Luck of the ball

"American Fork's Jordan Jacklin (13) and Lone Peak's Brody Berry (14) battle mid-air for a header during the second half at American Fork High School, Friday, April 9, 2010. Three second-half goals propelled Lone Peak to a, 3-0, win over the American Fork Cavemen, earning them not only a win, but at least a share of second place in Region 4 play as well."

I am a strong believer in luck - especially when shooting sports.

In my opinion, knowing the game you're covering is a large part of coming out with unique sport pictures.

Since I grew up an athlete, I don't think there is a game or sport I don't know, so I have that to my advantage.

Well, now that I think about it, there are plenty of games humans play I don't know anything about. I let Sol take care of those.

Anyways, combine your self knowledge with your location during the match, gear, timing, and some other variables, and you hope to come out with something fresh every game.

But even if you're on top of your own game during a sporting match, luck sometimes just doesn't go your way.

For example, tge action may never come in front of you and pictures you at one point of the game thought would be stellar A1 frames go to, well, for lack of better words, shit.

In this case, I only had enough time to cover the first half of this high school soccer game. After the first couple minutes I spotted the star players and placed myself in the best spot I thought possible.

American Fork was dominating, so I focused on them and I had many great images to show that.

Yet the minute I walked to my car, about five minutes into the second half, I heard screaming and cheering. Lone Peak scored and went on to win, 3-0. Alas, more than half of my the images I thought told the story were thrown in the outtakes bin.

Such is luck in sports.