Polar Opposites
Today, I shot two lacrosse games: a Northwestern women's NCAA tourney game, and a Chicago Machine game. I originally was going to take a day off today, but when asked to do these games, I couldn't say no. I really enjoy shooting lacrosse, and I believe that it is difficult not to come away with several nice sports photos when shooting lacrosse.
Now, even though both games I shot today were lacrosse games, the women's and men's versions are two completely different animals. There are power plays, shot clocks, two point shots, and hitting in men's lacrosse, but none of those exist in women's lacrosse.
The other difference between the two games was that on one hand, the Northwestern women's team is an unstoppable juggernaut who have only lost two games in the last three years (60-2)...
whereas the Machine have never... that's right, NEVER.... won a game in franchise history (0-13 since 2006).
It was an absolutely gorgeous day out here in Chicago. Normally, I hate shooting on "gorgeous days" (aka lots of sun!) you either have to shoot backlit and all your colors get washed out, or you have to shoot frontlit and you get a lot of contrast. I'd rather shoot on a cloudy day where all the colors are pretty much neutral, and where I can just set my exposure and call it a day. But the time of year and time of day of this shoot made the sunlight fall on the field perfectly: Shadows and contrasty areas were minimalized on my frontlit side, and the side/backlit side was pretty as well.
No such lighting "issues" for the Machine game, because it was a 7pm start. The sun was well below the stadium bowl by then, and by 8pm, the game was played under stadium lights. When that happens, it's just like a cloudy day: just manually dial in an exposure, fire away, and get lots of cool images of the Machine getting whipped again!
Now, even though both games I shot today were lacrosse games, the women's and men's versions are two completely different animals. There are power plays, shot clocks, two point shots, and hitting in men's lacrosse, but none of those exist in women's lacrosse.
The other difference between the two games was that on one hand, the Northwestern women's team is an unstoppable juggernaut who have only lost two games in the last three years (60-2)...
whereas the Machine have never... that's right, NEVER.... won a game in franchise history (0-13 since 2006).
It was an absolutely gorgeous day out here in Chicago. Normally, I hate shooting on "gorgeous days" (aka lots of sun!) you either have to shoot backlit and all your colors get washed out, or you have to shoot frontlit and you get a lot of contrast. I'd rather shoot on a cloudy day where all the colors are pretty much neutral, and where I can just set my exposure and call it a day. But the time of year and time of day of this shoot made the sunlight fall on the field perfectly: Shadows and contrasty areas were minimalized on my frontlit side, and the side/backlit side was pretty as well.
No such lighting "issues" for the Machine game, because it was a 7pm start. The sun was well below the stadium bowl by then, and by 8pm, the game was played under stadium lights. When that happens, it's just like a cloudy day: just manually dial in an exposure, fire away, and get lots of cool images of the Machine getting whipped again!
posted by Jerry at 9:55 PM
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