School gyms aren’t the place for older technology or slow lenses if you want to catch the action without flash. This exceptional athlete wore the expressions of an eager innocent or a fierce demon while playing. My new Nikon and super-fast telephoto lens made shots like these possible at eight frames a second. 

Press photographers follow the basketball; they concentrate on freezing the player net high and about to score. What the parents miss, unless they send me to the game, is the smell and feel of the play itself. Student-athletes bring a lot of themselves to the play. I’ll bring it to you without using flash or being demanding of court position.