Posts Tagged ‘CHSAA’
A Couple From Sports Assignments Last Week
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
Its been a busy weekend with several wildfires (I’ll have an upcoming post about covering that in the future) and lots of scheduling conflicts. I am also in the middle of moving to much cheaper living arrangements due to the rising cost of, well, everything lately. So anyway, I apologize for the lack of my regularly scheduled updates. Here’s a couple from sports assignments last week.
High School LAX Opener
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
I posted a single from the LAX opener the other day. After looking at my full take, I decided that I should post a few more from the game. Enjoy.
Good Weather, Good Light
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
I am glad that spring sports kicked off this week. The weather was sunny and warm. The afternoon light was a nice change from the available darkness found indoors. It also feels really good to be sitting on the grass instead of a hard basketball court. LAX, track, soccer and baseball here I come.
Favorite Basketball Photos From the 2010/2011 Season
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
Basketball season has come to an end. All of the teams we cover have been eliminated from the playoffs. It was a long season. I must have shot 30 games this year. Out of those 30 games only a couple of them were not lit. My light kit (blogged about here) worked great for most assignments. Every year my timing gets better and I enjoy the challenge of lighting different gyms more and more. I have selected a few of my favorite pictures from this season. You can see a few more over at my sportsshooter.com member page here. Thanks for looking.
2011 CHSAA State Hockey Semi Finals
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
State hockey playoffs began last weekend. Out of the 8 schools I consistently cover, we have 3 with hockey teams, Columbine, Dakota Ridge and Chatfield. This year Chatfield made it to the second to last round of playoffs which took place at the Pepsi Center last Friday, February 25. I always enjoy shooting at the Pepsi Center. The security staff doesn’t get in my way, the WIFI is generally fast (and free) and the lighting is very good. To go on top of that there are “cutouts” in the glass at various locations throughout the rink that allow you to shoot through the glass with little to no affect on image quality. I wish our local rinks had these. It would make my job a lot easier (that and 50 lights instead of 10). I always like the overhead shots but for hockey I feel like being at ice level produces the best opportunities. I was somewhat inspired to post these after seeing this post on the FM forums which actually include some of the same plays from a different angle. To make a long story short, Chatfield was shutout, 3-0, by Lewis Palmer ending their playoff run. Even as one sided as the scoring was, it definitely made for a few great pictures. Enjoy.
2011 CHSAA State Wrestling: Day 3 Finals
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
After 2 days, only one of the schools in our coverage area had a grappler in the finals. Conifer High School’s Travis Himmelman wrestled Valor Christian High School’s Torey Welch in the Class 4A 145lbs final match. Much to my surprise (sarcasm) Himmelman, with a 37-1 record going into state, once again destroyed the competition and claimed a third state title in 4 years. It made for some good pictures and probably the cover of the High Timber Times this week.
Not everything was good throughout the weekend though. An increasing trend seems to be credentialing MWCs (moms with cameras) to state events. The sidelines were extremely crowded during the finals. Although I have only covered state wrestling for 4 years, I have never seen as many photographers as I did this year. I actually overheard “I’m just a mom with a camera,” that proved my suspicions about the number of “media” at the event. I saw at least 20 people that fell into the MWC category last night. It’s starting to become a problem.
2011 CHSAA State Wrestling: Day 2
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
So much for not shooting things super tight like I did yesterday. This one just stood out to me as a good opportunity to fill the frame. Finding a clean background is extremely tough at the Pepsi Center. Shooting tight is pretty much the only solution. I moved from press row into the Denver Nuggets photo room today. You can see a photo after the jump. It’s much quieter and easier for me to come and go from. The internet seems to be faster as well. Most of the bandwidth is being used by the CHSAA TV people who are live streaming the matches. It’s become a problem for anyone else trying to file on a deadline.
2011 CHSAA State Wrestling: Day 1
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
Off to an interesting start. The first match I was supposed to photograph was over before it started. Due to a questionable medical call, a 3A heavy weight wrestler from Clear Creek High School was disqualified. I’m not a doctor but to me the injury in question was nothing but mat burn. The medical personnel for CHSAA though it might have been something more serious. It’s tough break for the kid, who is a senior, and will now miss his last opportunity to wrestle.
2011 CHSAA State Wrestling
This weekend is the annual CHSAA State Wrestling Tournament at the Pepsi Center in Denver. As usual, I will have more schools and athletes to cover than I realistically have time for. However, I am going to try to post as much as I can about it on the blog all weekend long. So stay tuned and if you are working at the Pepsi Center this weekend, stop by to say hi.
One From This Weekend
© Matthew Jonas 2011/Evergreen Newspapers 2011
I made this picture on Friday night at Evergreen High School. That gym is one of my favorites to light. I’ll take good action and good color over ISO 3200 and a motor drive any day. This picture was made using techniques learned from strobist.com. Speaking of the strobist, David Hobby himself will be visiting Denver on March 22, 2011 along with Joe McNally on the flash bus tour. If you are looking for a good (cheap) workshop that will most likely be packed full of information about getting your flash off of your camera this is it.
