Three Charlatan photographers, week in week out, shot the Carleton Ravens. Rain or shine they were there, capturing so much more than just games: emotions, relationships, victory and defeat, all with their own sense of style. As curated by themselves, here are their top photos from the fall semester.
Spencer Colby
The Carleton University Women’s rugby team huddle and raise their hands together in encouragement and support of one another as they prepare to play against Sherbrooke University.
As the Carleton Raven’s faced-off against various opponents during the U Sports National Championships in Montreal, they were accompanied by a cheerful and vibrant group of former-Carleton University students and athletes. Shooting sports is not only about capturing the movement of players up and down the field or ice rink; it is about capturing all of your surroundings.
The Carleton University Ravens women’s hockey team hoist their sticks up as goalkeeper Alexandra Lehmann is announced as the starting goaltender. Carleton University faced off against McGill University on October 26th in a close match that saw the Ravens fall to a 2-0 defeat. The raising of sticks followed by banging them on the ice is a tradition, done in part by both women and men’s teams, to welcome and motivate players as they prepare to face-off against their opponents.
Carleton University men’s basketball team stand for the Canadian National Anthem while facing the Canadian Flag at the Ravens Nest basketball stadium. Shooting from this angle and in line with the players allows you to isolate a specific person, as seen here with point guard Yasiin Joseph.
Emad Houache of the Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team celebrates a goal scored against St Francis Xavier University in the first matchup during the U Sports Final 8 championship in Montreal, Quebec. The Ravens lost in the bronze medal game against Cape Breton University.
Jeff Pelletier
One of my favourite things about shooting Ravens men’s basketball was getting fun action shots of head coach Dave Smart directing his players from the bench. After winning the 2019 USports Nationals, Smart stepped down as head coach, and I was sad I wouldn’t get any fun coach shots. Thankfully, Taffe Charles is just as animated. I can’t remember what specific call he was yelling about, but it made for a memorable shot.
(Canon EOS Rebel T5i 36 mm f/2.8, 1/640, ISO1600)
When you’re about to take on a challenge, you have to get your head in the game. At their home opener, the Ravens women’s hockey team was down going into the third. To pump up her teammates, forward Jenna Morais stood at the end of the tunnel, giving them all fist bumps as they headed back out on the ice. The Ravens fell short, losing the game 6-2 against Concordia.
(Canon EOS Rebel T5i 46 mm f/2.8, 1/500, ISO800)
After losing to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees the weekend before, all eyes were on TD Place as the Carleton Ravens had their rematch in front of a packed crowd at the Colonel By Classic. It wasn’t an easy battle. After 40 minutes, the Ravens were down 2-0. But in the third, they came back, one goal at a time. With less than 40 seconds left in the game, Ravens fan could breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate, as Alexandre Boivin (#25) netted an empty net goal. Final score: 4-2 Carleton.
(Canon EOS Rebel T5i, 47 mm, f/2.8, 1/500, ISO-800)
There’s an old expression, that when you’re about to do something challenging, you have to “bring out your game face.” Before being announced onto the court, starters (left to right) Jaclyn Ronson, Kali Pocrnic, Alyssa Cerino, Tatyanna Burke and Marlee Ball from the Ravens Women’s Basketball team each brought out their game faces. They went on to have a decisive 79-58 victory over Laurentian.
(Canon EOS Rebel T5i f/2.8, 1/400, 63 mm, ISO1600)
Evening games are a rare occasion for the Ravens Men’s Football team. But, for the 2019 home opener, that’s what they got. Before the sun was gone after halftime, players and fans got to enjoy a purple sunset over MNP Park.
(Canon EOS Rebel T5i 55 mm 1/400, f/4, ISO3200)
Tim Austen
The night time slot at the Rugby Field always makes things difficult. Late at night and in the game I switched over to long exposures. Shooting really grainy images after a while has little benefit, I find.
This half second exposure captures Maddy’s face well and shows some dynamic movement. The key with these is the colour, the green of the grass, the red of the jersey, Maddy’s skin tones. These little things make the difference. I wish the women’s rugby team had more white or red or anything on their jersey, but so it goes.
The team lost in a last second hold up on the goal line: their playoff hopes, gone in a blur.
(Nikon D3 80-200 1/2 f8 Iso 400)
I just barely got this frame off. It was immediately after overtime kicked off in the men’s semi-final at soccer nationals. I had been shooting around the bench during the break and dropped the shutter speed accordingly.
It all happened so fast–I was lucky to correct back to the game shutter speed on time. I got the goal happening, but this moment was, to me, much more interesting. It will forever be the photo the summarizes the heartbreak of the season for the soccer team.
(Nikon D750 80-200 1/1000 f4 ISO 6400–Auto).
Phil Iloki catches a pass against U of T on a rainy day. The fifth-year senior showed up for his team, day in and day out, this season. The rain cooled off the images and neutralized the colours. I corrected this in post.
The deep bluey-green of the grass contrasted with his socks in a most pleasing manner. I had the ISO a bit higher that day and I was shooting wide open on my 300 mm F4 lens. In some ways, this was a mistake as I could have gotten away with lower ISO.
Everything was a bit confusing in the rain, I felt like I was spending the entire game just keeping my camera dry. I barely noticed how high my shutter speed was. The histogram was pretty overexposed so I pulled the whole image down half a stop in post. Though the colouration is really spot-on, I think it’s the horizontal and diagonal composition of the picture that really makes the image.
Iloki is going both ways at once, but of course nowhere. I’m super pleased with the result, making it my favourite action shot of the fall.
(Nikon D3 300mm 1/2000 f4.5 Iso 2000)
The day after I picked up my new camera, I was a little shy to use it in the game. In retrospect, a mistake. So I decided to shoot the pre-game, knowing in the back of my mind that I would need the practice, because the next day I was going to Guelph for the football quarterfinals.
I really stuffed the exposure on this photo (this is unrelated to the camera, I’m just an idiot and exposed for the sky. When I downloaded the photos, I cursed myself).
Luckily, I had just enough dynamic range to push the shadows. If you look closely, it obscured Maya’s (on the right) facial features just a tiny bit, but still captured the dramatic sky after a lot of colour correction.
(Nikon D750 20-35 1/800 f5 ISO 1000)
Taken at the first home game of the fall, I didn’t do better all semester. These procedure shots can be tough sometimes. I base so much of my photography around shooting to be different. When I get a photo op like this, all I can think is, ‘don’t choke–get this right.’
I screwed up because my camera wasn’t on continuous high, rather single frame. I panicked when I pressed the shutter the first time and it only got one frame. But it ended up being a good result for me, because then I got this imbalanced frame and had to focus on my timing.
My favourite thing is imbalance, players running and you have the feeling you’re in the middle of just this sea of them. The cloudy grey sky makes the highlights pop so well. I didn’t get any other game to cooperate like this for the fireworks.
(Nikon D3 20-35 1/1000th f5.6 ISO 2500)
