Sometimes, being able to go cover a game means that I can’t come alone. Sometimes, I bring a munchkin along with a camera. For those who don’t know, I’m a blogger and a photographer and a dad, among a number of other things, which means that sometimes I have to do lots of things at once. Like keep track of a 4 year-old and photograph a game. 

Munchkinland

Sunday was one of those days, as I brought my daughter to the Cal Poly women’s soccer game along with me. 

It wasn’t the first time I’ve brought her to a game. When she was about six months old, I would dress her in warm clothes and put her in the front pack while I shot games at Baggett Stadium from the top of the dugout behind the net, ducking low to keep her tiny, slumbering self out of the line of fire. 

As she’s gotten older, it’s become more and more difficult to BOTH bring the munchkin and take photos or cover games with any kind of thorough energy. 

When we got to the game on Sunday, I had been talking-up scarves. The women’s soccer team had advertised that they were giving them away. We got there right at kickoff, and all 100 scarves had already been given away (though I was told that several students came in, got theirs, and left — weak move guys.) 

No scarf didn’t mean a total meltdown though. We stood behind the UOP goal and I got some shots of Mustangs attacking. We went and talked to one of the security team who is a student. Munchkin got a water and climbed the empty, sun-soaked bleachers behind the benches. I got a few shots.

Not a bad day for some @calpolysoccer . 0-0 at half time vs uop.

A post shared by Fansmanship.com (@fansmanship) on Sep 17, 2017 at 12:54pm PDT

Grass glare

I’m generally a big fan of shooting from a raised angle — Spanos offers a unique opportunity there. The more I do it though, the more I hate it. When it’s really sunny — like it was on Sunday — there’s a glare that basically bounces off the grass field. It creates weird color balancing and messes with exposure quite a bit too if you’re not careful. It’s the kind of thing that I might notice were my full attention on the task at hand. 

Kneeling on the sideline wasn’t an option when you’re keeping just one eye and half your attention on your camera, though.

About 15 minutes into the game, it was getting hot for the muchkin. So we went upstairs. Walking around in the shade and paying a quick visit to the press box, she was rejuvinated and it was time for a snack.

I should know better by now, but at halftime I found myself walking away from the snack bar with a seven pound camera/lens, a ketchup-filled hot dog, and a drink in my hands. The munchkin carried her drink, and we found a place to sit in the shade and eat. 

Senior Megan Abutin puts away a penalty kick equalizer for Cal Poly on Sunday. By Owen Main, assisted by The Munchkin

Munchkin stamina

The first ten minutes of second half is about as far as she had gone in the past. The attention span of a four year-old wanders. Somehow, I was able to string it out a little longer than usual. With a comfortable temperature in a shady part of the stadium, she found a stick and was entertaining herself until Megan Abutin put in a penalty goal for Cal Poly. 

What I learned 

Photos Category

• My daughter’s stamina for being at games is getting better. Slowly. This makes me happy and hopeful for the next 2-4 years. 
• I can still get some OK soccer photos, even with her there. I just have to adjust my priorities in terms of how many I’m going to end up with and whether they’re ideal.
• Grass Glare — It’s a thing I have been aware of, but I’m really starting to see more clearly why photographers want to be closer to the ground as they shoot during the day. If there’s a photography lesson I learned, it’s that. Get close to the ground on a sun shiny day like Sunday. I’m not sure if knee pads will ever be my thing, but there is some technical reasoning behind low shots, aside from just looking cool.
• When you’re paying attention to a four year-old, little things like “where the sun is” can be lost on you as you shoot. 

Sports Category

• Cal Poly women’s soccer looks really resilient right now. Going down a goal, there was a little bit of unsure body language on the field, but Megan Abutin and the team stayed totally focused. Abutin is playing healthy and loose and was the key to unlocking some nice Cal Poly chances throughout the second half. The Mustang attack seemed much more connected than I saw last year. Let’s hope that keeps up.
• Leaving early, you always risk something like this happening without me being there. 

