground to practice my sports photography. I've been prowling the sidelines for a few years getting action shots. At the same time, I have been working on my Adobe Lightroom post processing techniques. I cringe at some of the earlier shots that at the time were considered good. They could have been so much better, but it is a constant learning process.

Viva Loudoun (https://www.vivaloudoun.com/)
, a sports photo site covering all sports in the Northern Virginia area approached me about shooting with them early in the season. Now, I know the quality of work some of their photographers put out and I wasn't sure I was up to that level. But they talked me into it and I'm glad they did. It opened up opportunities to shoot at higher levels - college and professional.

QB Sean Clifford handoffs to Journey Brown

Back in September, I had a dream opportunity for a Penn State football fan - a chance to shoot the Penn State at Maryland football game!! (Okay, I know that is 2 months ago, but I've been busy.) It was an interesting experience picking up credentials, working in the media room, and working around all the other media and equipment around the field. It was a night game and I expected the Capital One Field stadium lights to be a little brighter that they were. Other photographers told me that this stadium isn't as well lit as other college stadiums. I had to bump up the ISO. But my photos came out okay.

Maryland Terrapins mascot

Wide Receiver KJ Hamler on the run

Running Back Journey Brown headed to the end zone

WHO NEEDS GPS ANYWAY?

We all know where we took those pictures, don’t we? GPS is only needed by those travelling photographers that globe trot or are documenting something, right? Wrong! We all should be using our GPS settings as I found out recently.

My previous post talked about how too many unnecessary photos were slowing down my computer. Actually, we all do. My Lightroom cataloge had more than 100,000 photos that had accumulated over the past 15+ years and dumped into an external hard drive.  They were added to the catalog without thinking through my file management strategy and purging bad shots and duplicates as it grew.  Time to clean out some files and make room!

Whaleback Lighthouse, Kittery Point, Maine

Okay, Bill. What’s that have to do with GPS settings on your camera? My memories, like old prints, faded with time. I came across a file folder with these seaside photos and could not remember where they were taken.  It led me on a quest to figure out where it was. I knew it was somewhere along the New England coast. But where? Hmmm. It had to be near where I travelled for business. The lighthouse was a big clue so I searched for photos of lighthouses in each of the candidate states to no avail. None of them had that building attached.  More frustration.

Finally, I blew up one of the photos and saw a town name of Kittery Point, Maine on one of the boats. Eureka! Or so I thought. But the lighthouse in the photo didn’t match the lighthouse photos I found on the internet. After looking at Google Maps, I discovered the reason. The building wasn’t next to the lighthouse. It was on an island between where I shot from and the lighthouse!

My point? I could have saved myself a lot of effort and frustration if the metadata for the files included the GPS coordinates! And you could too. Lesson learned.

MY COMPUTER TOLD ME SOMETHING!

Spring was a busy time with multiple sports to photograph. Unlike the Fall season with only one or two games at a time, Spring has as many as three or four games at the same time. It is way too easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of photos to choose from and edit. You have to complete each game photo set in a timely manner or you get behind and some sets never get finished. You have to get in a rhythm of finishing the game, get home, start importing into Lightroom (or whatever software you use), wait for the process to complete and then start selecting and editing.  The quicker to the editing process the better. A key factor is the importing time, which is affected by how many shots to import and other factors.

The Blue Circle of Dread When Importing

Well, my computer decided that I take too many shots and went on strike.  I started noticing that it was taking longer and longer for the importing process. Then, it would “stop responding” to commands for minutes at a time before resuming. Looking at my computer memory and files showed that I had way too much memory taken up by the file folders and the buffering capacity was being restricted. Cleaning it up helped a little.  The underlying cause wasn’t the full folders. It was me! My shooting style captured too many images. My bursts for action started too early and ended too late. Also, I was being selective enough of when to shoot. Now, I need to put these lessons into practice so my computer doesn’t have so much work to import photos. Thank you computer for the lesson!

HALF MOON OVERHEAD

Last week I was at the soccer field waiting for the game when someone commented on the moon. Looking up I saw this beautiful sight peeking through the clouds.

TREE DURING THE GOLDEN HOUR

Ida Lee Tree at Sunset (iPhone photo)

The sun was setting as I ventured out on an errand. A single leafless tree at the edge of our local park provided a nice silhouette against the gold and blue sky. I quickly pulled over and got out my iPhone to get a picture. My DSLR would have been better, but it was at home. As they say, the best camera for the job is the one you have with you.

Another Ida Lee Park Sunset

The clear sky in the photo disappeared and gave way to clouds. The golden hour hasn't come back. But I was able to catch a decent sunset from the same spot. Only this time I had my Canon 5D Mark iv with a 24-105 L series lens. The setting sun did add some nice orange colors.

A Cardinal to Brighten Winter Scenery

This bright red cardinal payed a visit to my Mother's bird feeders this past weekend. He wasn't too close but a lot of cropping let me capture his glory.

Cardinal shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 1/2000 sec. f/5.6 200mm ISO800

Cardinal shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 1/2000 sec. f/5.6 200mm ISO800

EQUIPITIS - YES, IT IS REAL!

Well, maybe not a real disease according to the Centers for Disease Control. But it is real for shutterbugs. 

It begins when you elevate your craft and start taking better photos than just snapshots. The quality of the composition goes up. You begin comparing your photos to those by more advanced photographers. At some point in the comparisons, you will notice that the difference is not the composition but the quality of the image. The focus may not be as sharp. There are differences in many of the various elements of the image. You become infected with equipitis once you realize that the limitations of your camera and/or lens are what makes the difference.

My recurring bouts of equipitis originally showed up 30-some years ago when I was shooting film with a Canon Ftb and realized a better lens would improve my pictures. The new lens cured me until the camera died on my and photography took a back seat to raising a family, career, and many other things.

Eventually, my interest in photography returned with the purchase of a digital camera. I had a series of these early models because they were relatively inexpensive and the quality improved quickly with each new advancement. Then I get serious and equipitis struck again.

My first venture into digital SLRs was a Canon EOS Rebel xTi kit. I was happy with the quality but in a short time decided I needed a zoom lens and a wide angle lens. (see how quickly it hits!) The Rebel served me well for a few years. But my interests in sports photography highlighted the limits of that model. The best medicine for my equipitis – A Canon 70D kit. Now I had better control of my settings, better ISO range, and better focusing. I was cured, or so I thought.

My latest episode hit about a couple years ago. A friend let me borrow his 70-200 f2.8L lens for a basketball game. The improved sharpness of the images with this lens hooked me and I just had to buy one. This was enough to scratch the equipitis itch for another year but my drive for better quality in poor light conditions let it surface again. After debating whether to go with the new mirrorless DSLRs, I purchased a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 24-105mm f4L lens. My 70D provided good quality images but the Mark IV is much better. I am very happy with it. My only concern is when will my next bout of equipitis hit?

WOW! A FULL PAGE!

Our county’s weekly newspaper, the Loudoun Times Mirror, does a great job at covering local sports, especially the high school sports. They publish photo galleries of the games on their website. Photos and articles of key games or accomplishments make it to the print edition at the end of the week. They have been posting my photos of Tuscarora High School sports for the past two years or so. As discussed in earlier posts, they have published several in the print editions. There was a string of papers during football season with my photos. A high point was when four of mine were in the print edition. But recently there was a much bigger surprise. The paper includes a full page with two large photos of mine and a small article. Needless to say, I felt honored to see the page.