JEA Wooh!

ISO:2500

Aperture: 3.5

Shutter Speed: 1/125

ISO:2000

Aperture: 4.0

Shutter Speed: 1/320

ISO:1600

Aperture: 2.8

Shutter Speed: 1/320

     So, I wasn't in town on the 16th because I was at JEA so that's what I'm going to blog about. The pictures above are what I entered in the Write-Off. They may have possibly won a Superior Award and I may have gotten a cool little medal. It was quite exciting. I've never been the ideal "sports photographer," I struck a chord with swim last year but any other sport I've shot I just got decent shots broken up with the occasional "that's pretty good!" shot. So this year I accepted that and realized there's  so much more that happens at a football game than the football game, I wish I would have realized this a year ago, but oh well! Anyway, I stopped focusing on getting the ideal action shot and started trying to get the shots that haven't been seen, the shots that you have to get your butt dirty to get. And thus the first two pictures were born. 

     I was really kinda nervous when I entered these. I mean a year ago if you would have asked me if I thought I was going to 1st Place in Advanced Sports Photography and a Superior rating in JEA Yearbook Sports I would have laughed in your face. When we went to the photographers group critique my pictures were in the group that was shown in front of everyone and the judges held nothing back. This gave me quite a bit of hope. Most of the comments were on the middle picture. They loved the perspective of it. They said I had done my job of taking the viewer somewhere they couldn't go. One guy said he wished I had gotten Anthony's face in the first picture, but I feel like if I had done that I'd be going them the same view they get by watching a game. So after the critique I had to wait another two days. I thought I was going to die.

     Sunday at the awards thingy I was just praying to get an honorable mention. When they started announcing awards for my category when my name wasn't there for honorable mention I got the strange feeling that was a mix between hope and disappointment. The feeling only intensified when I didn't see my name for excellent. But then the superiors were put up there and lo and behold my name was there. Man I was excited. That's a national award bro! Im just hoping people don't get tired of seeing it before Josten's... *fingers crossed*