St. Rita Blanks DePaul Prep 40-0 in Season Ender

Dissappointing seasons came to an end for both the DePaul Prep Rams and St. Rita Mustangs on Saturday (Oct. 20, 2018) with a 40-0 whitewashing of the Rams by the Mustangs. I had high hopes for the Rams at the beginning of the season. They had some athletes, a little bit of size. I thought they could pick up some quality wins. It wasn’t to be.

I saw St. Rita twice. They gave a good game to a very good Brother Rice team. 3 and 6 is a surprising record for such a good team.

Both programs will bounce back. On to basketball.

Hope you like the photos.

De La Salle Handles DePaul Prep, 40-22

The DePaul Prep Rams faced the De La Salle Meteors at DePaul’s new home field, Chicago Academy, 3400 N. Austin. The noon game at that field makes for good photos. It didn’t work out too well for the Rams. The gave up the first 40 points then scored the final 22. De La Salle just proved a little to big and fast for the Rams.  

It was a great day to take photos. I noticed that the autofocus setting was reacting really slow. I need to work on adjusting the setting. Canon autofocus is so good. I must have work on that. Small issue but I can do better. The settings are so robust there is a better why.

Football is winding down. Playoffs are coming up. Looking forward to that.

Hope you like the photos.

Took a Week Off

I didn’t shoot any football games last weekend nor any tonight (Oct. 12, 2018) evening even though there were plenty of games. I know there are only nine games in the high school regular season but I just wasn’t feeling it.

Last week was all messed up because of the game cancellations and the weather related early starts. I planned to go to the Nazareth v. Marist game but it started early and I couldn’t get there in time.

I am not all that broken up about missed a week. I needed a little time off. My photos haven’t been anything special lately. I have just been going to through the motions trying to quickly publish some shots on Twitter and get a lot of impressions. That distraction might be necessary but it doesn’t make for getting great shots.

I didn’t shot any games tonight, well frankly, because I was too tired. I had a long stressful work week. I went out for sushi instead with Mary and had a wonderful time. We talked.

I am going to shoot the DePaul Prep game tomorrow with no tweeting—well maybe a little. But I am going to concentrate on good shots.

No photos in this post.

Brother Rice Continues CCL Blue Dominance with 21-14 Win over St. Rita

Brother Rice hosted St. Rita Friday night (Sept. 28, 2018) in a Chicago Catholic League Blue showdown. The Crusaders maintained their lead in the conference with a 21-14 defeat of the Mustangs.

The Crusaders opened the scoring early in the first quarter with a 73 yard touchdown pass and run from senior quarterback John Bean to senior wide receiver Dylan Summers.

The Crusaders took the 7-0 lead into half time and opened the third with a long touchdown run by John Bean. The Mustangs answered immediately thereafter with a kickoff return touchdown by St. Rita sophomore wide receiver Henry Wilson to make the score 14-7.

In the fourth, Brother Rice senior cornerback Danny Fitzgerald picked off an errant pass and returned the ball deep into St. Rita territory. The Crusaders capitalized on the Fitzgerald INT with an inside touchdown run by senior running back Jessi Plunkett.

Despite a late St. Rita touchdown drive, Brother Rice held for the win improving its record to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Catholic League Blue.

Maine South Over Evanston in Classic Showdown

The Maine South Hawks held on to defeat the Evanston Wildkits 21-13 in a classic showdown the won’t soon be forgotten. The highly ranked Wildkits hadn’t beaten Central Suburban South Conference rival Hawks since 2014 and it was looking like this might be the year. It wasn’t to be.

A huge homecoming crowd greeted the Hawks and their fans. The Wildkits took the opening kick and methodically worked their way down the field to the Maine South ten-yard line on a lovely seven-minute drive behind to tough running of junior running back Quadre Nicholson. The Wildkits stalled with successive incomplete passes. Going for it on fourth down, the Kits came up empty and turned the ball over on downs.

Maine South grabbed the momentum, took the lead on their own long drive and played just well enough to hold off the no-quit Wildkits, winning the game, 21-13.

It was one of the best high school football games that I have seen in years. Good teams, good coaches, good players.

It would not surprise me if these teams meet in the 8A playoffs.

Photographing High School Sports

So over the last couple weekends I covered a number of high school football games, I took thousands of photographs but I also tweeted news and photos of the action. I got some good, but not great, shots that I quickly tweets with news of the action. I got many quick retweets from news outlets and reporters; a lot of people saw my photos.

