Lacrosse in January

ASkip

Hi, it's 80 degrees here in So Cal and there was a high school (age) lacrosse tournament this weekend, so I went out to take some pictures for the local lax news site.
Just thought I'd torture youse guys sitting in the snow.

KMCC

Oh man! You're killing me.

Lacrosse is one of my favorite sports to shoot. We're about a month away from the beginning of the seasons (high school and collegiate) here in Georgia.

Great shots, by the way.

ASkip

KMCC wrote:

Oh man! You're killing me.

Lacrosse is one of my favorite sports to shoot. We're about a month away from the beginning of the seasons (high school and collegiate) here in Georgia.

Great shots, by the way.

Ooh, sorry to be killing you, you're my idol.

I actually failed my secondary assignment over the weekend, to get a good de-cleating shot. but I got a kind of fun one last weekend.
battle for the ground ball...

Looking forward to the start of the real season... Jan 23 out here.
Anna

jrowphoto

Nice shots, and thanks for the view of warm weather...

It's currently SIX degrees here in Chicago, and we're waiting for a cold front to come through for the rest of the week!! (yes, 6 is not the "cold front")

David Evertsen

Great pics man, any tips for a first timer shooting a game he has barely seen and never played?? I have the rules down pretty well from shooting 2 practice games but looking for some insight.. I am in Florida and apparently when I left High School and got a life, Lacrosse invaded the state without me knowing


David
www.phabulousphotos.com

ASkip

David Evertsen wrote:

Great pics man, any tips for a first timer shooting a game he has barely seen and never played?? I have the rules down pretty well from shooting 2 practice games but looking for some insight.. I am in Florida and apparently when I left High School and got a life, Lacrosse invaded the state without me knowing


David
www.phabulousphotos.com

Well, I don't know if I'm the best person for tips but here's some of what I do. The usual ymmv caveats apply.

I'm a coward so I often sit in line with the front of the goal on the sidelines. The ball hardly ever comes out that way with any force, so I won't get hit by it. and if I'm lucky, I can get a picture of a guy throwing the ball toward the net without the ref's butt in my way. Then if I remember (and I hardly ever do) to keep shooting, then you get the defenseman clobbering the guy who threw the ball after he's already thrown it.

and from there you can usually get some nice pictures of the pushing and shoving that goes on behind the goal.

Or, if I want to take pretty pictures of guys running or holding the ball, I sit at the front of the box (it's like the 30 yard line or so), because a lot of the time, at least in high school, guys run down the side of the field and touch the ball in and stop or turn to look for the next guy to throw it to. While he's running towards the box, he usually looks pretty good and someone occasionally pushes him out. Either way, fun pictures.

A lot of it is trying to guess what happens next. It's kind of like soccer that way.

One thing I finally learned is that normally when the ball is just on the ground, and 4 guys are trying to pick it up, the picture comes out boring. It's just legs and sticks and no faces. Unless the game is really close, then someone might fly through the air, as is the upside down guy in my second post.

I don't know if that helps. I miss a lot of shots and I'm no pro. but it's a lot of fun practicing taking pictures.
Anna

David Evertsen

ASkip wrote:

Well, I don't know if I'm the best person for tips but here's some of what I do. The usual ymmv caveats apply.

I don't know if that helps. I miss a lot of shots and I'm no pro. but it's a lot of fun practicing taking pictures.
Anna

It really helps a alot, just looking for some insight shooting Lacrosse and how the game rolls. I have much the same problem about remembering to shoot after the play appears over no matter what it is.

Thanks,
David

KMCC

On the subject of being hit by a lacrosse ball; let me tell you that it is not something you want to experience. Pick up a lacrosse ball - solid, very dense rubber.

I caught an errant pass right between my mouth and nose at a Georgia Tech game a couple of years ago. Fortunately, it was on the first bounce. My lower face was numb for about 15 minutes, but somehow I didn't suffer any real injury.

