Not my usual cup of tea

Typically at a basketball game I shoot pictures similar to the one I took of Mankato East's Brett Olson a couple of weeks ago at left. Tight, close in to the action, clean (at least blurred out) background. That's more my style: Get the viewer into the action and make him or her part of the game. Give them a view they may not be able to see from their seat.


I took a different approach when editing my photos from the Austin vs. Mankato East matchup Tuesday night. I decided to go with the picture at right, which shows (from a distance) East's Brandon Kowalski taking a long range three point shot. The significance of the photo is in the background. East is down by three as the clock winds down. Kowalski hits the shot to tie the game as the buzzer sounds. The crowd goes crazy. The team goes crazy. Kowalski goes crazy.


I had plenty of pictures like the one at left, even one of Kowalski hitting a three pointer earlier in the game, that would have worked just fine and would have fit my formula for a good sports photo better than this one. But in this case I felt the scoreboard added to the picture, showing East down three (I do wish I could've gotten the clock in the frame too, but that was all I had). The storytelling aspects of this particular picture made it worth publishing over the others.