Team banquet Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Coach Peeler addresses the girls and their families at the Cardinals' team banquet Mar. 18 at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Portland.

Like most teams, the Lincoln High School's basketball season ends with a banquet. The Cardinals—varsity, JV and freshmen—and their families gathered Tuesday night at The Old Spaghetti Factory for a pasta dinner. Between coaches, athletes, parents and siblings there must have been about 70 people there.

As you might imagine—and I should have anticipated—lighting in the restaurant was less than ideal for photography. Fortunately, I had a pair of speedlights and a set of pocketwizards on hand. Nevertheless, it was a challenge to light the oddly-shaped, dark wood-paneled room with two different ceiling heights (both dark wood), a couple of mirrors, a window, and no center of focus (e.g. a stage or podium).

The aftermath.

I ended up just putting the lights on some serving tables on two sides of the room near the table the varsity team was sitting at, pointed them straight up, and tried to hide them behind someone's head. Most of the time it worked out well enough.

After dinner, Nancy Palmer, the de facto treasurer for the team, counts contributions toward a bill which approached $1000.