When I shoot lacrosse, I like to position myself on the sideline about 10 or so yards to the front of either goal. This lets you get a good angle on the goal keeper, as well as covering the midfield area. I also shoot from a seated position to get as good an angle as possible for "under the helmet" shots of players.

Lacrosse is a very fast game, so you have to learn the flow of the game and learn how to anticipate the action.

Practice makes perfect.

wmstumme

Anna:

Great shots!! Even though we're not in snow here (yet) I am really jealous. What was the lax news site?

David: Kent's the best--so any advice he gives is golden, and Anna has some great ideas. Here's a couple of things I try:

1. Faceoffs are usually pretty worthless to shoot. Usually you end up with just butt's in the air.

2. Watch for middies and d-men clearing the ball. They'll usually be in the open field and you can get some decent shots without too many others in the way. It's not the peak of action type shot, but they usually like to see themselves.

3. If you move just a touch further back to the plane of the goal or a bit behind, you can usually catch an attackman coming around from behind the goal. When they're still behind the pipes you can usually catch their face, and they'll probably have a d-man checking there can be a lot of action in the shot. Once they come even with the goal they'll be turning to shoot and facing the goal--so you'll just get their back.

4. If you want good shots of the goalie, check who the best shooters are on the opposing team. Right handed guys will often try to get to the (their) left (goalie's right) side of the field to shoot, and vice versa. If you're on the same side of the field as the most frequent shooters (essentially looking over their shoulder) you can get more shots of the goalie looking/facing you directly.

5. Go to S. California so you can worry about sunburn instead of frostbite.

PS: Thanks for this post. I hadn't been on DGrin for several days and it was a nice break from the winter, post holiday, recession blues...

David Evertsen

wmstumme wrote:

Anna:


5. Go to S. California so you can worry about sunburn instead of frostbite.

Orlando works for me...

David
www.phabulousphotos.com

ASkip

wmstumme wrote:

Anna:

Great shots!! Even though we're not in snow here (yet) I am really jealous. What was the lax news site?

David: Kent's the best--so any advice he gives is golden, and Anna has some great ideas. Here's a couple of things I try:

1. Faceoffs are usually pretty worthless to shoot. Usually you end up with just butt's in the air.

2. Watch for middies and d-men clearing the ball. They'll usually be in the open field and you can get some decent shots without too many others in the way. It's not the peak of action type shot, but they usually like to see themselves.

3. If you move just a touch further back to the plane of the goal or a bit behind, you can usually catch an attackman coming around from behind the goal. When they're still behind the pipes you can usually catch their face, and they'll probably have a d-man checking there can be a lot of action in the shot. Once they come even with the goal they'll be turning to shoot and facing the goal--so you'll just get their back.

4. If you want good shots of the goalie, check who the best shooters are on the opposing team. Right handed guys will often try to get to the (their) left (goalie's right) side of the field to shoot, and vice versa. If you're on the same side of the field as the most frequent shooters (essentially looking over their shoulder) you can get more shots of the goalie looking/facing you directly.

5. Go to S. California so you can worry about sunburn instead of frostbite.

PS: Thanks for this post. I hadn't been on DGrin for several days and it was a nice break from the winter, post holiday, recession blues...

Hi,
I didn' t that about the shooting and goalie thing. I will have to pay more attention. Everyone has good ideas here!

and just to answer the question, the pictures were for westsidelax.com (but they got different ones). I'm the "photo intern" even though I'm old, so it's kind of funny. But I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks for the kind words, and good suggestions.
anna

wmstumme

ASkip wrote:

..
and just to answer the question, the pictures were for westsidelax.com (but they got different ones). I'm the "photo intern" even though I'm old, so it's kind of funny.
anna

Just checked out the site. Your shot that they have posted announcing the winner of that tournament is really good! Nice work. Looks like a lot of fun on that side of the Mississippi too....