Rock Chalk Jayhawk
So I shot my first basketball game of the 2006-2007 season the other day, and surprisingly enough, it was not an NU game. It was a DePaul game. So how did that happen? Well, Northwestern basketball is predicted to finish last in the Big Ten, so quite frankly, nobody really cares about them. But what about DePaul? Northwestern beat DePaul by ten earlier in the year! Yeah, but DePaul just happened to be hosting the #5 ranked team in the country: the Kansas Jayhawks.
Now I'm not really a big basketbally fan, and as you'd expect, it's not my most enjoyable sport to shoot either. I mean, I guess it's true for any sport, but I just feel like all basketball photos look the same: it's a dunk, a layup, or two people chasing a ball. Whoop-dee-doo. I just feel like because the actions these athletes perform doesn't really make for those really "blow-you-away" type photographs. What I'm saying is, in my opinion, a great basketball photo is not as cool as a great baseball, football, or hockey photo. Then again, the lead image in my sports portfolio is a basketball photo.... go figure! The fact that basketball arenas are not usually well lit does not help the matter: funky color shifts, spotty autofocus performance (because autofocus works by detecting contrast), and the high ISO noise!
Anyways, back to the game. I think I've said before that one of the biggest reasons why I love shooting sports is just to be in these venues and feel the energy of the crowd, especially on a big stage like any game against a highly ranked opponent. Unfortunately, that energy quickly disappears when said highly ranked opponent builds a double-digit lead in the 2nd half...
Obviously, comebacks from 14 points down in the 2nd half doesn't happen very often, and certainly not with a very well rated team, and certainly not against the 5th ranked team in the country... but it happened! DePaul made a furious rally, and came back to actually win this game 63-57! I didn't know the Allstate Arena could get as loud as it did!
What annoys me about this comeback victory was I was totally out of position for it. Instead of shooting DePaul's offense in the second half, I decided to stay with the Kansas offense. I figured with a big lead, there was no chance in hell a "crappy" team like the Blue Demons would come back and put up a fight against the mighty Jayhawks. Why was this bad? Well, because I could not get any real jubilation shots of the big comeback, other than maybe students rushing the court after upsetting the nation's #5. Oh wait, that didn't happen either. Damn security guards stopped the students from mobbing the court. Lame....
Luckily, I was able to sort of make due with the situation, and made a decent frame as the weary but very happy Blue Demons players exited the court.
Although I wasn't too overly pleased with my overall game take, my editor was happy, and I guess in the end, that's all that matters, right?
Now I'm not really a big basketbally fan, and as you'd expect, it's not my most enjoyable sport to shoot either. I mean, I guess it's true for any sport, but I just feel like all basketball photos look the same: it's a dunk, a layup, or two people chasing a ball. Whoop-dee-doo. I just feel like because the actions these athletes perform doesn't really make for those really "blow-you-away" type photographs. What I'm saying is, in my opinion, a great basketball photo is not as cool as a great baseball, football, or hockey photo. Then again, the lead image in my sports portfolio is a basketball photo.... go figure! The fact that basketball arenas are not usually well lit does not help the matter: funky color shifts, spotty autofocus performance (because autofocus works by detecting contrast), and the high ISO noise!
Anyways, back to the game. I think I've said before that one of the biggest reasons why I love shooting sports is just to be in these venues and feel the energy of the crowd, especially on a big stage like any game against a highly ranked opponent. Unfortunately, that energy quickly disappears when said highly ranked opponent builds a double-digit lead in the 2nd half...
Obviously, comebacks from 14 points down in the 2nd half doesn't happen very often, and certainly not with a very well rated team, and certainly not against the 5th ranked team in the country... but it happened! DePaul made a furious rally, and came back to actually win this game 63-57! I didn't know the Allstate Arena could get as loud as it did!
What annoys me about this comeback victory was I was totally out of position for it. Instead of shooting DePaul's offense in the second half, I decided to stay with the Kansas offense. I figured with a big lead, there was no chance in hell a "crappy" team like the Blue Demons would come back and put up a fight against the mighty Jayhawks. Why was this bad? Well, because I could not get any real jubilation shots of the big comeback, other than maybe students rushing the court after upsetting the nation's #5. Oh wait, that didn't happen either. Damn security guards stopped the students from mobbing the court. Lame....
Luckily, I was able to sort of make due with the situation, and made a decent frame as the weary but very happy Blue Demons players exited the court.
Although I wasn't too overly pleased with my overall game take, my editor was happy, and I guess in the end, that's all that matters, right?
posted by Jerry at 9:36 PM
1 Comments:
Wow Jerry! Really cool!
I really like the first one and the one of the coach.
So what lens did you use? Your 70-200?
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