Youth Soccer - Last games

I've finally finished shooting the last two teams for the soccer league I was asked to shoot. I had two teams to finish, one was on Saturday and the other was Sunday, both at 9am. The game on Sunday was under a bright cloudless sky, but Saturday was a different story. Not only was it cloudy and overcast but it was raining.

Shooting in the rain doesn't bother me at all. I have an old water proof bush hat that I just threw over the camera and most of the lens to cover it up and shot away.

With soccer finished I will now have my weekends again, or at least until I'm asked to shoot something else.

These first shots are U11 boys. For these I used my 300 f/2.8 for the first half and then during the second half I added my 1.4x converter. My settings were f/2.8, ISO 800, and a shutter higher than 1/1000.




These next shots are U16 Girls. For these I used my f/2.8 and 1.4x converter for the full game. Settings were AV mode at f/2.8, ISO 200, and a shutter of 1/3200 +.

Youth Soccer

On Saturday I shoot a few games of soccer, ages 11 to 16. So far I've been using my 300 f/2.8 straight but am thinking I need to add my 1.4 converter to the mix. With soccer the fields are huge compared to football and the action moves back and forth rather quickly. Not being able to follow the action by moving up and down the sidelines I'll attach the converter to give me some added range. Here are various shots from the games I shot.

This first shot is from the U11 team.

This second image is from the U13 team.

These next two a from a U15 team. I've been shooting for a local middle school for three years now and have had the opportunity to photograph this goalie in action over three years. She is an outstanding player and won't hesitate to sacafice herself to stop a goal.

These last shots were from an U16 team.

Sports, Sports, Sports, and Sports "Part II"

As stated before I had a lot of pictures to go through. I'll start with our JV football pictures. These are from our game against Poly at Lakewood High.








Now for some shots of my son in action. Poly was a tough team to play and the pictures show it.

Here is a shot of my son recovering a fumble, he is the top player in red.

On Friday after work I went to Lakewood High to shoot the Girls Varsity Volleyball team as they played a team from Australia. Here are a few shots from those games.

After takeing some shots of the girls volleyball game I rushed to vet's stadium to shoot the varstiy football game against Poly. Both our JV and varsity teams lost against Poly, but our freshmen team won. Here are some shots from the varsity game.

And finally on Saturday I shot a couple of soccer games for a local league. I shot a U12 Girls team and an U15 Boys team.

I did say there were a lot of pictures, didn't I. In closing this post I want to end with a different type of sports shot. While taking shots of the last soccer game on Saturday I was standing at one end of the field while the action was at the other end. While there waiting for the action to return to my side I looked at the goalie, who was just standing there looking at all the action taking place and I thought how lonely he must be at this time. Just standing there waiting for the action to come his way and hoping he'll be ready. So I composed this shot and rather like it.

The end to a busy week

This last week was a busy one with a lot of pictures being taken. It all started with our JV football game on Thursday, "Lakewood vs Mayfair". Pictures have already been posted below from the game. On Friday I left work early to shoot a girls varsity volleyball game at Lakewood High School. I was able to shoot 3 of the 5 games before I had to leave for the varsity football game, which was being played at Belflower High School. I went to the school early to shoot some warm up shots and then the game. Again, pictures from this game have already been posted below.


Now for the busy part. While shooting the JV game on Thursday I was appraoched by a father of one of the JV players and asked if would shoot a soccer league he's involved in and put together a DVD slideshow for their banquet. He continued saying they played on Saturday and Sunday's and that there were four games on Saturday. Well, you should know me by now and know that I was going to shoot the soccer league either way.


So Saturday I get up early after a late night with varsity football and some celebration to shoot four youth soccer games. Started at 9am and ended at 3pm. Now I said that the games were over at 3pm but I wasn't done yet. Some friends of the family had a soccer game with their 8 year old son, so I went to the game which started at 3:15pm to take some action shots of him.


I've said it many times on a couple of forums that for me it's not about the money. Yes I want to make some money so that I can buy better gear and equipment, but for me the whole enjoyment and what really gets me excited is seeing the expression on parents faces when they see the pictures, so here are some pictures from the soccer games. Enjoy!