Lakewood Varsitty Football vs Mayfair

The "Milk Bucket", that's what this game is all about.

A game that can be counted on every year is against Lakewood's cross town rival Mayfair.  The winner of this game not only gets bragging rights for the next year, but gets to hold the Milk Bucket, which is the trophy that's been passed on from year to year.

After last weeks major loss to Bosco I wasn't sure if we would maintain possession of the Milk Bucket, but our boys came out and dominated the game winning 31 - 0.

This was our first football program of the season and it was mine.  Below you will see what I put together for this special game.

Since I neglected the cheerleaders during the JV game, well I really didn't as the cheerleaders don't attend the away JV / Freshmen games, but either way I made up for it with this game getting some nice shots of them.

Now to the action of the game.



What better shot can you have for a game like this.  First of all it wasn't until the last couple minutes of the game that I realized and remembered the trophy, which then hit me as I didn't bring the right lens to capture the celebration after the game (Only brought the beast - 300 f/2.8), but I refused to let that stop me from getting the right shot.  So I simply waited and positioned myself a little further back to see what I could get when this shot presented itself.  With milk dripping from the trophy and all over the player - this couldn't have been any better.

Lakewood JV Football vs Poly

This is the game is the game we've all been waiting for, Lakewood vs Poly. This game was fought hard by both teams, but in the end Lakewood was victorious with a 13-7 win. Now we wait and prepare ourselves for tonight's game under the lights at Veteran's Stadium. The winner of this game will more than likely go on to win the Moore League title.

Let's start the pictures with a shot of the Jr. Varsity Cheerleaders, who give it their all each and every game.

Now on to the action.

Do I need to say it, a few I played with.

"Friday Night Lights" Lakewood vs Wilson

"Homecoming"

This shot pretty much sums it up for the homecoming. There was a huge amount of energy in the stands as well as on the field for this game. The young man in the middle ("H") is my son. He and a couple of friends wanted to paint themselves up, but when they tried to enter the game, the school staff told them to leave and get shirts. So they kept their shirts on and would occasional (twice from what I saw) pull the shirts up to show their school pride. They were really fearful that they would have been thrown out. I was able to capture this shot.

This game started off great. Even though we just had our time change by rolling back an hour, which meant that it was dark well before the beginning of the game. My lighting was doing very well with the action, that is at least for the first three quarters. During the last quarter my batteries ran out, even though I had my quatum pro 2x2 battery pack attached. So I obtained a few new batteries from my photographer friend and continued my work, but something changed and my lighting seem to be very weak and the white balance was real bad and very warm. I tried some different settings but just couldn't correct the problem. I will have to see if it was the batteries or possibly the bulb on the flash. Not sure at the moment.

Any hoot, here are some action shots from the game. Lakewood did a great job during their homecoming and just dominated Wilson. I did shoot this game in manual mode using my flash externder. ISO was at 1000, f/2.8, and a shutter of 1/500 to 1/400. When I shot the cheer leaders I would increase my shutter to 1/1600 to 1/2000, otherwise they would have been blown out.

Normally I stay away from the half-time show. Not because I don't like it or want to shoot it, but I'm usually taking a break or talking to some friends. I at the game to capture some great action and well, I also out there to enjoy myself and spend some time with friends. Now I did say normally I stay away from the half-time show, but this was our homecoming and they tend to do more during half-time. So this time I took some shots of the show. Hope you enjoy these and like the composition. I'd love to hear your comments on these half-time shots.

Lakewood Varsity Football vs Peninsula

I had every intention not to go to this game. It was an away game on a Friday afternoon. Yes you heard me right, Friday afternoon (3pm). I had to work and Fridays were usually at minimals when it comes to personnel. I was a bit disappointed that I was going to miss an afternoon varsity game, but that how things go sometimes.

So I'm at work doing my thing when our building does a generator check, which shuts down our computer server. Well, without the server I am unable to input information into our system, which is all I could do at that time. So with no fix in the near future I made arrangements to leave early. I rushed home, got my gear, and headed out for the game. I was very pleased that I was able to make and capture the varsity in action without the bad lightning that is so associated with varsity games. So enjoy the pictures.

As I've said numerous times I will get to a game early to capture some shots of players I don't normally cover. Here is a shot of the kicker warming up. The player catching the ball is a running back, who will catch for the kicker during warm up.

Just a few shots of the receivers while they warmed up.

This was almost a fumbled punt return. Both of these players tried to catch the kickoff and fumbled it briefly until #19 captured it and ran for daylight.

There are no footballs in this shot, but what I like about it is how #19 looks like he is twisting off the head of the other player. OUCH!

A nice fumble recovery.

I really like how this shot turned out. I wanted a shot of the placekicker and kicker in action but with the defender rushing in from the outside, I feel it just pushed this shot to the next level.

#71 is a friend of my son's and played side-by-side with him during their freshmen and sophomore years, but due to an injury my son did not play this year. #71 is a great kid and regardless if he or his family buys pictures I will make extra effort to get nice shots of him in action. In this shot he has a great block while the ball carrier runs past him through the hole. Thought his was a nice open shot of him with the runner in the background.

For me this is one of those money shots. Not in the sense that it's a great capture or shows a lot of action, but it's a shot of a player who's family has supported me during the last two years while shooting Lakewood football. Whenever possible I try to get nice shots of the players who's parents purchase pictures. I had great positioning during this and had an unobstructed view of the center (#55). Having the QB in tight and looking over his shoulder just added to this shot and made it more than just a shot of the center.

When I'm out there shooting football I will have a particular shot that I'm looking for and will pick my positioning based on what I am trying to achieve. When I took this shot I was attempting to capture the defense (red/white) rushing in for the sack, which they did many times during this game. Also when shooting for a particular shot I find that I will get shots that I didn't initially see or plan for. This is one of those shots. Once I got home and started to process my RAW files I saw this capture. At first I passed it over, but I later went back to it and thought with a tighter crop this can make an interesting shot. So here is the end result.

What is a football game without the cheerleaders. I know I have said that before, but cheerleaders do go hand-in-hand with football, especially for the varsity games. They have such energy and give it their all each and every game, so it's only fair that I show them as well.