Congrats to the Las Cruces High School Fastpitch Softball team for winning the 2013 State Championship, closing out an exceptional year for LCHS athletics and making a statement to all the doubters throughout the state.

The four seniors, Alyssa “Mo” Montoya, Audrey Velasquez, Brianna Minjarez and Alexis Dotson chose to skip their high school commencement ceremony to take care of business in the title game.

Although I didn’t get to do the team pictures, I was lucky enough to be asked to shoot the seniors before the playoffs began. I’ve gotten to know the girls after shooting them over the past four years in volleyball, and these are some of my all-time favorite student athletes (Audrey has even created a special dance for me–how cool is that?)

The seniors are four of six players that began playing on a club team when they were 10 years old. The coach and glue of the team over the years was Mo’s dad, Mike Montoya, pictured with the girls below.

Way to go, guys!

Gilbert Sigala brings the ball down the court

A Profoto strobe with the “Magnum” reflector for max light output.

The Las Cruces-Alamogordo match-up is only the second boys basketball game I’ve had time to shoot during the 2012-2013 season. I’ve been setting up my studio strobes to shoot at the Las Cruces High School gym, and am very pleased with the results.

The gym’s layout lends itself perfectly to the setup; with a strobe on either side of the basket and a third about halfway down the court (all on the upper deck), I’m pushing close to 2,000 Ws (watt seconds) of light into the gym–the equivalent of about 20 speed lights. Since they’re so bright, I have to bounce the light off the gym ceiling, which gives a better quality of light than pointing them directly onto the court.

The only downside? Outlets are far, and few between, so I have to run heavy duty extension cables to my power-hungry strobes. I’m also a little worried I might bring down the electric circuit in the gym (if you’ve been in there lately, you’d understand!)

Much thanks to the administration and coaches, especially Bobby Campos, at Las Cruces High, who have been very receptive to the use of the strobes.

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A Ballet Folklorico de la Tierra del Encanto Dancer

I recently came across a short video story in the New York Times Lens blog featuring well-known dance photographer Andrea Mohin.

Veronica Edwards – Verdi Academy of Dance

Mohin makes a few comments about dance photography that really resonated with me on a couple of levels.

“It’s sports photography in the dark, and you don’t know the game.”

She goes on further to explain:

“In sports photography, you have some sense of what happens in a basketball game or football game, and you know generally what to expect. But when the curtain goes up on a dance performance, you have no idea what you’re about to see,” said Mohin.

I’ve been regularly shooting some form of dance and sports for the length of my pro photography career, and Mohin has hit the nail right on the head.

Read the article at the New York Times Lens blog

Here are some shots from the LCPS Spirit Competition hosted at Las Cruces High School. There were 19 different teams attending from the southern New Mexico area, including both cheer teams and poms.

I attended to shoot for some clients, and being my first competition, I was a little surprised at the number of people and the amount of energy exuded by the squads. I snuck in some shots of a few of the local schools as well.

Click here to view the galleries (password is required).

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