Tennessee at Stanford, 21 December 2013

Baranduin Briggs

Baranduin posts 120 pics to a Smugmug gallery with so many good action shots it's hard to pick a favorite. However, Mikaela took a ton of punishment in this game, so let's feature this:

It has one of those accidental, perfect compositions, where everything lines up on a line from the ball down to the bruise.

Note: for best results with the new Smugmug interface, click the Slideshow button in the upper right. Then keep your mouse pointer toward the bottom left and the play/stop control will be visible. Watch for some nice multi-shot continuous sequences.

Scott Uyeno

Scott posts posts 67 meticulously-labelled shots to a Flickr set, including this one of Lili in flight:

and lots of other action and half-time shots. Let's throw in one of Mikaela mixin' it up as is her style:

Michael Li

Michael posts a dozen shots to a Flickr set, including this one of, he says, "Sara James performs an interpretive dance":

We think she is interpreting the concept "boo-ya!"

New Mexico at Stanford, 16 December 2013

Scott Uyeno

Scott posts 52 shots to a Flickr setfrom his North-end aerie from where he is positioned to get shots like this of Chiney getting an O-board:

And lots more, click the link above.

Baranduin Briggs

Baranduin posted 53 pix to a Smugmug gallery, with lots of excellent action but we will feature the following:

Anyone who was at the game knows what's happening there, right? This is the middle of a three-shot sequence of Lili's fabulous flying swat. Click through for more.

Gonzaga at Stanford, 14 December 2014

Michael Li

Michael posts eleven shots to a Flickr set, including this one of Mikaela blocking Sunny Greinacher:

Don't feel bad for Sunny, she had a good night despite this. For more, including several shots that include Elle Tinkle (Jos's sister), click through to the set.

Scott Uyeno

Scott posts 64 shots to his Flickr set, including a great shot of Chiney scoring:

For lots more, including a different angle on the exact same instant of Mikaela blocking Sunny, click through to the set.

Baranduin Briggs

Baranduin posts 80 pics to a Smugmug gallery, including this dramatic shot of Kailee Johnson:

For more action, and several shots of the halftime and postgame celebration of Tara's 900 wins, click through to the gallery.

Happy Snappy Fingers Dept.

It's quite remarkable that all three photogs seem to have captured Mikaela's block of Sunny. Michael Li's shot is above. Here's Scott Uyeno's:

And here's Baranduin's:

Sunny didn't have a chance...

UC Davis at Stanford, 17 November 2013

Scott Uyeno

Scott posted 73 shots to a Flickr set, with lots of north-end action like this of Erica McCall taking to the air to catch the ball going out of bounds:

But the absolute prize is from the moment when Celia Marfone and Kailee Johnson redefined "over the back":

That's part of a 3-shot sequence, click the gallery link to see them all.

Baranduin Briggs

Baranduin posts 79 shots to a Smugmug gallery with this as the third shot in a 4-shot sequence of Karlie and Mikaela going for a loose ball:

And from the second half, Lili at speed:

Click the gallery link for more action and pre- and post-game pics.

Dave Cortesi

We took the camera to a game for the first time this season to experience the frustration of photography. So many great images zipped by as the finger froze on the button... Put 15 shots in a Smugmug gallery, including a decent shot of tip-off:

And a static, but attractive shot of Kailee on D (Scott has almost the same shot from another angle):

Cal Poly at Stanford, 15 Nov 2013

Scott Uyeno

Scott posts 80 shots to a Flickr set, and let's give Scott credit for captioning every pic, documenting even the names of opposition players. The first half he was looking down on the North end for the classic Chiney shot,

Then he got lucky on the "tweet your seat for courtside" giveaway and was able to shoot the rest of the game from a front row seat, getting up close for Erica McCall in heavy traffic:

Baranduin Briggs

Baranduin posted 79 shots to a Smugmug Gallery. During the first half she was moving around the arena from her usual post, and here she caught Karlie Samuelson on defense:

This second-half shot tickles us because of the accidental composition, with the focus of all bodies and eyes coming down a funnel to the ball at the apex:

Click into both galleries to enjoy a bunch of excellent action shots plus fans and "benergy".

Vanguard at Stanford, 3 November 2013

The first game of the season brought out two photographers.

