Nine games in 36 hours

Okay, time for some math. The 4A state basketball tournament started on Wednesday and we had six local teams in it. On the boys side we had Snohomish, Edmonds-Woodway and Mariner. On the girls side: Jackson, Lake Stevens and Snohomish. What does this mean? It means that within a day and a half, I ended up shooting NINE prep basketball games. That’s a lot of time spent on the hardwood. Here’s the breakdown:

Game One – Snohomish vs. Decatur

2.29 GB shot

707 frames shot

six photos worked for publication

Game Two – Lake Stevens vs. Mount Tahoma

1.91 GB shot

533 frames shot

eight photos worked for publication

Game Three – Snohomish vs. Bellarmine Prep

3.19 GB shot

975 frames shot

five photos worked for publication

Game Four – Mariner vs. Lincoln

3.71 GB shot

1095 frames shot

eight photos worked for publication

Game Five – Edmonds-Woodway vs. Kentridge

1.84 GB shot

521 frames shot

five photos worked for publication

Game Six – Jackson vs. Moses Lake

1.05 GB shot

293 frames shot

three photos worked for publication

Game Seven – Lake Stevens vs. Prairie

3.83 GB shot

1174 frames shot

eight photos worked for publication

Game Eight – Snohomish vs. Lewis and Clark

3.04 GB shot

882 frames shot

five photos worked for publication

Game Nine – Edmonds-Woodway vs. Ferris

2.64 GB shot

744 frames shot

six photos worked for publication

GRAND TOTALS

Nine games

23.5 GB

6924 frames

54 photos worked

20.5 hours of continuous work over a day and a half

four different reporters

two round trips to the Tacoma Dome (156 miles)

four Cliff Bars

half a Joe special sandwich

half a gallon of Gatoraid

Let’s just say it was an exhausting day and a half. With so many games back to back, it was difficult to work photos and send them off before the next game started, so with many of the games, I didn’t shoot the first quarter because I was still transmitting.

I was also really excited to shoot my remote floor camera, which I had only used previously at Husky basketball. The unfortunate thing was that I fire the remote using a Pocket Wizard system that automatically shoots a remote frame every time I shoot my short/near court body. This means that I have an absolute TON of empty frames on the remote and an angle I’m not use to editing. For most of the games, I didn’t even look at the remote camera photos because of the limited time. It was a shame too, because the remote made a nice frame of a game saving block by a Prairie’s Emily Lashua with 10.3 seconds left in the game. You can see the score, the time remaining in the game and the block.

Here is the same frame I shot with my hand-held short body.

Which do you prefer? From a story telling angle, I would tend to like the wide remote photo much better. You don’t even really need a cutline to tell the story. All you have to do is study the photo. It has all the elements it needs: score, time, quarter, play. The unfortunate thing about it is, the photo really needs to run at least five columns to mean anything. And in a sports section that is covering another five prep games, space is at a premium and is too valuable to spend on one photo.

In the same game, I also shot two different bench “react” photos: one wide, one tight as time ran out on the Vikings. I not sure which one I like better. I’m normally from the school of “tighter is better”. But you can see that I liked the wide block photo better than the tight one…so go figure.

From the previous day, the Snohomish girl’s team played Bellarmine Prep. The won the game and one of Snohomish’s post players was OUTSTANDING. She was in almost every single photo I shot of the game. When that starts to happen, you know that player was a huge part of the game. Katie Benson’s final line was 24 points (out of a total of 49), 14 rebounds and four blocks. I’m sure glad she has blond hair; it stands out so well on the blackout drapes the Tacoma Dome hangs in between courts.

I fired another remote during the game and made a nice, but not really a story telling frame because it shows Benson being double-teamed on the post and looking kind of stuck.

For more photos, check out my two photo galleries from the 4A state tournament on the Herald’s website.

http://www.heraldnet.com/section/NEWS04

Ready for round two? The state 3A and 2A tournaments are coming up on Wednesday.