Corner Kick
Photographers are always seeking to capture drama, conflict and tension in their photographs.
The field changes from being still and waiting to a battle in a matter of moments on a corner kick. (St. Pius X failed to convert this one for a goal.)
A Tale of Two Athletes – Part II
On the other end of the field, Senior Chris Thomas has been an impact player for his full career in a Spartans uniform. He will be playing at Elon next year as a result.
A Tale of Two Athletes – Part I
May 9th marked the third Boys Soccer State Championship match I had photographed Greater Atlanta Christian playing in. The result this time around was a victory for the Spartans.
It seemed a lot of the action and storylines of the game revolved around a pair of the Spartan Seniors, which I’ll profile in a pair of posts. The first was Senior Keeper John Max Bolling.
Westminster took an early 1-0 lead and the early part of the game was played with the Spartans in a defensive position against the attacking Westminster squad. With the action taking place on the defensive end, I worked several positions to help cover the game.
From the opposite end of the field, I had the opportunity to capture a goal kick and the defensive strategy employed to defend against Westminster. I kept my focus primarily on Boling as the offense and defense revolved around the goal.
Boys Soccer Takes a Win
The Spartans Boys Soccer team fared better against AAA St. Pius, taking home a victory.
First Glimpse of Spring (Part III): Boys Soccer
The February weather was in full effect by the 7:30 PM start time of the Boys Soccer match with The Walker School. Temperatures were in the forties and destined to be in the 30′s by the end of the game.
Regulation ended after eighty minutes with the teams locked at 1-1. Several rounds of penalty kicks later, Senior Chris Thomas scored the fourth and decisive goal to put away the victory (4-2).
Friday Night Lights, Spring Edition
Soccer is as close to a full-school gathering for athletics as Greater Atlanta Christian comes in the spring. While it doesn’t reach the levels that football does in the fall, it is a well-followed sport.
Friday night GAC honored the Seniors on the Soccer team, and took the field against Decatur in a pair of matches. Both teams handled their opponent well.
One of the harder parts of shooting soccer is the game flow is far more open than many sports (Football for example). The game quickly changes ends across a large open field. It makes covering all aspects of the game difficult.
I’ll usually work a rotation around the field – working from one end to the other along the end lines and the sidelines. Sidelines offer a different view of the game – you can watch the players working up the field, passing as they go. It’s also where the goal keeper’s kicks tend to land so it’s prime land for a header or other in-flight kicks.
Even so, working at the end line with a long lens and a high resolution camera gives you the ability to tighten up midfield action greatly with cropping.
Soccer Doubleheader
Spring means Soccer. Luckily, since the change to daylight savings time it also means more light later in the evening on the Soccer pitch.
As always, the evening started with a girls game. The girls get the benefit of at least half of the field in daylight, and a beautiful rim light when shot from the spectator’s side of the field.
Starting out in photography, most everyone fears shooting a backlit situation. It means generally that you have too much light coming into the camera and the faces will be shadowed. However, it is very manageable and has the positive effect of creating a nice rim light that helps separate subject and background.
The header is the king of soccer action shots. So much to it – in many cases bodies crashing into each other at great heights, and great facial expressions on the players.
The Boys’ later start has the effect of less light and needing to push to a higher ISO equivalent. However, you can still get good stop action early in the evening.
Another header from the Boys this time – with the Providence Christian Academy defender trying to crash the party.
