35th Athens Invitational – August 21, 2010
≈Dennis Murray Photography was on-site at the 35th Athens Invitational Soccer Tournament in Athens, Georgia to provide action photography to participants.
All photographs posted represent only proofs of the final product. All will be cropped and color corrected prior to printing or digital file presentation for best quality.
A variety of sizes are available, as well as Digital Image Collections. Digital Image Collections contain all of an athlete’s photographs from the tournament presented on disc with a custom printed cover. Digital Image Files are at original resolution, without watermarking, suitable for reprinting at any size.
For assistance in finding the best of your athlete, please contact Dennis Murray.
Scoreboards
A good glowing scoreboard in the background? One of my favorite motifs that I reuse from sport to sport.
The Catch II
Following up on yesterday’s post, how great is the look of surprise on this young athlete’s face?
Soccer, No Vuvuzelas
Looking back over my work from the spring, I found a couple of photos from Greater Atlanta Christian School’s playoff match against Eagles Landing Christian Academy. Good action, no vuvuzelas.
I’m also pleased to announce I’ll be working with the Athens United Soccer Association (Athens, Georgia) this fall to photograph games during their three tournaments this fall. More details to come on this relationship and the events!
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!
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.
Spec Racer Ford 25th Anniversary Celebration
April 9th and 10th was the Spec Racer Ford 25th Anniversary Celebration at Road Atlanta. I was at Road Atlanta as a Contributing Photographer for SportsCar Magazine, the Official Magazine of the SCCA.
I set out to photograph the day’s events with many concepts and themes in mind to help give shape to the magazine’s coverage of the event.
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.
Here Comes Trouble
What do seventy-three of the closest racing, most competitive cars in Road Racing look like charging towards a green flag?
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.
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.)
Back Outdoors!
Last week was not only the official start of Spring, but was also what I mark Spring with: returning to Outdoors sports after several months of indoor sports. My first assignment this spring was back to Greater Atlanta Christian School to photograph a Boys’ and Girls’ Soccer doubleheader.
Boys Slam it Home
Following right behind the path the Varsity Girls had blazed, the Boys stormed out quickly to a big lead against 6-AA Avondale and won 93-35.
Girls Basketball: Off and Running
Friday night Greater Atlanta Christian hosted regional opponent Avondale High School for a Region 6 AA match up. From the first tip, Greater Atlanta Christian started the game with the normal press defense and quickly mounted a big lead. By the half, GAC was leading 51-6.
Finding Artistry in the Pool
In my second outing for swimming this year, I wanted to find some of the beauty of the sport.
In this example, I used the 300mm lens. At the right distance, it compresses items and makes them appear closer together – in this case, making the lane dividers appear stacked.
Wait for the Reaction
In some events where the action makes for less than compelling photos – like 50 meter freestyle swimming heats – the reaction shots are better than the action.
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
Good Light
It seemed like every week of the season was either rainy or overcast. On the last weekend before the Lanier Bowl – finally had that elusive “Golden Hour” game.
Getting Sideways
So much time in sports is spent photographing subjects vertically. There’s good reason for it – the subjects in sports spend a lot of time running, and in some sports are using their feet. In football, however, there’s a lot of action that happens only from the waist up – so in my mind it makes great sense turn the camera back to horizontal and shoot very tight on the upper bodies of players on opposite sides of the ball.
In this case, the wider view (horizontally) allowed me to see the defender trying to wrap up the ball carrier – where as a vertical of this shot, from the same position on the field would have lost the contact except for part of either.
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
Four Looks for Swim
Swimming is a challenging sport to cover. Held indoors under usually dim lighting, with the added difficulty of constant splashing, the photographer is challenged to find the swimmer’s face and freeze the motion. The photographer needs to think more conceptually in some cases to find the best images. The techniques can vary based on stroke.
Backstroke: Waiting for the start
Backstroke actually has an advantage in the pool – the swimmer is face up, with light falling directly on their face and usually swimming at a slower pace. However, a great photograph can be found at the start – with the swimmers anticipating the start. There’s great repetition that helps frame and isolate my subject.
