College football continues. We were out in Central Kansas visiting family and I was able to shoot the game at McPherson vs. Friends Univ.
It was a bright, high contrast day as you can tell. But I was able to capture several images of players working the ball down field.
Like several weeks ago there are images from both of of the bodies. I'm getting better at the quick switch from the long lens to the medium to near distance.
Nikon D7000 w/ 300mm f/4 + TC 1.4; Nikon D90 w/ 70-200mm f/2.8. Post with PhotoMechanic and ACR 7.1
It has been a busy season here in the early winter. I haven't been outdoors to do much shooting, and the weather hasn't been cooperative either. But I have enjoyed following the McPherson College Men's Basketball team.
These images are some of my favorites from the four games we've been able to attend:
Sr. G Aaron Frasier (1) and Sr. F Jordan Crawford (23) rebound against Hastings College
Jr. G Adam Bruner (24) and So. F Joey Powers (13) defend against Hastings
Jordan Crawford meets the ball handler against Tabor College
So. G Samson Shivers (15) drives against Univ. of St. Mary
Aaron Frasier soars to the basket against USM
Fr. G Kenny Berry, Jr. (12) handles the ball out front versus Rockhurst Univ.
Samson Shivers takes it to the basket against Rockhurst
The Hastings game was shot with the D90. The other games were shot with the D7000. All images are taken with the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, processing in ACR and CS5.
We visited our children in McPherson, KS again this weekend. We took in the tennis matches and the softball games. Here are a couple of images from the day:
Foot Work
Saturday was a bright spring day in Wichita. We were down on a family visit and found out that a track meet was taking place at one of the local colleges. My son competed in this meet during his college days, so he and I went to watch and photograph the competition. Here are some images of the day
First Stride
High Jump
Hurdles
Steeplechase
Photogeek information: D7000 body, 70-200mm f/2.8 (ver. I), polarizing filter. Manual mode with shutter speed fixed at 1/1000, various f-stops based on desired depth of field. Used Auto ISO to control the exposure for the chosen shutter speed/f-stop combination. The max ISO was set at 1600, and the range of values for these photos are 180 to 1600. First time I have tried this approach and it worked well.
After several weeks we had another opportunity to go to see the McPherson College Bulldogs play basketball. This past Saturday the 'Dogs played their in-county rivals the Swedes of Bethany College.
The Bulldog Men's team have gotten hot at the right time of the season. After a slow start they have won eight straight games, include Saturday night's contest, an 81 - 68 victory.
These photos are from Saturday's action
The team is playing with speed and control. They made the extra pass to get the open look all night. They have developed good depth in their bench rotation as well. The 'Dogs have set themselves up to have a first round home game in the KCAC post-season tourney.
These images are from my new D7000. All were shot with the 70-200 f/2.8 VR I lens. These were all shot at 3200 ISO and 1/350s. You can see more images in the Sports gallery on my website.
There is still some noise in the background of these images, but within the plane of the depth of field you can get great sharpness. These were post-processed in ACR, including white balance, noise reduction and the first pass of sharpening. I have shot white balance reference photos at several points on the court and I have put together a processing preset for this gym.
We had our first chance to photograph the McPherson College Women's basketball team this weekend. The game was a close fight, but the Lady Bulldogs came out on the short end of the score 44 - 49.
The Sport Center gym is a typical small sports venue: Dark !
I am working with my new Nikon D7000 to see how much improvement there is with the ISO noise processing. I can see a definite difference. But at 3200 ISO there is still noise. These images have been converted from NEF to JPEG, WB adjusted and noise reduction applied in Camera Raw. Additional sharpening and resizing performed in Photoshop.
Despite the noise, the sharpness that the camera can provide can be incredible. But the camera can also point out all your little errors like hand shake. It will be fun, and a challenge, to master this camera!
This weekend was the game of the season so far for the McPherson Bulldogs. Undefeated, they met the other remaining undefeated team in their conference the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes at McPherson Stadium.
The game was a barn-burner! The final score was Mac 56 - KWU 42. The day was another bright and warm one. The weather added to the heat of the game. The wide open action and the bright light made for great action photos.
The McPherson defense brings down KWU QB #16 Doug Webster. Corralling Webster are Bulldogs #20 Sr. DB Ginikachi Ibe, #55 Sr. DL Scott Jones, and #21 Jr. LB J.L. Gomez.
