For my last basketball game of 2012 I stayed after the Men’s game at Boulder to shoot the Women’s game (Colorado is ranked 23 in the AP poll) against the New Mexico Lobos.
I was disappointed that so many people left after the Men’s game. It would have been nice to see more support for the ranked Women. The super buff fans did actually come (back from winter break) to the girls game, which was nice because they are a big part of my project I have started working on for early next year.
I was able to run over to the student section and pitch my idea to the super fans, and they seemed to be onboard. I gave them a card and am anxiously awaiting them to email me back.
So I found out that the kid dancing in the video I posted a week ago is the son of the Men’s basketball coach. I may have to try to do a real feature on him later on. He was gone for the girls game, and a bunch of girls replaced him and the other ball boys. I started to looking around and realized a majority of the fans that were here for the women’s game were teenage or younger girls. The Coors Event Center started to look like a Justin Bieber concert.
I had not shot a women’s NCAA game in a few years, and these games are so different from high school girls games. The girls are big (many around 6′ tall), and they would whip some of the boys high school teams I shoot.
The point guard for Colorado, Chuck Jeffery is tough. She is a great all around player. Bringing the ball up, distributing the ball or taking it to the hole herself, crashing the boards, and tough on defense. She is the whole package and other teams would be smart to double team her, because one on one, I think there are very few players in the Pac-12 that will be able to match up with her.
I noticed the cheerleaders had changed a bit from the Men’s game. The group that normally stands in front of me before the men’s game starts were now here. It looks like with the double header, the cheer squads split duties for the games.
My cheer shots got a bit better for the girls game, but more importantly, I grabbed some good action. Because of it being a double header, I only shot the first 10 minutes of the first half. Colorado was dominating the Lobos on both sides of the court.
I headed into the media room, which had now been vacated by most of the other photographers. In fact, it was me, one of the team photographers, and a daily news photographer. I downloaded and transmitted first half photos, and then headed back out during half time to prepare to shoot the second half.
Colorado continued their domination over New Mexico when the second half started. I shot about 10 minutes of the second half, and headed back to the media room. It was light work for me, and I felt pretty happy with my shots.
After downloading and transmitting my photos, I packed up my gear, having shot my last basketball game of 2012. Hoping the 2013 will bring me success and sales and maybe a full time photo gig.
All of these photos are available for MEDIA USE ONLY. Please contact me or visit Cal Sport Media for these photos and more.