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One of my favorite subjects to photograph
is high school play-off athletics. The players seem to put everything
they have on the line for a final, deciding game and that makes for great
photographs. The fans, consisting of mainly frenzied family and friends,
are nearly as excited as the players. The trick, of course, is capturing
that excitment and energy on film.
My assignment was to photograph two consecutive games, the Division
I and Division II high school girl's soccer section championship. Althought
I was shooting for the Sacramento Bee Neighbors newspaper, I was essentially
shooting for 3 different papers. With the exception of Davis High School,
each team fell under one of the nine zones of a Neighbors edition.
To make things interesting, I tried three angles. One was your standard
field-level perspective. Most of the images I turned in were from that
angle, shot with a 300mm lens with a 1.4x converter. In the first game,
I placed a camera with a 35mm lens on a mini-tripod right next to a goal
post. I operated the camera with a 50-foot electronic cable release while
shooting on the base-line. This is a total crap shoot; a photographer
can get lucky and action can happen such that its captured brilliantly
with the low, in-goal perspective. The more lilkely senario is the photographer
will end up with a roll of little players in the distance and the goalies
legs -- just like I did.
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The new crew of referees in the second game denied my request to
keep the camera next to the goal post. No good reason was offered,
just a "we don't allow anything near the goal" excuse.
So up I went. There was a riser that was on the other side of the
running track in this stadium. It offered me a decent high-angle
view of one of the goals. For the first half of the second game,
I tried my luck up there, hand-holding my lens and worrying of the
riser could hold myself and a parent with a video camera.
Ideally, I would have liked to shoot with about a 600mm lens or
longer from this angle. It definately has potential. The challenge
was to keep the lens steady. With no room for a mono-pod I had to
change my body angle with the flow of the play. The picture I turned
in from this angle is a little lose, but I think it still shows
the way Davis High School attacked the goal in the first half.
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Casa Roble's Sarah Healey (left) heads the ball
away from a Davis High School defender in Casa's 3-0 loss in the Div.
1 section playoff game on May 22, 1999. |
Ordinarily I would not turn in three pictures of headers, but its one
of the only plays in soccer where you can get in tight with the ball and
the players face in the frame. And since each was for a different Neighbors
edition, its legal.
| A dejected Kelsey Carlson, Casa Roble's
team captain, sits on the sidelines in the closing moments of Casa
Roble High School's 3-0 loss to the Davis High School Blue Devils
in the Div. I section finals on May 22, 1999. |
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| Casa Roble goalie Jessica Goins reaches
out to stop an attempt on goal by Davis High School in Casa's 3-0
loss in the Div. II section championship game on May 22, 1999. |
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| Rio Americano High School's Stephanie
Parker buries her head in her hands after Rio lost the Div. I section
championship to Folsom by a score of 2-1 on May 22, 1999. |
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| Rio Americano's Nicole Kraus gets a
hug from teammate Chelsea Lawson after Kraus scored RIo's only goal
in the Raiders' loss to Folsom High School in the Div. II section
championship on May 22, 1999 |
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| Rio Americano High School's Stephanie
Parker eyes the ball against Davis High School's Katrina Hale in Rio's
2-1 loss in the Div. II section championships on May 22, 1999. |
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