St. Croix Central Boys Basketball vs. Webster (Webster focus)

Fantastic game last night. St. Croix Central Boys BBall versus Webster. The final score hides the fact that both teams appeared to be playing very similar style of game. I think that for SCC, everything worked, and for Webster, it didn't seem as though anything was working, other than the players, who were hustling and running and didn't give up at all, even when the odds were stacking up and up and up.

The Dance Team (performance team? I don't know what they are called nowadays) did a great routine at half-time.

GET OUT OF HERE! This Monster block sent the ball into the Webster half of the court. A truly awesome play.

Adam got this great shot of the Webster team just before the game started. Nice!

Aaron Johnson's unbelievable shot - all the photographers there were wondering if he knows how it went in!

Luke Brown and #14 from Webster (someone help with the names, we misplaced our program!) step for step, showing the hustle that both teams put forth.

Andrew Thomley, (#10 SCC) celebrated his birthday on the day of the game. How do I know this?

These girls, and many other students from the SCC side of the crowd, dang "Happy Birthday" to him when he came into the game. Fun!

One of the best shows of appreciation and sportsmanship, the Webster team applauded and thanked their fans for their support during the season.

These two Webster players commiserated after the tough loss to SCC. Webster players and students throughout the game showed great sportsmanship and class. It was fun to see the Webster Student section filled with kids wearing their colors.

Adam and I commented to each other after the game that there were a few times where we looked up at the scoreboard and were surprised that the game was so lopsided toward SCC. SCC played their usually aggressive style, pressing almost the entire game. They are fun to watch, as every player on the team is scrappy and hustles and looks for opportunities to do something, especially on defense.

Technically, you may notice that we didn't use any lighting on these images. Not for lack of trying. We thought about doing something new, and instead of practicing, say, the day before, we decided to practice in the field. I normally wouldn't encourage this, as you never know what may come up, but Adam and I know our equipment well enough, and are confident enough in the capabilities of our cameras in low light situations (which isn't so much the case at this arena), that if anything were to go wrong, we would still get great images. As it happened, the way we set up our slaves did not allow them to get any information from the masters to go off, and the position of the Masters on opposite ends of the court made lighting look off, so we just canned the lights and used available light only. This was good practice for my next shoot - for d3sports.com on Saturday - no strobe allowed. Another thing that you don't have to worry about is recycle time!!

St. Croix Central Boys Basketball vs. Plum City

Adam and I watched the St. Croix Central Boys Varsity Basketball team take on Plum City this evening, and what a game it was. It is very fun to watch the Panthers play. They are very scrappy - quick and aggressive and always around the ball.

We set up two lights, one on each side of the basket, and crosslit the court. I think the look is very nice, as the light is lightly forward of the players most of the time. Shooting ambient about a stop down helps the players stand out/pop very nicely. As this was our first time shooting sports together, and we were both using the same lights, our timing was something to work on, but it got better throughout the evening.

Talking with Michele Lyksett during and after the game, we established what it is that we want to do with this type of image - we want to offer magazine quality images of high school sports to the players and their families. This is something that isn't being done in this area, and I think (as do other people as well) that this type of product will do well.

To that end, we are establishing this blog and a link to a site that will provide the ability for anyone with the passcode (maybe) to view and purchase prints from each sporting event in the Central St. Croix County area. At this time, the primary school that we will cover is St. Croix Central, but soon we wish to extend our coverage to other schools.

Thanks for stopping by, let us know what you think!

Adam and Wade