McPherson Bulldog Fr. DE #89 Tyler Richards bears down on KWU QB #16 Doug Webster. Richards completed the sack of Webster on the play.
Senior Bulldog RB Aaron Lafitte breaks open against the KWU Coyote defense. Lafitte had 22 carries for 123 yards and three touchdowns. He added five receptions for a total offensive output of 188 yards.
McPherson senior QB Shane Mascarenas looks downfield vs. the KWU Coyotes. Mascarenas was the offensive star of the game: 24 for 43 passing for 498 yards and four touchdowns. Shane added a rushing touchdown.
The lighting conditions were almost identical to last week: Nikon D90, 70-200mm f/2.8, TC14-II. PP with ACR and CS5
I volunteer as a sports photographer for McPherson College. McPherson is a NAIA-affiliated school with an enrollment of about 600 students located in McPherson, Kansas. Their athletics teams are known as the Bulldogs and the Lady Bulldogs.
This weekend was Homecoming Weekend. The weather was beautiful for the participants and for photography.
The following photos are from the football game. The Bulldogs were taking on the Univ. of St. Mary Spires from Leavenworth, KS in KCAC conference play. Coming into the game the Bulldogs were 4-0 and ranked #7 in the country. The Spires were 0-4.
Junior DB Thomas Stauts avoids the USM tackler and celebrates a 31-yard punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter of the Bulldog-Spires contest.
Junior WR Andy Skinner pulls in a pass reception versus the Spires despite the efforts of the USM defender
Junior DB Ronnie Miller puts a solid hit on USM receiver Fred Edison
The final score of the game was 73 - 24 McPherson. Fifteen different members of the team had carries or receptions on offense. On defense 34 members of the team participated in tackles against the Spires.
It was a good weekend for the Cross Country squads as well. Hosting their home meet, the Lakeside Shootout, the men's event was won by McPherson runner Javier Ceja and the Men's squad placed first just ahead of Fort Hays State. On the Women's side the Lady Bulldogs placed third, with freshmen runners Kelsi Beam and Payton Hartman finishing 6th and 8th respectively.
The football images were taken with a Nikon D90, 70-200mm f/2.8, TC14 II. Post-processing was done in ACR 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Fall sports season continues! Debbie and I spent the weekend at McPherson. While there we took in three of the college sporting events.
These images are from the Women's and Men's Soccer matches. Shooting soccer requires a different set of tools and skills, like each sport does. In addition, these games were played during the high light of mid-day. More on technique at the bottom...
The opposing teams were from the Univ. of Sioux Falls.
These were shot using my Nikon D90. The lens is a 70-200mm f/2.8 with a TC-14 teleconverter. All post-processing was done in ACR and Photoshop CS5
Between being very busy at work, and being under the weather the last weekend, I haven't been out to shoot since the basketball games in McPherson two weekends ago.
Shortly after the games I posted the photos from the women's game. Here are the photos from the men's game.
We spent Saturday night at the new Mabee Gym on the campus of Kansas Wesleyan University. The McPherson Bulldogs were in town to play the Coyotes.
The first half of the men's game was a tight-fought battle. But in the second half the Coyote's used great shooting and a tight zone defense to soundly defeat the Bulldogs.
Being a new gym, the lighting is better than most of the venues where we follow the Bulldogs. These men's photos were shot at ISO 2500, F/2.8, 1/400s and NEF format. At that ISO the raw images are very noisy. The images were about 1/3 of a stop underexposed. The lights also have a yellowish cast. These photos have been processed through DxO for exposure, white balance/tint, and noise reduction. Cropping and sharpening were done in Capture NX2.
I received a 18% grey card for Christmas, and this was the first opportunity that I've had to experiment with it. I took images of the card lying on the floor at various locations around the basketball court. I used each image to determine a white balance and tint adjustment. I then used these results to load and save a location setting for bulk processing the images. I was really happy how well (and how easily) the adjustments worked.
Saturday evening we attended the McPherson College vs. University of St. Mary basketball games at the USM gym in Leavenworth, KS. The Bulldog Men carried the evening to move to a 13-2 overall record and a 6-0 record in the KCAC. The Bulldogs have been receiving votes, but have not yet made the NAIA Division II Top 25.
The Bulldogs quickly jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first half. Sophomore G Aaron Frazier bucketed 13 points to lead the Mac men to a 45-38 half time lead.
