instaimage – Page 34 – Sports, Portrait & Event Photography in Northern Nevada

2013 Carson Douglas Baseball… Game 1 of 4…

The Mike Bearman Memorial Baseball Tournament concluded today… Carson hosted Douglas for their evening game… (previously scheduled at Reed…). As my normal fashion, I’ll leave the “reporting” to the newspaper guys… but Douglas won 11-1 in six innings…. This game concluded a two day double header each day tournament for each of the teams…

Here are some photos from the game… (more “follies” at the bottom of the post…)

Nolan didn’t even flinch… so much so that at first I didn’t know exactly what had happened… he was trotting off to first, I had to check the photo… 🙂With six more scheduled home night games for the Senators I’ve got some work to do on getting the white balance “right”… I’m not happy with it… so stay tuned… if you’re not familiar with what white balance is… Your camera is making a decision as to what “white” is… for the most part, Auto White Balance works pretty well… but the lights on the field can cause a great deal of variety of color and temperature of the colors… so the photos can come out looking different that what we might think it really looks like… there are in camera adjustments that can be made as well as software adjustments after in the computer… I like getting it “right” in camera… Next Thursday is the first of the six home night games… I’ll be working on it. 🙂

2013 Carson High Varsity Baseball vs. Elko

First home game… first win of the season for the Senators and for new Head Coach Manoukian! They continue their season on the road tomorrow at Reed High for the Mike Bearman Tournament. (There is a chance that they’ll play Douglas at home Saturday evening (5) instead of at Reed…)

Here’s a few shots from the game today… see below for my photographer follies…. 🙂

Chase… takin’ one for the team…Was he out? Was he safe?
Two big plays happened in the game that were “memorable”… Luke “powering” through the catcher… which I did “get” but all were blurry (beyond keeping blurry…)… (keep reading…) and this dive by Gehrig… which is also blurry… but this one not near as much… so… how does this happen?

130307_Carson_instaimage_Baseball_Flying Tucker

Yes, we have these new fancy cameras with VERY good auto focus… if they’re so great why does this happen? Several factors can be involved… the camera I’m shooting with will shoot 12 frames per second. The autofocus can and does keep up with that… meaning that in-between those 12 frames per second it is in fact trying to focus. Here’s the autofocus “overlay” of the shot above.See the red square? See that it’s not “on” anything… that red square is where the camera is trying to obtain focus. I chose that point… the best way to try to get consistent results is to use just one point but the catch is that you need to get that point on the player… I missed… This play happened down the third base line… When the pitch was thrown I was kneeling down on the home plate side of the dugout, far enough back that I could not see this area… As I watched the ball go up, and saw Gehrig running for it, the only thing that went through my mind was a similar play that he made at the Galena scrimmage on Saturday… that I missed… so I jumped up, picked up the camera (which sits on a monopod due to weight…) and moved out to where I was clear of the players in the dugout and fired away… and I missed… so as “smart” as these cameras are, sometimes it just does what I’ve told it to do too well….

The situation with Luke was a bit different but also a very common “problem” that sports photographers run into… the camera can grab focus on things that pass in front of the action that you’re trying to shoot… It’s particularly bad in football and basketball… but when you’ve got plays at the plate and the ball being thrown around, all good teams will have players in backup positions… they have to get there somehow… and that’s what the camera can sometimes grab focus on… again, it’s so smart that it grabs focus on that point, it’s doing what I’ve asked… 🙂 … the life of an action photographer.

Join us at the Reno Aces Ballpark for High School Baseball

Click on the image to see it bigger… spread the word!

2013 High School Baseball Carson, Galena, Spanish Springs @ Galena… Scrimmage…

A FULL day of baseball for me today… three high school games… Nothing like jumping right into high school baseball season with three “scrimmage” games. Lots of action, lots of hours… 🙂

Here’s some of the action, check out more at the links for the schools on the side or under photo galleries.

I’ll start off with my favorite photo of the day… you can really see the grit flyin’ in there! … almost to the bag, almost in the glove… which one first… 🙂A special shout out to Ben and Family!! THANK YOU!!! This happens when you’re “over lensed”… if that’s a word… having too “big” of a lens but I still tried to get something… I’ve never shot at Galena before so it was certainly a learning experience! Late (… LATE) in the day this fella came up and showed THIS! My first real look and attempt at a side armed pitcher… kinda fun… check out the gallery for more of his “action”… Thought I’d try this and it worked…! I was shooting all the pitchers today with a 300mm lens… this pitcher was REALLY striding out and going very “low”… so I grabbed the 400mm and shot this! This is full frame… no crop, nada… fun stuff… in that photo geek kinda way. 🙂

Meet the 2013 Carson High Baseball Teams!

Get out and enjoy the games!! There are six home night games this year! (click on these to make them larger then right click to save to your computer desktop!)

The Varsity…The Jr Varsity…The Varsity Players…

2013 NIAA Northern Regional Championship Basketball… at Carson High

What a night for basketball! Carson High is an amazing place for basketball. I shoot there most often but you don’t really get a sense of the place until you get a packed house like Saturday night for the NIAA Northern Regional Championships… great fun!!

Scroll down for the boys… 🙂

The girls tipped off at 4:00 PM and the game was fast and furious… then Reno’s point guard, Gigi Hascheff put her mark on the game… 22 of Reno’s 65 points to be exact!

