Long Beach MIddle School Soccer Championships

Championship soccer is what this post is about, but this year it was done with a twist.  Now last year I missed covering this event and wasn't aware of a change.  That change being both division I & II games being played at the same time.  That's good and bad, good in that instead of this event lasting until 3-4pm, it was finished by noon.  Now the down side - instead of having the ability to cover the whole game I was left with shooting a half and then heading over to the other field to cover a half there.

 

What does this all mean, well not really much  except I didn't get shots of most of the players, but in fact simply shot for action as best I could.

 

So enjoy the shots.

 

 

Long Beach Middle School Boys & Girls Soccer Championships

I covered the Long Beach Middle School Division I & II Boys & Girls Soccer Championships held at Long Beach Wilson High School this past Saturday. Four solid games of soccer under an overcast sky, which is what prefer when shooting sports (life's natural diffuser).

The games started at 9am with the boys division II Chubberley vs Lindsey, then the boys division I Marshall vs Lindbergh, followed by the girls division II Chubberley vs Newcomb and ending with the girls division I Stanford vs Hughes.

It was a long day and although I did end up with some nice shots, I wasn't happy with the amount of nice shots. As the games progressed parents and fans began filling in along the sidelines limiting my shooting positions. I ended up positioning myself along the corners to get the different angles.

I'll start with some sportraits of the goalies followed by a few of my favorites.

Long Beach Middle School Soccer Championships

This past Saturday I photographed the Long Beach Middle School Soccer Championship Games held at Wilson High School. There are two divisions for each the boys and girls soccer teams, which meant 4 games, back-to-back-to-back-to-back. I knew it would be a very long day.

For most middle school soccer games there's usually not a bunch of people attending, which gives me a wider choice of position I can shoot from, but for these championship games I was very limited as to where I could position myself. Additional I will only shoot one team, but for these games I was capturing as much action and as many players from both teams as I could. So with all of that said I decided to position myself near one goal, keeping the sun behind me. I knew that at the half they would change sides, which would give me opportunities to capture additioanl players.

For these games I was armed with the 300 f/2.8, which I used my 1.4x on and then on my second camera body I used my 70-200 f/2.8. The wheather was a mixture of light to dark overcast skys to sunny and would constantly change throughout the four games. I kept my ISO set to 200 while I shot in aperture priority at f/2.8 and f/4.0, which was with my 300.

Division II Boys Championship Game

Newcomb Spartans vs Lindsey Falcons

Division I Boys Championship Game

Washington Patriots vs Jefferson Jaguars

Division II Girls Championship Game

Cubberley Cubs vs Newcomb Spartans

Division I Girls Championship Game

Bancroft Bruins vs Stanford Hawks