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!
Defensive Baseball
When your feature team is getting no-hit, there’s far more time to focus on the defensive game and work additional angles in the field and for the pitcher.
Buford’s Heddinger Throws No-Hitter
Buford Junior Josh Heddinger through a no-hitter against AA rival Greater Atlanta Christian School Friday. Heddinger was perfect until giving up a fifth-inning walk.
The game was called after five according to GHSA rules for margin of victory. Buford prevailed 12-0.
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.
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.
Warm Ups are For Photographers, Too
This time of year, I make it a point to reach the field early for high school games to catch as much of the pre-game warm ups as possible. With sunsets around 7:20 PM this past week, getting to the field early meant catching the last rays of daylight (although cloud cover late Friday meant less sunlight than expected).
Warm-ups give me an opportunity to get pictures of players who may not see as much playing time, or whose positions are more difficult to get clear shots of in action – like receivers.
The Luxury of Daylight
Thursday night 9th Grade and Junior Varsity Football have long been two of my favorite sports to shoot. It’s been a combination of the abundance of light coupled with an increasing level of talent (versus Youth or 7th and 8th grade games). It gives me the opportunity to extend the 300/2.8 with the Canon 1.4x Teleconverter to 420mm and still be able to make the grade when it comes to shutter speeds.
This year Greater Atlanta Christian School is only fielding a 9th Grade team, and no Junior Varsity team so my Thursday football opportunities have been reduced.
Keeping it Clean
One of the challenges with High School Sports, and especially indoors ones – is keeping the background of the photo clean. A clean background, with minimal distractions helps ensure the viewer will quickly focus on the subject of the photo. Photographers have several tools at their disposal to help ensure a clean background.
Greater Atlanta Christian School’s Long Forum is now playing host to their Volleyball squad as well. The Lady Spartans faced off against Wesleyan last week in what has traditionally been a great match up of two very good volleyball squads. It’s a superb facility for a number of reasons – but for purposes of keeping clean backgrounds, the black seating (when empty) does a great job of helping to isolate the athletes jersey colors from the background (black uniforms not withstanding as you will see.)
Fall is Back: High School Football Week 1
Well, maybe it isn’t officially fall – but August 28th marked the first weekend of the Georgia High School Football season. 2009 is the fourth season of High School football at Greater Atlanta Christian School that I’m photographing on behalf of Martin Photography.
As the season gets started, I try during warm-ups to get some great isolation shots of players that can be hard to catch during the game. Senior Julian Horton (WR/DB) will be a major contributor for GAC again this season (even taking some direct snaps).
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.
The 300/f2.8 – the All Purpose Lens
While most photographers might say that a 24-70, or 50mm lens is their all purpose lens – let me make the case for the 300mm, f2.8 lens as the all purpose lens.
I’ve loved Canon’s version of this lens (and in particular, the Image Stablized version) since picking it up in 2007. It’s been a workhorse lens, seeing action in nearly every sporting event I’ve shot since.
And it has flexibility. In daylight, for field sports like soccer, I pair it with the Canon 1.4x teleconverter to give me the 420mm focal length that reaches out to, and beyond midfield for action.
Looking for Special Light
Beyond capturing great action, it’s always challenging to find the best light, and light that will help set off the subject from everything else in the image. It also brings variety to what is available showing a single athlete.
The sun moves across Greater Atlanta Christian School’s pitch from the spectator side to the bench side and then drops behind the trees. With the thin foliage of March, this lets the light filter through the trees. Take the right angle, and your subject is fully lit, and the background in the shadows.
Boys Soccer Takes a Win
The Spartans Boys Soccer team fared better against AAA St. Pius, taking home a victory.
Girls Soccer at St. Pius X
I’ve photographed a number of football games at Atlanta’s St. Pius X High School over the past three years, but this was the first time I was there for soccer. They have a great Sprint Turf articifical surface, which means no rain outs (or cancellations after rain).
This was an out of classification match up for the Spartans – St. Pius X plays in Georgia’s AAA classification and GAC in the AA. It meant the Spartans were a little overmatched and ended up losing 5-2.
During warmups I laid down behind the net on the turf and shot through the net, and the goalkeeper’s feet as players took shots on goal.
Early Spring Baseball
While it was only the seventh day of March, it’s not how I remember March being for Baseball. Greater Atlanta Christian School welcomed Chamblee High School to Hester Field on GAC’s Norcross campus in temperatures in the mid seventies and sunny.
I usually will start photographing baseball games by working isolation shots of the pitcher. It’s a quick start and gets some good material. There are two really clean views of the pitcher – from head on and from the side.
Northview Has a Very Good Lacrosse Program
Once a year, I seem to photograph the Greater Atlanta Christian Girls Lacrosse teams (both Varsity and Junior Varsity) playing North Fulton County’s Northview High School Titans. And the outcome is the same – domination of the Lady Spartans by the talented Northview Squad.
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.
Rivals in Any Sport
Greater Atlanta Christian School has had a strong Women’s Basketball program for the full three seasons I’ve been photographing the team’s games. The first year they won the AA State Championship game. Last year, they went to the state tournament. Both years, The Wesleyan School has been a tough opponent.
This year, Wesleyan moved down to A while GAC stayed in AA. That marked the end of the rivalry, at least for the games that count. Buford’s women’s squad, however, brought the same performance that Wesleyan has shown for the past several years.
This was the second Buford-GAC game I had photographed in the past month, although this time it was for the region 6-AA Championship. However, the outcome was the same – Buford defeated GAC. GAC took the second place trophy, and proceeds to the State Tournament as a #2 seed tomorrow.
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).
First Glimpse of Spring (Part II): Girls Soccer
I’ve mentioned before on this blog the Soccer season at Greater Atlanta Christian School is the spring equivalent of the football season. Both teams have proven to be successful over the years I’ve worked with Martin Photography at Greater Atlanta Christian School.
The Soccer Pitch has always proven to be a challenging venue, with it’s high treeline surrounding the field as well as the natural valley that the field sits in. However, early enough in the evening the light is really even across the entire field.
Senior Samantha Abrahart is a University of South Carolina signee.
First Glimpse of Spring (Part I): Lacrosse
Friday evening I had the opportunity to photograph three of Greater Atlanta Christian School’s spring Varsity teams. Although these are spring sports, the season for the Georgia High Schools Assosciation starts very early, in late February. And although we’ve had some warm weather, Friday definitely was not. Highs Friday were around fifty, but quickly changed as the sun started setting.
The Spartans Lacrosse program seems to be improving this year versus last. I only shot the first half of the game, but the Spartans lead at half time.