Reno’s 3rd/4th quarter 19-3 run sealed the deal…. Reno 65 Manogue 45 No question, Morse Burley Gym at Carson High is an AMAZING place for a basketball game when the place is packed… the fans chanting, the parents even at one point standing up to the cheers of the student section, what an amazing atmosphere… unfortunately for the Senators, Saturday night was the Hug Hawks night. Carson jumped out to an early lead but the SIGNIFICANT grind the Hawks put on defensively at the end the Senators couldn’t hold on. What a run by the Senators to end the season…

When you’ve covered a team all season, you try to come up with something new, some new angle, something… I’ve been waiting all school year for this shot (starting with volleyball…)… I LOVE being at an sporting event and hearing our National Anthem, to me, it’s one of the very best moments in sports in America. I’m sure it’s this way to other countries but this is a very special moment, particularly when I know we have friends on duty right now defending our Country so we can enjoy these games. This one’s for you Chris Wolfe….Look, it’s a bird, it’s a plane… it’s Brady showing us some action! 🙂 130216_Carson_instaimage_Boys Basketball_Superman My “behind the backboard” camera is at the east end (stage end…) of the gym… so I missed Carson’s big first half with the two remote cameras…

The second half Carson had to fight for every bucket… Alan here working inside… against two Hug defenders

In the category of “something different”… And then Sam Williams’ dunk in the first half… Three angles! (if you look by the scorers table you can see me in this first one…).Unfortunatlely, the camera that was IN my hands is the one that is out of focus for one angle. The good and bad of single point auto focus with cameras these days… the camera focuses so quick that it grabbed the blue curtain for the first few shots in this series (in the Hug High gallery…)… the other two cameras I lock the focus, so I set it and it doesn’t change….

Hug working their inside game….Good luck to the Reno Huskies Girls and the Hug Hawk Boys next week down in Vegas!

See you out at the courts next year! Thanks for an exciting season!

2013 Girls NIAA Regional Basketball Semifinals at Carson High

Put two more NIAA Northern Regional Semifinals in the books and get ready for two great Championships tomorrow!!

Bishop Manogue defeated defending Nevada State Champion Reed in the first game tonight and Reno defeated Spanish Springs in the second, Manogue will face Reno Saturday at 4:00 PM for the NIAA Northern Region Division 1 Championship (at Carson High).

Here’s a glimpse of the action from tonight… check out all the images in the galleries for each school. Isn’t there usually a “story” that goes along with a photo like this? 🙂 Manogue burned nearly two minutes off the clock with Kelly Lujan dribbling the ball, and at times standing on one foot… she’s really cleaning off her shoes for more grip on the floor… 🙂

2013 Boys NIAA Northern Region Basketball Semifinals… at Carson High

After two great semifinal games… the 2013 Boys NIAA Northern Regional Championship will see the hometown Carson Senators taking on the visiting Hug Hawks!

In front of a packed house…!!! I was expecting two great games… four teams to show up and put it all out there… and that’s exactly what I got! 🙂 Thank you fellas!! Check out more from each team in the galleries… here’s a few from the night…

Don’t think for a minute that McQueen just let Carson have a free basket!

I cover Carson a lot… this is my favorite photo of Matt Nolan… if you know Matt, you’ll understand why. To me this is just Matt being Matt… 🙂

A Carson High Cheerleader… with good reason to smile! They’re headed to the Regional Championship!
Galena had to fight for EVERY point against Hug… The Hawks were too much for Galena tonight. Mr. Sam doin’ his thing!

2013 Carson vs. Spanish Springs Basketball… NIAA 1st Round Playoffs…

The Lady Senators hosted Spanish Springs tonight for the first round of the NIAA Northern Region Championships… Spanish Springs cruised to a win 53-45.

All the remaining NIAA Northern Region Division 1 Basketball will be played at Carson High… the boys semifinals are Thursday, Feb. 14th and the girls semifinals are Friday, Feb 15th (5:00 PM and 7:00 PM tip offs). Both Championships will be Saturday (4:00 PM and 6:00 PM tip offs).

Here are a few shots from tonights game…

2013 Douglas vs. McQueen Basketball… NIAA Playoffs 1st Round…

As I sit here and watch the “social media” scene (particularly Twitter… the feeds trickling in…)… all my experiences come flooding back to me… championship seasons, lost games, “career ending games”… I’m very much reminded that all good things must eventually come to an end for some while others might march on toward the championship, only to have their season also eventually come to a close….

Douglas’ season came to a close tonight at home against a VERY good McQueen team. McQueen came to play, McQueen came to win… they laid it all out there tonight… you’ll see from some of the photos that I’ve got, Douglas had to fight for everything… and by the sounds of it, so did every other Division 1 team in Northern Nevada! The scores were incredible! Carson over Spanish Springs 38-37 (super low score, like the Carson Douglas game last week… and won in the last seconds…), Hug squeaks by Damonte with a last few seconds bucket 62-60. Galena beats Reed 64-60… and McQueen, with 4.5 seconds left takes one from Douglas at home 60-59. Going to be VERY interesting Thursday night at Carson High for the Semifinals!!

… on to the photos from tonight… McQueen making it tough in all but the very last photo here… and in that one they’ve still got someone at least around just to make sure… contesting everything, hands in the face (at least…), they REALLY pushed Douglas tonight and made them earn everything. The Carson McQueen matchup on Thursday should be a very interesting one… 🙂