Dec 28 2012
Favorite Sports Photos of 2012
Since we’ve got a little break before Madison sports start up again on January 2nd, I’ll post some of my favorite sports photos from 2012 below. If you’re on Instagram, you can follow along there (@berrysports) or on my Facebook feed. I’ll post the photos there first and try to get them here as soon as possible. 1. We’ll “tip off” with this one….bahahaha …. It’s not all that great but it’s a good starter image. I narrowed the list down to 40, and couldn’t go lower than that. So I’ll spread this over several days, finishing off with my favorite from the year. As we go along, I’ll explain why each photo “made the cut” for me. As it turns out, my favorite of the year was taken VERY early in the year and is easily one of my favorites of all time. But, you’ll have to wait a bit to see that one. 
2. The 2011-2012 season was Madison’s first with a swim team, and they started off very successfully sending a couple of the kids to States! And this was my first time ever shooting swimming. Not a particularly easy sport to shoot since the athletes are underwater most of the time. This is Johnny Mullen at the start of the 100 yard backstroke. Johnny also started off the meet by singing the National Anthem. 
3. EMOTION. One of the best things about shooting sports. It’ll be a common theme throughout these Favorites. This one from a swim meet at Manassas Park. 
4. Another important component of a good sports photo is an interesting background that supports the main subject. Gage = perfect. The referee…not so much. 
5. EMOTION #2. This one is right up there with the best of 2012. It’s just about perfect. Cole and Bradley coming towards me and celebrating, and the Monroe kid with his shirt over his face. Madison played hard this whole game but trailed up until mid way through the fourth quarter when they tied the score at 37. Madison went on to win 46-43 with Donald Butler scoring 19 for the Mountaineers. At the end of a close game, I always hope I’m on the opposite end of the court/field from the teams when time runs out. That way they usually run towards me as they start to celebrate. 
6. Photos like this one don’t happen very often. It’s mostly luck, but part of it is just being in the right place with a nice background and hope the “stars” align for you. In this case, Lauryn framed perfectly as Bobby and Gage do the chest bump thing during basketball pre-game introductions. I never know I have these until I get home and am going through them on my computer. You greatly increase your chances of getting photos like by shooting shooting shooting… 
7. Keep in mind those are my favorite photos from 2012, not necessarily my best ones. The framing on this one isn’t quite what I’d like it to be. I like it because I think I will enjoy watching these two play basketball over the coming years, especially when they’re both on the same team wearing Madison blue and white. Do you know them? They both have dads who are basketball coaches. You’ll be reading their names in the sports pages soon enough. 
8. Wrestling. I didn’t like shooting it for the first year or so. Lighting is tough since their faces are usually pushed down against a dark mat…they’ll get in certain positions where … well … you don’t really want a picture of that! But, after a while I started to understand the sport a little more…learned there is a lot of strategy going on out there and was able to recognize it…and attended my first State Championship in Salem. The emotion at States is just incredible. All those years of training come down to 6 minute bouts. 
9. And, don’t forget, sports are supposed to be FUN! 🙂 
10. And cheer leading is fun too :-). After this one we’re on to spring sports. These are going up in chronological order, not preferential order. 
11. Spring = baseball. I shoot the pitchers from this position so often I’m sure you get tired of seeing the photos…..but I still have fun shooting them. No luck here, all just trial and error…mostly error. Manual focus on the pitcher, line up the batter in the right place, then shoot like crazy as the pitcher goes through his windup. 
12. Sports portrait from last spring. I like these….and the flare from the field lights adds to it. 
13. Next few will be action. Really like this one. Diving soccer goalie, ball in the picture, and the goalie’s shadow on the ground rounds it out. Oh, and his eyes watching the ball go by him. 
14. Next up, how about a good goalie crash. 
15. And we celebrate the end of pictures from the spring 2012 season (actually, there are a few more). This one from Madison’s varsity girls soccer win over Rappahannock on senior night. 
16. This is another of my favorites from last year. It was shot for a feature article in ScrimmagePlay’s print magazine on the Louisa High School athletes and what they had to go through following the earthquake. These are both seniors on the tennis team, standing on one of the courts where they used to play and practice. Their courts are now covered with the classroom pods that is their high school. 
17. Softball girls with painted faces. Does it get better than that? 
18. The face, the hair, the lime coming off the ball, definitely one my best youth baseball photos. 
19. Another youth baseball photo that has to make the list. There’s lots of determination out there on those fields. 
20. Another one of my top favorites of 2012…mostly because I had no idea I could pull this off. It was done for another feature article for ScrimmagePlay’s print magazine. They had sent me a similar image they’d found online as a sample of the shot they wanted. I almost told them that I couldn’t do that one. …But, did some testing at home and ended up with this image the day of the shoot. No Photoshop here, this is one image straight out of the camera. A 1 second shutter speed with one off-camera strobe fired four times while the shutter was open. 
21. A few years ago I started doing the posters you see as you enter Wetsel gym. One of the things we wanted to do was feature the seniors on those since they would be gone soon. Trouble was, I didn’t always have action shots of all the seniors for whatever reason. So, I can up with the idea of doing a little group portrait of the seniors when I did the team photos for the Athletics website. The results is I get photos like this one. One of my favorites. 
22. Shot from a low angle at cross country this fall. 
23. Another one from cross country this fall. I had to wait for the cross country runner to get in the right spot. I really think she completes the picture :-). 
24. Don’t worry, just a few more and I’ll be done. Can’t pass up a good Powder Puff Queen crowning. Sarah crowning Ryan, “Wilma Boodydo” with a recycled box once used to give away free kittens. 
25. One more for tonight and I’ll finish up tomorrow. This is probably my favorite action photo of the year. It has a nice balance to it with Raymond on the left third, the fallen Greene guy centered and right under Raymond’s hand as he watches him go, and Ralph already starting to celebrate in the background. 
26. Emily gets a hug from her mom, Ruth, following the ‘Run for Ruth’, which Emily organized as a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. 
27. Ok folks, here it is. My favorite sports photo of 2012. You might not think it all that spectacular….unless you were there. You know Larry if you’ve been around MCHS basketball for the last couple of years. Well, last year he coached his daughter’s Parks and Rec girl’s basketball team.
At the end of the third quarter, his team was down 17-6. Nothing but words of support and encouragement from him, “you can do this, you can do this”. Well, one of his players, Makayla Taylor, with the help of her teammates, went on a bit of a scoring spree and Larry’s team won the game 22-21. This photo was taken seconds after the final buzzer. Absolutely unforgettable.
