North-America is quite big. No, really, it is! So, even though there are a few Icelandic talents all over the continent, I rarely get a chance to see them.
So when I read on Helena Sverrisdóttir’s blog, that she would be playing pre-season games in Canada I contacted her to find out if she would be in or around Vancouver.
For those of you who don’t know, Helena is an Icelandic basketball star, who is now starting her senior year at Texas Christian University. She was league MVP in Iceland three years running, first receiving the award when she had just turned 17 years old. Last year she was Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-American. So, yes, an Icelandic basketball star – however strange that may sound.
She got back to me, telling me that yes, she would be playing in Vancouver. So I took my family over for a trip, and me and my son Márus (whom Helena had briefly coached back in Iceland) went to see TCU’s final game of the trip, against University of British Columbia. Márus didn’t know exactly what or who we were going to see. Throughout the day I gave him hints, and allowed him to make a few guesses. When we walked into the War Memorial Gym he asked me one final time who we were going to see play, and as soon as he had asked he saw a purple team standing by the bench. He knew the answer, and he was more than a little happy.
I took two camera bodies to the game and ended up letting my son shoot the second half of the game with my Canon 40D and the 85mm f/1.8. I used the 5D Mark II, and then switched between the 70-200 and the 24-70. The 5D is not exactly a sports camera with its 3 frames per second capability, but it is a lot better than the 40D in badly lit gyms.
When shooting, I discovered that I kind of miss being around basketball as much as I used to, and I also found that I would love to shoot more sports in general.