But . . . I noticed that the quality of my photos has suffered. I have not been concentrating on the game and being in the best position to get good photographs. I been much too focused on “impressions” and “retweets.”

I had a nice conversation with a very talented photographer who is one of two or three sports photographers in the Chicago area. He said, “Sports photography is 90% luck, 10% skill and the rest being in the right spot.”

Very true.

The 10% skill part is paying attention to the game and concentrating on taking photos. Tweets and talking to reporters and spectators have gotten in the way. I gave up being a sportswriter because it’s hard and I am a better photographer than sportswriter.

I think I am going to get back to making good pictures and leave reporting to the reporters. What little I know about good sports photography is anticipating the action and getting the exposure and shutter speed right.

Except I love Twitter, so I guess we shall see what happens.  

[I planned this post for last Monday or Tuesday but I didn’t have the right photo available, so it is going up now.} 

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Marmion Academy Defeats DePaul Prep 27-0 in Opener

DePaul Prep's 2018 football season opened Saturday afternoon with the Marmion Academy Cadets defeating the Rams 27-0 at DePaul Prep’s new home field, Chicago Academy.

Big plays made the difference in the game. Marmion’s scores all came as a result of long pass or run plays. The DePaul Prep Rams struggled on offense much of the game, particularly containing the Marmion pass rush. There were some bright spots. Sophomore running back Remick Ware shows considerable speed on some long gainers. Senior quarterback Robert Clark ran well and showed off his big arm.

But it was the ability of the Cadets to connect on play action passes for big plays that proved the difference.

The meeting with Marmion also featured the return of DePaul Prep’s highly respected former athletic director Paul Chabura. Coach Chabura became Marmion’s assistant athletic director in June but retains his leadership role with the Chicago Catholic League. He will be missed at DePaul.  

The Rams’ schedule does not get any easier. The Rams open the season with three straight Chicago Catholic League games, Marion, Hope and Leo. Next Friday (Aug. 31, 2018) DePaul takes on Chicago Hope Academy at 4:15 p.m., again at Chicago Academy, 3400 N. Austin. Chicago Hope Academy comes off a 42-7 defeat at the hands of perennial powerhouse, Mount Carmel.

The Chicago Catholic League's Red Division has changed since last year. With the addition of Montini to the Catholic League’ Blue Division, Mt. Carmel has been relegated to the Green Division and consequently, St. Ignatius has been moved to the Red Division. The CCL Red now contains DePaul Prep, St. Ignatius, Chicago Hope, Leo and St. Joseph.

As for the photos, I got some good ones but I found myself chatting too much instead of concentrating on taking pictures. I take much better pictures when I am not interested in what happens on the field. I changed my typical settings. I continued my auto ISO setting that I started using this past basketball season. It doesn't seem to make that much difference. 

2018 Chicago Air and Water Show

It had been some years since I went to the Chicago Air and Water Show so I went this year. I couldn't spend all day at it. I went from about 12:00 until 3:00. I weaseled my way down front right outside the beach house. 

I got some good shots with my 300mm. The Thunderbirds move fast, one has to be paying attention and anticipate which direction the planes will be coming from. Now that I have a little practice I will be able to get some better shots next year. The low cloud ceiling helped because the planes had to do the "low" show which meant they were much closer. 

Posted some photos to social media after some quick processing in Lightroom Mobile on my phone. They looked okay but I wasn't very happy with them right there on the beach. But when I got back home and did some processing on my computer and big monitor I was surprised to see how i could pull the color out of the RAW images. And the high megapixels camera allows tight crops. To all those people that say, "the camera doesn't matter.," try shooting the Air and Water show with a crappy camera. 

 Hope you like the photos.

DePaul Prep Basketball Season 2017-2018

I thought I might put together a gallery of photos from DePaul Prep mens basketball last season, 2017-2018. Last year's Rams were the best group in many years. Very fun to watch. It has only been a few years and Tom Kleinschmidt and the rest to the DePaul Prep coaches and staff have brought the Rams back to the top of the Catholic League and rest of high school basketball. Interestingly, moving up from 2A to 3A improved the Rams playoff chances. This next season with this formidable group of seniors will be fun indeed. 

