Championship fever

Over the course of two days, I shot six Arkansas State High School Championship games in Baseball and Softball for Scorebooklive Arkansas. It was a bit of a grind to get the games shot and transmitted with little time between. Overall, I am pretty pleased with how my images turned out. I am still trying to find the right balance on my new 150-600 lens. It's still not quite as sharp as I would like for it to be. I shot with it on Thursday and although I did manage to get some nice frames, it's just not as sharp as my Nikkor 300 2.8 prime. I'll keep working with it though and get it dialed in.

I plan to do another blog post later with a recap of my spring to include racing and some images from the Barksdale air show. But, for now, here are some of my favorite selects from the two days of coverage. I won't comment on all of them, so please don't be too upset with me if I don't say anything about an image! :)

NIKON D4 1/1250, F7.1, ISO 800 MANUAL, NIKKOR 14-24 2.8

This was an amazing sequence of shots. I caught these Van Buren players performing a pre-game ritual that was absolute gold! I had no idea this was coming. Glad I was there to capture it. These kids were a blast to shoot!

NIKON D4 1/1250, F7.1, ISO 800 MANUAL, NIKKOR 14-24 2.8

NIKON D500 1/2000, F6.3, ISO 1600 MANUAL, SIGMA 150-600 SPORT

I have spoken before about symmetry in sports photos. Check out where the ball is located in this frame. Right in the middle of the two Van Buren players. Sometimes you just get lucky!

NIKON D500 1/2000, F6.3, ISO 1600 MANUAL, SIGMA 150-600 SPORT

The rain held off until late in the first game. It was pouring and the game was stopped briefly.

NIKON D4 1/1600, F4.8, ISO 640 MANUAL, NIKKOR 14-24 2.8

The dog pile at the end of the 5A state final was like a wrestling match. The kid on the right is in the area looking like he is coming off the top rope!

NIKON D4 1/3200, F2.8, ISO 400 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

You might say that this photo is the perfect balance. Check out her foot. She is perfectly balanced on it!

NIKON D4 1/3200, F2.8, ISO 400 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

Grip it and rip it!

NIKON D4 1/3200, F2.8, ISO 400 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

NIKON D4 1/1000, F4.8, ISO 400 MANUAL, NIKKOR 14-24 2.8

Sometimes it's all about being in the right place at the right time. I got lucky with this one!

NIKON D4 1/2500, F2.8, ISO 200 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

Woodlawn high school was a lot of fun to shoot. They showed a lot of emotion and that makes our job as sports photographers so much more rewarding to capture great photos of them really expressing their feelings during the game. As much fun as the Van Buren vs Jonesboro game was to shoot, this was my best game overall, in terms of the photos I was able to capture. I won't get into the details, but I was pissed off by something that happened before this game and I think that made me really focus on what I was doing! I will share several from this game.

NIKON D4 1/5000, F2.8, ISO 200 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

Getting a bat on a ball is challenging. Getting the timing perfectly takes some skill. I was able to get this really awesome photo of a Woodlawn player crushing this one!

NIKON D4 1/5000, F2.8, ISO 250 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

Check out the helmet and the ball. Again, interesting how symmetry is in play once again. Perfectly aligned!

NIKON D4 1/5000, F2.8, ISO 250 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

So much emotion! I love it!

NIKON D4 1/5000, F2.8, ISO 250 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

Always look for the interesting portrait shots. These kids do interesting things before they bat.

NIKON D4 1/5000, F2.8, ISO 250 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

Face paint is always a cool thing on players. Makes for really cool photos.

NIKON D4 1/8000, F2.8, ISO 250 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

Speaking of interesting things...this kid did this same little move with the ball before he would pitch.

NIKON D4 1/8000, F2.8, ISO 250 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

This kid from Bee Branch is a really talented left-handed pitcher. The AAA 110 pitch-count rule took him out of the game and that was unfortunate for Bee Branch because he really had Woodlawn stymied.

NIKON D4 1/2000, F2.8, ISO 200 MANUAL, NIKKOR 300 2.8

This was a really unfortunate play for Southside Bee Branch. The pitcher and the catcher collided forcing a dropped ball. Woodlawn scored to break a tie on this play.