For every assignment that I shoot for the newspaper, I submit a series of pictures so the editors can choose what fits their needs the best. I always submit to many. For my recent assignment shoot the basketball game, I submitted seven though they only asked for five. I have a difficult time deciding which shots best capture spirit of the thing usually I have to narrow the field at least 200 pictures.
From the seven pictures and submitted that weekend, the paper only ran one. I posted that picture that Sunday. I also posted a few other outtakes from that shoot that weekend. The photos here are the six shots rejected by the editors.
I thought the image above did a reasonable job of capturing the feel of the game. The Wildcats won handily and held the lead from the beginning of the game. In this shot, we see a single Wildcat shooting over the head of four Falcons. The four Falcons can only turn and stare as the Wildcats score again.
There is a lot of action in the shot, probably too much. I thought this image was interesting because it shows one of the key Chapel Hill players at the baseline. Getting the ball to that player is critical to the wildcat win
Now that I have seen this picture of the Wildcats marching together to the locker room for halftime, I wish that I had planned this shot. The light highlighting the single player really separates her from the team. Unfortunately, this shot was just lucky. There wasn’t enough light to catch the rest of the team, so it is much too grainy. The flash, which was on the stand, was leased next to the door heading to the locker room and aimed towards the center of the court. This is why it only caught that one player.
This is just a simple shot of a free throw.
In this one, one of Chapel Hill’s key players is going for a layup over the wildcat defense.
This last image changes the Wildcats celebrating their win. The three players on the left are celebrating, but the two players in the right look a little black. This was a particularly hard shot to take. I had set my flashed up to catch action, but catching the emotional moments, like this, do not happen in the middle of the court. Where is the light you need it?
If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.












