Nascar, Its Not So Bad

Sorry for the delay of postings, but my schedules been pretty hectic, with the end of the semester and other photography jobs I have outside of school. To mention one, over this weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot for Associated Press covering the two races that took place at Richmond International Raceway. At first, I was excited about the job, but have never been a nascar fan at all, never watched it, the sport just never interested me, it was just a bunch of rednecks watching a car go around a racetrack. I mean, thats what it is, but being able to experience my first race from that kind of perspective really changes my opinion. I got to walk right up to all the big name racecar drivers, I had a great spot to photograph the event, it was really a lot of fun, eventhough the hours were really long. Both nights, I didn't get out of the event until 1:30 in the morning, the traffic was absolutely horrible. There was 100 thousand fans at this event, well, the Nascar race at least. But all in all, it was a lot of fun, watching the cars speed past me at close to 200 MPH, i've never seen anything like it, and got some really good photos in the process. Besides that, I really can't add anything deep feelings about the race, because I still am really distanced from the sport, I know nothing about it, couldn't name any racers or their sponsors, unless it was part of my assignment. Only racers I know are Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., because i was told to follow them around half of the day. Only other thing I can add, if its a night race and you're looking for crisp shots, shoot at 1000 ISO, aperture of 2.8 and shutter speed of 320. White Balance varies on the camera, for one of them I was shooting at around 5500 degree kelvin, when but with another, i had to compensate a little bit because the color balance was a little off. Just make sure you pan with the cars, or everything you take will be blurry, and watch cars that are riding close together, changes are, there will be a wreck, just keep your eyes open and your ears shut (earplugs are a lifesaver!)

Grunt Work

I'm taking the opportunity to reflect on the experience of preparing the gallery today. I will say, it was definitely a lot more difficult and more work than any of us had anticipated. I thought it was just going to be walking in there, patch up a few holes, paint, and we'd be out of there. Boy, do i wish it would've been that easy. Walking in there, we realized that there was this huge mural(size of a whole wall), constructed of paint and lots of paper that was stuck with wheat paste (basically wallpaper). So we had to strip all that off, sand the walls to be smooth, put on multiple primer coats, THEN PAINT! It was definitely not what I had anticipated, and I was real exhausted by the end of the day. But I did show up 12 on the dot, and work to do as much as I possibly could to get everything prepared for tomorrow. The way I see it, the work absolutely had to be done today, so we could walk in and just hang work, no stress, just take the time to lay everything out nicely and not have to be pushed for time. Unfortunately, there weren't a whole lot of people who actually showed up, i am glad some did though. The majority of the people only stayed 1 to 1 1/2 hours at a time, which is fine, I understand that everyone has a busy schedule and the end of the semester. But i honestly, stayed the whole damn day, 12 to 6, which isn't what I was hoping to do, but i'm a work horse, everything got taken care of, lets have some fun at the show. I'm really looking forward to be able to hang out and look at people's work, goof around a little bit and just drink a few beers. I want to enjoy the outing as one of the last times to really hang out with this graduating class. We might as well have a good time while we still can, I honestly don't know who and when the next time i'll see them after this.

Panel Meetings

I wanted to write a few sentences just to respond to today's meetings with the panel members. First of all, I wish it wasn't raining this morning, i didn't want to walk in the rain with my portfolio, etc. What a pain in the butt. Anyways, it seemed like everyone was kind of anxious/nervous, I've been really confident with my sports photography lately, so I went into the meeting very comfortably and just had casual conversation with all the panel members, not that we didn't talk about my work, but i'm glad it wasn't a nerve-wrecking situation. Scott Elmsquist was a really nice guy, he gave me some good feedback on a number of photos and was really pleased with the overall quality of my shots, minus some prints that turned out poorly, but the composition and photo itself he enjoyed. I feel that both of the panel members real pleased that I knew exactly what I wanted to do after graduation and how to get there. Kimberly Frost was also really nice and down to earth, making it easy to talk to her about my work, we also had similar interests and ideas. Instead of looking at individual photos and talking about them, she just flipped through and then started to talk. She was really happy with the quality of work that I had in my photos, the only thing she said I needed to work on was advertising myself. I've already worked on a corporate identity, i have a logo and business card, I'd just like to work on them a little more. Plus I need a letterhead to put on invoices in the future.

