I photographed the Colorado vs Oregon football game this past weekend. Colorado hung tough against Oregon for a half Saturday but the Ducks pulled away late to win 41-24. The game was delayed for an hour by lightning. It was one late night. College football games should not get over past midnight. The Buffs look better this year but still don’t seem to be able to pull out victories against higher ranked teams.
The Mike Bobo era at Colorado State got off to a good start Saturday. The Rams defeated Savannah State 65-13. Despite 5 turnovers, Colorado State looked dominant. Of course, Savannah State was 0-12 last year so we’ll see how good the Rams actually are when they play Minnesota. The game featured some big plays particularly by Rams quarterback Nick Stevens who tossed 5 touchdowns. Colorado State football looks to be competitive again this year and should be one of the best teams in the Mountain West.
I photographed the Erie Softball Festival of Champions this past weekend. The tournament features many of the top softball teams from around the Denver metro area and even a few from Oklahoma. I some good games and some great hitting from a couple of teams. I can’t wait until the state softball finals in October!
I photographed the Colorado 4A high school baseball finals today. Green Mountain defeated Lewis-Palmer 4-0 to take the 2015 title. The Rams repeated as state champs. The weather forced a four-day delay and necessitated a move to the Metro State campus, but in the end the games went off without a hitch. I saw some good baseball over the past week, culminating with today’s championship game. Enjoy the highlight gallery of the 4A baseball playoffs.
I spent the past three days photographing the Colorado high school track and field championships. Athletes from all over the state of Colorado participated. As far as I know, it is the only sport where finals form all five levels are held at the same venue.
Although it was the first time I had shot the track finals, it was a rewarding experience. Photographing track can be a challenge. It requires creativity to photograph a track event from a different perspective than other photographers. I experimented with panning to blur the background and give a sense of motion to some of the photographs. This worked particularly well with the 1oo meter dash. I also tried to focus on capturing the emotion of the event. I looked at the aftereffects of the race to see what the athletes were experiencing. Sometimes it was joy. Sometimes it was pain. Mostly I was just amazed at how fast the athletes could run or jump.
Derek Regensburger is a Denver sports photographer who shoots college and high school sports. His high school photography is published on Maxpreps.com. Call 303 478-7586 to have him cover your event.
I don’t normally post individual high school games on my blog, but the girl’s soccer game between Mountain Range and Fossil Ridge today had a lot of drama for a high school game so I thought I’d post it. It had everything from great saves to key goals and emotional celebrations.
I photographed the Colorado 4A and 5A basketball finals this past weekend. Twelve games in three days. What a grueling but rewarding task. I love shooting high school basketball because you see raw emotion on display at every turn. Colorado also has a Top 100 basketball recruit in Overland’s Deron Davis so it was fun to see him in action as well. A couple of upsets and an overtime game made for a good tournament. Congrats to Broomfield and Valor Christian for winning in girls and Overland and Air Academy for winning on the boys side.
I shot the game from a number of angles. I had the typical 70-200 and 300mm lenses. I also used a remote above the basket but got nothing usable from it. I will know next time to set it up higher and using a 16-35 lens instead of a 24-70. This shot calls for a really wide lens.
Colorado’s men’s basketball season came to a close Sunday with a tight victory over Arizona STate. It has been a disappointing year for the Buffs who were picked to finish third in the Pac-12 but never got on track. The game saw a lot of action unlike a couple of recent lackluster performances against Utah and Arizona. Hopefully, the Buffs will do well in the Pac-12 tourney.
I photographed the Colorado High School Volleyball Playoffs this weekend at the Denver Coliseum. The playoffs feature five courts playing simultaneously all in the main arena of the Coliseum. This makes it easy to switch between courts and jump from game to game. The weekend started with pool play and advanced to the championship round. As usual, volleyball was full of exciting moments and emotion to photograph. Unfortunately, most of the drama seemed reserved for the earlier rounds as most of the finals were over in 3 straight sets. I shot the 5A final and 1A finals. Congratulations to Grandview and Fleming for repeating as state champions.
I alternated between shooting the action from the floor and going up into the stands to get a bird’s eye view of the action. I prefer to shoot from higher up so I can see the players’ faces above the net. I also took the opportunity to try out a new Canon 7D MKII camera. The autofocus performed flawlessly. Finally, Canon has put high end technology in an affordable body. The Coliseum isn’t the best lit building so capturing action requires using high ISOs and fast lenses. I was shooting at ISO 3200 at f 2.8.
I covered the Horizon softball pink game yesterday played between Horizon High School and Mountain Range. As the name implies, the teams wear pink uniforms to support breast cancer survivors and research. This year, one of Horizon’s players had a mother who was fighting breast cancer, and she threw out the first pitch. It was an emotional moment. The game itself was exciting and emotional as well, as Mountain Range came back from a 6-1 deficit to win 11-6.
