2010 High School Football Preview Cover
I shot this portrait of Eric and Blake Frohnapfel, players for Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, for our football preview last week. I had to sit on it until in ran in the paper. I managed to avoid shooting the 20 or so portraits of the featured players but I’m sure I’ll be doing our All-Area spread this year.
Redskins vs Bills 8.13.2010 – Images by Mike Morones
Well, it’s that time of year again – football season! I spent yesterday at FedEx Field and anybody who has been there knows what a joy that can be. The media room got a fresh coat of paint, warm hot dogs and wireless internet access. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice. Even though it mildly upset my sensibilities to see McNabb in burgundy and gold, any football is good football.
NCAA Football Recruiting
I shot a portrait of Tim Scott, a football player from Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, to illustrate a story about college football recruiting. In retrospect, there were a few technical details I should have addressed. In particular, I think I should have hit the front of the box with a little light as well as the background to minimize that shadow a bit.
Colonial Forge rising senior Tim Scott, holding a box of his recruitment letters, photographed at his home in Stafford, VA, on July 21, 2010 (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Redskins Minicamp
I spent much of yesterday in Ashburn at Redskins Park for the team’s first minicamp of the year. One of the media relations guys said he was surprised at the amount of coverage for voluntary workouts. Maybe so but I guess with a new coach, Donovan McNabb in burgundy and gold and a few new running backs, it was to be expected. Basically it took 90 minutes to get there, 90 minutes to get back and 25 minutes to shoot if you don’t count the hour-long press conference after practice, for which I had to wait another 90 minutes. I discovered early on that a lot of this job is waiting – waiting for access, waiting for the right light or composition to come together. It also took me a little while to learn that time spent waiting was not necessarily time wasted.
Recent Work: High School Hoops
I spent a few days over the past couple weeks covering a few area teams trying to make it to the state title game. Sadly for them, they fell short. Luckily for me, it means football season is another day closer. I just need to make it through baseball… On a technical note, the first picture was shot with a Nikon D300 at ISO4000, hence the noise, and the other two with a D3 at around ISO3200.
District Swimming
King George's Rachael Webb (center) celebrates with Heather Jones (left) and Emily Pelto (right) following Webb's finish in the 50-yard freestyle at the Battlefield District swim meet at the University of Mary Washington on February 13, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
King George's Tyler Grigg competes in the 100-yard butterfly at the Battlefield District swim meet at the University of Mary Washington on February 13, 2010. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Northwest Region Football
I covered the Northwest Region quarterfinals yesterday at Liberty High School. Because of all the bad weather, the games had been moved from Friday night to Saturday, which made working on a day off a bit more palatable. The first game, Colonial Forge vs Franklin County was one of the better games I have seen in a long while. It was a barnburner – blow-for-blow scoring, great athleticism on the part of the players, great crowds and lots of emotion, all which make for good pictures. I also have to say that usually I can’t stand most high school bands, particularly when they butcher the national anthem but Forge’s band was even good! In the end, with seconds on the clock, all Forge had to do was hold Franklin on 4th down but the Eagles completed a pass, converting the first down. Forge held them off for two downs but Franklin kicked a field goal, leading 37-35 and leaving .8 seconds on the board. Point-eight?!?! As I was working the sidelines, trying to get a picture that showed the proverbial agony of defeat, an assistant coach gave me a hard time, telling me not to take a picture of a kid who was beside himself. I told him I’m trying to work here and he said he’d block my camera every chance he got. It’s funny how everybody loves you when they’re winning but when things get tough, that changes very quickly. I suppose he felt like he was protecting the kid but unfortunately for him we don’t live in a fuzzy and warm fantasy land where everybody is special and a winner. And I had already taken the picture. It gave me a some joy to tell him that.
After that game I was kind of tired – with that much action I found myself hustling back and forth all game long – but I had a second one to cover. I was hoping Brooke Point vs William Fleming was going to be a nice 14-10 kind of game. Initially I was right, the Black Hawks took an early lead. I thought, “Great, it is a nice slow game, they are winning so I won’t get any grief after the game.” And I said as much to a guy on the sidelines. Well, for my sins, the game quickly developed into another score-for-score slugfest. Brooke Point came out on top in the end 44-35 and I was whipped. The party doesn’t stop though – Redskins vs Broncos today and MORE high school playoff ball on Monday. It could be worse – I was originally slated to head to Virginia Beach to cover the state field hockey tournament. Nothing against the athletes but even after years of shooting the game, I am still baffled by some of the nuances of the game.
