Boerne ISD Stadium....she be looking real good

The field is graphically perfect, with a bit more rubber pellets to go.  Just waiting on her new crown. The scoreboard should be up no later than 15 August.

Note the TLC instructions for the new turf... 

Boerne ISD Stadium....Sand going down and rubber pellets to follow

Pretty cool the way they fill the texture with sand, vacuum it up, and then will lay the rubber pellets over the next few days.

First photo is a pano from my iPhone..

Boerne ISD Stadium Upgrade Looking Good

Getting all primed for fall football in Texas, and in Texas fall football starts in mid-August.

Boerne ISD (BISD) has been on a construction roll and the refurbished football field is looking great. Thank you Stan for staying with traditional green artificial turf versus some of the colors I've seen around the U.S.

The BISD stadium serves the entire district with both Boerne High School and Boerne-Champion High School playing their varsity games there.

Boerne HS is the resident school and the booster club has had a neat project to sell bricks inset in the new foundation under the home stands.  If you want to make a difference for just a few dollars, and establish your legacy with BISD, however small, my little brick needs some company. (Wish I'd bought an 8x8....so don't make my mistake. ;-)

Details here: https://www.facebook.com/houndboosters?fref=ts

Sports coverage will continue this year at:

Ralph Mawyer Photography

 (also via BoerneSportsPhotos.com)

Please contact me soon for custom coverage of your favorite player or team.

MiLB San Antonio Missions vs Springfield Cardinals

Had the opportunity to shoot some Minor League Baseball at San Antonio's Wolff Stadium.  The San Antonio Missions hosted the Springfield Cardinals on July 9th, with James Needy pitching for the Missions and getting the win at 2-0 in the first game of this home session.

Tried something a bit different using a Nikon 600mm/f4 mostly from the fence over center field.  Shooting into the sun with a 7PM start made for some contrast issues, but it also provided some action shots with a different point-of-view, i.e., batters and second base plays almost straight on.

Still a long reach so having to crop more than I prefer.  Might try a 1.4x converter at a Saturday day game to get a bit more reach.

Always looking for something different..

Check out the full gallery here: 

http://ralphmawyerphotos.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/MiLB-Baseball-Texas-League/C0000n17RZZzdjqE

Kai Lenny SUP on Jaw's, Maui, Hawaii

Spent a couple of weeks on Maui, hauling way too much camera gear out there.  Thought a major surfing competition was going to go off on Jaws, (Pe'ahi), but the 30 foot faces they needed for eight hours didn't happen.

Drove on out there anyway and found the sailboards working 20' waves, along with Maui local Kai Lenny on his paddle board, 2014 Stand Up World Tour Champion.

The surfers were constrained with the wind blowing off the top of the waves, but Kai had some killer runs until he broke his board.

Jaws just looks like a flat swell until the right waves and wind hit, then it's, well....then it's Jaws.

Check out my editorial sales gallery for more photos...
http://ralphmawyerphotos.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Surfing/C0000KsGfiFQAqtA

Boerne High School vs Antonian Prep Varsity Football

Wow,  have't updated this since August?    Guess no one noticed...Facebook seems to be where the cool kids hang out.

Speaking of cool kids, check out the series of Nick Novak, a JV player that moved up to play varsity last Friday. (#30 varsity & #33 JV)
http://www.ralphmawyerphotography.com/keyword/bhsfb30#!i=3548263613&k=NTnsMj8

He looks right at home...

See all the game photos at BoerneSportsPhotos.com

Boerne vs Kerrville Tivy Football - Scrimmage Warmup for All

As usual it's 90-100F around here and football is spinning up.  Actually not too bad tonight working to get back in the groove shooting the Greyhounds taking on the Antlers.  Nice opportunity to catch some of the linesmen, that are so hard to get during a regular game...

Check out the small gallery here and follow me on Facebook.

Also check out my tentative schedule for this year and contact me if you have an interest in custom coverage for your favorite team or player.

APSFL Chicago Fire Dept. Blaze vs San Antonio Raiders (SAFD/SAPD) Football Championship 2014

Football in June!

Sometimes things just go right...

I get a phone call from a number I don't recognize, assume it's spam and move on.  But wait, there's a voicemail. "Are you available to shoot the inaugural American Public Safety Football League Championship game tomorrow between some Chicago firemen and the San Antonio PD/FD team" (more or less).

Short notice, but hey they're a paying client and it's a daylight game with a whole bunch of big, motivated football players..at least two of which looked like they must have played pro ball before becoming firemen. What's not to like...

While San Antonio wasn't able to get the field at the University of the Incarnate Word this time, they managed old school on grass at Edison high...up close and personal for all the fans.

American Public Safety Football League

Chicago FD Blaze
San Antonio Raiders

Lots of fun, lots of action...all of which you can see here:
http://www.ralphmawyerphotography.com/Sports-CustomCoverage/APSFLChampionship-2014

Ashley Walters - Texas A&M Softball Signing Class of 2015.

I had the opportunity to shoot Ashley and her club team, the Blaze, as she stays tuned up in preparation for her first year at A&M. Ashley was one of two catchers in the Texas A&M seven-player class for 2015, which was no surprise as she's been collecting accolades for her entire softball career, including being named on the MaxPreps 2014 Preseason All-American Softball team.

"C - Ashley Walters, Center Point (Texas), Sr.
Batting leadoff, Walters was unstoppable in 2013 — .761 batting average (.807 OBP), 70 hits, 70 runs, 76 RBIs, 19 home runs, 30 doubles, four triples, 1.793 slugging and she struck out just once. She has committed to Texas A&M."

