We Are the Champions !!

When a team wins a championshiop over a long-time rival, it sparks a very joyous celebration and numerous happy photo opportunities.

The Photos

Bowdoin College's Women's Basketball team was undefeated in NESCAC Conference regular season play, finished first in the standings, and hosted the league championship game vs. Maine rival Bates College.  It was clar from the opening tipoff that Bates was highly motivated to avenge its two regular season losses to Bowdoin, and despite a tie game at halftime, Bates took the lead for good in the 3rd quarter and went on to win 61-56.

As the game neared its end, there were many speactators and professional photographers eager to get pictures of what would be a very happy celebration, so I searched for the best place to stand and best lens to usethat would enable me to get post-game close-up photos of the happy winners.  To avoid my view being blocked by all the players and photographers running around when the game concluded. I picked a 70-200MM zoom lens which gave me versatility to photograph moments both up close and far away, and I prioritized capturing the following photos:

• Happy faces of the winning team, ideally contrasting ity with a disappointed player from the losing team
• Championship trophy being held aloft by the winning team
• Spontaneous reaction or celebration activities
• Team photo of all the winning team's players for posterity, although it's rarely newsworthy or compelling

As the clock wound down, I stood at halfcourt opposite the team benches, with a vantage pooint of photographing either end of the court as the gamne ended. When the buzzer sounded, Bates had the ball near the Bowdoin bench, so the Bates players ran go celebrate at the Bowdoin end of the court.  Student photographeres, some spectators, and professional photographers rushed onto the court, too, often blocking my view of the Bates players embracing, but I moved around quickly to get some clear views and photos.  As the initial excitment calmed down, the chaos of happy players, photographers, parents, students and fans slowed and became more stationary, so it became much easier to take my photos.

I managed to get all my priority photos, including the happy Bates players hugging near a disappointed Bowdoin player, the Bates captains joyously holding the championship trophy aloft to show their fans, one of the triumphant Bates players cutting down the basketbal net, and a boring team photo.

In hindsight, I probably needed 2 different cameras one with a telephoto lens and one with a wide angle because sometimes the best moments happened too close to me for the lowest 70MM range of the zoom lens, but I still got terrific close-up shots with highest 200MM range.

3 Tips

1. Plan ahead for how you want to optimially position yourself and which lens or lenses you want to use when shooting a sports championship postgame celebration

2. Prioritize getting photos of happy winning team faces, a championship trophy, any unanticipated celebration moments, and a team photo

3. Stay ready to move around quickly to get your clear views and photos in case many non-players join the celebration and block your views or photo attempts

Doube Celebration

Jubilation in the background can greatly enhance a foreground celebration photo.

Bowdoin's Zoe Ryu (10) celebrates as teammate Chloe Snyder (18) on the bench leaps for joy during volleyball win over Tufts.

The Photo
Volleyball players provide numerous opportunities to capture happy faces and celebrations, as players react and cheer one another after almost every play. Players on tne court will be ecstatic, as well as teammates on the bench who are constantly yellng encouragement and reinforcement.

In this match, Bowdoin was the home team, eager to beat Tufts, then sitting much higher in the NESCAC volleyball standings. Throughout the contest, individual Bowdoin players in the game would congratulate one another after each point, and teammats cheered just as hard from the bench. I was able to capture multiple photos of passionate and happy faces, but so far these weren't anything overly special or unique. Instead I began to concentrate on one of Bowdoin's most active players, who was scoring many of her team's points, and I expected to get a nice action shot. However, she quickly scored scored a key point and raised her arms in a "V" for victory sign, which I quickly photograsphed.  Meanwhile, one of her teammates on the bench in the background celebrated with the same "V" while jumping up and down.  I changed my focus to capture them both in the same image, giving me a terrific conbination of foreground and background celebrations.

The foreground player was happy and in focus, while the bench player's "V" and leap off the bench, although not in sharp focus, added more emotion to create a powerful celebration photo that encapsulated Bowdoin's 3-1 win over Tufts.

3 Tips
1. Always capture the foreground celebration first.
2. Reframe the photo to include visible happiness by other players, fans, or coaches nearby or in the background.
3. Even if the background celebrations aren't fully in focus, the multiuple levels of joy make the photo much more powerful.