My Nephew and Cross Country

Today started with my nephews cross country meet. He is a freshmen at Torrance High and made the varsity cross country team, although he ran as a freshmen during this meet. His coach wants him to see how it feels to place, if not win, a meet, so he had him run on the freshmen team.

Before this meet his best time was 19min's. His official time was 17min's giving him second place with the boys freshmen team. Congratulations Draven, you did an outstanding job and are going to be an asset to the varsity team.

Prior to the start of his race I walked the course and found three spots to get some decent shots of him. This meet was held at a park, which made it rought to find a clear spot to shoot from that didn't give me a distracting background. All in all I was happy with my positioning and my shots.

This first shot was taken just about 1/4 mile into the race.

This next shot was taken at the half-way point.

And here are a few shots as my nephew approaches the finish-line.

Lakewood Varsity Football vs Peninsula

This Friday marked our second pre-season game, which was against Peninsula. For this game I tried something new with my flash. I've been reading about sports photographers who are attaching their flash to their monopod, which eliminates or at least lessens red-eye. I purchased a super clamp that I attached to my monopod about 2 to 2 1/2 feet below my camera and a stud to attach my flash cord to. I had my flash and camera set to manual. The flash was at 1/2 power and attached to a battery pack. My camera was set to ISO 3200, f/2.8, with a shutter between 1/400 and 1/620. When I took shots of the players on the sideline and the cheerleaders I adjusted my shutter to 1/1200.

So with all that said, here are a some of my favorites.

Lakewood Freshmen Football vs Peninsula

Week two finds me shooting the Freshmen game at Lakewood High against visiting Peninsula High. Last week's game against Crenshaw was a tough one for this Lakewood team with them losing 48-0. This week found them on the other side of the game with a win.

Here are some of my favorites from this game.

Lakewood Varsity Football vs Crenshaw

As I've stated in my prior post it's officially football season and although football has been going on for a couple of weeks in the mid-west, it's just starting here in southern California. Well this last Friday was our first to start the pre-season, which was against Crenshaw. I'm not going to get into much detail about the game, other than to say it was a great game to watch and ended in a loss for Lakewood. Final score 28-27 Crenshaw.

I am going to give a one of my secrets away for those who follow my blog, especially when it comes to football. Prior to game start I will attempt to get some warm-up shots of the quarterback and receivers. This gives me an opportunity to get some great tight shots of them and some outstanding sportraits (sport portraits).

So with that said, here are my favorites from the game.

You'll notice that the first few action shots appear to have some light. During the first few games the sun is still up and provides some light during the first quarter. But take note, the sun is going down rather quickly and will demand that you remain aware of your settings to maintain a good shot and exposure. I will always shoot manual mode and start with an ISO of 400-800, aperture of f/2.8 to f/4, and shutter of 1/1000 to 1/3200. But this constantly changing and will eventually end with an ISO of 3200, aperture of f/2.8, and shutter of 1/250 to 1/400.

Lakewood JV vs Crenshaw

Football has finally started for me and to mark this special occasion, I want to share some shots I took from the JV game today. Once again I'm shooting for Lakewood High School and they started their pre-season against Crenshaw High School