2OT FINAL: Megan Demijohn (104') her 2nd game-winner of the week – @CPWomensSoccer 2-1 over Pacific!#RideHigh & #PlayBig Thurs. vs Denver. pic.twitter.com/qDezSFXPW1

— Big West W-Soccer (@BigWestWSOC) September 17, 2017

To sum it up, if you bring a four year-old, try to enjoy the game a little and accept the fact that neither your photos nor analysis will be what they probably could be. 

And, for now, that’s just fine with me. 

Photos by Owen Main with an assist from The Munchkin. For all the photos from the game click here.

Taking sports photos is a crapshoot wrapped in a outer shell of competence and preparation. Sometimes, you know a great shot’s coming. Other times, it’s a surprise until you get home. Different sports require varying skill levels and on Saturday night at Mott, two or three sweet plays and the resulting photos were some of the best of the year.

Photographer Ray Ambler is someone who has appeared on the Fansmanship Podcast and is at a ton of Cal Poly games. You can find his photos at RAPhotos.com. He pretty much dominates Arroyo Grande and Five Cities. We are always crossing paths, and I asked him to talk to me about what goes through his mind during any particular big play.

When the play comes right at you and you’re able to capture it in focus… that’s a good feeling. By Owen Main

His first thought on a play like the Josh Martin dunk on Saturday night is the same as mine:

Ray had everything right. The subject is in-focus and he got stayed with Martin all the way through. Sometimes, the play just doesn’t come straight at you like you’d like it to. By Ray Ambler – RAPhotos.com

“My first thought on a fast-break is, is this a dunk coming?” said Ambler. “Sometimes, you don’t have time to think, sometimes, it is telegraphed. I will be on the alley-oop guy coming down the court and then the dunker is sneaking and at the last moment, you realize what is going on. On those… hit the button and pray.”

On the Martin fast-break dunk. David Nwaba dribbled quickly into the front court. Because it’s easier to capture a rim attack with a portrait-style photo, I usually turn my camera when there’s an impending drive. Ambler has a full-frame sensor, so he doesn’t have to.

“On the Josh Martin dunk last night. I thought Dave was going in,” said Ambler. “At the last minute, the ref stepped in my way and I missed the pass between the legs, but I was able to react to Josh’s reaction — Except he went the wrong way for me.”

I said “damn,” and peaked around the basket to see [Owen] standing in the bench corner. My first thought was, I bet Owen got it.”

While I deal with a cropped sensor (more zoomed-in), forcing me to shoot in portrait orientation, Ray had a full-frame one and was able to keep it in landscape orientation. It’s one of the several choices photographers have to make on every play. The more zoomed-in sensor has been effective when it comes to sports like football, baseball, and soccer, but isn’t ideal for things like basketball.

Ray’s positioning for Jaylen Shead’s dunk was a clear winner. By Ray Ambler – RAPhotos.com

Once you take the photos of the play, and hopefully the reaction of both the crowd and players, the game eventually pauses.

“Then you go through your photos at the time-out,” said Ambler, who will often share and compare shots with me during a game.

Over time, the group of photographers forms a kind of informal competition to see who shot a play the best.

After I got the better of the Martin dunk, the tables turned when Shead went coast to coast. By Owen Main

“It’s fun. After Jaylen’ dunk last night, all three of us in the corner – Laura [Dickenson, from the Tribune], Matt [Yoon, from Cal Poly] and I all checked out each others’ angles. All of us got good shots of that one. It’s cool to see the different shots and who hit the button at exactly the right time. I think Laura really won that one.”

You can see Dickinson’s photos of the Shead dunk and the rest of the game here.

While I definitely got the better photo of the Martin dunk, Shead’s left-handed jam meant his face and front of his body were opened toward the corner with the other three photographers in it. The first half of the Cal Poly – Hawai’i game was a microchasm of what can happen when you choose to shoot from a little different angle.

