Lakewood Girls Varsity Soccer vs Millikan

While I shot this game, my son who also attends Lakewood High School used my car to go to his girlfriends house. The joys of your kids growing up. Normally you would drop them off and do what you need to do and then pick them up later, but now the tides have turned. So here I am at Lakewood shooting a soccer game while my son takes the car. Oh where does the time go.

Now back to the Varsity girls who played against Millikan today. I was pleased with what I got but have to say that my favorites are the following four headers.

Now once the game was finished I had to call my son to come and pick me up so I can rush home to take my daughter to her driving class. That's right, she just started her driving class last week and I was informed today that she has passed her written driving test and now has her permit. Oh joy, not one but two kids driving. I don't know if my wallet can handle the increase my insurance is going to be. So if some time in the near future you don't see any more sport action posts here that will be because I sold all my camera gear to pay for my car insurance.

Lakewood Girls Jr. Varsity Soccer vs Cabrillo

Made it out to one of the Jr. Varsity games this Thursday. For most girls varsity is the last soccer they will play so I put more emphasis on the varsity team than I do with the frosh and JV teams when taking action shots and that I can only get out for so many games. So I now have all three levels of Lakewood girls soccer covered. Now it's just the icing on the cake. I'll make a couple more varsity games to get some shots that I want to round out my DVD that I'll be putting together for them.

So with all that said, here are some action shots from the game.

Lakewood Girls Freshmen / Sophmore Soccer vs Poly

I've been asked to photograph the Lakewood Girls Varsity Soccer team and put together a DVD slide show for their end of season banquet. It was also requested that I capture the freshmen / sophomore team and the Jr. Varsity team. Now as you have seen I've been out to two of the varsity games. Since the varsity team had an away game I decided to take the opportunity and shoot the frosh team at home.

Now Poly, who they were playing, is usually a tough team to beat, but our frosh team came ready to play and dominated the game from their opening drive.

Below are a few pictures from the game to share.

Lakewood Girls Varsity Soccer vs Wilson

Wilson is always a tough team and I knew that it would be a rough game to shoot, as the action will go back and fourth rather quickly making it hard to position yourself. All-in-all I think I did a pretty good job.

I"ll start with some solo action shots. I like these because they have all the elements of a great action shot. The player is in a motion of action, the ball is in the shot, and they are in the air jumping.

What's a soccer game with a few headers and with these two teams I'm always guaranteed to get some good action and a lot of headers.

Now for these last two shots. One of them was taken using my trick while the other was taken during the game. So the question is can you tell me which was taken during the game and which was taken while she was warming up.

Lakewood Boys Varsity Basketball vs Compton

To view and order pictures just click on the above title for gallery.

This is my third game with Lakewood. Without additional equipment, such as strobes or off-camera flashes, this will be the best that I will get. All in all I'm happy with my results and the action I'm capturing, only wish the lighting could be a little better giving me a faster shutter, but we do with what we have.

Another great game to watch and shoot. This game came down to the last couple of seconds and was won on free-throws. The game was tied at the end of regulation time and went into a 4 minute overtime. It went back and fourth to the last 3 seconds with Compton, who was up by one point, fouling Lakewood. Lakewood took the ball to the free-throw line needing both to win the game. Two shots with both going in the bucket giving the Lakewood the win with only 3 second left. Compton made a quick drive but failed to draw a foul or bucket.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from this game.

For these last two shots I tried something different. I used my 24-70, which I had zoomed out all the way to give me as wide a shot as possible. On this first one I positioned myself just outside of the key to give me a nice angle with the stands in the background. For the last shot I was just below the basket against the wall. I was initially concerned that the ref's wouldn't let me position myself there, but I guess since I shot these straight and without a flash they just left me alone.

Both of these were taken in manual mode at f/2.8, ISO 3200, and 1/250 (no flash used). The slower shutter did give me some motion blur, which doesn't look to bad at this wide shot. If I were to zoom in then the picture would be just too blured.

Lakewood Girls Varsity Soccer vs Jordan

To view and order pictures from this event, just click on the above title.

Before I start with this soccer game I must say I didn't think I would be shooting Lakewood's Girls Varsity games this season. I was asked prior to shoot some action of the Lakewood Boys Varsity Basketball team and noticed while heading to the school on two occasions that their soccer season has already started. During the last two years I've been asked to shoot the girls varsity soccer team and put together a dvd slideshow for their end-of-year banquet, but this year I never received a phone call or email. So I just assumed that I wasn't going to be out there shooting their games.

That was until this last weekend when I received an email for the teams booster club president asking if I would come out and shoot the girls in action. I must say I was rather happy that I got that email as I really enjoy shooting these girls. This will be my third year doing so and they have really enjoyed the slideshows that I have put together for them.

Now back to this game. This was their third season game and was one of those games that they were expected to win, which in my case works out great. This allows me to capture some of the girls who don't normally get much game play. So here are some of my favorites from the game.

You've heard of BOB (ball on bat), well this is a BOF (ball on face) shot.

In Soccer the action moves up and down the field very fast making it very hard to capture all players of the game in action. To increase your chances of capturing a particular player in action you can follow them, keeping your camera on them, but if your trying to capture as many as possible, or all of the players in action then you need to adapt to the game and position yourself to get the various players.

For the two below shots I wanted to capture the goalie in action, but I knew in advance that the team they were playing were not going to get the ball towards the goal much if any. So knowing this I arrived at the game early, which I recommend highly, and captured some shots of the goalie while warming up. So now you know my trick to capturing great action shots of the goalie. Get there early and shoot them while their warming up. This was a good thing as this goalie never touch the ball once the game started.

Long Beach Middle School Boys Basktball All-City Championship

I had the opportunity to shoot the Long Beach Middle School Boys Basketball Championship games. There were two games, the first being the Division I Finals and the second being the Division II Finals. Both were great games with all four teams giving it their all.

Division II Long Beach Middle School Boys Basketball All-City Champions

Tincher Tigers

Here are a couple shots to share from this first game.

Division I Long Beach Middle School Boys Basketball All-City Champions

Hughes Owls

This was a very close game and came down to the last minute. Both teams played a very tough game, which was very exciting to watch. Here are some action shots to share.

Lakewood Boys Varsity Basketball vs Millikan

If you wish to view and order pictures from this event, just click on the above title.

Game two and much better. After my disappointment from the first game I tried some different things and settings. For starters I used my flash, which I bounced off the ceiling. I also made sure I brought my battery pack for my flash, which helps the recycle time and allows me to fire off more shots.

Another adjustment I made was to be more selective in my shots. Instead of firring off a bunch of sequences, I watched and anticipated the action and fired off one shot at a time. The up side is a limited number of pictures to go through and edit. The down side, not a lot to choose from. So here are my favorites from the game.

This first was taken as this kid jumped out of bounds to save the ball, which he succeeded in.