I've been shooting a summer 5v5 basketball tournament at Washington Park for the past few weeks. I shot a few games when I had nothing else on the schedule at work. It was just something I found on my own and wanted to shoot for fun. Without the pressure of getting stuff for the paper, I was able to have some fun with it and shoot basketball the way I see it, rather than some of the standard tight action shots. We ended up running some of the images as stand-alones.

I'm a sucker for backlit images.


Because I wasn't shooting for the paper, I decided to take some risks and do something interesting, like putting the only wide angle lens I had with me onto a remote camera. There wasn't a ladder for me to use to put it behind the glass, so I ended up standing on a chair and putting it on the post. I wasn't tall enough to even see through the viewfinder, so I had to guess on the focus point by looking at the focus distance window on the lens and shooting at f/8 for a little wiggle room on the depth-of-field. The background is a bit cluttered for my tastes, but I think it may provide a sense of place.

This is the same dunk, as seen from my hand-held camera with the 80-200 on it.


Nice light, clean background and good action that is, unfortunately, heading away from me.

I had fun shooting this tournament. The organizers told me their purpose was providing a positive influence for the guys and to help keep them out of trouble during the summer. Many people from the community came out and watched the games.