Recent field hockey
You’ve gotta love nice, fall afternoon light. Now if I could just apply that light to some football…
Recent Daily Work
A week or two ago I was sent up to Colonial Beach, the so-called Playground of the Potomac, to get a picture to illustrate a story about some proposed beach ordinances that on face-value, appeared to eliminate fun and/or shenanigans at the beach. Locals the reporter and I spoke to suggested it was directed specifically Latino people. I suppose the bottom line is why would you do anything to drive tourists away, especially these days when a place like CB could benefit from those who would ordinarily be going to the Outer Banks or Delmarva. Anyway, here’s the photo I came up with:
Pedro Marquez, of Manassas, gathers up his fishing poles after fishing along the Potomac River in Colonial Beach, Va. on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009. Several ordinances have been proposed that would restrict certain activities including fishing from the beach. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
I’ve said before that I like shooting sports and some days a bad game is still better than some of the dross that passes for journalism but I think I need to draw the line at high school volleyball. I think part of this stems from my lack of interest in this sport and part of it is the awful high school venues – bad light, cluttered backgrounds. All that aside, in an effort to clean up the ugly backgrounds, I went up into the bleachers to shoot down on the action and came up with this:
Colonial Forge's Erin Godshall (#12) and Morgan Hymes (#15) collide as they both attempt to return a shot against Mountain View on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Despite my dislike of volleyball, here is a series called The Season by my friend Scott at the Chicago Tribune about a high school volleyball team. Proof that sports is about so much more than just game action. Good stuff!
TGFF*
*thank god for football
I tend to get down in the wintertime. I guess it is the cold and the gray skies. My wife on the other hand told me she can’t stand the summer, especially August. Come to think of it, I don’t like it either. And not just because I sweat like a pig at a sausage factory. I think it’s because there is no football. But that is all behind me. Football season is in full swing and I am beginning to get into midseason form. I must admit my first two weeks were pretty ugly – think of it as the photographic version of the Redskins!
Plus I decided to change up my approach. Last season I toted a 400mm lens to most of the games I covered and the ‘look’ began to get a little stale so this season, I decided to go a little looser with a 300mm. The longer lens gave me a little less reason to move around and find different angles. I would sit in a general area, pop on a teleconverter and wait for the action to come to me. Now I’m staying much closer to the line of scrimmage and moving more. So thank you to SI’s Robert Beck and his article at sportsshooter.com for motivating me to change up my game!
So here are a few pictures from some recent prep games. The puddle one was from the first game of the season. I think its an ‘almost’ -too quiet a picture for the paper. Probably too quiet a picture to ever see the light of day, really. I think I need to make an effort this season to take some time at each Friday night game to make more ‘flavor’ pictures. Mostly because the action is usually fairly lackluster. That is my mission tomorrow night!
Massaponax players, reflected in a puddle following heavy rain, watch their teammates warm up prior to the start of Friday's game against Spotsylvania. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Christian Barham, center, and his Eagle teammates listen to the pregame prayer before the start of Fredericksburg Christian School's first football game. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Chancellor's Tony Russell tries to avoid Massaponax's Andre Wyche on a punt return during Friday's game at Massaponax. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Massaponax football players lay their hands on a stone with a plaque honoring Ryan McGhee, a Massaponax graduate who died in Iraq, before the start of Friday's game against Chancellor. His jersey, number 33, was also retired. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Some recent work
I haven’t had many positive things to say and I’m trying to minimize my griping about the newspaper business. I guess I should address that soon though as it has a bearing on my work. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from recent assignments including the Redskins/Ravens preseason game, a balloon festival, the start of high school football practice, the area’s sole remaining cannery and a portrait of a young man heading to college.
