NCAA College Football – Aug. 30, 2012 NAU at ASU

There are some general guidelines on how to photograph college football, but sometimes you just need to be lucky.

I know, I know nobody likes to read too much text so I’ll use fewer words and more images for everyone out there with attention deficit disorder (ADD). Also, just so you know, NAU is Northern Arizona University, and they are the Lumberjacks and ASU is Arizona State University and they are the Sun Devils.

30 August 2012: Arizona State Sun Devils WR Rashad Ross (15) completes a 50 yard reception against the NAU Lumberjacks during the PAC-12 season opener at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

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With youth sports images, does quality make a difference?

Almost all of the modern digital SLR cameras available today will make reasonably good photos even in the worst of conditions, so does the quality of an image really a determining factor in your purchasing decisions?

With today’s digital cameras almost anyone can stand on the sidelines of a high school football game and come away with some reasonably good photos and for many high school football games there are several moms, dads or students on the sidelines with decent digital cameras. Many of the people taking pictures from the sidelines have no training in either photography or specifically capturing good sports images, but does that really make a difference?

These days it seems most of the photographers on the sidelines of a high school football game are either a parent of one of the players on the team or a student attending one of the schools so I’m going to have to assume that is their reason for being on the sidelines.

When I was in high school and just learning photography we would photograph our high school football games either for the yearbook or for the school newspaper, things were much more complex back then when we shot film. First not everyone had a camera and everybody shot everything in black and white film. The reasons we shot black and white film were three-fold, we could develop the film at the schools photo lab, printing color images in the yearbook or school newspaper was very expensive, and lastly we could “push” the film speed to deal with the poor lighting conditions on the fields. Those days are long gone, with easy access to low-cost highly capable digital cameras that don’t require any background or instruction in photography almost anyone can take pictures at a high school football game, and they do.

Shooting high school football at night can be very challenging due to the poor lighting conditions so the first thing most mildly experience photographers do is increase their ISO, and for the photographer that doesn’t understand things like ISO and shutter speed the camera will take care of most of those settings for you. One of the problems with shooting high, or very high ISO night football is the grainy images – back in the film days we would call images grainy, today we call them noisy – higher ISO images tend to be noisy and have a lot of deep shadows inside the helmets making it almost impossible to see the player’s face or eyes. One way to deal with the poor lighting conditions, deep shadows and lack of face/eye detail is to shoot with a flash, not the built-in flash that pops up on top of your camera, but a dedicated hot-shoe flash, sometimes referred to as a speed-lite or strobe.

Shooting flashed football with strobes or a speed-lite requires an entirely different skills set from shooting your typical ambient light night football game. The complexities of shooting flashed football are extensive and range from where you mount your flash to how you trigger it so let’s not go into the details of that and focus the discussion on the quality differences and if they are a determining factor in your purchasing decisions.

Some examples of the quality and “look” of flashed football.

With flashed football you can clearly see the player’s face and eyes, the colors are brighter and the grain or noise is very low.

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Friday Night Lights — High School Varsity Football

Friday night high school football is a time-honored tradition that I can remember from way back when I was in high school. I love photographing football, and the challenges that come with making meaningful photographs at a high school football field.

I’m not going to post a ton of images, but I will link to the MaxPreps website gallery for this game in case you wanted to purchase prints, posters, t-shirts or any of the many options available from MaxPreps. You can find images from the Aug. 24, 2012 Marcos de Niza at Notre Dame Prep Varsity Football game on the MaxPreps site.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the game, and remember to contact me for custom graphic poster options, like the samples shown here.

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Insight Bowl 2011 – Iowa Hawkeyes vs Oklahoma Sooners

OK, I know this wasn’t billed as the contest of the century or a battle of titans but you would think the game would provide some good football action, I mean after all this was the Oklahoma Sooners an explosive team for sure and the Iowa Hawkeyes. On paper the game looked to be an exciting contest, but down on the field stuff just sort of seemed a bit lackluster.

December 30 2011: Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback James Vandenberg (16) drops back to pass during the Insight Bowl between the Big Ten Conference Iowa Hawkeyes and the Big 12 Conference Oklahoma Sooners at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. The Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 31-14.

To see more great football images from the 2011 Insight Bowl click the more link below:

NCAA FOOTBALL: SEP 09 Missouri at Arizona State

Yea, more football. With the expected rain the photo room at the stadium was all a buzz, would it rain? Would it rain enough to make mud? Or would it rain just enough to get our gear wet and be annoying? The question was not really IF it would rain, but WHEN it would rain and how much. This being Phoenix Arizona most of the photographers, including myself, don’t have rain gear, after all it doesn’t rain much here and rain gear is expensive.

You can see the rain in this first shot, not enough to make mud, but enough to get our gear wet AND be annoying. Before the game I broke out the plastic bags and tape for my two cameras and put the baggies taped to lens hoods in my pack just in case. It turns out they were helpful.

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NCAA FOOTBALL: UC Davis Aggies at Arizona State Sun Devils

It’s college football season and around here there are a bunch of new names and faces to contend with. Arizona State has new uniforms and a new starting quarterback, as well as a bunch of new and returning students.

Let’s bring the Head Coach Dennis Erickson and the rest of the players out onto the field.

They always pump this fog machine up so the players can come running out of the tunnel and the fog, the problem is the fog lingers at ground level for almost the entire first half of the game and makes getting decent images somewhat difficult.

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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.

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Arena Football, a few season favorites

Arena football is a very fast-paced exciting game. The fans get a real up-close view of the action and almost any seat in the house is like a sideline pass to some great football action, yet arena football is not as popular as it could be. I wonder if Getty Images or U.S. Presswire carried some images from the game or more images appeared in Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine or other national sports magazines, it would be just a little bit more popular?

Watching the Utah Blaze QB Tommy Grady (10) drop back to pass with all the offensive and defensive linemen around him is classic arena football action at it’s best.

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Arena Football action – Milwaukee Mustangs at Arizona Rattlers

I love Arena Football, it’s fast-paced action and smaller field let the fans get closer to the action and intensity.

An image like this one of the player in the huddle can make the viewer feel as if he or she is right down there on the field next to those players.

Click the more link below to see additional images from the Arena Football League Milwaukee Mustangs against the Arizona Rattlers.

AFL: Arena Football League – Jacksonville Sharks at Arizona Rattlers March 12, 2011

Opening night. The first game of the season for Arena Football League and the Arizona Rattlers!

I enjoy covering arena football, it’s challenging to photograph because of the lighting conditions, but a very exciting game and I hope more fans come out to support these great events.

Jacksonville Sharks Aaron Garcia (8) drops back to pass during Arena Football League action between the Jacksonville Sharks and the Arizona Rattlers at U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix Arizona. The Rattlers defeated The Sharks 55-52.

See more arena football images by clicking on the more link below.