Category Archives: Sports Photography

Friday Night Football’s Aerobatic Action

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Lehighton v. Pocono Mountain East

This Friday night’s football game, featuring Lehighton at Pocono Mountain East, included some aerial attacks down field from the quarterbacks. Some amazing acrobatic action ensued!

Many fans enjoy and prefer the passing game. It’s exciting to see a quarterback drop back behind the line of scrimmage and toss a throw to a sprinting receiving. It’s even more awesome when the receiver makes an acrobatic catch! This night had it all: throws, incomplete passes, receptions, and interceptions. What is not to like about all this?

Capturing this in-the-air action with a camera is not always easy. I am sure I’ve missed plenty more than I got with my lens! However, I do believe I am getting more consistent, which is imperative when working as a freelance stringer for the local newspaper; in my case, the Pocono Record. It is crucial to get some action shots that might be deemed worthy of print by the editor. Football players jumping high into the air to catch a ball is one of the money shots. Get the ball in the shot as the players are in the air and you’ve got a chance. Oh wait, did you remember to get good focus? What about the composition of the photograph? Is your exposure right? These are hard enough to manage on a sunny day; now try to accomplish them at night under high school stadium lights! (I just have to get a new camera!!! In my case, I am dreaming about, hoping for, and trying to save my pennies for a Nikon D4! This camera is newer than mine and boasts some incredible high ISO shooting for these low-light conditions. Anyone willing to offer me a loan?)

I am passionate about sports photography and I live for this challenge to capture the action in the air!

My next game is tomorrow night and I can’t wait to have a crack at it again!

My New Portfolios

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PV Tournament 2012-079 Matte

Sports photography is my passion! There is just nothing more exciting, challenging, thrilling, and, yes, sometimes frustrating, than photographing a sporting event. Football season is now in full swing and I am learning more and more about how to photograph the game to capture the story-telling action. I love it!

I am slowly but surely adding better quality photos to my website, so I decided it was time to create and build new sports portfolios. One of my hopes was to create a slideshow-style portfolio featuring my photographs so viewers, editors, and potential clients can easily view my work. I also wanted the portfolios to be simple, yet attractive.

My newly updated sports portfolios can be viewed here: http://bobshankphotography.com/Baseball%20Portfolio.html

I think I achieved what I was hoping for in this redesign. Take a few moments to view my photo portfolios. Let me know what you think of the new design. Does it work well to show and highlight my sports photography abilities?

Capturing the Essence of a Game

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The Pocono Record published another gallery of my photos, this time from Friday night’s football game in Lehighton. You can view the photo gallery here. My assignment is first and foremost to get quality photographs that tell the story of the game for the following morning’s newspaper. Deadline for submission is 9:15pm, which means the game is often still going on and the final outcome may be undetermined as yet. Therefore, I need to provide photos from each team in action so the winning photo can be representative of the game and reflect the actual winner.

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Secondarily, I provide a gallery of photos for the newspaper to display on their website. The goal here is always to capture photographs, which capture the essence of the game and the atmosphere we experience in-person at a Friday night high school football game. The options are plentiful, but some thought, creativity, and camera skills are required to pull this off. It is one thing to experience the exciting atmosphere of a football game, but it is quite another to communicate it through photos to help the viewer get a taste of the action.

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I like to say it this way: Each game tells a unique story, which deserves to be told photographically. My job is to capture the action with my camera to tell this story and freeze the special moments to make them into lasting memories for a lifetime.

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Friday Night Football

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Stroudsburg travled to Lehighton on Friday and took home a victory.

The Stroudsburg Mounties traveled to Lehighton to face the Indians in Friday night high school football. They found a team worthy of battle and a close contest the entire night. Stroudsburg struck first but it wasn’t until the second quarter. It was a defensive battle on both sides. Fans cheered as each stop was made and pads clashed. It was a nail-biter almost down to the wire

Stroudsburg travled to Lehighton on Friday and took home a victory.

The Stadium was abuzz with fans on both sides cheering for their team. The teams came into the game looking equally matched, having both won last week. Defense was stingy and yards hard to come for both sides. Some sizable runs were snarled by linemen and linebackers filling holes and making team tackles.