The Spires continued to battle the Bulldogs in the second half. A 22-6 run by USM pulled them to within four with under a minute left in the game. McPherson went on to force several turnovers and hit 6 of 6 free throws to keep the lead and the win 100-94. Senior guard Mike Reese scored 27 to lead the Bulldogs over the Spires.
Shooting in this gym is very difficult. There is a 2.5 stop difference in the lighting between mid-court and the baseline area under the baskets. The lighting is a mix of traditional incandesent, high intensity vapor, and fluoresent. Takes a lot of adjustment!
The images were shot in NEF. They were first processed through DxO for exposure (0.5 to 1.25 stops), tint (taking out the green effect of the fluoresents) and noise, saved as JPG. Cropping and final color adjustments were done in Capture NX2.
It was a gray and gloomy weekend in Kansas City. No good photo light. I took the opportunity to wrap-up my Christmas shopping and some other year-end tasks.
A week-ago I posted some basketball photos from the McPherson - Ottawa games. Those images were quick grabs after some initial post-processing. I took the time this weekend to do some more processing, primarily color- and better exposure correction and cropping. They can now be viewed through the original blog post. Follow the link to see them.
The men have done well since last week. They went 2-0 for the week, and go into the break 10-2. The ladies dropped their two games and are now 4-7.
Our weekend schedule this winter does not line up nearly as well with basketball as it did with the football season this fall. We took advantage of an alignment of the stars to spend the weekend with our daughter and younger son. This gave us the opportunity to see the Neil Simon play "Rumors" put on by the McPherson College theatre department, and the McPherson mens and womens Basketball teams play Ottawa University.
Shooting indoor sports is a challenge. The light in high school and small college gyms is dim and spotty by photographic standards. In the McPherson Sports Center the baseline of the court is darker by a full stop (or more) than the mid-court area between the two free throw lines. I've shot in this gym before and I knew the challenges that I would face. Even when you start with a good f/2.8 lens the compromise you often have to make is tp underexpose or shoot at high ISO settings in order to freeze action. This results in noisy (grainy) photos.
The womens team opened the evening with a 69-61 victory over the Lady Braves. This was one of the Lady Bulldog's better efforts from the field and on defense this season. The Lady Bulldogs are 4-5 overall and 1-1 in conference.
The McPherson mens team has a good season underway. They earned a 69-56 victory over the Ottawa men. They are now 8-2 overall and 2-0 in the KCAC.
I had done some research into changes that I could attempt to make my images better. The change in process that made these images come out as well as they did was a change to my post-processing workflow. The originals were underexposed as mentioned above. The raw files were processed through a software package called DXO to raise the exposure and remove the noise. DXO has recently come out with a new version (6.0) that I used for the first time.
Update 12/14: the images you see on this post now have been further processed. I started with the DXO processed images I originally posted. One or two of the originals were re-processed using DXO 6.1 to raise the exposure a little more. Then all were cropped, black- and white-point adjusted, and sharpened in Capture NX2
Saturday November 21 the McPherson College football program reached a new level in it's most successful season on record. The Bulldogs met the Mid-American Nazarene Univ. Pioneers in the first round of the NAIA National Championships.
It was a close game for three quarters, with McPherson leading by one at the end of the third. However four turnovers in the fourth quarter by the Bulldogs led to 17 unanswered points for the Pioneers. The final score was Mid-American Nazarene 40 McPherson 24.
Congratulations to the Bulldogs on a record-setting season. It was a privilege to follow the team and document the seasons successes.
It has been a busy week for sports at McPherson College. The fall sports are wrapping up and the winter seasons have begun. Since last weekend there have been games in volleyball, soccer, and mens and womens basketball.
The big news is that the Bulldog football squad finished their regular season Saturday with a 44-17 win at home over the Bethany College Swedes. The big plays kept coming for both the offensive and the defensive squads. On defense the team intercepted the Swede's QB's five times, returning three of the picks for touchdowns. With the win the Bulldog gridders finished with a season record of 9-1. This gives the 2009 squad the all-time record for wins in a season.
With this win, and Ottawa's defeat of Friends, the Bulldogs own sole possession of second place in the KCAC and earned the #12 national ranking in the final NAIA regular season ratings.
With a successful regular season the Bulldogs have earned their first trip to the NAIA Football Championship playoffs. McPherson College will meet Mid-American Nazarene University in the first round of the playoffs next Saturday. The game will be at NMU's home field in Olathe, KS. Kickoff is at 1:00 PM. The NMU Pioneers also finished the season with a 9-1 record. The Pioneers were runners-up in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, and hold a #8 national ranking.
