To wrap up the rest of my personal favourite images of the 2015-16 Calgary Hitmen season, there are a few other images that did not really fit into any of the other categories, so I am including them here.
Jake Bean skates past the special face-off dot painted for breast cancer awareness.
The Teddy Bear Toss:
(Un)Luck of position lead to me missing Jordy Stallard’s celebration after scoring THE goal in the second period, but thankfully, one of the other Hitmen photographers was positioned properly to get that. I stayed a bit high to get a wider bowl shot of it raining bears.
Teddy bears rain down after Jordy Stallard scores during the Teddy Bear Toss game.
Timing:
There are so many elements about the photo below that are great to me. First off, Mark Kastelic’s check was really nice, but the fact that the Edmonton player lost his glove in the photo hole with Jenn (the team marketing photographer) sitting there makes it amazing to me. Her face makes it pure gold.
Here it is zoomed in.
Snap Zoom:
The shot below is something that I worked on for about 10 solid games during warm up. It is straight up hard to get a good snap zoom (slowing the shutter way down and zooming the lens out quickly when you push the shutter) of subjects who are already moving. I ended up practicing this on the goalies (photo of Nik Amundrud) a lot of the time who were hanging around the bench during warm up. And yes, I know you can very easily create this effect in Photoshop, but that is not the point.
Goalie Nik Amundrud during warm up.
The Tunnel:
I have posted a few photos of the players in the tunnel in the behind the scenes post, but once they exit the tunnel, it is no longer BTS. There are a PILE of different angles that the players can be shot leaving and entering the tunnel, so I have included a few of my favourites.
A fan cheers on the Hitmen as they return to their dressing room after warm up.
Jakob Stukel heads back to the dressing room after warm up.
Micheal Zipp heads out on to the ice for warm up.
Cody Porter steps out on the ice for warm up.
Colby Harmsworth steps out on the ice for warm up.
National Anthem:
I am a big fan of the light at the start of the Hitmen games. It gives me a lot of opportunity to shoot something a little different for the start of the games (when time permits).
Calgary Hitmen during the National Anthem.
Calgary Hitmen during the National Anthem.
More Moments:
Shooting warm up every game for over 30 games makes you start to look for other little moments that happen on the ice that are not really part of the drills.
Radel Fazleev during warm up.
This photo was taken after the Hitmen had traded Loch Morrison over to the Prince Albert Raiders at the trade deadline, so it was the first time back for him at the Dome.
Former billet brothers Carsen Twarynski and Loch Morrison.
I wish the sign was a little more clear but it says “#24 Go Hitmen Go #24, Your the best hockey player #24. Score 3 Goals”. This was just a few games after Carsen had scored his first hat trick against Red Deer.
Carsen Twarynski during warm up.
Effort:
I did not feel like these next two photos really fit into any other category. I really like the action in them, but what I really like is the level of effort put in to get the shot off after falling over. There are plenty of other shots of other players showing great effort, but this one really stood out to me because of the second shot.
Carsen Twarynski goes down during a game against the Saskatoon Blades.
Carsen Twarynski goes down during a game against the Saskatoon Blades.
Smile!
All season, the players were told not to look at me when I am around shooting behind the scenes, but on occasion, I don’t mind if they do. It can be a bit of a weird relationship between the shooter and subject sometimes where you can’t talk to your subject because you can’t break their game focus but have them trust you to capture images of them while they are warming up or prepping for the game. Thankfully, all of the players were great sports and allowed me to capture great images of them all season. I appreciate all of you for trusting me enough to do this for you and the team this past season, even when it was probably weird to see the camera hidden in the shadows of the tunnel, in front of your bench, in the workout room, or even by your shoe rack…
Jordy Stallard heads out on to the ice for warm up.
Jakob LaPointe heads out on to the ice for warm up.
Thanks again to the Calgary Hitmen for a fun season of capturing your team’s history.
Candice Ward Photography 