It’s Football Season Again!

I had a great day shooting two football games last Saturday.  The first  was Aquinas at Big Bear where I got to shoot prep football by daylight.  It’s always seemed to me that preps was something you shot with flash, or by car headlights, or when the action just happened to run through the brightest part of the field even if getting an image suitable for publication meant developing your film in steaming hot developer for 30 minutes.  It was a treat to shoot at ASA 200 and get great color and action.  I was astonished to see what kind of shadow detail I got shooting in daylight at a lower ISO rating.  Color balance set for normal resulted in a Velvia on steroids look.

I’m very happy with the results from some new equipment but miss the specialized tools I had at my disposal in the past.  I prefer to stand off a bit further ahead of the line of scrimmage and get more opportunities to isolate action on a cleaner background.  A second camera with a shorter lens would be nice too.

Admittedly I was spoiled before with great gear and so now will need to make do with what I have as I build my own kit.  But a good photographer can make pictures with whatever camera is at hand and great subject matter is what counts.  Great action and passion for the game is exactly what these high schoolers delivered.