Like an Alcoholic Hanging Around a Bar

Here's a quiz for you. Tell me how many basketball players are on the court in each of these four photos. I'll give you a big hint: All were taken during the second half of the game and none were taken during a timeout.

The hint is the only way to know that 10 players are on the court in each of the photos.

--The first shot had a half second exposure time and all 10 players are visible because they weren't moving much while a free throw was being taken.
--The second shot with the lone player at mid-court was taken with a 1.3 second shutter speed. That one player is visible because he was stationary while waiting at mid-court to pick up his man on defense.
--Photo three was another half second exposure with the players all sprinting downcourt. You can see some blurring.
--Photo four was another 1.3 second exposure with the players all sprinting downcourt and it is hard to even see the blurs.

These photos were all taken last Friday afternoon during a tournament held at Millsaps (Mississippi College beat Millsaps in the finals). I was using my Lumix pocket camera which obviously isn't designed to take action photos in an indoor setting.

I've become more comfortable going to the Millsaps basketball games. I sort of isolated myself on one of the top rows for the first few games, watching mostly, cheering just a little, but primarily trying to keep my distance. For the last few games I've sat with some friends, visited with various coaches, talked to the security guards and maintenance people like I did in the past. Unfortunately, becoming more comfortable and reconnecting with people has its pros and cons.

Millsaps has a talented sophomore player on the basketball team named Quinn. I spoke to him a few times last year and he seems like a nice guy--not surprising since almost all of the Millsaps athletes are nice young men and women. Quinn has been injured and just started practicing last week. The two tournament games were his first time to dress out this year. I wanted to tell him welcome back if the opportunity presented itself. As things worked out, last Friday I was standing in the right spot when the team came out of the dressing room and lined up before taking the court.

When the team lined up I was right next to Brian, the junior who starts at point guard. I truthfully told him that he's really been doing a good job this season and wished him well in the game. He thanked me, maybe said something like thanks for coming to the game. He seems like a really nice guy. Then I went to the back of the line and saw Quinn and also Ben, a center who missed the first few weeks with an injury. It gave me the opportunity to tell them both welcome back, and to the surprise of no one reading this post, our very short conversation left me with the impression that Quinn and Ben are both really nice guys.

You know where this is going. For five years I gave a tremendous portion of my life to the Millsaps sports photo project. While the project was beneficial to the school as a whole and the athletic department specifically, I was actually doing all that work for the student-athletes. In my mind, the photos were important and the students were worthy of receiving my support. Someone should be preserving this year's important moments for student-athletes like Brian, Quinn and Ben.

Would I consider taking the photos again? The bigger question is can I mentally and physically handle the time and effort involved? I don't think that I can. Could I compromise and just take less photo? I don't think that I can. Can I continue to go up to Millsaps sporting events and enjoy myself while seeing this need go unfilled? It's starting to look like I can't.