Tonight, the first night, I ran in the 5k Filthy Mud Run, which was MUCH harder than anticipated. I was sorely disappointed when I arrived at the final mud pit and it was closed off due to an injured competitor. I had to run around it.

Fortunately, I had better luck with my photography. I decided to shoot the finals in the Ultimate Air Dog (Catch It).

Here are the shots I was able to capture. Since I managed to get quite a few, I put them into a simple slideshow from Flickr. You can see me shots on flickr here…

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For my first official post I decided to write a little about returning courtside for the first time this year and photographing the VCU Women’s Basketball team when they took on UDEL at home on January 20th.  Despite it being well into the season, this was the first game I attended with my camera. Because of my work in the athletic department, I get the chance to sit on the sideline at a lot of VCU athletic events. And since I know most of the athletes on the court/field/etc., my photographing them during the competition often goes unnoticed.  They appreciate it when I send them shots of them in action.

I chose this game because of the appearance of one Elena Della Donne, who two years ago was the #1 women’s basketball recruit and committed to UCONN. However, she left UCONN before the school year started and found herself at UDEL playing on the Women’s Volleyball team. Having never played volleyball at a competitive level, she quickly picked up the game and helped propel the UDEL Lady Hen’s to the 2008 CAA Tournament Champions. Now, she is the leading scorer for the women’s basketball team. I wanted to see her in action.

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While I was impressed with Della Donne’s ability, I quickly realized that someone else had come to play, #44 Courtney Hurt.  In the first half, “Churt” came to play and was instrumental in holding Della Donne scoreless in the first 10 minutes of the game and keeping her to 10 of her game high 27 points in the first half.

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The ladies played a hard fought game in the second half with a key steal by #4 Kita Waller late in the game and some good offensive shots.  In the end, senior #24 D’Andra Moss nailed a 3-pointer with 0:00.4 of a second left to propel the ladies to a 60-59 win.  One of the challenges I have photography VCU sports is that I get too “into” the game and become a fan.  I was so entrenced with the final play of the game that my camera when unused and my perfectly angled seat on the floor produced no dramatic shot!

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Click to view the image larger.

Since it was my first game, I was a bit rusty!  I mostly shot with my 70-300 f/4-5.6 (as I have yet to convenice my wife to allow me to purchase a 70-200 IS f/2.8).  The shot of the team huddle and the shot above of #4 Courtney shooting the ball we taken with my wide angle 17-24 f/4.  To give you an example of my rust, I missed an awesome shot in the first half of #24 D’Andra taking a charge!  It was completely out of focus, I wasn’t ready…

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Last but not least, I was able to get a great 3-shot series of #1 Jennifer Lane on a fast break open layup.  So, I decided to turn it into a tripic.  She did make the shot and was fouled.

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Thanks for reading.  Until next time…