6-AA Championship Game: Blessed Trinity vs. GAC
The Greater Atlanta Christian School Boys were the second half of the doubleheader I photographed last Saturday. This was the second year in a row that the GAC boys made it as far as the finals. This year, with the tournament being held on their home floor in the new Long Forum, they brought a significant fan presence.
The game was full of action. Trent Wiedeman was back in action this week and made a presence for himself underneath the basket.
In Search of New Shots
After two covering Basketball the last two weekends, I started looking for new concepts and looks this week as the Spartans celebrated their Senior night and took on Westminster.
Basketball has a lot of repetition to the game flow. Drive, shoot, rebound, retreat. If you photograph from the same viewpoint, you end up with repetitive images.
One concept I’ve had in mind after the first weekend was to catch a high flying player in isolation (or maybe with a second player) going up for a layup, dunk or rebound against the backdrop of the student section. Unfortunately, GAC’s Trent Wiedeman missed tonight’s game so I was left without the tallest man on the floor. I was also short a few student’s in the student section as the school’s winter break started Friday.
I shot from the opposite end of the floor with the 300/f2.8. (more…)
A Big Win and an Equally Big Loss
Greater Atlanta Christian School took a big win in the Boys match up and a big loss in the girls matchup last Friday.
It’s Open: The Long Forum at Greater Atlanta Christian School
Saturday I worked the day’s events at Greater Atlanta Christian School. After starting the day with the Spartans Hall of Fame Inductions, followed by the crowning of the Homecoming court, I photographed a pair of Varsity Basketball Games.
The Long Forum is Greater Atlanta Christian’s new 3,000 seat multi-purpose arena. With video screens, real seating, high tech lighting the building is the ultimate in high school sporting facilities. Game day finally arrived after years of planning.
High School Basketball – Above the Rim
After the girls and boys teams both finished successful seasons, both teams entered the region tournament near the top of the brackets.
Play started Tuesday and Wednesday at home. I covered the girls game Wednesday evening and saw the Lady Spartans move on with a decisive victory over the Walker School (Marietta).
The semi-final and final rounds of the tournament were held Friday and Saturday at Pace Academy in Atlanta. Pace Academy has a great facility on their campus. Their gymnasium is built on three levels – the floor, a concourse for the seating area, and the third level an indoor track. Obviously I was drawn immediately to the third level as I expected it offered a view I don’t get very often in high school basketball.
From the third level, equipped with a 70-200 lens at the wider end, I was able to get an almost directly vertical view over the basket.
The benefits of this viewpoint are numerous and immediately visible. The first is that you get clean looks at the players faces when they go in for a layup, or up for a block or rebound. The second is the very clean background.
The third benefit is that this is a very rare view for high school basketball, so it’s very much a distinctive product. In pro and college arenas this shot is usually captured from the catwalks using remote cameras. In high school gyms, absent catwalks, it doesn’t exist.
Girls players on Friday night going for the rebound.
Crashing bodies Saturday night versus the Wesleyan school.
Saturday’s boys game (also against Wesleyan) with a little more isolation.
Three faces all watching to see if it drops (it did).
Portrait presentation gave me more isolation on a single player – and almost distorts the view more. While the others were shot with flash, this shot of a Pace Academy player was shot using the gym’s natural light.
Basketball in a Flash
After a month layoff after the end of the football season, Greater Atlanta Christian’s basketball’s regular season (for me, at least) started and finished in the course of one week.
On consecutive Tuesdays I shot a triple header of JV Boys, Varsity Girls and Varsity Boys games at GAC’s Bradford Gymnasium, first against Avondale and then against Decatur (both Region 6 AA Opponents).
Generally speaking, my lighting goal is to provide enough light to stop the action and help control the color (the natural light in the gym has a great deal of variability in intensity depending on location, as well as color differences under different lights).
My lens choice for basketball are one of three: 50/1.8, 70-200/2.8, or 300/2.8. I use the 300/2.8 primarily for action on defense in the far end of the court.
The near court action is captured either by the 70-200/2.8….
or the 50/1.8 to get a broader field of view.
