Basketball

A friend of mine is the "official" photographer for the U of L Pronghorn Basketball Team.  Official is in quotes because they don't actually pay her.  She does it all voluntarily because she loves the sport and her nephew also happens to play on the men's team.  Wow.  What a lot of work for her, but I'm glad she is doing something she loves.  I hooked up with her on Saturday night to photograph a couple of games.

I have to say, it is HARD to photograph basketball.  As with any subject there is a huge learning curve and it is obvious I am at the bottom.  I spent the first half of the women's game just trying to figure out what the heck I should do.  Should I try and follow the ball?  Should I try and follow a certain player? Should I try and just stay focused close to the net and wait for the action to wander into my frame?  Ugh.  Nothing seemed to get any decent results.  I floundered around and in the end, I tried to stay with the ball for the most part.  I started to figure out a bit of a rhythm but it was painful.  

I learned a few things pretty quickly: 

1. Nobody smiles when playing basketball and catching even a non-weird expression on their face is tough.  Many shots were toast just because they were so unflattering, although they were entertaining. :)  We are not pretty when we run.  LOL
2. Pictures of the ball bouncing look really weird if the ball is on the ground or even halfway between the ground and their hand.  It definitely needs to be touching their hand for it to not look like it is just oddly floating.
3. Ref's and other players get in the way.  A LOT.
4. When they reach up to shoot, they are usually blocking their face with their arms or the ball.
5. While I didn't find the men's game any more entertaining than the women's it was easier to photograph.  Part of that was because I'd had a bit of practice by the time the men played, but most of it was because it was faster paced.  The pace made the players more spread out and they didn't pass the ball around as much so it was way easier to follow.  Surprisingly it was actually more predictable.

I could see myself doing this again some time.  It was fun.