Why I shoot women's sports

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MichaelHarris

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Mar 15, 2006
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Everyone wants to photograph men's sports, you can't throw a rock without hitting a photojournalist at a college football or men's basketball game. These women come to play, these women come to play hard!

Sure they get the poorly lit gyms and it makes it harder on me but I find it rewarding. These are my shots, taken long after the local media took their 3 "news" shots and left. My shots went to the schools and student-athletes, hopefully they will live long after the media coverage.
 
You are absolutely right regarding the extreme effort of lady athletes and pure expressions of their successes and failures. Here in CT we do get bus loads of photographers and journalist for our Husky women's basketball games, but the other sports are largely ignored, but are no less interesting.
 
Beautiful photographs. When in high-school and college, I always took the assignment for the "lesser attended events". Much more interesting to me from a photographic point of view. I need to scan some of my old negatives.
 
I spent many happy years coaching girls travel football (soccer) teams in my town and absolutely loved it. Team sports are wonderful, you lose together and win together as the first picture so eloquently illustrates. In addition to being able to teach my football skills to eager youngsters, I can honestly say I found something to like in every kid I came across. I'm also glad to report that at least in my town and at the school level, there appears to be equal press coverage for both boys and girls sports.
 
I attended the Purdue-Western Illinois basketball game yesterday, where my daughters played in the pep band. After the game, the team stood facing the band and sang the fight song. Then the coach made it a point to thank the band during her post-game interview. That was before anyone went to the locker room. With men's sports, they are headed out as soon as the clock runs down. I'm not sure they even know the band was there supporting the team.
 
I remember years ago when men's tennis was dominated by the serve and vollyers with BIG serves ... the likes of Rosco Tanner comes to mind here!

The women's game was refreshingly easy to watch compared to the mens where actually catching sight of the ball occasionally was a rare treat! 😀
 
Tracks is good for RF

Tracks is good for RF

There are sports where you know in advance where the concurrent will be and how they move, you have time to prepare exposure and focusing. So an entirely mechanical camera allows perfect results.
This is a completely static scene but these instants of concentration are among the best in sport activity.

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P.S.:
Coaching young girls is often a pleasure, notably because they often are hard workers, tough, consistent and more dedicated than many of their male comrades.
 
When I was a shooter for my college newspaper a couple years ago, my favorite sport to shoot was women's volleyball. Lot's of effort, excitement and fun. And as Mudman mentioned above, they are a lot better looking than their male counterparts 🙂

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