Long Beach Middle School Girls League Track Meet

This past Saturday I covered the Long Beach Middle School Girls League Track meet held at Lakewood High School.

I've been covering Long Beach Middle School sports for almost 12 years now and still love it.  Its not about money, because to be honest I make very little if any from covering these events, but I still love getting out there to shoot.

Its great watching these athletes mature in the young adults I also get to shoot when their competing in high school.

Below you'll find some of my favorites from this past event.

Winter Sunsets

With football over I am now able to focus on my other photography passions and one of those are my sunsets, especially those at both Huntington Beach and Seal Beach.

These first three shots were taken at Huntington Beach during mid Novemeber and are HDR.  Three shots were taken at an exposure of +2 / 0 / -2 and combined in Photomatix.  The shots were then edited and process in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

This next set of shots were taken at Seal Beach and only one of them I did by HDR.  Can you guess which one.  I've had a Graduated Neutral Density filter for some time now, but never used it, so I thought I should break it out and give a play.  Although I did take the same three exposed shots (+2 / 0 /-2) I only processed one of them for my edit.  Still learning and playing.

So again I ask - what shot was processed as an HDR?

Lakewood Varsity Football vs Bishop Amat - CIF Playoffs

 The first round of CIF PAC 5 Southern Section playoffs found Lakewood matched against Bishop Amat at Bishop Amat.

Now Fridays I normally work so decided to head over to the school right after work to avoid as much traffic as possible.  By doing this I had about a two hour wait time at the school.

I knew this would be a tough game for Lakewood due to the teams lack of depth.  They just didn't have the kids they've had the last few years, which meant a lot of them were playing both ways and lot of them were the line.  It's hard to compete against teams that are stacked and have depth on both sides of the line.  Considering what Lakewood was up against they did an excellent job this season and should hold their heads up high and be proud on how far they've come.  It was my pleasure covering them this year and I'm looking forward to see where next year takes them.

As for this game, the final score was 47-18 Bishop Amat.  Lakewood played a tough game, but couldn't stop Bishop Amat's passing game.

On the photography side of this, I loved the lights at this school.  I was able to shoot at an ISO 3200, f/2.8, and a shutter of 1/500.  Now I probably could have lowered my ISO to 1600, but I do what I preach in that I'm not afraid of those high ISO's so I can increase my shutter.  Yep, this boy gets excited when he can shoot at a shutter of 1/500 and when I do I make it work.

Please enjoy the below shots.

Lakewood Varsity Football vs Millikan

This game marks the end of league play and now it is time for the playoffs.  Lakewood takes second place in the Moore League only losing to Poly and considering they have gone through 4 coaches in the last 5 years is outstanding and shows how dedicated and strong these young men are to push through the adversity and put it all on the field.

Congratulations to the Lakewood Lancers who take second place in Moore League and bringing home the Hamilton trophy, which will remain at Lakewood another year.  A job well done.

This post isn't going to be about the action.  Now understand I did capture some great action, but there are other parts of the game that simply speak to me.  I love sportraits, which for me means an official portrait / candid style shot of the athletes in the game and to highlight these type of shots I love placing the scoreboard in the background.  I just feel the lights of the scoreboard add something to the shot, brings it up a level - if not more.

Now I don't use a flash for a couple of reasons.  One I feel all the added gear associated with the flash is too bulky to carry around.  Second I've never been a fan of flashed shots for football.  I rather love the deep shadows and added grain I get in my shots.  Isn't this what football is, that in your face gritty, dirty, dark shots.  Maybe not for all, but me it does and I love what I get.

Please enjoy the pictures and if you feel inclined, please add a comment about what you think with this style of shot.  I would love to see what your thoughts are.

 

Lakewood JV Football vs Millikan

This marks the last game of the season for our freshmen and JV squads.  As last week I covered the JV this week as they faced Millikan for their last game.

This was a very defensive game with both sides stopping any forward progress, but in the end Lakewood took the lead and won 12-8.  Now tonight will be the Varsity's chance to follow suit for a win against Millikan under the lights.

Below are some of my favorites from yesterday's game.  Please enjoy.

All pictures taken during this game will be uploaded to my smugmug account at jim-cayer.smugmug.com, where they can be purchased.