Shut Down the Ryan

I was out this morning so I thought I would drive down to 79th and the Ryan and see what was going on. I found a place to park right near the northbound entrance ramp to the Ryan 

I ran into one of the usual suspect sports photographers Patrick Gorski. Patrick is very talented and very nice. I look forward to seeing his shots.

I was struck with just how well planned this all was. Extremely so. To the credit of all concerned. I was out of place for many good shots. I ought to have stayed at the ramp entrance where I was initially. 

Interestingly, I did not see many newspaper photographers, only John J. Kim (@jkimpictures) from the Tribune. Looking forward to seeing his photos. 

I learn a lot every time I go to one of these things. Stay close to the action. Don't over think it. 

I hope you like the photos.

 

Robert Murphy Campaign Kickoff

I have been taking some photos for Robert Murphy in recent months. He asked if I could take some more photos at his campaign kickoff event at his house. He lives in that lovely little neighborhood tucked in the Forest Glen neighborhood just behind Foster and Cicero. 

It was something of a challenging shoot, bright sunlight and shadows. I knew I would need to use a flash to fill in the shadows. I haven't really done that before. I watched some YouTube videos on how to do it. I practiced a little and knew how to work the flash. What I didn't know is how strong to make the flash. I set it on 1/16. I could have used it stronger. But for the most part it worked well. It's going to take more practice. 

The photos are nothing special, technically competent and meeting the assignment but nothing inspired. Except for the photo of the sign. I like that one. That one can be used in campaign materials and social media. It's one of my best political photos. 

Maggie O'Keefe Fundraiser

I took some photos at a fundraiser for Maggie O'Keefe yesterday. I got some good shots but I struggled mightily trying to get the proper exposure with my speedlite flash. I need a lot of practice with that damn thing. 

Evanston Takes Down Lane Tech 9-7 in 4A Sectional Semi

Evanston played Lane Tech last Thursday (May 31, 2018) at Loyola's Munz athletic fields campus. It was a great game. Evanston jumped out to a two run lead. Lane rebounded with seven runs a couple innings later. Then Evanston put up seven runs of its own an inning later and took a 9 - 7 lead. The Indians were unable to make up the difference. Evanston won 9-7 and advanced to play Loyola on Saturday. 

The  photos were high shutter speed and high ISO. The Loyola announcer was gracious enough to let me shoot photos from the mobile press box which helped me get some great shots. 

Lane Tech Comes Back to Defeat New Trier 7-3 to Win Regional

Lane Tech Indians came back from 2-0 deficit to the New Trier Trevians going into the fourth with one run in the fourth and five runs in the sixth to hold to win the Regional Championship. It was a very entertaining game. It was a close game. There was some good baseball played--very few errors and walks.

As for the photography, I pushed the shutter speed even higher to 1/2000, 1/2500, 1/3200 and 1/4000. At 5.6 on the 300mm, the photos were too dark even with high ISOs. I think I found the outer limits of shuttter speed for day baseball with a telephoto lens. I got some more great shots of a play at the plate. Best play in sports.

I also worked much more on positioning. Inside the bags is tough because of interference from the base coaches. If you pay attention to the game, you can instinctively get good action shots. 

I hope you like the photos.

Lane Tech Defeats Glenbrook South 6-2 to Advance to Regional Final

Lane Tech Indians defeated the Glenbrook South Titans 6-2 at Kerry Wood Field Thursday evening (May 24, 2018). The Indians manufactured a lead in the bottom of the first with aggressive base running. With one out, Lane center fielder Mason Peterson walked then stole second. After a strikeout, Mason Peterson stole third. When the ball got away on the throw to third, he dashed home. The throw beat him but the Glenbard South catcher lost the ball and Peterson was safe on a close play. See the photos below.

The Indians added three in the bottom of the fifth on two walks, two infield singles and a hit batsman. Lane added two more in the bottom of the sixth all after two outs aided by some questions calls at first and the Titans through errors. 

After giving up a run in the top of the seventh, Lane held on to defeat the Titans 6-2 and advance to the  4A Regional Championship game against New Trier on Saturday at 4:00 pm at Kerry Wood Field.

As for the photography, I continued to stretch the ISO to see what results I would get shooting a night game at very high ISO and fast shutter speeds. The photos came out fine despite the noticeable graininess. Tack sharp focus shows up great on internet publication; graininess not so much.

I hope you like the photos.