Another Basketball Game

After the swim meet on the 5th I stopped in the gym to watch some of the girls basketball games. Caught the end of the JV game - another victory. I decided to photograph the Varsity game kind of last minute. Since I was there at kind of the last moment I decided to shoot a little differently. I was looking for more expressions\concentration shots and not necessarily the height of action. Since I rarely get to talk to my sports clients face to face I do not always know what kind of pictures they are looking for ahead of time so I am trying to go to a few games and provide a wide variety of images. The first and second picture below are the same image but the second one is black and white. I would love to hear any comments on the images below and if people like the black and white idea for sport images.

Getting ready for the tip

In black & white

Some defense

A steal

Concentrating on the free throw

A performance of the Oakettes a half-time

Swim Meet

For those of you who have read earlier posts I have talked about lighting and how it isn't always that great in the high schools. The swim meet I went to on Tuesday was one of those cases. Very dark even to the eye. The darkness did not bother the swimmer or divers though. Lots of cheering and some chants. Because of the lighting I did not get as many shots as normal but here are a few to share.

Off the block

Butterfly
A practice dive
Grabbing some air

Third Game

The third and final game of the night was the Varsity game. You can tell these girls have played together for awhile. It was there during warm-ups and carried right on through to the game. Like normal, below are some of the images from the game.

Posting Up

Almost an uncertain look on a tough shot
Looking for the open player
Surrounded by D and still getting off the shot
Deep breathMy rebound!

Second Game

Below are some images from the second game last Saturday night. The Junior Varsity team also won. They have a very quick team and there were times I wanted to put down the camera and actually watch the game. One thing people do not realize is that as a photographer you see a game through your viewfinder but you do not actually get to "watch" the game. Even during warm-ups you kind of scout the players and see how they interact with people. Course once you know the teams you can relax a little more during warm-ups. Hope you enjoy the images.

A shot with a late block attempt.

A block from behind but that arm in the back is not a good thing.
Another jumper.
One of many layups that game.

Freshmen Basketball

Here is the first game I photographed last Saturday night. The Oak Hills freshman team was pretty dominant against Hamilton High. Lots of hussle and some great expressions. It is nice being indoors on cold days but lighting is almost always a problem in high school gyms. While it may seem bright enough to watch the game trying to capture it without lots of blur can sometimes be a challenge. Luckily for me they have recently changed their lightbulbs so it was relatively bright. By the end of the season I will not be saying the same thing.

Love the expression! I did this a lot when I played as well.

Great defensive stance.
A contested shot.
A little foul shot sequence.

Christmas Pictures

This family was nice enough to wait until I got back from vacation to schedule their Christmas session. I had a great time. The children were so much fun. We had great natural light coming through the windows so I only had to use limited fake light. It was a challenge to make sure the girl didn't crawl away too fast or climb up to a point where she would fall. Thanks to my 2 spotters that helped me out. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them.

The little girl was full of smiles.

Not to be outdone the boy was all for big laughs

We did do a little "thinking" time

And a little treat during a break.

Loves ornaments.

One together, even managed to get mom in the reflection

Busy Weekend

To make up for my vacation I had a very busy weekend. Two portrait sessions and three basketball games in 2 days! Today I get to put the camera down and finish up all the proofs. Check back later this week for some images from all the events.

Paris for Thanksgiving

A friend of mine found a great deal on Expedia for a trip to Paris France during Thanksgiving. I got excited about it and managed to convince my husband that it would be fun to go. (really didn't take that much) So just over a month ago we bought package to go to Paris for the weekend. Left on Thanksgiving day and returned on Monday. It was a whirlwind trip but a lot of fun. We walked all over the place. We would take the train in the morning to a starting point and just walked our way back to the hotel. We saw everything we planned to see and still had time to wander off the main roads. Below are a few pictures from the trip.

Of course the Eiffel Tower

View from the top of the tower
Walking into the Louvre
Venus de Milo
A row of artifacts
I liked this one because of the 2 different materials used
Details of stain glass inside Notre Dame
One of several amazing array of stain glass inside Notre Dame

Light Painting

As a photographer I like to challenge myself to learn new techniques. This helps me grow as a photographer and also gets rid of the potential for burnout. I first heard about Light Painting at the workshop I attended back in June. It was something I wanted to try but never found the time to do it. You need darkness to do it so that limits the timeframes available to me. Since I'm inbetween some of the sports seasons I regularly photograph and most of my portrait work for the holidays is wrapping up I found some free time this morning. I decided for my first attempt I would just go down to my basement and see what I could produce. One of these days I want to go outside late at night but I should probably warn the neighbors first so when they see somebody out there with lights that keep going on and off and moving they know what is going on. While what I practiced with this morning aren't the most interesting things I definitely learned a lot and am looking forward to my next try.

I stacked up some beer my husband had to give me a practice subject.

A little more light this time in different areas.
I decided to outline the M in my Michigan flag.

A Quick Note

I just wanted to let everyone know that if you want pictures in time for the holidays I would recommend ordering by December 10th for photographs and December 3rd for specialty items. Everyone becomes busy during the holidays which includes me and my lab. If you are looking for a particular sporting event and cannot find it on my ordering site let me know and I will reload it. I try to only post an event for a limited amount of time but I am able to re-post them if necessary.

A Very Cold Session

What could be a better time to do an outside portrait session than when it is 37 degrees outside! This family is very brave to stick with their scheduled session given the chilly temperature. We met at 10am on a Sunday morning to take some pictures which were hoping would be a warm day. Since my clients weren't wearing coats I thought I would suffer with them too and left mine in the car. Aside from some cold hands it didn't seem that bad until I got back to my car and realized just how cold I was. After stopping for some coffee to warm myself up afterwards I was fine for the rest of the day. Hopefully this family warmed up just as quickly.

A happy brother and sister moment.

A quick picture before they became unbalanced.

The entire family smiling bravely in the cold.

Because I wasn't cold enough I went back out to take a few pictures of this barn.

This is the kind of pictures you get when you do not turn your camera off and hit the button while walking. That is my shoe in the upper part of the image.

The Proposal

I was fortunate enough to attend a surprise party for my soon to be new sister awhile ago. At the surprise party for her my brother (technically brother-in-law) proposed. She was so surprised! Even better, she said yes. They are a great couple and I am looking forward to their wedding. Thanks for inviting me to the party and thanks to my new sister for saying yes to even up the family a little :)

Down on one knee

The opening of the box

The happy couple after she said yes

On the phone with her parents

Talking to his new father-in-law

A little update

It has been a little while since I updated the blog so I thought I would do that tonight. Been off and on busy the past few weeks. Finally got over my cold which forced me to miss a few events. Apparently I'm not the only one who has suffered through a cold recently as a client had to cancel because of some sickness as well. The weather didn't help me out either for a little while. I did make it to a youth football game where the wind was a steady 20mph with gusts much stronger. That was a pretty cold night. I've also been working on some presents for clients which of course I cannot post. I did include a copy images below. The first one is from a portrait session I had yesterday. I always take a couple test shots when I get to the location. I wasn't even trying for anything interesting but got this one which my husband liked so I thought I would share. The second one was a quick shot taken during a football game last weekend. With fall you normally get some great evening skies. Between plays I took a quick shot of the sky. Thanks for looking.