Texas A&M Signing Class of 2015 

Incarnate Word Football (UIW) vs Abilene Christian University (ACU)

I had the opportunity to shoot the University of Incarnate Word vs Abilene Christian University football game yesterday, while most of San Antonio's football fans were focused on UTSA.

Both schools had great wins, with UIW defeating ACU for the first time ever and established their first winning season since the program's inception five years ago. 

The game went down to the last two minutes with UIW ahead by three points and ACU moving the ball to within scoring range, but suffered a fumble and the resulting loss.

See the full gallery on my Editorial/Commercial site: 

http://ralphmawyerphotos.photoshelter.com/gallery/Abilene-Christian-College-University-of-Incarnate-Word-20131109/G0000OmmB9lEs1Us/C000089QUBi0skK8

World Karate (San Antonio-Leon Springs) Black Belt Test

Had an engagement to shoot a black belt promotion test at World Karate in Leon Springs, Texas.

Had a range of emotions on this as the lighting conditions and close action work made it technically difficult, but it also brought back the 10-15 years I studied before I got old and out of shape.

Had a great time and even managed to get the required breaking board photo...note that Luke was holding the board when he broke it, so it was all about speed and focus and not someone pushing hard while you punch or kick the board.

Congratulation Luke and the other students and my thanks to Master David Brown who let me on the mat and essentially allowed me to act like a paparazzi during all portions of the test. Watching Sensei David work with the younger kids class and during the black belt test, it was apparent he is was running a class act...and the building is way cool also.

Boerne-Champion vs Lockhart Varsity Football & Homecoming

Busy week with Lockhart taking on Boerne-Champion on Champion's Homecoming night.  That's usually a hard gig, but if you want to see a ground-based offense just watch Lockhart's varsity and even Freshman teams grind out the yardage.  A couple of us even swore we saw a wishbone formation, circa UT/Darryl Royal of the 1960-70s. ;-)

So all the crashing about was great, but it was homecoming for Champion and they put on a great pre-game awards show and the usual fine half-time by the band and Charms dancers.

Checkout in the game gallery and the homecoming gallery.
Look here for the freshmen game gallery.

Boerne Greyhounds Varsity Football Homecoming vs Lytle

Homecoming games are usually pretty exciting, not only for the hype of the game action, but all the coronation activity...and luckily we had great weather.

Check out the full galleries....

Click here for game photos.

Click here Homecoming Court photos

Zombies and Red-Eye Photography (San Antonio Brandeis vs O'Connor Varsity Football)

Red-eye is an on-going issue for anyone that photographs people with flash, as the eye can easily reflect back the light, giving it a red tone due to all the blood vessels in the eye.

That said, sometimes I really want to leave it there, particularly with the popularity of the zombie theme with so many high school dance and band routines this year.

More zombies may be found at Ralph Mawyer Photography.

San Antonio Brandeis vs O'Connor Varsity Football

Oh My, what a game..,,,

Brandeis up 9-7, holds O'Connor with maybe three minutes to go.  Drives to mid-field and fumbles the ball. O'Connor recovers and drives within field goal range with something like 10 sec. on the clock...AND Scores.  Short, high kick to Brandeis who returns it pass mid-field.  Time has runout and O'Connor was celebrating a 10-9 win, but apparently O'Connor entered the field before time was fully out, resulting in a penalty that gave Brandeis a point-blank shot at a field goal with no time on the clock.  The make it and win 12-10.

Catch the whole collection of game photos at www.ralphmawyerphotography.com

 

Boerne High School Week...

Wow, busy week...

Boerne JV and Varsity volleyball on Tuesday and varsity football Friday.  Lots of shooting, lots of editing and pretty neat seeing players I've shot for the past two-three years moving into their last year in high school sports...and spotting all the new talent that has matured as Juniors this year.

Check it all out on my website: Ralph Mawyer Photography.com (aka BoerneSportsPhotos.com)

Fall Sports are underway! Boerne-Champion vs San Antonio Churchill Volleyball Leads Off

Nothing like a volleyball game to remind a shooter how rusty he or she can get not doing any action sports over the summer.

Boerne-Champion Varsity and JV teams helped me sort things out my first week back with the high schools, but I'm guessing they were working a lot harder than I was.

The full galleries may be found on my BoerneSportsPhotos.com website.

Boerne ISD Invitational Baseball Tournament

The Boerne ISD Invitational Baseball Tournament began Thursday and runs through Saturday. I had a chance to shoot three games at Boerne High School today and plan on a couple at Champion tomorrow. Clouds were nice, but could have done without the mist/drizzle...though the teams seemed to take it in stride with some great hitting and.

You can check out all the games I covered here: http://www.ralphmawyerphotography.com/Sports/Boerne-ISD-Baseball

Downtime...

Wow, it's been a while...

Managed to make time for whales and surfers and queuing up for a bit of baseball and possibly lacrosse.  If you have someone playing you would like coverage of, please drop me a note with their team, number and position and I'll see what I can do.

If you are a photographer and value your equipment, please check out ThinkTanks latest offering of a free eyepiece with rain cover purchase (I'm buying one).  If you don't need that, any purchase from ThinkTank using the link on the right gets you a free bonus gift and helps support my no-cost spec shooting schedule.

Humpback Whale between Maui and Lanai...

Robby Swift, professional windsurfer... getting reading to paddle into Jaws, off Maui, from the beach.
See the story here: http://www.ralphmawyerphotography.com/Sports-Professional/Windsurfing-Robby-Swift-Maui/27825941_zgS2TN