A day of Championship Games

Last year I was asked to shoot all of the Long Beach Middle School Championship games for their various sports, which include flag football, volleyball, soccer, basketball, and track. I don't do this for the money because the Athletic Director I'm dealing with has no budget but I do make sales to the parents of the players.

This last Saturday I spend the entire day at Wilson High School shooting four games. I started out at 9am shooting the Div II Flag Football Championship game, then at 11am with the Div I Flag Football Championship game, which was followed at 1pm with the Div II Volleyball Championship game, and ending at 3pm with the Div I Volleyball Championship game.

I did make a few contacts and passed out some cards, so hopefully I'll make a little bit on money for my time.

For both flag football games I used my 300 f/2.8L lens. Now during most of the first game the sky was overcast with a little bit of high fog, so during the first game I started with an ISO of 800 and brought it back down to 100 as the day progressed.

For the volleyball games I started with the 70-200 f/2.8L lens and stood along the side where the players sit. When along the side I pretty much stayed just off center so I can focus my attention on one team. I also took some shots from the balcony and along one of the far end walls. When at these two positions I used the 300 f/2.8. For all four games I keep my aperture at f/2.8 to isolate the athlete from the background.

Div II Flag Football / Hill Huskies vs Lindsey Falcons

Div I Flag Football / Hughes Owls vs Lindbergh Eagles

Div II Volleyball / Powell Eagles vs Monroe Tigers

Div I Volleyball / Stanford Hawks vs Bancroft

Game two for Hughes - Flag Football

Got off work just in time to shoot this flag football game for Hughes. My obligation with the school is to shoot at least two games per each sports season and now that I've gotten the two games of flag football I can now focus my attention on the volleyball team.

Nothing real exciting to share but I did end up with a few shots that I'm happy with.

This next shot shows why you should be ready at all times when photographing sports. To most people this shot will look like a pass that may or maynot be caught, but in fact it's an on-side kick that bounced right to this player.

These next two shots are my favorites but are not techniquly correct. In both shots I captured the player in blue diving for the other player's flag and in this first one you can see the flag in his hand as he falls to the ground. Nice shot, but there a problem, no faces. These would have been so much better if they were running towards me when this happened, but we can't always choise where the action is going to go.

Middle School Flag Football "Hughes vs Bancroft"

I'm starting my third year shooting the sporting events of a local middle school (Hughes Middle School). I started shooting their sporting and various school events when my son was in the 8th grade there. Though this might be my last year with them as money is getting tight for the school. So we'll see what happens and how far it goes this year.


Well the this year is starting with boys flag football and girls volleyball, who play at the same time. For their first game I went out to shoot the flag football game at Bancroft.


Equipment used was the 300 f/2.8L IS lens. Camera was set at aperture priority at f/2.8 with an ISO of 200. All of these shots were taken while kneeling to get a lower perspective.