Lakota West At Oak Hills

West traveled to Oak Hills on the 11th for some soccer games. Both the JV and Varsity teams were playing. I remember this being the first night I regretted not putting on bug spray. I made sure I through some in the car when I got home that night. All the teams played hard with West getting the victory. I included a bunch of images this time. Enjoy.

You know I love getting the keeper saves.

Managing to keep the ball inbounds.

Varsity game starts here.





Thanks for running towards me under the lights so I could get this image.

Portrait Session

I got to do a portrait session on a Monday night. I have photographed this family before and was looking forward to another session with them. We even got lucky and the night was not too hot and we even had a little cloud cover. Here are a few images from the session. Thanks for allowing me to photograph you guys again this year!

Make a funny face.


An action collage.

Ursuline Academy At Oak Hills

This was the second time I got to cover the Ursuline teams and the varsity Oak Hills team. I love covering teams for second time because I get a better feel for how the players play together. I am almost always at a game 25 minutes early to watch the teams warm up to try to get a feel for them but it is not quite the same thing. The forecast called for rain and looking at radar I was a little worried these games might be played in some heavy rain. Gathering all my rain gear I headed out. On the way there I drove through a really heavy downpour. The cars on the highway were going about 30mph with flashers on as everyone tried to see. I was regretting my choice of taking my car instead of my truck. Luckily that downpour did not hit the field. While the JV game had some sprinkles the Varsity game was dry. Because of the clouds the lights were on by the end of the JV game which had me a bit worried for the Varsity game. I moved around a lot in the first half trying to capture as much as I could because I knew by the second half I would be limited to photographing whatever action came into the lighted parts of the field. I think you will be able to see the difference in lighting from the JV and Varsity games below.

Eye on ball. She is so good at trapping the ball, I was happy to get a clear shot like this.

Ball on foot.
I little tugging.

Here is the start of the Varsity pictures.
Ouch!

Below is how the image came out with the lighting.
I played a bit and got rid of some of the noise - I know this is not the true image so it bothers me to make that big of a change to an image and call it "true".

Elder at Oak Hills Football

I am finally posting the images I promised from the football game on September 7th. I always get the proofs up on my site within 24 hours but blog posts fall towards the bottom of my list sometimes. The amount of people who showed up for this rivalry was amazing. I actually had a lot of trouble trying to get to spots to photograph the game without getting in the way of fans and other photographers. My goal is to not interfere with fans watching and event and stay out of other photographers pictures. I respect other photographers and hope that will lead to respect for me as well. Even if they are my competition I do not deliberately do anything to cause them to not do their job. I think competition helps me grow as a photographer and I love talking to others before games. Yes, I am babbling so I will stop and let you enjoy some images from the game.

The band performs before the game.

Stretching for the loose ball.

Looking for his receiver.

East vs West

For those of you who live in the Lakota school district you know what a game between Lakota East and Lakota West means. The turnout of support for both teams from the students was pretty large for a girls soccer game. This battle took place on September 4th on East's field. The varsity game ended in a 2-2 tie. Images below are from the JV and Varsity games.

A powerful throw-in.

I love when the action happens right in front of me.

Eye on the ball.

One of many battles all over the field.

Saturday Soccer

A triple header of soccer occurred on September 1st. The Oak Hills freshmen and varsity boys teams played Elder and the girls varsity team played Seton. It was a great day for soccer. Games started in the afternoon and finished at night. Instead of 3 different posts I picked 2 images from each game to show.

Freshmen game was first.

Girls were next.
I like how each player is concentrating on their tasks. One attempted to move the ball up the field and the other intent on stopping that from happening.
Finished with the boys varsity game.

Nice height on the vertical!