Stroudsburg QB Nickorak calls out the play against Lehighton on Friday night.

The final score, 13-6 in favor of the Mounties was indicative of the close game. Both teams put a quality team on the field and played a solid game. It was a great night for high school football!

 

A Young Pleasant Valley Team Looks at the Positives

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A Young Pleasant Valley Team Looks at the Positives
by Bob Shank

A young Pleasant Valley football team took on a strong, well-played team in Nazareth as the high school football season opened up last Friday night. With the exception of three plays, PV’s defense played a solid game and put their offense in a position to win the game, according to Coach Terwilliger. He told the team after the game in the end zone, “This was the best our defense ever played in an opening night game.”

Terwillger was happy with the effort but not proud of the results in this opening game. He informed the offense that “we need to do a lot of work. We didn’t get it done tonight, and that’s an attitude.”

When asked how he thought quarterback Brandon Leap will respond after the loss, Terwilliger was nothing but positive. He said Leap works hard and will respond well in the preparation for the next game against Dieruff. He said they are looking forward to putting this game behind them but admitted this game was a good experience for them, even with the loss. PV is a young team and lacks experience, according to Terwilliger. “This game was a good experience builder and will help as we continue to build the experience necessary to compete in our league.” He continued, “There was no quit in this team tonight and I am very proud of them for that.”

PV faced an uphill battle in the first half as Nazareth scored first and followed up with another touchdown. This forced PV to play catch-up the entire night. The defense was stingy, however, and kept them in the game. After a second-half opening kickoff return by Nazareth to open up a big lead, PV could have turned over and given up. Instead they battled back and scored 9 points. With their strong defensive performance and building on the experience this young team lacks, Terwilliger is excited to move forward and continue competing against their future opponents. If experience is a lesson on the gridiron, PV will be set to battle even harder this week!

Pleasant Valley v. Nazareth, 8/30/2013

Cross Country Photos

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to photograph the Pleasant Valley Cross Country Team as they hosted East Stroudsburg North, East Stroudsgburg South, and Stroudsburg. This was my first time photographing Cross Country. I arrived early to get the layout of the course and try to find a spot on the course and then get back to the finish line before the end of the race.

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I found my spot and took photos on the course and then had to scramble to get to the finish line before the race ended. Fortunately, my planning worked out and I did make it in time! I tried a couple spots at the finish line and having my 200-400mm Nikon lens was good to have on my camera. This allowed me to stay back away from the finish line far enough so as not to intrude on the runners, but still get most of the finishing stretch with my camera. Sweet!

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I found my favorite location by the time the girls were getting ready to finish. I really liked being on the first lane, far enough past the finish line so I was not in the way of anyone. This vantage point provided the cleanest backgrounds because I could avoid the fence on the left and the spectators and athletes in the infield.

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I found myself zooming all the way in as a runner rounded the last corner of the track before the homestretch. Then as the runner got closer, I zoomed out to keep her in the frame. Finally, as the runner got even closer, I would get some closeup shots at the finish.

CC130930-1169You can see the photo gallery of yesterday’s Cross Country Meet here.

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New Sports Photography Slideshow

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I have a photo website dedicated exclusively to sports photography. It is called Perfect Game Photos and you can view the site here: http://www.perfectgamephotos.com/

One of the new features I added to this sports photography website is a slideshow of my published photos. Initially, I created the slideshow in Adobe InDesign and then exported it as a Flash slideshow. This worked well but had some serious limits. For example, those of you who use a tablet or smart phone were probably not able to view this slideshow.

So, since it was another stormy day in the Poconos on Labor Day, I labored just a little in front of my laptop to create a new version of this slideshow. I wanted to use Javascript so the slideshow can be viewed on just about any device. After some prep and planning, I started working out the script. It did take some time, but I ended up with just about what I was hoping to produce. You can view the end result here: http://www.perfectgamephotos.com/Slideshow.html

This slideshow features my sports photographs that were published in the Pocono Record. I am still amazed that more and more of my work is being found worthy of publication, which was a long-time dream of mine. I continue to learn all the time! I hope the trend continues but I realize that I must keep my personal expectations high. I must also keep working hard.

