Last evening, I decided to visit my Street Academy trivia teammates, Jeremy and Alexis, as they participated in one of their Ultimate leagues. You might now “Ultimate” by an earlier name of “Ultimate Frisbee,” but since Frisbee is a registered trademark of Wham-O, the game is currently known as “Ultimate” and does not use a Frisbee disc in competition.
Be that as it may…
I showed up with my Nikon D700 and my 80-200 F/2.8 telephoto lens to the UAlbany campus, where three games of Ultimate were about to begin.
As President of the league, Jeremy was busy making sure everybody was registered…
And Alexis was busy making sure her team was all set…
And then, of all the people I haven’t seen in ages, I run into this guy.
Yep, that’s former trivia host Zac Hilton. He hosted trivia at Brown’s for about six months after Ryan West moved away. I caught up with him. He’s currently working on his Ph.D., and just recently got over an ankle injury (apparently he tripped over his girlfriend’s cat). I said if he ever wanted to come back to Brown’s and see what the Monday trivia game had in store, he should. He said he’d think about it.
Meanwhile, Alexis – and then Jeremy – noticed I was at the game. I asked where was the best place to photograph so as to not accidentally shoot in the middle of the field of play; Jeremy explained that there were three parallel fields on the UAlbany campus, and as long as I stood between the fields (sort of like a football sideline), I should be okay. Jeremy was on one team, Alexis was on the other. Both were playing on adjacent fields, so I could swing my camera back and forth between the two games.
I snapped about 200 shots of the action, here are some of the best photos – both action and candid. For me, this was not just about showing support for friends – which is very important, mind you – it’s also about getting more experience in shooting outdoor sports with a setting sun. Not an easy task. Plus, the shadow of one of the quad buildings creeped onto the field, making it nearly impossible to get shots in sun and in shade at the same time. I must work on this.
Anyways, here’s a slideshow of action from my first Ultimate shoot.
Chuck The Writer 
Alright, it’s time I ask 🙂 What is an essay?
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“Essay” is how Chuck sneaks his Street Academy initials into everything he writes…
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Yeah, I’m pretty curious too; Chuck, how do you define “photo essay”? I might refer to Wikipedia on this one: “All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays.”
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I call “photo essay” an instance where I go somewhere and take pictures, and the photos are grouped around a theme or the results of a day’s shooting. I can also use the term “photo essay” when I’m testing out a new lens or a different type of photography or different camera, and sharing the results of said work on this blog.
Man, you do something nice for your trivia teammates… 🙂
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Nah, it’s just that I see the term thrown around a lot, and it seems to more appropriately describe something on a somewhat larger scale with a wider scope and more humanistic impressions.
I would not personally say that I have material for a photo essay; even the photos + words I’ve done on urbex sites are not quite that. To me, it’s more than just going somewhere, shooting pictures on a theme, and then saying something about them. I think flickr did a good thing by using “set” for themed groups of photos; I have plenty of “photo sets” but no “photo essays”.
It’s up to you to use the term how you want, I don’t mean to be too prescriptive. Personally, after reading something like this I hesitate to call anything I do a photo essay.
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