Maxpreps

A Southeastern district game took place at Hickory on Tuesday night as the Hickory girls took the floor against Western Branch.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 70-200 f/2.8 S lens to shoot the action.

It was a hard fought game by both teams but Western Branch was able to come away with a close victory in the end.

You can purchase images from the game on MaxPreps or my website.

The Indian River gym was packed as the Braves hosted district rivals King’s Fork on Friday night. King’s Fork came into the game ranked #4 in the area while Indian River was ranked in the top 15.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lens to shoot the action.

King’s Fork proved to be to much for the Braves and won the game easily. Even with the loss, Indian River is destined for the playoffs.

Rivalry game at Hickory on Tuesday night as the Hickory girls took the floor against their rival Great Bridge.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 lens to shoot the action.

Hickory jumped out to an early lead, but Great Bridge started chipping away in the 3rd quarter. Great Bridge took over in the 4th quarter to grab the victory.

You can purchase images from the game on MaxPreps or my website.

It was senior night at Great Bridge on Wednesday night as the #2 ranked Wildcats hosted a tri-meet with Hickory and #1 ranked Grassfield. Grassfield cruised to an easy win over Hickory. I wasn’t able to get any images of this match. But I did shoot the match between Great Bridge and Hickory followed by the match between Great Bridge and Grassfield.

I brought my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lens. I love how the Plena lens renders the backgrounds, but sometimes the wrestlers definitely get too close for this lens.

It was a packed house at Hickory on Friday night as they took the floor against their rival Great Bridge. It was the first time that I’ve been shooting games at Hickory that they pulled out the bleachers on the other side of the court.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lens to shoot the action.

Hickory jumped out to a commanding lead, but Great Bridge started chipping away in the 3rd quarter. They cut the lead to 3 points with less than two minutes to play but they were unable to get any closer.

It was doubleheader night at Greenbrier Christian Academy as both the girls and boys took on Hickory High School. It was my first time in their gym and while it was a decent size gym with a food court upstairs that overlooked the floor, there was about six feet of space between the ends of the court and the walls. The good news with that is I could rest my back against the wall.

It was doubleheader night at Hickory High School as both the girls and boys hosted Norfolk Academy. The girls game was a very competitive game that Hickory looked like they had control of going into the fourth quarter. But Norfolk Academy got the momentum and dominated the fourth quarter to win.

The Hickory boys took a 20 point lead to halftime and looked to be in complete control of their game. But Norfolk Academy fought back in the second half and even took a 1 point lead with a couple of minutes to go before Hickory finally got control of the game and won.

It was doubleheader night at Currituck County High School as both the girls and boys took on Hickory High School. The gym lighting had not been updated to LEDs so it was a bit of a throwback to the past. Both games were very competitive, which makes for better opportunities for shooting.

I brought my new telescopic stool but noticed that some of the pegs on it were already broke. It still worked mostly so my back was thankful. I brought my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 70-200 f/2.8 S lens. I hadn’t used this lens for basketball in a while, so I wanted to use it here. It’s the standard go to lens for basketball, but I think I still prefer a prime lens.

I started my high school basketball season off with a game between Southeastern District rivals Grassfield High and Deep Creek High. Sadly, I was going to have to shoot this game sitting on the floor since my telescoping stool got messed up from baseball season.

Grassfield controlled nearly all of the first half of this game but Deep Creek went on a row in the last minute to actually take the lead at halftime. Deep Creek then went on to dominate the second half.

The Grassfield hosted the Nansemond River Warriors on Friday night for their homecoming. A clear night with perfect temps. Another Chesapeake game with outdated lighting. I really hope they can get around to updating the lighting at the Chesapeake high schools.

Nansemond River was dressed in white while Grassfield wore their dark blue jerseys. Perfect color for a dimly lit field. Detect any sarcasm there?

I only shot the first half of the game as I wasn’t feeling great but at halftime Nansemond River built a 28-7 lead.

The Hickory Hawks hosted their city rival Grassfield on Friday night. Great night for football as I had to put on the hat and thin gloves.

Hickory isn’t the best place to shoot football at night. The combination of outdated lighting and black jerseys make for some high ISOs in the images. Luckily, software has come a long way in the last ten years and the noise cleans up well.

I traveled 30 miles south into North Carolina on Friday night to photograph the football game between the visiting John A. Holmes Aces of Edenton and the home team Currituck County Knights.

It was a very competitive game and Holmes took a 21-12 lead into the half. However, Currituck County came out on fire in the 3rd quarter and outscored Holmes 21-7 in the quarter. They added one more touchdown in the 4th quarter and won the game 40-28.

Thanks to Hurricane Helene’s tracking, and the upcoming rains we were expecting on Friday, we had a football game on Thursday night. It was Military Appreciation night as the Hickory Hawks hosted their rival, the Great Bridge Wilcats.

The combination of high school stadium lighting, dark open spaces between the two sides of the stadium, and Hickory’s all black jerseys, make for a difficult night of shooting. It gets so dark out there. Even shooting wide open at f/2.8 on the 400mm lens, my ISOs were reaching my peak settings. Lets hope these schools can switch out to LED lights in the near future.

I made it out to Colon L. Hall stadium in Great Bridge for the Friday night high school football game between the Oscar Smith Tigers and the Great Bridge Wildcats. Great Bridge’s stadium had undergone renovations and it was finally complete. I have to say the stadium looks really good now. I want to say it was originally built in 1962. Made completely out of cinder blocks and concrete, it had suffered from neglect and black mold for years. They gutted and ripped out a lot of the back wall and replaced it with steel beams.

I shot my first high school football game of the season on August 29th. The game featured the home team Deep Creek Hornets of Chesapeake, Virginia and the visiting Currituck County Knights of Barco, North Carolina.

Having just received my “new” Nikon 400mm f/2.8G ED VR lens a day earlier, I was eager to try it out and since it was Labor Day Weekend coming up, most of the high school football games would be played on Thursday. Deep Creek High is not too far from my house, so I decided to go there and shoot. Did I mention I shoot for MaxPreps too? The gallery from this game is on both MaxPreps and my own site.