In conclusion, I was really pleased with the individuals I met with today, everything went really smoothly and they were nice and easy to communicate ideas with. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a mock interview or what, either way, because i'm really passionate and fascinated with the genre of photography that I'm shooting, it made it really easy to talk about.

Swift Creek

This weekend was a perfect chance to get out and do some shooting. I drove all the way out to Swift Creek aka. the middle of nowhere, but once I got out there, it was like youth lacrosse heaven. They had somewhere around 10 different teams playing on Saturday, lots of different ages, teams from different locations, it really turned out to be a lot of fun, and the kids loved the camera. There was one team I've been following around a little bit, Swift Creek Miners, which are actually a really talented bunch of kids, the kicked some ass over the weekend. Most of them recognized me from their last shoot, so they were real comfortable in front of the camera, i got to talk with them, joke around a little bit. Its always nice to just b.s. with kids about the sport and just have some fun while i'm shooting, it was a good time all around. The coaches are all down to earth and appreciate all the photos I'm taking, they let me get in there, wherever i want, works out really good, I'll just hook them up with some photos. They have more games this weekend, only they're in Nags Head, so I won't be able to get to those games, but I'd love to.

At the moment, I'm still looking through all the photos, workflow, etc. I will have them posted up tomorrow, but as for now, I'm still in the process of weeding out the good and the bad, which takes a long time when you're shooting a couple thousand photos a day. None of these will be done by the senior show, but they'll definitely be in the final critique. Besides that, can't say theres much more to say, I'm just gonna keep shooting. If i get the chance, I may try and make it out that way again this upcoming weekend, so I can get a few more good photos before the end of the school year, just want to help my chances as much as possible. Plus, I've been getting a good tan and having a great time meeting new people and shooting sports, its what I live for.

Lacrosse over the weekend

I went back to Charlottesville to see some family and attend a lacrosse game (UVA vs. Duke). The game didn't turn out how I wanted, but overall it was a great experience. We wound up going with a good crowd, which always helps. We showed up early, about 3 hours before the game, so I had plenty of time to walk around and shoot photos of the tailgating, i was trying to capture the culture around the game, eventhough I missed some of shots I wanted, like the huge crowd walking into the game. I did get some great shots of these two brothers playing lacrosse in the parking lot, and another kid playing goalkeeper, while tailgating with his family. I haven't had the chance to download and look through the photos yet, but I think I came up with some good ones. I also shot a team photo of a youth team from Chesterfield, I saw them warming up prior to the game, turns out, they were playing a small match during halftime, got to talking with the coach, and i'm going to photo game some of their games over next weekend. So I did make some good contacts, so I plan to get some good photos before the end of the semester. I got a few photos of the action from the game, but I wasn't really trying to concentrate on that this time, plus I didn't have the equipment to come up with quality photos, so I focused more on the crowd around the game, etc. Now that I think of it, I probably should've moved around a lot more, but anytime the game is going, i tend to stand still so I can follow the action. But i really should've climbed the top of the bleachers and gotten a shot of the crowd all over the field, it would've made a good one. I hope to download these photos tonight, while i'm stuck in Charlottesville for another night, i'll try and look through them and narrow down some photos to post along with the blog entry. They should be posted tomorrow after my meeting with Paul.

