Through Schmidty's Lens

2006-05-03T14:02:00.000-05:00

Baseball and then some
West Texas A&M left fielder Cody Dean slips past the tag and base-blocking of Wildcat shortstop Ruben Rivera on a pickoff attempt at second base during the third inning of ACU's 12-0 victory in the first game of a doubleheader Sunday.

ACU third baseman Matt McGuire calls off fielders as he runs down an infield fly ball during ACU's 12-0 victory Sunday.

Wildcat shortstop Ruben Rivera dives for a grounder, narrowly missing it, during ACU's 12-0 victory.

I thought I'd try something different for pitching shots and got directly behind home plate to get some frontal pitching shots and some with the batter and the pitcher like this.

Ruth Kelly and Pockets Neimeyer joke as they work on homework and final projects in the new Library Commons on Monday.

2006-04-26T11:51:00.000-05:00

Finally back to a busy weekend of sports! Friday I shot a softball doubleheader where they clinched the LSC South Division championship and then Saturday I drove to Stephenville for the final day of the LSC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which ACU just flat-out dominated.
Also, as a side-note, I finally became a member of SportsShooter.com and you can see my member page, which I am going to try to update at least once a week, at www.sportsshooter.com/brian221.

Hurdler Jon-Daniel Todd clears a hurdle during the finals of the 110 meter hurdles Saturday at the LSC Track and Field Championships. Todd finished fifth with a time of 15.14 seconds.

Liga Klavina sets up to launch the javelin during the LSC Track and Field Championships Saturday in which she placed third with a throw of 41.18 meters.

Nick Moore clears the bar Saturday during the LSC Track and Field Championships Saturday. Moore finished second to ACU's Cory Aguilar, clearing a hight of 4.80 meters.

Vladyslav Gorbenko lands in the sand pit after a triple jump attempt during the LSC Track and Field Championships where Gorbenko finished first in the triple jump with a jump of 16.02 meters and fourth in the long jump with a jump of 7 meters.

Starting pitcher Jennifer Leal winds up during Friday’s game one victory over Texas Woman’s University, 3-1, clinching the LSC South Division title. Leal piched a complete game, allowing one earned run on eight hits with four strikeouts.

Shortstop Daisy Barcena chases after a ball she misplayed, but is still able to field it in time to throw out Texas Woman's University outfielder Amber Brooks at first in the sixth inning of Friday's game one 3-1 win over the Pioneers.

2006-04-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

This is my first-place winning shot from the TIPA Live sports contest two weekends ago in San Antonio. This was my first time to ever shoot hockey and I feel it went pretty well, I had a lot of fun and learned a new sport.
Next, I shot the ACU All School Rodeo last Tuesday. It didn't go as well as last year and I was not really happy with most of my images but I did get a few descent ones.

2006-03-08T14:06:00.000-06:00

For once, this post will have no sports. Shocker huh.
Anyway, I've been shooting a lot more features and such lately and got some good stuff this morning after Chapel with the inflatables. I just looked through real quick but these are two of my favorites. Ever since I first saw the bungie run inflatable during Welcome Week, I have been enthralled with it.
The students today were really going all out, I even had a couple guys go so far down the run that they reached my camera.

Second, I was out on a feature cruise around campus last week and came upon this couple, the guy was training his girlfriend on the skateboard, interesting to say the least.

I also shot the GSP guys riding the excercise bikes in the Campus Center, advertising for their Spring Break trip to Peperdine to raise money for a bone disease fund.
I tried two different angles, my typical low, really low under the table, and then high, standing on top of the table, not very sturdy but I kind of like it better I think. Let me know what you think. It is maybe a little hard to see, but he is really sweating hard, his face is just dripping, I was hoping it would be easier to see.

Finally, a feature shot for a story on the nice weather, and how students have been enjoying it.

2006-02-27T14:14:00.000-06:00

In this journal, I have a variety of things, I wanted to show more than just sports, especially since I shot a lot of news. I will try and update it with more as soon as I can.

First, I had a lot of different stuff that I liked from Sing Song, here are a few of my favorites.

I love these first several shots of the hosts and hostesses because of the lighting, especially this first one.

Finally, backstage shot, the typical preparation, face painting shot that I like to take real close with my wide-angle lens.

Second, here is my latest feature shot, we did a story about six freshmen on the baseball team that are getting a lot of playing time.

An ode to the ACU basketball team. The 2005-2006 season is officially over, ending with a stupid coin-toss that kicked the women out of the playoffs. These are shots from the last game for each team.

Finally, I just had to have something from this game because I froze my butt off just trying to get some shots. This softball game was played Friday when it was 20 something degrees.

