Seeing high-level ultimate sometimes makes me wonder how good I could have been had I really taken it seriously when I was in my 20s (when I had a legit shot at trying out for some quality teams). But that would have taken a fire that I just don't have for ultimate. Once I graduated from college, I never relished the thought of weekend track workouts, mandatory practices, and traveling all over the east coast for tournaments. (That's not to say I didn't enjoy it while at Haverford--I had nothing better to do then, and roadtrips to North Carolina seemed like a perfect way to spend a weekend.)
Now, however, I am perfectly capable of watching ultimate without wishing I was on the field. And I am beginning to enjoy photographing more than playing...certainly less wear on the body.
So back to Regionals. Two warm, sunny days at Devens, lots of teams, and about 2500 photos total. As I've mentioned before, I'm interested in getting photographs beyond the typical layout/action shots; ones that really try to convey the emotion and chaos of the game. I got a few this year that are different from any others that I've shot before, so it was a good weekend.
I rented a 300 mm and had it fixed on my Canon for almost the entire weekend. When shooting Open (fancy name for the Men's division) I would camp out in the endzone; when shooting Mixed (Coed) or Women, I would usually roam the sidelines between the front endzone cones. I was more active than normal in this regard--I covered divisions differently, and tried to predict the action, trying to be less reactive and more proactive in my positioning.
 |
| Pigpile. |
 |
| Close but no cigar. |
 |
| Going to Nationals. |
 |
| Right idea, wrong timing. |
The full gallery (culled to my top 200) is here. Now if I could only sell a few of them...
I also had the chance to recap some of the tournament for the USA Ultimate website. That was a fun exercise--I actually took a lot of notes detailing scores, big momentum shifts, key plays and players, etc. for both days. I think it helped me focus my photography too; paying increased attention to storylines and not just trying to shoot big layouts yielded some different sorts of images.
15 years ago I dreamed, occasionally, of going to Nationals as a player. I still hope to get there someday, but now I hope to bring lenses, not cleats.
Posts
I read your recap a couple of weeks back on the USA ultimate website and meant to mention it to you. I thought it was excellent, giving a sense of the stakes from the players' perspective, as well as the key incidents. I love the shots above, and the close but no cigar one is my favourite.
ReplyDeleteThanks--perhaps one day we will have Guardian-like coverage of ultimate! I think we have a way to go before that point, but hopefully my recap was a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteIt's a definite start, and I also thought that at least some of the commentary on the live streaming games was quite good, explaining what was going on and narrating the action quite effectively. I have come across LOADS of ultimate players who watched the coverage, whether people I saw at the weekend, friends who mentioned it, others who posted on Facebook about it, so I think it was a real success. Now we just need to get Barry Glendenning doing minute-by-minute coverage.
ReplyDelete