Sports photography is demanding at times and capturing the winning shot is not always easy. Lousy lighting at Friday night football games and nasty backgrounds at other sporting events are just two of the dilemmas that present problems for sports shooters. Keeping alert and always being ready is absolutely necessary. Nothing beats good preparation and knowing the game. Combining these skills and being the recipient of some good luck isn’t a bad combination either!

I hope to keep adding to my published portfolio. Sports photography is my passion and capturing the exciting action on the field to make lasting memories is my goal. I hope my photographs tell a sports story. More important, I hope they evoke emotion!

 

High School Football Kickoff

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FB20130830-1137The High School football season kicked off last night in the #Poconos . I attended the Pleasant Valley v. Nazareth match up. Excitement was in the air well before the kickoff as fans drove and walked to the stadium, some bringing their back-supporting chairs for the bleachers. The bands’ music added to the excitement. The crowd was filled with excitement and enthusiasm for the first game of the season!

The above photo was printed in today’s Pocono Record, our local newspaper here in the #Poconos . I work as a stringer for the Pocono Record and enjoy photographing sports, which is one of my passions. There is something exhilarating about being on the field on a Friday night! It brings back many fond memories of my days of playing high school football and now I get to capture the action on the field with my cameras!

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The anticipation rose to a crescendo as the two teams were announced and ran onto the field through banners held by the cheerleaders. Then the players stood at attention as the Star Spangled Banner was played by the home band. The kickoff to open the game and the new season was greeted with cheers and the game was under way!

The Blue Eagles attacked first by putting up 6 points after a missed extra point. Then they struck again by tacking on another touchdown, this time with a successful extra point. The game was 13-0 going into halftime.

Nazareth's Marion Johnson receives a pass in the first half against PV.

The visiting band of Pleasant Valley took the field at halftime to put on a show that maintained the enthusiasm of the crowd on this opening night to the football season. The opposing band cheered loudly at times in support of the band on the field. Trumpets blared and drums kept steady beat as the band marched across the field.

Pleasant Valley v. Nazareth, 8/30/2013

The second half started with as much enthusiasm as the first. The teams rushed onto the field and the kickoff ensued. Nazareth received the kickoff this time and ran the field to score a TD on the opening play of the second half and went up by three touchdowns. PV could have rolled over. Instead, they put up 9 points of their own.

By the end of the game the players were showing some battle wounds and the final score was 31-9 in favor of Nazareth. Players and fans exited the stadium through the gates. The first game of the new season was complete!

PV's Austin Borre looks for daylight in the opener against Nazareth.

My First Photograph Published in the Pocono Record

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PV Baseball 2013-05-14-1174

I have a strong passion and interest in sports photography. When I was finishing up my first photography class at Temple University, my final project was on sports photography. I did okay in the class, but my photographs for this project helped my final grade immensely! I shadowed a photographer at a weekly newspaper for a day and one of the assignments was to photograph a Donegal High School baseball game. I remember that event and the excitement of trying to capture the action on the field. I was hooked!

Now, many years later, I can think of few things I’d rather do in my spare time than photograph a sporting event. I like sports to begin with and I believe every game has a unique story that unfolds as the players put their game on the field. Our job as sports photographers is to record the unique storyline of the game and capture the exciting action of the players!

Over the past five years I’ve enjoyed photographing the baseball games for Pleasant Valley High School. I photograph as many games as possible each season and then show a presentation of my best photos for their end-of-year banquet. I also create collages for the seniors each year as a special remembrance of their final season. Previously, I was the photographer for the Lehigh Valley Baseball Academy in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Recently, I signed on with the Pocono Record to be one of their freelance photographers. I just had my first photograph published with them today! You can see my photograph here:

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130515/SPORTS/305150331/-1/SPORTS

I am very excited to share my photography passion in this way. I am at the games already and can provide some special coverage of the games with my camera. I hope to grow in my photographic abilities as I share my game-day art with others!