Monthly Archives: October 2013

Bucknell – Pitt aquatics meet 2013

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Shooting swimming and diving events does not ocme easity for me. The dives move so quickly that the camera has a hard time keeping up. Much of what is important in swimming happens beneath the surface of the water, and thus is invisible to the camera. On Homecoming Day 2013, Bucknell hosted the team from Pitt, a far larger school, and were often outclassed. This is a great bunch of athletes, however, and they display much drive and energy. Forgive me if some of these shots display my sense of humor rather than artistic talent. There is always humor around us, and a swim meet is no exception.

This is the link to the Zenfolio pages:http://photos.j-joel.com/p878708781

 

Bucknell’s Homecoming 2013

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Homecoming 2013 was just what anyone could hope for: a bright, crisp, Rall day with several key events, a good attendance, and a upset victory of major proportion on the football field. I only got to cover the second half of the football game because I was asked to shoot the day’s aquatics meet with Pitt.

My shots here are intended to portray soem items that strike me as key points. First, the Bison ran the ball almost at will against a big Lehigh defensive unit which is one of the better ones in the nation. C. J. Williams, featured in that sequence which shows one of his scores, ran relentlessly and fearlessly. And his line played like titans, those outsized Norse gods who were invincible. Even a 70 year old geezer like me could have run for a few yards through the holes they made. But Williams had a career day. When he was on the sideline, Matt DelMauro picked up the slack and roared to a TD. Next, the secondary played a fine game against a good quarterback, with key interceptions and good, sound, coverage. Earlier in the season, they didn’t inspire the same confidence, but in this game even Peyton Manning would have failed to beat them. Secondary is not an easy position to play, because your opponent has all the rules on his side, and so you must be smarter and a better athlete. This day, the Bison were. Third, although the early lead helped them, the coaches had all the answers. Lehigh may have rolled up some interesting statistics, but they were meaningless because in almost every key down, Bucknell had the offensive or defensive answer.

I’ve included also. shots of the human side of a homecoming: Hall of Famers, the best basketball team I’ve ever rooted for, the fun of a fancy tailgate, the Patriot League’s best cheerleaders, and the only “professional flag wavers” in Lewisburg. I hope you enjoy these, and they remind you of the euphoria of a huge upset.

The link to the Zenfolio pages portion of this site with those shots is http://photos.j-joel.com/p682253452.

“Where have all the pictures gone?”

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At the recent Bucknell – UMBC swin meet, some of the team asked me where all the shots which are taken, end up. It’s a common enough question when folks see us shooting 200 pictures at an event. (I actually shot over 300 at that meet.) Here is a brief answer. Many of the shots simply are not “keepers”, especially at an event like diving. Those shots are simply deleted, and of course, it costs us nothing to throw shots away in this digital era (unlike the old film days). Many others have only an historical or archival interest; they will be useful someday in the future, but they aren’t topical or spectacular enough to grab space on a website or in a daily paper the next day.

However, I did “feel bad” for the athletes, and so I’m going to post a large bunch of shots from that meet. (Many of these could never see the light of day on the Bucknell website or in print. No photographer expects to have that many great shots from a single event. But if they are enjoyed by the team, that’s all I’m aiming for in this posting. They are intended for fun, and fun only.

And yes, if you are counting, there are more shots of divers than swimmesr; that does mean it was divers who asked me; a world-renowned sociologist told me that swimmers are more blase’ than divers about publicity. http://photos.j-joel.com/p746521915 is the direct link. I hope everyone enjoys this.