Sportraiture ?

Is there such a word ?  Don't think so.  Whatever -- that'll be the first and last time I'll use it.  What I'm trying to say is that the last two posts ---> With images of Junior Jocks Bea & Gia of 89.9 and that of the Meralco and Air Force Jocks slugging it out at U Mak - images taken in 2-hour segments [last March 31, Saturday] 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. - represent, in a nutshell, my two favorite types of photography - Sports & Portraiture.  

Have had some "interesting" days where I had to shoot a baseball game in the morning, a volleyball and football match in the afternoon, then a basketball game in the evening.  Not easy, but still fun - and challenging.  No room for distractions.  

Now, a relatively well-paced day shooting pretty portraits in a radio station in the morning and then capturing images of an action-packed, highly emotional soccer match in the late afternoon was more like it.  Wasn't a "perfect" day - but last Saturday somehow felt "memorable" for me, cannot accurately  describe the sentiment - a "bad restlessness" came over me so I simply had to share some images ASAP - hence the two posts previous.

Considering --- I still have to feat the last 2 Elimination Games of the UAAP Women's Volleyball Tournament ->A few more UAAP Football and Baseball matches ->The last 4 matches of the Ateneo Ladies Volleyball team [1 knockout game vs UST plus the 3 Exciting Finals Matches vs the Defending Champs Lady Green Archers] ->The UAAP Baseball & Men's Football Finals Matches -> Not to mention several RIFA Semis and Finals matches ->and of course the random/abitrary portrait feats.  I did go against the chronology of it all - but photos of the numerous matches stated above will be eventually posted.  

Must admit am slow to type - and very discerning and patient when it comes to selecting images for my blog  [there is a lot of serious enhancement [Not Alteration !]  that is done --> minor tweaking with midtones and contrast and corrected horizontal orientation of my images plus file compression and the addition of watermarks -- before images are selected and posted.  And since I'm no writer, sometimes the words don't come by that easily.

I'm just telling it as it is.  Now, with the arrival of Semana Santa I have more time so I'll finally overcome that backlog.  [I'm not into those catalogue type photo sites - I love the art of matching the right images with the right words
- Now, am I good at it ? Hope so.]

BTW, as much as I favor portraiture and sports, I don't limit myself to those categories - as seen in the "Leaves" photo above.  Guess where I shot it ?

---> in an open landscaped area of the Village where I stay - the greenery being just around 30 meters behind my house. 

 Actually, I took it way back November of 2009 - 

The challenge 4 me is - when will I get a better nature shot to beat that ?

brosi gonzales

UFL Saturday

Tang Ina !!   Pukpukan !!!

Sparks Fly As

Air Force Rallies from a 3-1 Deficit &

 Ties The Match In The Last 10 Seconds !!!

Final 

  [Meralco-3    Air Force-3]

[FYI, all JPEGs are compressed to less than 100kb -
original file sizes go as high as 8 MB]

Don't follow the UFL that much but come March 31, Saturday [a few days ago at the U Mak], another match between Air Force Pheonix & the Meralco Sparks was slated and I simply didn't want to miss it.  Last time around, the Flyboys beat the Sparks, and o route to [correct me if I am wrong] their 5th UFL Crown.  Everybody knew Meralco wanted payback and was anticipating a great match.  Nobody was disappointed.  

Early goings - - 

Full throttle on both sides !

[just what the UFL fans relished]

- Stamping His Authority -

Both sides want to win Real Bad and

both sides do whatever it takes to win.

Younghusband scores ! 

 [Meralco-1   Air Force-0]

Araneta scores on a free kick !

[Meralco-1   Air Force-1]

 Hartmann scores !

[Meralco-2   Air Force-1]

 - Controversial non-call after Ian Arenata touches the ball -
[I saw it with my own two eyes !]

and an infraction is called on Meralco  --

so when play resumes Air Force is awarded the ball !!

My images speak for themselves.

Do I really need to put captions ??

Air Force bungles a penalty kick !

[Meralco protects its 2-1 lead]

Emotions are at fever pitch all throughout - with non-calls, and

 questionable ones fueling the frenzy of Meralco and Air Force fans alike.

- Without a doubt - A great match to photograph -

-Tenacious ! -

- Fierce !!

- Wild and Wooly -

- Lottsa Thrills and Spills -

- Any which way but loose -

What a Kick-Ass match !!

Younghusband scores again !!

[Meralco-3   Air Force-1]

 - Dynamic Duo -

- No quarters given -

 - Bound To Happen -

Haven't seen that many a Meralco match,

 but this was the first time I witness Phil

aching to give a knuckle sandwich to an opponent.

 Wonder if his "Guuardian Angel" was around.  
But, hey, can't blame the guy, he was a marked man from minute #1
 and the Flyboys tried every trick and stunt in the book to stop him.

 The Sparks think they have the game in the bag, 

 even after James gets a red card.

 But the the highly improbable and unthinkable happens -

when Araneta ties the match, with barely, literally, a few seconds left !!.

 'Twas a won game for the Sparks ends in a deadlock.

Now, that REALLY hurts.

- Whatta Game !!! -

As for me it's ---> Photography 'Til I Die 

brosi gonzales