2012 Fun in the sun — UCLA Bruins vs ASU Sun Devils

All year the photographers that cover sports here in Arizona hope and pray for the sun drench day games when the year’s ASU football schedule is released, and when it is released we review it with nervous anticipation in hopes that there will be at least one, and if we are lucky two games that don’t take place at night under the lights.

All around the world great sports photography is produced where golden sunlight and beautiful color is the norm, but due to the summer time temps here in Arizona most of our sports photography is at night or indoors, and that can make capturing the kinds of images that make it into printed magazines a challenge. With so many of the sporting events taking place at night you can’t rely on that golden sunlight to give your images that extra “pop.”

It turned out this year’s game against the blue and gold of the UCLA Bruins was going to be a day game and, I for one was very excited for the day-game opportunity.

The light before the game on the Sun Devils marching band looked fantastic as it bounced all around the stadium.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup practice – stalking the garage

During this years NASCAR race weekend activities I vowed to produce images that were somewhat different from what I had typically produced in the past, which was clean shots of cars on track. Having said that, most of my time was spent hanging out in the garage area and looking for interesting photographs of the drivers or crew’s preparing the cars for qualifying and racing action.

02 March 2012: Matt Kenseth (17) waits in his car before a practice session for the SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500 Sprint Cup Series Race at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

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NASCAR Nationwide Series – Trying something completely different

This post is from the March 2, 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series practice session at Phoenix International Raceway, and when I say “trying something completely different” I mean slow, sloooooooow shutter speeds. For me it was about trying to get something that looked a bit different from what you see from these sessions and I’m not talking slow shutter speed panning shots where the car is in focus but the background is blurred, but super slow speed shutter speed panning shots where almost the entire image is a mass of blur and color.

02 March 2012: Denny Hamlin (18) takes hot laps during a practice session for the running of the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 Nationwide Series Race at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale Arizona.

Most of these shots are taken at shutter speeds between 1/8th of a second and 1/12 of a second, some are blurred more than others and some work better than others. I found that shooting at f22 or f32 on a bright sunny day showed every dust speck you could possibility imagine on my sensor so there was a fair bit of Photoshop dust clean up that had to be done.

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Phoenix Fashion Week – Wed. & Thurs. – The Disappointment and Shame

And now for something completely different, runway fashion shows. I like to mix it up a bit so when the Phoenix fashion Week shows are presented I usually enjoy covering them. It turns out there were a number of issues with this years shows.

To see more of my coverage of the Phoenix Fashion Week runway shows click the more link below.

Hot sun, hot fun, sweat and dust at another weekend of Lucas Oil Off Road Series racing

The Lucas Oil Off Road series racing crew rolled into Surprise Arizona for round 11 and 12 of this fun-filled, hot, dusty action at Speedworld, and I was lucky enough to be there to try to capture the intensity and excitement.

I love covering LOORS (Lucas Oil Off Road Series) racing, although it’s tough on camera equipment, lots of dust and dirt, as well as hot, bright sun and sweaty, sunscreen covered faces pressed into the viewfinder and on the LCD screen.

To see more hot sweaty images from the weekend’s racing, click the more button below.

ArenaBowl XXIV Media Day

The Arena Football League final championship game is called . . . yea, you guessed it, ArenaBowl! and this is the 24th ArenaBowl  game, hence the post titled, of all things ArenaBowl XXIV. Before we can get to the game action we have to have the big press conference media day! Basically a press conference in a hotel conference room where the Arena Football League Commissioner, the two teams head coaches’ and the players all stand up and tell us who’s going to win.

Let the show begin.

Jacksonville Sharks quarterback Aaron Garcia (left) and Arizona Rattlers quarterback Nick Davila pose for the media during a press conference for the Arena Football League ArenaBowl XXIV.

Click the more link below to see the rest of the images from the ArenaBowl XXIV press conference.