Teens Succeed at Basketball By: Amanda Benson

January 14, 2014

Location: West Boylston Middle/High School

Teenager Photographed: A girl basketball player

Photographer: Amanda Benson

Visual Communication

Fall/ Winter 2013-2014

Final Project

Introduction

For my final project I photographed a girl basketball player before a game warming up with her team

and doing good things. Most of the pictures are of stretching because that is essential to pre-game

warm-ups. You can tell in the pictures that the team has a good time doing the specific activities and

enjoy being together which is a very important part in being on a team!

Taping Shoulder

This picture portrays a basketball player taping her teammates arm before the game. This is important for this specific girl because it helps hold her arm. It was a hard angle to get the picture so I got the best angle I could.

High-Fiving

This is a picture of two basketball girls high-fiving each other before the game and I said in the middle of them in action to look at me and you can really see their faces happy and pumped up for the game. They were yelling something and that is why their mouths are open.

Stretching #1 (90/90 Hamstring)

Before doing any sort of physical activity people should stretch. This is a stretch that works your hamstring. You usually need help with it to get the most out of the stretch. Since basketball is all running and shooting it is really important to stretch your legs and arms out. The girl getting stretched is really relaxed looking because it feels good.

Stretching #2 (Butterfly)

The girl in this picture is stretching out her groin. When playing basketball it is important to stay really loose and stretch thoroughly before a game or practice. As you see in this picture her legs don’t go all the way to the ground, which shows she is a little tight. she is really focusing on the stretch because breathing while stretching can also help mentally prepare you for the game.

Stretching #3 (Ankle on the Knee)

Here the girl is stretching out her hip-flexors. This is usually a stretch soccer players do because of having to kick a ball but it can be used for any sport. Her shoe is really the focus point to my eye because it looks bigger than everything else and I think that is interesting.

Stretching #4 (Calf stretch)

In this picture she is stretching out her calves. In basketball, because of jumping up and down and running a lot your calves get very tight if you do not stretch them enough. I cropped out the majority of the picture and kept her in view. This was taken from me sitting on the ground to get a more interesting view.

Stretching #5 (Shoulder stretch)

Here she is stretching out her shoulders. This is very important for basketball players because when you are shooting the ball you can’t be tight or else your shot will be off. I tried to crop out some extra space but because she was sitting on the ground I am not able to, but she is still the focal point.

Tying a Shoe

In this picture the girl who is having her shoe tied is having a sneezing attack and the girl who I was photographing went over and tied her shoe. I caught this picture just in time because as you can see the shoe is almost completely tied. I thought this really captured photojournalism because it is a moment in time.

Passing around the circle

This picture shows the girl about to pass the ball to another girl. This is another ritual our team does before each game. The team has many interesting/odd ways of preparing for the games but for us they work very well!

Ticket Sales

This girl who was a previous basketball player and graduated was doing ticket sales at our basketball game. She is volunteering her time to make a little extra money while she isn’t at school.