On a bright, warm afternoon in November McPherson College traveled down the road to play the Bethel College Threshers. Bethel entered the game with a record of 2-6 and the Bulldogs entered the game ranked #15 in the country with a 7-1 record.
The game was a hard-fought contest. McPherson prevailed 34-16. The 2009 season is proving to be one for the record books for the McPherson football squad. With their eighth win the Bulldogs tied the all-time school record for wins in a season, equaling the famed 1952 squad. Another record on the day for the 'Dogs was reaching 418 points for the season, smashing the record for a single season with one game to go.
The light conditions for photography were great. Shooting at ISO 200 and a f/4 aperture allowed for great shutter speeds all afternoon. It was almost too bright, as the sharp shadows can attest. By the third quarter there was a thin veil of clouds that made photo conditions almost perfect. Another issue that came up was in the fourth quarter the grandstand on the west sideline was casting a shadow over the north end zone, putting the action in that area of the field in deep shadow against a bright background. Those image attempts were basically unusable.
My sports photography has been centered on McPherson College football this season. This has been as much due to my personal scheduling as interest. Most volleyball games are either weeknights or on the same day as football, but in another town.
This weekend we got football and volleyball an hour apart in schedule and distance. We took in the Lady Bulldogs vs. the Southwestern College Moundbuilders in a post-season tournament game in McPherson.
The Lady Bulldogs are a young team, and have had their ups and downs this season. They finished the regular season with a 7 - 19 record. This placed them eighth among the ten members of the KCAC. The SWC squad finished ninth, but had beaten Mac in both of their meetings during the regular season.
The Lady 'Dogs started slow, losing the first game 18-15. From that point McPherson stepped up their game, especially their setting, and won the next three games for a 3-1 victory in the match.
McPherson's next match will be against the #1 seed Tabor College at Tabor's gym on Tuesday. Good Luck Bulldogs!
These images were my first try for shooting this sport. I'm really pleased with how they came out. I shot a basketball game in the McPherson gym last year before the upgrade to my equipment. The results that time were pretty disappointing. I'm much more satisfied with these images. To get fast shutter speeds I shot with the exposure compensation set to -2/3 of a stop. The ISO ran 2500 to 3200 to keep the 1/400s shutter speed and f/2.8 aperture I was using. To me the noise is acceptable given the limits of my D90, but I want to look into post-processing options for noise reduction. The lighting is about as the images came from the camera, so they are a little darker than the room appeared to the eye. They are PP'd with black point, white point and contrast adjustments.
There are images that have to be thrown out due to particulars issues of the venue: there is a bright sign at floor level that throws off the automatic exposure, and the camera occasionally captures the 60 hz cycling of the lights.
Volleyball offers different photographic challenges and opportunities from football. Obviously, you can get up close and personal to the participants much more easily, which is one reason I like these images so well for a first try. Inadequate lighting (from a photographic standpoint) and the resulting shallow depth of field make for interesting challenges as well. I would like to experiment with using manual focus, as the auto-focus would seek and find other targets (the net in front, or the crowd or player behind) than the one I was trying to capture.
The McPherson College football team entered it's contest with the Southwestern College Moundbuilders looking to improve on their 5-1 record and #17 ranking in the NAIA poll.
The game started slowly with each team going three-and-out on their first possessions. But the Bulldogs turned the ball over on a fumble on the Moundbuilder's punt and quickly found themselves down by seven points early in the first quarter.
From that point forward the Bulldogs showed their teeth and the game was all McPherson: 48 unanswered points, five takeaways, seventeen tackles for loss, six pass breakups, three sacks, one blocked field goal.
The Bulldogs are currently tied for second in the KCAC standings with Friends, with undefeated Ottawa leading the league. Next week the Bulldog football team visits the Tabor College Bluejays in an away game at Hillsboro, KS.
It was a successful week for the Bulldog and Lady Bulldog soccer teams. The Ladies continued their string of shutouts with a 1-0 victory over Southwestern and a 3-0 win over Univ. of St. Mary. Men's Soccer extended their winning streak to ten games and an overall record of 11-1, defeating SWC 8-1 and USM 1-0. The men currently lead the KCAC soccer standings by two games over Kansas Wesleyan.