Scott Uyeno

Scott shot from his usual spot at the North end and posted 53 shots to his Flickr account, and hey, the new Flickr gallery display is looking nice. The set includes good shots of promising freshers: Lili Thompson,

...and this of Kailee Johnson:

Baranduin Briggs

Baranduin "was so happy to be back at Maples" that she shot a ridiculous number of pictures, but by heroic editing got it down to 94 shots on her Smugmug gallery, and look, Smugmug also has done a gallery style makeover. Baranduin got lots of action shots of Chiney, Mikaela and Amber, but let's highlight two pics of freshers, Erica McCall,

And Karlie Samuelson in what is likely to be a characteristic pose:

Open Practice, 19 October 2013

Marian Cortesi

Marian took the family Nikon to the practice and posted 18 shots to a Smugmug gallery, including this one of some Illustrious Alumnae enjoying the ambience:

and this of the closing circle, alumnae, staff, and team:

Stanford v. Georgia, 30 March 2013

Michael Li

Michael managed to get his camera past the NCAA's nit-picking gate guards ("Does that camera have an interchangeable lens? You can't have an interchangeable lens in here") and got 30 shots worth showing in his Flickr set including a nice 3-shot continuous sequence of tip-off, some action of the Stanford game like this of Sara James driving,

And then, several shots of the action during the Cal-LSU game, like this of Jemerigbe driving:

And that's a wrap...

That'll do it for the 2012-13 season. Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Think about bringing your camera to Maples next year, we can always use more shooters.

Michigan at Stanford, 26 March 2013 (NCAA round 2)

Scott Uyeno

Scott posted 53 shots to this Flickr set, mostly action like this of Mikaela splitting a pair of defenders,

..or this, of Chiney in the same fix:

Michael Li

Michael, shooting from just behind the visitor's bench, couldn't get much action but posted a dozen shots to a Flicker set including this one of Kim Barnes Arico trying to keep morale up:

Looking down-court in the second half, he did catch Jos shooting one of her five threes:

David Cortesi

We shot the first half from the loges, then in the second half moved to vacant seats behind the Stanford bench, and got a few shots to put in a Smugmug gallery of which the most fun is this:

Jos has just shot her second trey (note the elegant flip of the wrist) but the faces along the Michigan bench behind her are just priceless.

Baranduin Briggs

Despite a cold Baranduin posted 71 pics to a Smugmug gallery, including several shots of hero-of-the-night Jos Tinkle in action, like this:

Between that one the following, there are several pictures of E. Payne being her delightfully manic self, but we'll close with:

Tulsa at Stanford 24 March 2013 (NCAA round 1)

Michael Li

Michael has a typical photographer's grump, "I shot 8 for 49. That's 16 percent." (That's about normal in our experience.) He posts the 8 shots he likes to a Flickr set including this one of a rebound:

The set also includes a great shot of "Captain 'Cane" the Tulsa mascot.

Scott Uyeno

Scott somehow kept his regular-season seat for this NCAA game (who did you bribe, Scott?) and despite complaining of brighter light at Maples throwing his exposure off, posted 47 pics to this Flickr set including this one of Chiney at work:

and lots more good action like this of Amber getting a held-ball:

Baranduin Briggs

Continuing the theme of photographers carping, Baranduin says that in a rush to get to the game, she grabbed the wrong camera, a Panasonic instead of her usual Nikon, so the pictures are maybe not up to the usual standard. What do you think? The Smugmug Gallery contains a lot of shots that show the intensity of this game, like this of Mikaela securing a rebound:

and you gotta love this of Chiney receiving a foul call:

Baranduin's Pics of the Pac-12 Tournament

Well, the PAC-12 tournament is history. Ancient history, as online sports journalism measures time. I took a camera to every game but didn't have a good angle and mostly just watched. So other than the day-1 pics in the previous post, I got nothin'. Well, some nice shots of the Chihuly glass and such, but nothin' basketball-wise except the day-4 pregame and postgame shots later.

Baranduin Briggs was there, sitting almost at floor level, although with "large-headed" people in front of her. She put together galleries of the four days as follows.

Briggs, Day 1

For day one, Baranduin practiced her action shots and got some nice under-the-basket shots from all four games, but also gave a lot of attention to the mascots, the fans, and cheerleaders. All this in a Smugmug Gallery with action like this,

And other stuff:

Briggs, Day 2

Day two, and first up was a session that included a Cal/USC game. Pics of that game in this here Smugmug gallery including this of a soaring Brittney Boyd.

With players like that, you'd think they'd never lose, right? OK, buckle down; there's a Stanford game to play! Baranduin put shots of that and the following Colorado/UW game in a this Smugmug Gallery. It includes Stanford action like this,

And CO/UW action like this:

Briggs, Day 3

Semifinal day, and Baranduin put pics of both games into this Smugmug gallery. The first includes action shots of the Cal/UCLA debacle,

Followed by pics of the Stanford/Colorado game, like:

Briggs, Championship Game

Baranduin put her pics of the championship game and after in this Smugmug gallery with action shots like this, which pretty well sums up the day Chiney had:

And a little post-game whoop-te-doo:

Cortesi, Championship Day

Our smugmug gallery of pre-game and post-game pics has already been linked from Marian's story of the game. It includes this of Mikaela, who had just fouled out, greeting Jos at the end of the game:

And that was the tournament, pretty much.