Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Volley the Ball

Or volleyball for short.
Which is not appropriate for today's game since there is very little volleying going on.
More like spikeball.
Or something.
So I had been wanting to catch a volleyball game at school, you know since I went to a football game I gotta go and see the girls too.
Besides I kinda like women's volleyball which is nothing like high school volleyball where the ball is volleyed around quite often.
Compared to women's volleyball I mean.
Anyways, volleyball is pretty big around these parts, you see it being played all over the place especially at the beach.
Which is sort of what high school volleyball looks like.
It's being played at the beach I mean.
Okay, not really.
Well, sort of.
I mean the varsity girls sort of look like college players, just a bit slower and without the power, but the JV and the other team, since so many girls go out, there's like three teams, they look like well, beach volleyball.
Like me and my friends playing beach volleyball I mean.
Okay, I shouldn't say that, but no really the game goes by pretty fast for let me put it this way: the girls aren't very skilled.
I shouldn't say that either, but over here the University of Hawaii Wahine volleyball team is like ranked every year so I suppose I am a bit spoiled.
If you know what I mean.
Anyways, I didn't mean to get all into the skill level and stuff, I wanted to talk about the students that play.
I mean they just play!
For like nothing!
No scholarships, no money and for the JV and the other team, sometimes no spectators.
Okay, there were like ten folks in the stands during the early games.
There should be more for I found out that at all these high school games, the food is really good and cheap.
Well it's cheap:

























I got that chili and hot dog plate and a can of pop for less than five bucks!
What a deal!
Okay, it's like canned chili and all but the hotdogs are like, hotdogs.
So anyways, the crowd was pretty good cause it was Senior Night, the last time the seniors play at home:



















The seniors had a little party after the game but I gave up the camera to one of my students and I haven't loaded up the pictures yet.
Oh, they actually played a game:





















I never took pictures at a volleyball game before and lemme tell you, it's a different animal.
I mean you have to follow the action and anticipate the shot or the play and just fire away and hope you get something good.
I am actually contemplating a fast long lens, just for shooting indoors.
I suppose I should get a camera first.
Anyways, our team lost, but that didn't stop the seniors from celebrating.
I gotta say, I respect these kids.
I spent about 13 hours at school today, and as I was walking to my car it hit me that so did they.
I never really thought about high school sports too much but after going to some games I see it in a different light.
Those kids just go out and play because they like to play.
I figure ninety percent won't play beyond this level, but they go out and give it their best shot.
Win or lose they leave it all out there.
I wish it was the same in the classroom, but it's good to see that they can get passionate about something besides texting or video games.
I suppose it's my job to fan that flame in the classroom and see how hot I can get it to burn.
More on burning stuff later.


3 comments:

John Romeo Alpha said...

Gym pix are challenging. If you get obsessed about color temperature, gym lighting will drive you nuts I tell you. Close and fast is best--I think my best shots were basketball games where I was sitting at the bottom of the lane, under the basket. For volleyball you probably have to be at the net, so becoming friends with the refs helps.

limom said...

I hear you on that. I sort of left everything on automatic, the white balance and all that. I've sort of resigned myself to do some post processing.
The only thing I did was boost the ISO to try and speed the camera up.
Sort of embarrassing but my student took nicer pics than I did.

limom said...

Well maybe not nicer, but I thought they were way more interesting.
More on this later.