Playing catch up with some NCAA College Basketball from December of 2011

I realized I had not posted any college basketball from this season and I’m sure some sports fans are missing college basketball with March Madness being finished and the Final Four all but a distant memory. It’s hard to pay attention to college basketball when the team you cover is consumed by player’s behaving badly, so much so that they are tossed off the team, the rest of the team not playing well and the fate of team being placed on the shoulders of a single player to carry the team to victory ever week. To top off all that the team plays a bunch of teams no one has heard of or, sadly cares about. What can you do?

17 December 2011: Durrell Norman (34) of the Lumberjacks tries to push inside against the ASU defense during an NCAA Basketball game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe AZ. The Lumberjacks beat the Sun Devils 69-68.

I loved this picture because I could hear the flesh hitting the solid defender’s chest and see the sweat fly off the player’s face as the two crashed together. Although cutting off the defender’s head kinda makes it a fail. Oh well, I never said I was that good of a photographer and I know I still have a lot to learn.

To see more of the hard-hitting action 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.

See the rest of the game story and more of my images by clicking the “more” link below.

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.

To see more shots from the game click the more link below.

NCAA Basketball: November 20, 2010 University of Alabama-Birmingham at Arizona State University

It doesn’t seem like there are many NASCAR fans out there, at least they aren’t looking for my blog posts related to NASCAR racing. With that in mind I’ll post some College hoops action. This was the home-opener for the Arizona State University Sun Devils and the first time since last season that I have shot basketball, so my skills are a little bit rusty.

I felt like I was having one of those games where the referees are always standing right in front of me and blocking my shots, so I guess I picked the wrong spot on the baseline to shoot from. You would think I would have figured it out by not.

This turned out to be the shot I liked the best because of the emotion and expressions on the players faces. Aaron Johnson (1) of the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers fights for basket under the rim.

See the rest after the jump.

NCAA College Football: OCT 30 Washington State at Arizona State

Oh yea, I just loves me some football, more so because the game started with some sunlight so I didn’t have to start off with 2500 ISO. At first that seemed like that would be the coolest thing since sliced bread, but no not really. Harsh, very bright sun with shadow areas that combined are outside the dynamic range of most digital camera’s sensors. Oh well, try to work with what ya got and being able to use long, slow glass could be fun.

Pump up the volume and let it rip.

Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Steven Threet (14) runs onto the field with the rest of the Arizona State Sun Devils at the start of the game. Sometimes you can get good shots of the players coming out of the tunnel with the smoke machines going full-bore behind them, and sometimes it just fills the field with a haze that makes shooting hard. This shot seemed to work for me, getting a shot of the starting quarterback running onto the field seems like a good idea.

As always, if you click the more link you will see more images from the game.

NCAA Division 1 Football: Portland State vs. ASU

I love football! Well, I also love Motorsports, like if football and Motorsports were my kids, I would tell them I love them both the exact same amount.

On with the show.

04 September 2010: Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Steven Threet (14) gets a play from the sidelines during a regular season game between the Portland State Vikings and the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Arizona State defeated Portland State 54-9.

See the rest of the story after the click.