The Season In-Between
It's that time of the year again.
I think there are additional seasons between the standard four. Right now, where I live, the harshest of the winter weather is behind us. The snow has all but melted, but tree buds aren’t quite visible in our yards just yet. I’m not scraping ice in the morning, but we’re not quite ready to change over from a hot latte to iced in the drive-thru. It’s an in-between season.
It’s also that time of the year for the sports world. The college basketball have-nots are finishing up their seasons, while the have’s are looking ahead to the post-season tournament and the Big Dance. And locally, some high schools are starting to warm up their batting cages, while others are eyeing state basketball tournaments.
Our local 2A small schools league is as competitive as ever in recent memory. Stanfield Secondary School is just down the road from where I live, and both the boys and girls teams are just one win away from playing in the state tournament. And this shouldn’t come as a surprise. All four of their Fall sports teams went to state to compete in those tournaments. This is an athletic, well-rounded crew. The girls will beat you with their full court press and inside game. The boys will just beat you getting up and down the floor.
I’ll be on hand as both teams host their regional playoff games. My prediction is that they’ll both be in Pendleton the following weekend for their own Big Dance. Be sure and tune in for what happens next.
Photographer Notes
I picked up a Fuji X-H2s just before I shot this high school game. I was still getting some of the buttons and dials under my fingers, so I might have missed a shot or two here and there. But I’m overall pleased with the autofocus accuracy of this camera, which more than made up for the occasional time I wasn’t ready to hit the shutter button. There is simply no comparison between that and the X-T4 that I used to shoot.
I was at ISO 8000, f/2.8 and 1/640 for this particular gym. Fairly standard lighting conditions for schools in my area. The lens on all of these shots was the Fuji 50-140mm f/2.8. RAW file editing happened in Capture One. Most of it was in color, but I chose a few shots of my own black and white edits for this article.