Since Iowa isn’t known for being a field hockey state—the sport isn’t played at the high school level here—the University of Iowa team has go far afield to find players. As a result, a number of the players are from overseas—a couple of continental Europeans but mostly Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis. One of the team’s standout internationals, is a sophomore from Tasmania by the name of Maddy Murphy—I was lucky enough to shoot her first hat-trick as she single-handedly took down no. 6 Penn State on a fall evening.
sports photography
Field Hockey, the return.
During my time shooting for the Daily Iowan, if you asked me what my favorite sport to shoot is, I'd say women's field hockey. Sure, shooting football and basketball are great—they're the prestige sports and there really is nothing like being on the sidelines or courtside and having the privilege of shooting them. While the sports pages might not teem with field hockey coverage though (er, well, except for the DI) it really has become a favorite of mine to shoot. Why, you ask?
Well, for starters, the games are short—two 35 minute halves and a 10 minute halftime. Get in, get out. But more than that, it's outside so the light is generally good, it's fairly high action so you can get some fairly dramatic shots and the field isn't that large so you're closer to the action than in something like soccer.
And Iowa's team, while maybe not great, is pretty good and certainly entertaining. I shot my first field hockey game of the season today and Iowa hung seven on the opposing team. More of that ladies.
Soccer Sunday
Another year of shooting for the Daily Iowan has kicked off and I started my final year for this paper by shooting Iowa Soccer's third home game of the season. For a game played on such a miserable day—93 degrees and close to 100% humidity—I'm relatively happy with the shots I got.
Biggest lesson learned though was to test out your 20–year old camelbak more than 5 minutes before you leave to shoot an event—otherwise that leak you didn't know about means you'll be shooting for about three hours without any water.
Suboptimal.
Daily Iowan Slideshow
