Gary Splash’s Robert Eldridge (top) shoots up and over Lansing’s Carlos Gill during the fourth quarter at the Genesis Center in Gary, Ind., Sunday, April 17, 2011.

With the NBA playoffs underway, and scores of local fans chasing after the bandwagons of their “favorite” teams, I decided to dig through my archives and pull some of my favorite basketball images from the 2010-2011 season. While there are a couple of images from college and semi-pro teams, the majority of them were shot at high school matches. High school games always seem more emotionally “true” for some reason, probably because the players are in it strictly for the love of the sport, free from the haze of endorsement deals and celebrity pomp.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to share with you another one of those morsels of truth I promised you when this blog got off the ground. Ready? While I enjoy photographing sports, I’m not a sports fan at all. I could care less about your fantasy (fill in the blank) league, and the only reason I know how American football is played is from photographing it all these years.

Despite my general disinterest in sports as a fan, basketball is the one I can make an exception for. I really enjoy watching basketball as a spectator in addition to photographing the action. The game play is very quick, often aggressive, and (save for a foul-heavy game) is free of the constant procedural stoppages that often make American football all but a bore.

My favorite basketball images are usually ones where the sport begins to blur with a heavyweight bout or a fourth-quarter football touchdown attempt at third and goal. I love aggressive battles for rebounds under the rim, as well as players sprawling out on the floor fighting for a loose ball. Images of players simply shooting the ball, while sometimes holding huge storytelling information (like a game-winning three-pointer), are generally pretty boring to me, and I try to avoid filing them unless I have to.

I light every basketball game I shoot, and have done so since 2004. I use everything from Elinchrom Style 600 units with sport reflectors on down to cheap Vivitar 285HV’s. While my current Canon 1D Mark IV cameras are more than capable or shooting in available light in most gyms, the polished look that strobes deliver simply cannot be beat. I love the way strobes cut out players from busy, cluttered backgrounds – the colors pop, the edges are sharp, and the player’s physical forms are sculpted and well-defined.