Here it is, the one all of you Landis Images fans have been waiting for – sports!
I have thousands and thousands of sports images from this year, and it took a long time to browse through them and find shots worthy of my final blog post of 2012.
Since the last few year in review posts had a theme of “10,” I’ll stick with that and show you some of what I think are my top images in 10 different sports.
1) Baseball
Between UT, UIL finals, and newspaper assignments, I shot more baseball in 2012 than I expected. Baseball’s never been my favorite sport, but I really came to appreciate those photographers who can shoot it well. It takes patience and a very good understanding of the game to get a great shot.
2) Softball
I enjoyed shooting what little softball I covered during 2012. I liked the intimacy of the few softball fields I was on. They allowed me great access, which meant I could get closer to the action. Here are a few of the action shots that stuck out to me.
3) Basketball
I think I went a little overboard on the basketball in 2012. I signed myself up to shoot 6 days (about 14 hours each) of UIL basketball. By the end of it, I was having nightmares about basketball players.
4) Track & Field
Track & field is one of my favorite sports to shoot. It’s usually extremely hot or raining, but where else can you shoot 10 different sports in one stadium, all happening at the same time? The track meets I covered in 2012 were all in the UT track stadium, which is fairly easy to navigate (once you’re inside) and it offers some decent backdrops of the city if you shoot from the right spot.
5) Soccer
Soccer’s tough. It’s a huge field and the players move very fast, sometimes kicking the ball 60 yards, only to kick it back the other way 60 yards. But most of the players get really intense on the field, which makes for good pictures.
6) Texas Water Safari
This is one of my favorite things to shoot, but this year I followed the 260-mile canoe/kayak race all the way from San Marcos to the coast. It was tough to cover from shore, I can’t image what it’s like to be in a boat! Click here to read the original post.
7) Wrestling
Not my favorite, but it has all the qualities of sports that I like to shoot. I usually only cover the high school state championships.
8) Volleyball
I shot a lot of volleyball games in a lot of different venues in 2012. Two years ago I hadn’t ever watched a whole volleyball game.
9) Unicycle Football
I know what you’re thinking – “Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?!” Well, it’s something I’ve always wanted to shoot, and I finally got an excuse this year to shoot one game for a local San Marcos area magazine. I’m not entirely sure if the photos have published yet, but here’s a bit of a preview.
10) Football
My all-time favorite sport to shoot (so far). It was really hard to choose 5 of my best football images from 2012, but here are a few that stuck out to me.
Well, there you have it, 2012. Hope it was a good year for you and here’s wishing you an even better 2013!