Lakewood Varsity Football vs Jordan

 By bringing home the win last night, Lakewood clinches a spot in the playoffs and need to win against Millikan next week to hopefully get home field advantage during the first round of CIF playoffs.

Lakewood dominated this game from kick off by stopping Jordan in their first series and running the punt in for six.  It was a great game for the Lancers with a lot of great play execution.  Now lets get ready for next week and bring home that Hamilton Trophy.

I don't use a flash when shooting football.  Now I have used a flash in the past, but I was never really happy with the look of the shots and unlike so many of the sports shooters I see now, I don't own a 1DX (I shoot Canon) and have to make what I have work, which is what I teach, but in the end the gear I have and me simply work together like a love story.

I love the deep shadows and roughness that noise and non-flashed shots bring.  I also love getting shots with the scoreboard in the background filling up the shot.  I purposely did not post any action from the receivers or running backs and focused this post on those that work the trenches, our line and linebackers.

Please enjoy the shots.

Oh in this first shot I was able to catch the coin (coin toss) in mid-flight.  Its that slight sliver of light just over #7's head.

Lakewood JV Football vs Jordan

The season is starting to wind down with only one more week left for the JV and Freshmen levels of play.

Today I covered the Lakewood JV at home.  I wasn't sure how this game was going to turn out, but Lakewood dominated it from the start with a good win.

Although it was a dominating game for Lakewood, I found it hard to capturing them in action during the game.  There just wasn't a lot of open field run by the back and defense did an outstanding job running several interceptions in for touchdowns, which did catch me off guard.  Either way I did get some great action, which you can see below.  Enjoy.

Lakewood Varsity Football vs Cabrillo

Next to the Poly game, which was last week, this was a big game for Lakewood.  Last year both teams played a very close and hard fought game with Cabrillo taking the win, so Lakewood needed this win to continue their pursuit for second place in league and a spot for the playoffs.

Now normally I will post the shots in the order they happen during the game, but I wanted to share this first shot, well first.  During the fourth quarter we had two students run down the length of the field.  One was fully clothed and the other was, well see below.

This game had to be the worst officiated game I have ever seen.  Both teams had a combined 45 penalties for a total of over 450 yards.  Not just that, but for most of the penalties called the officials would get together and confer, which simply seemed odd and delayed the game.  The first 1.34 minutes of the second half took 17 minutes of real time.

Now its time to prepare for the next game.  In the meantime please enjoy the shots.

All pictures from this game will be uploaded to my smugmug account (jim-cayer.smugmug.com).

Lakewood Freshmen Football vs Cabrillo

This is the freshmen's last home game so I thought I cover them instead of the JV, who will have the next two games at home.

This was a tough game for the freshmen, but I was able to get some great shots of them in action.

Please enjoy.

Lakewood Varsity Football vs Poly

For those from Lakewood this is the game, the one we all look forward to each year.  Now in past years this was the game to watch for Moore League, the game that determined who would take the league going into CIF, but in recent years this has become just another notch in Poly's belt, although it was Lakewood who dethroned Poly back in 2009.  Either way this is the game to play for Lakewood.

This game started solid with Lakewood's defense holding back the Poly tide for the whole first quarter, but that's where it stopped.  Poly then did what it does best and that's play great football.  I do support Lakewood and cover their games, but you can't take away from great football and that's what Poly does.

Below you'll find some of my favorite shots from the game.

Now lets talk about gear.  I run a sports action photography group on facebook, which is called "Sports Action Photography".  For those who feel you can't compete with the pro's who are shooting with multiple 1DX's, you can, but you just have to understand your limitations and settings.

The key with any sports shooting is to isolate your subject from the background, which during a high school game can become rather distracting.  Now with day games you often have a lot of options as to how your going to set your camera due to the light, but when it comes to shooting football under the lights, well it becomes a much different story and if you, like myself, do not have a 1DX, then you have to max out the ability of your camera.  So shoot wide open, push that ISO up there and don't be afraid to shoot at 1/320 or 1/400 of a second, which is what the below shots were shot at.  Yes you will get noise, but that's what it takes to get the action.

Enjoy

Lakewood JV Football vs Poly

Lakewood vs Poly - this is the game I look forward to and worry about the most. When it comes to Moore League, Poly is the team to beat at any level and although this isn't varsity its still an important game to all of these kids involved.

For the first half this was a great defensive game, but unfortunately Lakewood has a way of just loosing their momentum during the second half and this game was no different.  Tomorrow I'll be under the lights and hopefully our varsity will give a better and longer fight.

Enjoy my favorites from today's game