Westbrook High School Lacrosse viewed by a Maine Photographer

If you follow my blog...I pledged last week to get back to blogging weekly, and that this weeks post would be focused on my beloved dog Tasha, who passed away in December of 2009.  Upon looking for some comforting words to share with a friend I realized that I had never written them down.  I'm not concerned with the time that has passed, I will still find the words to properly eulogize Tasha, but I am concerned with rushing the post just to get it done...that I cannot do...it's been 3.5 years...a few more weeks won't change anything.

So switching gears completely, here's my weekly post, this one like no other, it's about Westbrook High School Lacrosse, and I'm going to throw in a bit of "Photography 101"with it.

I've taught three rounds of Photography 101 at my local community center, and I will be teaching again this fall, so please if you are interested in getting to know your DSLR and what you can do with it, please check out my class this coming September at the Westbrook Community Center.

In the meantime, one of the things I talk about in my class is "back button focusing".
I had read about other photographers using it, and I had read that it takes time to get used to...but I had not yet gone into my camera manual to make the switch...

Until, I was asked by the Westbrook Lacrosse boosters to photograph some Lacrosse games.  Typically my Spring photography season is pretty light, so I thought this was a great opportunity for myself and for trying something new.  New.  Yes.  I had never been to a lacrosse game before.  I suspected though that it moved rather fast.  If you recall this past winter I said "yes"to the challenge of photographing hockey, so again, always working toward improving my skills and getting exposure with the local community, I said "yes" to photographing lacrosse.

Anticipating a fast moving sport was the perfect motivation I needed for trying "back button focusing" For those of you interested, you have to pull out your camera manual and look up how to set it up.  How it changes what you do is, instead of pressing the shutter button half way down to achieve focus, you now press a button on the back of your camera (that's how it works with Nikon anyway) and you achieve focus, then you press your shutter button to take the photo.  Also, the focus doesn't reset, until you press that back button again...so...if your subject moves out of your focus range your camera doesn't refocus on the background thus leaving you with a blurry subject and a tack sharp background.  It does take some getting used too...but now that I've kicked the learning curve I won't be switching back.  I'm totally lovin it!  I've included some shots from the last game of the season...some very fast moving action...and some very clear focused shots.  At the end is a photo of all the seniors and their parents.  Thought I would give them a little "shout out"for a great and fun season.  Yes, I would totally do this again!
(and only if you wish to watch, I've included a 10 minute slideshow of additional shots I took this season...just click the link at the end)

  link to slideshow:  http://video214.com/play/Uvl0UfJybSnHLeC6miJscA/s/dark