Can you say "Shot Put Moore League Champ"

I have no pictures to show for this entry but I just had to put something down here. Today my son too part in the Moore League Finals for lower level track, which means the Frosh (freshmen & sophomore) athlete's. This year he was undefeated for shot put, winning every league meet, but you can't go into this with the attitude that your going to win. Last year he was undefeated in shot put as a freshmen going into the finals and was beaten by another freshmen who had one good throw, winning by three inches. He didn't want that to happen again.

His best throw going into the finals was 47'-6" and on his final throw he threw the shot put 47'-10". The closest thrower to him threw 43'-10". I'm am so proud and excited for my son right now and so disappointed that I missed the whole event due to a class I was taking.

Tomorrow he competes with the discus in the Moore League Finals, but that's another entry. So congrats son for your winning throw. I wasn't there physically but my heart was right next to you during each and every throw. Great Job!

Mustangs - White Sox #1

My first hired baseball job of the year. When it comes to baseball most of my work comes from word of mouth. Practically all of my baseball parents are people who have hired me from previous years, which is great.

This is the third year this parent has hired me to photograph her child in action. Now this year he has moved up to the next level (Mustangs) and is the little guy on the team. When I shoot these games I never know what to expect and get what action I can. Unfortunately this kid started the first three innings on the bench and only got up to bat once and didn't even swing the bat. Under those circumstances I will do my best to get some good action of the player for the parent. I do have a few tricks that I use to get the action when there's normally not much to go around. Since I'm all about sharing I will tell you what I do. When I'm dealing with a kid that's not getting much action I will create my own. What I mean is I'll take some shots while he / she is warming up. Sometimes this will be the only action a player may see, so as a sports photographer it's very important to capture what you can when you can.

So hopefully this is the first for many this baseball season. Enjoy.

Here are a few shots of various action to share.

Torrance All-City Track and Field Meet

My nephew, who you will see in the following pictures had his first track meet today. He did an outstanding job as he competed in the 4x100 relay, the shotput, and the long jump. I didn't really have many action shots of him doing sports so I thought I'd go out there to get some shots. Now this meet was different then other middle school meets I've been to as they had competitors as low as kindergarten, which I thought was pretty cool.

So with that said here are some shots of my nephew. I used my 300 for all of these shots with my camera set on aperture priority at f/2.8. ISO was set to 100.

How can you not look at these following shots and go Awwwwww. This meet was for all levels and I do mean all levels. They had kids in Kindergarten out here competing, which I thought was great and of course I had to get some shots.

Now as a father of two high school kids I can really look back to the early years and picture my kids here. This is such a great age and I only wish I was into photography as much then as I am now so as to get some shots of them in action at this age. So I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did taking them.

Lakewood High vs Millikan Track Meet

I didn't anticipate being able to attend this meet due to a class I'm currently taking, but I was let out a bit early and was able to make the last portion of it. This is Lakewood's last league meet, which was against Millikan at Lakewood High School. I will say that I enjoyed photographing these athlete's in action immensely and ended up with some outstanding action shots. I hope you all have enjoyed looking at these as much as I have taking them.

The young lady on the left is Lakewood's record holder for the pole vault and the young lady on the right is the record holder for the high jump, both sweet girls.

"Wa Bam"

I had the opportunity to go and photograph my niece in action during her softball game. I always enjoy watching my niece and capturing shots of her in action, but as I am a sports shooter I've also took some shots of the other players in action as well. So first let me show you some shots of my niece.

Various action from the game.

Lakewood Discus & Shotput

The final track meet. This is the last meet I will be able to attend. Since I pretty much had pictures of all of the athlete's I decided to try something different and get them at a different angle and much tighter. For these two shots I shot through the netting of their cage.

As usual here are some shots of my son. Once again he placed 1st with the shotput and discus. He has one more meet next week, which I will miss due to computer course my work is sending me to and then it's off to League Finals. I really like the way the last three shots turned out with the sun going through his hair, giving it a glow.