Basketball Game, 2/11/09 8-9pm, Pleasant Hill

Four players fight hard for a rebound

A player looks for an open pass while #3 keeps a watchful eye

Jason Wheat (with ball) reaches above his opponents to take a shot

Jason Wheat (Oakland Athletics shirt) blocks a player from moving toward the basket

A player tries to score from underneath the basket

For my event project, I took shots of a local basketball game. Jason Wheat, one of my roommates, invited me along. Which is good, because I was having a REALLY difficult time finding an event to photograph. Every place I called either told me photography wasn't allowed, the event was canceled, or you had to be a member of the place to get in (which typically involved paying $75-$150). I found a photography-friendly Chocolate Factory tour going on in Emeryville which was free, but much to my dismay, the word "tour" to these people means sitting in a room for 1 hour talking about the history of the factory, then leaving. What a tour that was... So when my roommate told me about a basketball game 5 minutes away, I jumped at the opportunity. Took 516 pictures for a 40 minute game! Went home and narrowed down the field to 100 for my contact sheet, the selected the 5 pictures above as my 5 favorites. If there's one thing I learned from sports photography in taking pictures of this basketball game and the hockey game (pictures below), it's that sports photography is HARD!!! Players move around so much, they get in the way of my shot, ect... Using auto focus is a waste of time too, cause the focal point changes every 2 seconds. I had to manually change the focus every few seconds manually. But it was definitely an enjoyable experience. When I learn more about my camera, I hope to give sports photography another try, especially my favoritest sport ever, hockey.