2006-02-15T14:07:00.000-06:00

Here are some baseball photos I took this last weekend. It was absolutely the craziest doubleheader I have ever seen in my life...Amazing.
Collision at third base, unfortunately Ruben Rivera, ACU third baseman, dropped the ball via the collision.
I decided to try to get a different shot this time, shooting from the first base dugout, as usual, but shot directly toward the first base runner, guessing and hoping that there would be a close pick off play at first, and there were several.

This is my proof of the absolutely crazy game, look at the third and fourth innings, then the final score. AMAZING

Back to basketball, the sports editor from Midwestern hired me to shoot some shots for them at the Saturday basketball game in Moody and this was one of the shots I got. I like it because of the interesting flying jumpshot. The frame before was pretty nice too, with a nice face but more distance between the players and less overall action.'

Again, a shot negetive toward ACU but that I like. Jamie Boles, ACU forward, is getting the ball stolen while being double teamed. I love the faces and it is something that is often very hard to get. I shot from up in the stands as I have started doing in the second half of games and really started to like.

Finally, again, something different, here is a shot from Moody Weekend. This is Galaxy doing their Batman and Robin act, they are talking about the wonderful thing found by Batman...GUANO.

2006-02-08T13:53:00.000-06:00

This is one of my more recent favorites and has become a bit of controversy because the player was called safe but it sure looks like he was out. Obviously, this would have been a little better from a lower perspective but I still like it. It was a instantaious, pure reactionary shot as I was shooting the grounder to third and quickly swung around to home to catch the play.

I like this because of the multiple elements, includng the base runner escaping away from the play, to no avail.

This is just a simple pitching shot, a usual safety shot that is interestingly different simply becasue the pitcher is a sidewinder and his leg kick is totally different from most.

I decided to throw this in here for something different, I really like the low angle and the things in the foreground which help to explain what is going on.

2006-02-06T14:11:00.000-06:00

2006-02-01T14:03:00.000-06:00

Tuesday I shot the men's and women's basketball games, both teams faced tough competition in Tarleton State, and both lost after having a chance in the second half. Emotion was a figurehead in both games as both teams played hard and physically. For the second half during both games, I tried a new shooting position of shooting with a 300mm lens from up in the stands. This is a good technique becasue I am able to shoot down, helping to get rid of busy backgrounds and often helping at least a little with lighting.

2006-01-24T20:25:00.000-06:00

Well, of course, my favorite and most common things to shoot are sports and as it is deep into basketball season, I will share a few recent favorites. I am excited because the ACU basketball teams are turning around their recent struggles and both won on the same day, making the games fun both to shoot and be at.

I have been really enjoying my new camera I got over the break, a Cannon EOS-1 D Mark II N, and combine it with my Cannon 50mm 1.4 USM lens and shoot under the basket and along the baseline. I love shooting basketball under the basket because it leads to nice, tight photos with plenty of action.
Freshman guard Cameron Holson is fouled hard by Donald Young as he tries to enter the lane between Greyhound defenders, Young and Ira Cross, during ACU's 82-73 victory over Eastern New Mexico Saturday.
I like this photo because not only does it have great peak action, but also has some good emotion on the players faces. Recently, both men's and women's basketball teams have been playing with more fire, passion and aggressiveness which leads to some good photos underneath the basket. Players getting fouled is always an interesting shot to me because of the contact in a supposed "non-contact sport" and the good reactions you get around the point of contact as defenders try to avoid getting the foul called and the offensive players try to make sure the officials call a foul.

Junior guard Tiago Souza attempts to pass behind the back of Greyhound defender Mike Monette, but gets called for an offensive foul in the process.

Women's basketball has always been a lot of fun to shoot, perhaps in part because it is so different from men's basketball. I don't really favor one over the other, but it is very interesting and fun to shoot back to back.
Senior guard Kierstan Barbee drives to the inside while trying to get around Eastern New Mexico defender Heather Brown.
Drive shots are usually fairly easy to get but can sometimes look really good. While I would probably not say that this one is that great, it isn't bad because of Kierstan's expression. I really enjoy shooting Kierstan because she almost always plays intense and has been doing a very good job lately, especially on the inside where I like to shoot.

Senior forward Haley Hammond defends ENMU Brittney Gillespie's shot during the second half of Saturday's 83-63 Wildcat victory.
Recently, I have begun trying to do some new things to get different shots because one of my biggest problems is having a variety of shots throughout the season for the Optimist. One of the things I have started to do more often is not switch sides at halftime and shoot the defensive end for ACU. While I have not yet gotten anything I had really envisioned, I have made some interesting shots. This one is akin to shots I get on offense, just with a nice defensive twist to it. Again, I like the nice, close, tight defense, which helps me get a tighter shot and often brings out facial expressions.