I know you all have been on the edge of your seats waiting for Parts II and III of the ultimate Honeymoon excursion but I wanted to post some great shots that I took during the 2010 Doral-Publix Junior Golf Classic held in Miami, FL at the Marriott Doral Golf Resort & Spa put on the First Tee Miami – Dade Amateur Golf Association.  I have been working for DAGA for about 13-14 years now and this tournament is the largest junior golf tournament in the world.  Close to 700 junior golfers from all over the world descend on Miami for a pretty good golf outing.

I always make it a point to go out in the mornings after most of the golfers have teed off and follow some of the action.  This year though I decided to bump up the shutter speed and catch some exciting sand and fairway shots. This is one of the younger golfers (believe under 10 years old) hitting on the Red Course par 3.

This is on the 18th hole of the Red Course with the 14-15 Girls flight off the fairway. I thought it was pretty cool how the ground follow the golf club.

The following sand shots are from the final day of play for the 16-18 Boys and Girls Championship flights. This is on the legendary Blue Monster course hole #4.

And yes this is the same course that the PGA players play at the CA Championship.

Overall, it was a great tournament and I definitely had some fun taking some exciting shots. You can view more of the photos at the First Tee Miami-DAGA website in the Photos section.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! GO GATORS!

PS – I promise the other Parts of the honeymoon are coming!

The UF Women’s Basketball team was selected to play in the WNIT Tournament.  The good thing about this tournament was that they had the chance to play one more game in front of their home crowd on their home court.  I was there to capture the action and definitely had a great experience once again on the sidelines of the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.  The team was matched against last year’s tournament champion, University of South Florida.  South Florida normally plays Florida pretty tough.

The UF women played determined and the game was tight for most of the game.  Steffi Sorensen lead the team with 16 points and was electric during the game.  In the end, the Lady Gators defeated the USF Bulls 61-54 and they moved on to the second round of the tournament.

They would later find out that they faced the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL.  I was able to make it down for the 5 hour trip to Miami and was able to follow the team as they prepared for their second round matchup.

The BankUnited Center is an interesting arena.  It was built for the purpose of basketball on the campus of the University of Miami and is fairly new.  They have floor seating that allows fans to sit right in front of the action.  The lighting inside of the arena was amazing too and I had to really tone down some of the settings that I normally use for a basketball game.  The only downside to the whole arena was the seating situation for visiting photographers.  For the first half, there was really no seating and I had to sit in front of floor seats with fans in the seats.  The second half, I had an open baseline but I feel if Miami had dancers that would be their spot.  At the SEC tournament, there was clearly marked seating for photographers so this was a big change.

The Lady Gators played a hard fought game and for the most part, the game was fairly tight.  During the second half, UM made there run and ultimately, took control of the game.  The Gators lost to the Canes, 64-77, and Miami eventually made it to the Championship game losing to California.

It was a long ride back to Gainesville but that gave me time to think of the opportunity that I was given and the memories that I was able to capture.  I am truly thankful for this opportunity and look forward to hopefully being able to capture more memories next season.  Go Gators!

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.

UF's Steffi Sorensen (10) celebrates after saving a ball out of bounds.

I have been very fortunate over the past few months to have the opportunity to capture the moments (both good and bad) of the UF Women’s Basketball team as they work through their 2009-2010 basketball season.  Not only have I been able to shoot a sport that I absolutely love but I have been learning so much along the way.  I’ve also been able to see another side of the game of basketball and get really close to the action.

The photo above is absolutely one of my favorites for many reasons.  First, because I almost missed it.  I was concentrating on another part of the action as Steffi Sorensen was flying towards me on the baseline.  Your first natural reaction is to wince and protect your equipment and that reaction has happened many times resulting in missed shots.  For some reason, though, I was automatically focused the camera on the action and held down the trigger.  This amazing shot right here is the result of that reaction.  I am happy I was able to overcome the wince and protect reaction!

Another reason I absolutely love this photo is it’s just a simple shot but the amount of emotion contained within the photo is tremendous.  If you understand the idea of sport, then you can relate to the amount of emotion the player is showing in this photo.  I feel like this photo in itself conveys more than the standard 1000 words.  You definitely can feel pumped and ready to play.

It’s moment like these that make it really great to be a photographer!

Wow!  This was one of the most thrilling games to watch and shoot.  It was the battle of David and Goliath as the ladies from Chi Omega (Sorority League Champs) outnumbered the ladies of the Tomboys (Womens League Champs) 20-5.  The Tomboys played with only five players and lost their 5th to an injury at a crucial point in the second half.  This did not stop them as they were down 13-7 and ended up scoring a 32 yard TD off some great heroics.  This gave them the chance to win on the extra point but missed by a matter of inches.  That brought on overtime and it took Chi Omega (who had the ball first) 4 downs to score and a 3rd and goal INT against the Tomboys to seal the victory.  While my favorite lost, this was definitely one of the most impressive and outstanding flag football games to watch.  The determination and perseverance of this team is quite commendable.

Check out the set from the 2009 All Campus Women’s Flag Football Championship played on Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (The Swamp) on the campus of the University of Florida.