The Premier Basketball League’s Vermont Frost Heaves play in two Green Mountain State venues, the Barre Municipal Auditorium (which I colloquially call “small”) and the Burlington Memorial Auditorium (that one I call “smaller”). The Burlington Auditorium is so old, that I think James Naismith had his team play “away” games there.
Last Saturday, the Auditorium hosted a PBL game between the Vermont Frost Heaves and the Buffalo Stampede. Vermont’s fighting for the fourth and final playoff position, while Buffalo – after a promising run – is simply trying to not get embarrassed each night on the court. I drove out to Burlington Saturday to photograph the game, and to try to capture a shot that I wanted to get for about a year.
Last year, I photographed a game at Burlington, and discovered that there was a balcony that ringed the entire court. One of the baskets was bolted to the balcony overhang (the basket at the other end of the arena was propped by a series of pipes; since the Burlington Aud has a performance stage at one end of the court, the basket must be elevated after the completion of hoops games). From the balcony, I could get a different angle on the basket, and was able to snap off a few “bird’s-eye” shots. But because I would have had to hang my body over the balcony to get the best shot, and because there really isn’t any sort of safety harness that would have kept me from tumbling onto the court twenty feet below, I decided I needed a more all-encompassing lens if I ever wanted to get some overhead shots.
So once I purchased my Kiev Mir-20H wide-angle fisheye lens, I knew I had to get back to Burlington and test it out. After about a quarter of action, in which Vermont just completely dominated Buffalo, I decided it was time to hit the balcony.
I mean, when you’re up 23-9 and just taking it to Buffalo shot after shot after shot, then it’s time for the photographer to find new angles for action. So on went the Kiev wideangle lens, up to the balcony I went, and …
Here’s Vermont’s Benson Callier going to the hoop.
And here’s Jared Carter getting some air.
And how about this sweet swank slam from Ross DeMasi?
By the time the first quarter was over, Vermont had a 30-point lead over the struggling Stampede. The lead was almost as high as 40 points, before Buffalo closed it to a 36-point deficit, losing 126-90. Vermont had an absolute dunkfest that day, and the fans had a great time at the game.
Chuck The Writer 
Great pix! Do you use a flash or just ambient light?
LikeLike
That was available light – the building was lit with florescent light, but there were big windows that streamed in the sunshine from outside. The white balance was a nightmare. 🙂 I was shooting with anywhere from 2600 to 3200 ISO, which I could never do with my old Nikon D70. The high ISO also allows me to use lenses whose widest aperture is f/3.5 (the Kiev fisheye from above).
LikeLike