Samantha Schuldt, 10, of Fredericksburg, holds onto line attached to a 1/4-scale balloon while pilots waiting for fog to dissipate at the Annual Balloon Festival at The Flying Circus Aerodrome in Bealeton, Va. on Saturday, August 15, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Children stand inside of Richmond resident Bubba Winslow's balloon at the Annual Balloon Festival at The Flying Circus Aerodrome in Bealeton, Va. on Saturday, August 15, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Washington Redskins punter Hunter Smith punts the ball from deep in Redskins territory. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Washington Redskins tight end Fred Davis fumbles the ball in the second quarter of the first preseason game in Baltimore, Md. on August 13, 2009. Davis recovered the ball on the play. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Caroline County High School graduate Marcel Anderson is heading to Norfolk State to start college on Saturday. photographed at his Doswell home on August 12, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Andrew Lucas, a football player at Fredericksburg Christian School, take a water break during the first day of practice on August 10, 2009. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
John Brown pulls a basket of tomatoes from a steamer at the Caroline County Cannery near Bowling Green on August 6, 2009. The Cannery nearly closed but will remain opne for at least another year. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Rain-out
All of today’s games are postponed till tomorrow due to rain. I can see softball but what’s the problem with playing some soccer in the rain? Bad weather would have made for some interesting pictures. Now I might be stuck here till Sunday…
AA state tennis championship
James Monroe sophomore Caleb Rapkins competes in the VHSL AA singles tennis championship at Radford University in Radford Va. on Thursday, June 4, 2009. Rapkins defeated William Byrd's Brennan Escobar 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinal but fell to Salem's Patrick O'Keefe 6-1, 6-0 in the final. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
AA Track
I spent last Saturday in Harrisonburg shooting the AA state track meet. Aside from surly meet officials and quite possibly the worst case of allergies i’ve ever encountered, it was a fairly uneventful meet. It was originally projected that the Louisa County boys team would win if their winter track results were any indicator. They blew away the compeition in the winter but it looked like they struggled on Saturday. It came down to the final event, the 1600-meter relay. They were in the fast heat and finsihed third there but placed 8th overall as a couple teams in the early heat posted better than expected times. I didn’t really have much of a reaction picture aside from some tired kids sitting around on the ground but the frame never really came together. That’s the trouble with trying to layer a complex picture; either everything comes together perfectly and you have a deep picture or something is out of place and the whole thing doesn’t work. Should kept it simple, I guess! Anyway, here are two frames, one of the girls 400-meter run state champion and the first handoff in the boys’ 1600-meter relay.
Orange County's Ashontae Jackson launches from the starting blocks in the 400-meter run at the AA state track meet at Harrisonburg High School in Harrisonburg, Va, on Saturday, May 30, 2009. Jackson won the state title with a time of 56.68 seconds. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Louisa's Brandon Payne, left, hands the baton to Brandon Parker in the 1600-meter relay at the AA state track meet at Harrisonburg High School in Harrisonburg, Va, on Saturday, May 30, 2009. Louisa placed eighth in the event, giving them only enough points to place third overall. (Mike Morones/The Free Lance-Star)
Tomorrow the AA state sports jubilee begins at Radford University. So far there is a local tennis player and a softball team. There likely will be a girls soccer match as well. So, this afternoon I’ll make the trek down to Radford. In years past, the area has had a lot more representation and consequently it took more staffers to cover the weekend’s events. Now, not so much. Plus it looks like the softball and soccer will be going on at the same time, so I’ll have to make some decisions as to how I go about getting to both and still get some storytelling images.
Marine Corps Historic Half in FXBG
I suppose it is fair to say it may have been a half marathon but a full dose of frustration. Aside from getting up before five, I was looking at 100% chance of rain and a course not easily navigated due to road closures. I made sure to bring rain gear for the cameras which usually works pretty well but makes it slightly more cumbersome. But like the marines, the news photographer’s mantra should be ‘adapt and overcome.’ We had 5 people out there shooting and thought we had a pretty good coverage plan. Sadly the rain took its toll on some colleagues’ gear though I lucked out and despite being soaked, the cameras survived! My major gripe of the day was that according to one of our reporters, the race organizers would not release the registration lists with names and bib numbers, only the results list with those that FINISHED the race. This was problematic as 3 out of the 5 photogs could not locate people in the results meaning that they did not finish or their race tags did not work. Thus a few good pictures could not go in the paper because we could not ID the runners. The Marines apparently said they were packed up for the day but would be happy to help us on Monday. We are a DAILY newspaper, that does us no good. Marine Corps fail! Anyway, all in all it was an unpleasant day though I think the paper’s coverage was solid. Plus we conducted a brief review afterwards and came up with a plan that will help us improve coverage of not only the marathon but events of similar size and scope like the SoapBox Derby
Here are a few pictures – I only cropped and resized as my trusty Mac bit the dust the other day. I’m hoping the IT folks can salvage the images that were on there. In the meantime I’m using my little Lenovo netbook. It is handy to have in the field but not great for major image crunching!
