Lakewood Freshmen Football vs St John Bosco

Week two and second pre-season game finds me back at Lakewood High covering the freshmen team once again. These boys had another great game and dominated Bosco with their second win of the season.

Enjoy the pictures as I enjoyed taking them. All were taken with my 70-200 f/2.8 as my 300 f/2.8 is still at Canon being repaired.

Lakewood vs Inglewood / Locke High

This post marks the beginning of football season for me, but it didn't start on a good note. The JV game was scheduled for Thursday while the freshmen and varsity games were set for Friday. While I was preparing my gear for the Thursday game my camera and lens (Canon Mark IIn / 300 f/2.8) rolled off my bed and broke. Needless to say I was very depressed as there was no way I was going to be able to replace that lens. Once I got over the initial disgust with myself, I took a drive to the Canon Service Center in Irvine (thank god I'm within driving distance). After a brief talk with a service rep, who by the way was very nice and helpful, I got the damage. The lens would cost $300 and the camera was going to cost $1,000. Thanks to the very helpful rep I brought my gear home and signed up for CPS (Canon Professional Service) Silver membership, which would give me a 20% discount for all repairs.

The following day I contacted my insurance. Yes, I did have insurance on my gear, and after talking with them I was a happy man. My gear was 100% covered and the check was in the mail.

I received my insurance check the following Tuesday and on Thursday, a week after the accident, I brought my gear back to the Canon Service Center, where it is now being repaired.

Now that is said and done, on to the pictures. Since I was quite depressed on Thursday I didn't cover the JV game, but I did cover the freshmen and varsity game the following day. Just for those wondering, I do have a second Canon Mark IIn and although I couldn't use my 300 I did break out my old reliable 70-200 f/2.8, which didn't let me down as you can see below.

This first set of shots is from the freshmen game.

The rest of these shots are from the varsity game and again I will normally take some tighter shots of the QB's while their warming up. During the first part of the season I still have some sunlight when the game starts and have to adjust as the sun goes down.

I was prepared to use my flash during this game, but as the sun went down and the lights came on I found that the lights appeared brighter, so I kept the flash in the bag.

Note to self: Ask Santa for a Mark IV for Christmas.

Lakewood Football - Scrimmage

Football season is upon us.

The high school I've been shooting for had their scrimmage game last Thursday and start their preseason games this week.

Lakewood Varsity will open their season at home against Locke High School this Friday and then it will officially be "Friday Night Lights".

Until then, enjoy some shots from their scrimmage game.

Trash the Graduation Gown - Havasu Style

This is a first for me and something I enjoyed shooting.

This year my son, two of my nephews, and my nephew's girl friend graduated from high school. Well it occurred to me that we could have some fun with their graduation gowns during our havasu vacation, so I contacted my nephews and threw the idea at them and their moms, because we all know that it's the moms who have the last say. Everyone agreed to bring their gowns to havasu so we could have some fun and shoot a trash the gown session. Although I didn't shoot all of the shots I wanted and intended to, I am happy with what I ended up with.

So with that said, enjoy what could be first ever "Trash the Graduation Gown" session.