Preparation

While focus, anticipation, and understanding of the game you’re shooting will all be crucial, the first big decision as a sports photographer is where to locate yourself. In basketball, sitting on the baseline can get monotonous. For this reason, I’ll sometimes move up to the top of Mott if there is room (or if my friends let me sit with them for a minute). From the top, you’re afforded a different view, which I got lucky with for this Josh Martin dunk against UC Irvine.

The Martin dunk against UCI with a varied vantage point. By Owen Main

I was only in that seat for about three minutes, but I got an awesome shot — and moved along.

What are you thinking?

Knowing the game helps a lot. In football, being able to anticipate a quarterback pitch in Cal Poly’s triple-option offense is crucial. In volleyball, you might pick up on who the team is trying to set (Adlee VanWinden, for example). In baseball, being prepared for a steal or pick-off play can result in a great picture of a slide and tag, if you’re ready to point at the right thing.

In most sports, a referee or umpire can get in your way really easily. Usually, they’re trying to get the best look at the play and if you’re in TOO good position, sometimes all that ends up in your shot is blurry stripes.

On this sequence of a Zach Gordon alley-oop slam (left, Photos by Ray Ambler) in the first half of last week’s game, Ray was lucky that the official didn’t move to his right a little earlier, but the quick alley-oop can be the trickiest thing to shoot. Whenever your camera is moving quickly from one position to another, focus isn’t guaranteed.

In this case, the photos look OK when they aren’t that big, but they’re a little out of focus. I’m not bagging on Ray here either. I probably trash about 75 percent of the photos I take at a given game before editing about 50 percent of the ones I keep.

What about the game itself?

There wasn’t a ton to talk or write about after Cal Poly’s 75-60 loss to Hawai’i. The Mustangs once again looked like they could play right with a very good opponent and in the second half they once again had issues. You can catch Lucas Clark’s really good game story here or check-out Joe Callero’s post-game comments at the bottom of this post.

Thanks to Ray for contributing his photos and time. To view all of my photos from the game, please click here. 

Taking photos on the sidelines is fun, but does it cut too much into my writing? Photo by Ian Billings

Over two years ago, this site was off and running. The writing was really good, but we had an issue — too much text. The site wasn’t visually appealing enough. Simply put, we didn’t have enough photos.

So two years ago, I started to take photos. I bought an SLR camera, a nice-enough lens, and started to make photos at games myself.

At first, photos were something I did just enough of. One or two good shots, and my night was made. All I needed was enough to make the page pop a little and maybe keep someone’s eyes on my writing a little longer. Last year, though, things got a little more serious. In 2013, I bought a professional-level zoom lens. In 2014, it was a more advanced camera body with bells, whistles, and the ability to snap shots over twice as quickly as my original entry-level camera.

I love live-tweeting during games, priding myself as being a sort of jack of all trades. I love it when I don’t have to wait until I get home to get a single word on the page. I love being able to have most things written before I return home. I really enjoy being able to spend time with my one year-old, so I’ve found myself more and more editing photos deep into the night. I can’t help it. Over the past year, I’ve just had a bad case of photo fever.

When you get that just-right shot, it all seems worth it. By Owen Main

So as another school year approaches, I guess I ask myself whether it’s still the way to go. Sitting in a press box or on press row is cool, but taking photos on the court or field during a game brings with it a kind of adrenaline rush. I try to capture those moments that move me the most on the field of play. Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time taking photos. I know it affects my writing. I know my posts aren’t as well thought-out or written.

Maybe the photos I get make up for it. Maybe they don’t. Maybe I just need more help (do YOU want to write or take pictures for Fansmanship? Seriously, if you do, message me).

No matter the case, the photo thing is definitely here to stay. The feedback I get is really good and it seems that you, the readers, enjoy the photos as much as the writing. Like always, I’ll try to stay balanced, but I’m looking forward to taking as many photos as ever this season.

I can’t wait.

What do you think? What would you like to see more of? Comment below. 

Here’s a link to a gallery of some photos I took recently at an MLS match. 

Here are some of my favorites from the 2013-14 school year: