St. Helens High School volleyball – Taylor Albertson

Congratulations to St. Helens High School for winning the 2014 5A Oregon State Volleyball Title today. Ashland High School lost to St. Helens just last week when I took this photo. Taylor Albertson was the star on that night for St. Helens, and the same was true today. She had 26 kills and 8 blocks in just four sets today. Her stats were probably similar against Ashland.

Some things to consider…

What if all of Ashland’s wins in tournaments had counted instead of just all of their losses? What if the state rankings were done based on complete data? What if Ashland’s wins against higher ranked teams meant something in the rankings? Instead, Ashland was stuck with a poor seed which meant the Grizzlies had to play the eventual state champion on the road in the single-elimination round of 16.

Ashland beat (on the road) teams that eventually came in 3rd, 4th, and 6th in the state. Ashland also beat Crater at home (and Crater will end up with a Top 8 ranking). Ashland never played the teams that came in 2nd and 5th.

So maybe Ashland would have finished near the top had they been given a fairer chance. Oh well; there’s always next year.

Posted on November 8th, 2014 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: Nikon 85mm f/1.8 g lens, Nikon D750, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on Taylor Albertson leads St. Helens to state title

SOU volleyball – Paulla Pinheiro

@SOURaiders @RaiderVB @paulla_op

Tonight’s come-from-behind victory against 3rd place Concordia had a familiar feel to it. The Raiders were down 2 games to 1 after getting hammered in the third set by Eastern Oregon University a little over a month ago. The same thing happened earlier this evening. With a flair for the dramatic, they came roaring back this time too for a five-set nail biter.

A win Saturday night (in Ashland @ 5 p.m.) means a bye in the first round of the Cascade Conference playoffs next week.

Posted on November 8th, 2014 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Nikon 85mm f/1.8 g lens, Nikon D750, paulla pinheiro, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on Raiders win!

Ashland High School volleyball – Jordan Tilley

@JordanTilley505

Congratulations to Jordan Tilley and Hope Baldrica for being chosen all-league in their final year at Ashland High School. Hope will be playing volleyball at Colorado Christian University next year.

Posted on November 7th, 2014 under only in ashland, people. Tags: ashland high school, Nikon 85mm f/1.8 g lens, Nikon D750, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on 2014 Class 5A Midwestern League girls volleyball all-league selections

SOU volleyball – Championship weekend

Posted on November 7th, 2014 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on Southern Oregon University volleyball tonight and tomorrow night

SOU soccer – Haylee Eckart

SOU volleyball – Lauren McGowne

Lauren Aldana, Serena DeChristofaro

Elise De Jesse

Paige Kilpatrick

Presley Lambert

Southern Oregon University soccer – Allyson Ward, Lisa Elledge

Tyana Andrews

Kendra Madaras-Kelly

@SOUWomensSoccer @SOURaiders @RaiderVB @kendra_mk13 @tyana_dawn @elisedejesse

Full list and criteria here.

Posted on November 3rd, 2014 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Kendra Madaras-Kelly, Lauren McGowne, lisa elledge, presley lambert, Raider Athletics, soccer, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, tyana andrews, volleyball. Comments Off on Fall-Sport Student Athletes earning Academic All-Conference honors

jpg image, straight out of the camera

I have mentioned several times before that there are situations where images shot as jpgs are “throw aways” that had they been shot in RAW format could be salvaged.

Today’s comparison is one such example. With a rainbow outside a dimly-lit gym, I had the choice of shooting the rainbow and getting a nearly black gym (above) or shooting the action on the court and getting a white sky (not shown). By shooting in RAW I was able to process the above image to come up with what you see below.

Ashland High School volleyball – rainbow out gym window in front of Grizzly Peak

By the way, Ashland won last night, advanced to the Sweet 16 in state, and will be playing in St. Helens on Saturday. The winner moves on to the Elite 8 round.

Posted on October 29th, 2014 under nature, only in ashland, photography. Tags: AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED lens, ashland high school, grizzly peak, Nikon D750, photography, rainbow, raw vs. jpg jpeg, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on RAW vs jpg (#6 or 7 or something)

Ashland High School volleyball against South Medford

Game time is 6:30. If Ashland wins they will hit the road on Saturday for a game against a top eight team to see who gets to go on to the State Championship in Hillsboro the following weekend.

Posted on October 28th, 2014 under only in ashland, people. Tags: AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED lens, ashland high school, ellie, Nikon D750, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on Ashland High School volleyball against South Albany tonight

SOU volleyball – Emma Gasman

@SOURaiders @RaiderVB

Raiders won last night. Story here. Tonight’s game in Ashland is at 5 p.m.

Ashland High School hosts a volleyball tournament today too. They play beginning at 11 a.m. State championship playoffs begin Tuesday night in Ashland.

Posted on October 25th, 2014 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Emma Gasman, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, the whole picture, volleyball. Comments Off on The Whole Picture (part 7)

SOU volleyball – Lauren McGowne

@SOURaiders @RaiderVB

Ashland High School volleyball is also happening tonight at 6 p.m.

Posted on October 24th, 2014 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Lauren McGowne, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on Volleyball tonight and tomorrow