2011 Midway Football Services – How to Get Your Athlete Photographed
Photographs to capture your athlete at the peak of his performance, whether it’s their first year on the sidelines or they are a returning veteran are available as a service to Midway Football and Cheerleading families as well as other Forsyth County Youth Football families.
Step 1: REQUEST
In order to better serve interested families, I will only be photographing athletes upon request. To provide more choice in images to these families, I will not be photographing players who have not been requested.
Lucky Winner
Way back in August I donated a free action photography session to the Midway Wolverines Football Kick-Off Date. The lucky winners, the Bankston family, asked me to photograph their son Knight. Knight plays football at Liberty Middle School in Forsyth County.
Liberty took on Lakeview Middle School (also Forsyth County) in the match up. As with many Middle School games, it was a beautiful late afternoon start which meant great light throughout the game.
Knight plays offensive line. It’s unusual that you see Offensive Lineman pictures in newspapers or magazines – usually the “Action” of the game is more limited to the ball carriers. Look deeper – and there’s a lot going on at the line.
Scoreboards
A good glowing scoreboard in the background? One of my favorite motifs that I reuse from sport to sport.
The Catch
The difference between making the catch and not making the catch doesn’t matter – it all goes down the same in the box score.
Gunned Down at the Plate
It’s rare to see a real play at the plate in 9 year old Baseball, and even rarer to see them get the out!
The Moment Before Impact
What do you think goes through a six year-old hitter’s mind right before the ball hits the bat? Is he worried about whether he will make contact, where the ball will go, or what to do next? Is he running to first in his head?
Or are the team parents more worried, and it’s just a simple reaction to him?
Baseball Portraits
How do you make your 6 Year Old look like a star for his Baseball Portrait? Move beyond basic poses and spend more time in the portrait session than what a photo shoot with hundreds of kids allows.
During Spring break, my Son Aidan and I did some portraits in the setting sun at Midway Park.
Silly Bandz hit Cumming, Georgia
If you are a parent with kids in Forsyth County Public Schools, especially at the Elementary School level – you’ve probably seen, and tried to find Silly Bandz. It seems almost every kid is wearing them.
Volleyball Action and Portrait Photography Mashup
Among the team and individual photographs I completed last week for Prolink Atlanta Volleyball, I had some time to work with one of the fifteen year-old teams on some higher concept staged action photographs.
The concepts for these are still a work in progress and will be taken further in the future. My goals with the lighting was to help highlight the player as the subject, while reducing the background and improving the stop-action sharpness of the photographs.
The State of Youth Sports, 2009
Rather than follow a lot of the normal “End of Year” highlight packages you see on ESPN, or the “Year in Images” that Sports Illustrated created so long ago – I decided to summarize what’s great about youth sports…but in images only.
We’re # 1
Evasive Action
I thought this sequence of Sharon Springs War Eagles runner being pursued by a Midway Wolverines tackler had several great things working for it:
- Tight framing
- Great faces on the ball carrier
- A great backlight and rim light on the helmets
Giving Thanks
The last twelve months have proven to be an excellent development in my business, so with today as Thanksgiving – I needed to give thanks and pay tribute to those who have helped the development.
People and Communities
The Families of Forsyth County youth sports: For a year, you have taken an interest in my work, and invited me to photograph your children. I’ve worked every game like it’s the World Series, since I know for a lot of the kids it’s one of the biggest things going in their lives. For all of the faults that people can find with youth and high school sports – it’s still one of the best ways to pass time for kids.
The staff and families of Greater Atlanta Christian School: For more than three years you have welcomed me at athletic events and treated me as a member of your community. The school has a great spirit for it’s athletic teams, cheerleaders, and musical groups – from it’s student body right up through the parents.
You Make the Call
There’s no replay in Youth Football obviously – but if this was a play in the College or Pro ranks it surely would have come under review.
The ball carrier (white jersey) is apparently stripped of the ball near the goal line.
Detail of the hands and ball:
Another detail from the above frame – looks like the ball has changed hands:
Forward Motion
Football, like all other sports, is about bodies in motion. However, Sports Photography in many cases is about freezing a moment of that motion crisply. In some cases though, the motion of the athlete still comes through in the frame.
The Eyes Have It
I’ve always thought the eyes were very important in any sports image – it gives the best view of what is going on in the mind of the athlete. It’s why the photographs with the greatest impact always seem to have compelling eye contact with the subject.
Studio Portraits
As I blogged about last spring, I want to create unique portrait experiences for athletes that move away from the ordinary sports portrait that so many young athletes get.
I’m also now working on the studio experience – as the field of play is not always available, it makes sense to also provide a studio experience that has a twist versus the conventional sports portraits. I’m trying to do away with the well used looks and develop new ideas.
This is my son Aidan, who plays U6 Soccer at Atlanta Soccer Academy this fall.
The Big Catch
“Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it’s so incredible, it’s unbelievable.” – Tom Landry
How often do you see an over the shoulder catch of a downfield pass in a sixth grade football game?
Tools of the Trade: The Resolving Power of the 300/f2.8
My most commonly used lens for field sports is Canon’s 300mm f2.8 L-series lens. It’s white, a little more than a foot long including lens hood and the lens has a diameter of five inches.
The question I’m most frequently asked: How far can you see with that? How far isn’t always the most of the important aspect of this lens (there are many 300mm lenses on the market) but how clearly I can see it.
I was reminded of this while sorting Saturday’s photos from Forsyth County Youth Football. This frame is only slightly cropped, but is taken with a teleconverter that extends the lens to 420mm:
The amazing part being that my subject is running past me, and I can practically count his eyelashes:
It reminds me of the wasp that I saw from behind first base last spring at a softball game – that was buzzing the hitter:
Yes, those are the legs of the wasp hanging!
Gang Tackles
Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. – Vince Lombardi
