I was once again presented with the opportunity to shoot for the UF Women’s Basketball team as they played in the 2010 SEC Women’s Basketball tournament held at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA.  This is such a huge opportunity for any sports photographer as you gain postseason tournament experience shooting with some of the best photographers from Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press, and SEC Sports.  Plus the SEC is their premier league when it comes women’s basketball and you can really catch some great games.

This time around I was prepared with the right equipment and I had a whole season of shooting under my belt.  I felt really prepared and knew coming in what shots I needed and what new shots I wanted to get.  I also had my workflow fairly perfected and that was crucial, as I was able to develop my photos pretty quickly so they could be posted right after the game.  This was a great opportunity to bring all my experience from the past regular season and apply to one of the bigger stages in women’s college basketball.

I arrived at the Gwinnett Center to pick up my media credentials and was greeted by some helpful SEC staff volunteers who took me on a tour of the facility and the media workroom.  I’ve only been to a few media workrooms in my short career but I have to say that the SEC really knows how to take care of their media staff.  There were separate work areas for newspaper media, photographers, and video editors.  In addition to the separate rooms, there was a huge room just for the hot pre-game meals that were served at the beginning of each session (a session consisted of two games).  There were also stacks of media guides from all of the SEC schools piled up against the wall of newspaper media area which I thought was pretty impressive.

I was able to get my laptop all setup and the gear all organized and then I headed to the floor.  As I was walking through the media row on the sideline I glanced at a few of the names reserving the seats.  There was the Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, local Atlanta newspapers, and USA Today.  I was pretty impressed that they made these preparations for such big news organizations.  I made my way to the baseline to find that the AP and SEC Sports photographers already claimed the really good spots but I was able to grab a spot right next to the SEC Sports photographer who I remembered from last year’s SEC tournament.

I took a few pictures just to see how the lighting was and I immediately knew I was going to have a great day taking pictures.  I was pleased to find the lighting was amazing and bright and I had to tone down my settings that I’m used to at the O’Dome in Gainesville.  The great lighting in the arena allowed me to shoot at 1/1250 with only a 3200 ISO which meant that I was going to get some great clear low noise shots.  It was an hour before the game and the teams were out warming up and I was snapping away.  All shots were crystal clear and because I was shooting at such a fast shutter speed, I was able to get some great action shots.

Even though the end result of the game was not what I was looking towards, it was a good game and another great experience.  I was able to see how some of the other photographers framed their shots and also got to see some new equipment that I hadn’t yet seen.  The ability just to be on the baseline capturing this wonderful sport made for a great day.  I am truly thankful for the opportunity and hope to be able to continue with this kinds of experiences in the future.

You can see my entire set from the game here on my Flickr page.