Check out FL-S coverage including Becky Sell’s pre-race portraits series. Good stuff!
Sun Delay
I was shooting a baseball game at Courtland High School the other day. It had been a while so I was feeling a bit rusty. It was slated to get started at 7:30 but Courtland’s field is situated in such a way that if there is no cloud cover the sun shine directly into the batter, catcher and ump’s faces. So we had a sun delay to wait for the sun to go down sufficiently. I shot this photo in the first inning when there was still a bit of sunset left. I love the way the D3 handles color. My only gripe with the picture is that I should have given it a bit more depth to help define the shape of the batter in the top right more.
Winter All-Area Sportraits
2008-2009 All-Area swimmer Meredith Cavalier
North Stafford's Megan Melendez, All-Area Gymnast
2008-2009 All-Area basketball players of the year, Courtland's Josh Hairston and Colonial Beach's T.T. Carey
Mountain View's Thomas Porter and Kaitlyn Davis are the 2008-2009 All-Area winter track athletes of the year.
Colonial Forge senior Mike Garafalo is the 2009 All-Area Wrestler of the Year.
2008-2009 All-Area co-swimmer of the year Trevor Carr
Stafford High School's Marquel Davis,
Well, it’s that time of year again – All-Area Sportraits. I’ve been shooting a ton of these lately and I was hoping I could pass these to a coworker to see what he could do with them. Sadly he got laid off and bought a plane ticket to China. I remained in Fredericksburg to herd cats coordinate with high school kids to shoot some pictures. I’ve been running on fumes when it comes to these shoots but I think a couple of these turned out OK, aside from one kid not showing up and another refusing to put on a uniform. Nothing makes me feel better than getting big-timed by a teenager! We also have to shoot group pictures of the All-Area teams. I will be the first to say if portraits are a weakness of mine, then group portraits are the weakest of all. The lighting is no problem but I always have trouble organizing the shape of the group. As the seasons roll on, we tend to switch between mugshots of each athlete or a group shot. I think the group shots look better but the mugs are way easier.
All-Area Gymnasts
Courtland wins Group AA, Division 4 basketball title
I headed down to Richmond yesterday to cover Courtland High School take on Salem in the Group AA Division 4 state title game at Virginia Commonwealth University. Usually these state games make for compelling action and more importantly, reaction pictures. Yesterday, not so much. Courtland pretty much manhandled the Spartans all game long. Plus they started at 9:45pm, adding an undercurrent of stress to make the paper’s deadlines. I got some halfway decent action but the reaction was fairly muted even though it was the program’s first-ever state title. The outcome was apparent by the end of the first half.Here are a few favorites:
Daily Grind – Week of Basketball
I’ve been on night shift this week shooting various regional basketball games. I made the decision to light most of the venues using SB-800 strobes at 45-degree angles to the top of the key. If you can get your lights high enough, you can produce some nice-looking images. However if you’re not careful, you can get some pretty ugly shadows. Sports Illustrated it ain’t but it will do on a budget. For the first part of the season I wasshooting Nikon D3′s with no lights, just the ISO cranked up. It was nice to be able to bang off a bunch of pictures though the downside was that the images looked kind of flat. So, I brought in the lights which give you a little punch but unfortunately kind of limit your movement as you can get some serious lens flare if you are not careful. With the state tournament coming up, I think I might go back to the no-light set-up if only because the pictures all look the same. Well lit maybe but definitely redundant. Anyway, here’s a slideshow of a week’s worth of high school hoops:
The Daily Grind
A few weeks back after seeing another photographer do this, I thought it would be a good idea to just put up a picture from every assignment, not just the very best. The idea essentially is to push myself to do better daily work through an exercise in public humiliation. In my case only a handful of people see this thing, so there really isn’t much pressure! Anyway, I did indeed find myself thinking about it more often while on assignment so I guess it was working in some ways. Clearly by looking at the work I may disagree with myself on that statement too! Anyway, here is a slideshow of the Daily Grind posts:
