A long day in Long Beach Monday, April 09, 2007

San Jose State's Geraldine Hazlett (right) attacks Long Beach State's Andrea Angstadt in the second half of the Trojan's 13-6 win in Long Beach, Calif.

I spent pretty much the whole of Day 3 (Friday) in Long Beach, shooting water polo, beach volleyball, and indoor volleyball. Probably because I had never shot any of these sports before, I didn't have a particularly good day.

I wasn't even planning to shoot the water polo, but we arrived early for the beach volleyball (right next door), so we shot the second half of the game. I didn't really come away with anything special from the water polo, certainly not this shot. But I'm posting this image because just about everybody came away with a photograph of Hazlett, or "Crazy Eyes," as she became known in the editing room. All the photographers were stuck on one side of the pool, and maybe that was the side she played. Or maybe she was just trying harder than her teammates. Or maybe she's just more expressive. But she ended up in a lot of photos.Then it was on to the beach volleyball. This wasn't a league match up, but Bert Hanashiro (organizer of SSA) had arranged for two pairs of players from the AVP to play a practice match for us: Jen Snyder and Janelle Ruen squared off against Dana Schilling and Alicia Zamparelli. Their season starts next weekend in Miami.

As mentioned before, I was having an off day. I ended up with a few "almosts" (e.g. both of these) but nothing particularly noteworthy. Yes, I did get some cya "safe shots," but that's not what this story is about.

(right) Janelle Ruen dives for a ball. (below) Jen Snyder and Janelle Ruen both went for a ball hit in the middle.

After the girls had played for an hour or so, we had a chance to make portraits of them. But this posting is getting a little long, so I'll start another one to talk about that experience.