Finishing up the semester

Personally, the stress hasn't gotten to me yet, and I hope it doesn't. This is my last semester of college, I want to space everything out, well-planned and organized so I can move into the final few weeks with as little stress as possible. The website is close to finished, I have photos already edited and ready to print, I just need to shoot a few more games/lacrosse before final critique, see if I can get a few more solid images. I don't want to stretch out the final number of photos too much, but it would be nice to assure myself a well-rounded body of work. I'm shooting over the weekend, lacrosse and baseball, I'm also going to try and shoot some more "staged" lacrosse photos of my nephews playing around with sticks. It will be kind of posed, but I wanted to show a younger age group in a less formal environment, rather than playing on a team, just show people play lacrosse whenever and wherever. We'll see how it goes. Besides that, I just need to start jumping on the editing for the photos, once they're editing for the finals, I can crop down a little bit in order to fit them into the portfolio, shouldn't take much time at all. If I can get that done, it should make the rest of my semester much easier. I'll just bring the rough finals into the Fine Arts Building and use they're nice macs to edit, shouldn't take me much time at all. I just want to make sure I finish strong at the end of the semester and not taper off. I need some good grades at the end to pull myself up a little, I've been posting a bunch and giving a lot of participation, which I think will help.

Hitting a snag

Well, the plan was to go out and photograph some high school girl's lacrosse, only it didn't work out all according to plan. I wake up yesterday morning, only to find that my car is nowhere to be found, and I had no idea what happened to it. Turns out, my car got towed, so I spent the whole day calling around, trying to find out where it could possibly be. It was a real pain in the ass, but these things happen. The game was scheduled for 4:30 yesterday, but having no transportation, I had to skip the shoot yesterday. There are plenty of remaining games in the season, so I'm not stressing too much, I'm going to a huge lacrosse game over the weekend. We're going to show up a few hours early, do some tailgating, I'm sure there is going to be tons of people doing the same, my plan is to try and document people coming together before the game, hanging out, throwing around lacrosse, get the interaction between fans and the game, father and son, stuff like that. Thats one thing I'd really like to follow, because at that age, a lot of sports are father, son kind of activities, so being able to capture that would be great. I have a family event going on this weekend also, which means lots of my little cousins will be there to play around, and the weather should be perfect for lacrosse, i was going to bring a few sticks, get them to play around with each other, see if I could stage a few shots, it should work just the same. I think getting the younger age is important for the series, I need to get a big range of diversity with age for this to be as successful, otherwise it still does feel like stock photos, which is want I want to get away from a little in this series. I think going with something completely separate from sports would've been easier for me to gain an outside perspective, but I can't find myself getting away from sports anytime soon, I absolutely love them.

I do think my photos are turning out good though, I'm not stressing the end of the semester all that much. The website is coming to an end, just need to do a few minor things over the weekend, I should be able to wrap up the majority of the site though, just need to get a domain name and hosting. I may be able to talk my brother into hosting it for a few weeks, then once the show is over, just take it down, not a big deal to me. Besides that, I just need to edit my photos, which some are already done, so that helps, but just size them differently, one for the final prints and the others for the portfolio. Can't say theres much more that needs to be done, I'm pretty good to go.

Hard work paying off (AP)

I just wanted to write a few short words about some great news I've got for my future. I know some people find it a little discouraging that I'm going through a fine art photography program, but my primary focus is sports photography. Honestly, I don't see the problem, I've worked the hardest in the genres of pohtography that I want to excel in, and its starting to pay off. A week or so ago, I got an offer to work as an assistant for a photographer shooting the Nascar race in Richmond. Well, I've got one better now, just last week I got an email from my boss, Scott Brown, turns out that instead of assisting the upcoming Nascar event, i'm shooting freelance. But its not just any freelance job, I got a job offer from Associated Press, which is a HUGE opportunity for me, especially because i'm not even out of college and i'm pulling jobs like this. So I get into contact with Associated Press, they wind up sending me a freelance contract for a FULL YEAR! So not only am I shooting a professional race, but I will have plenty of other great sporting events to shoot in the future, and you can guarantee they're going to pay well too. Just wanted to reflect on this opportunity for a little bit, I've been extremely excited about it and felt the need to write it down. I always try to stay humble, but sometimes its hard when it seems that I've been working a ton lately and some people don't feel the need to support what I'm doing for the future. All I can say, i'm living the dream, making it happen, and others are going to be working a desk job, take that.

Semester Recap

Looking back on this semester's body of work, I do feel there were some areas I could improve on. Overall, I would say I created a lot of work that I was happy with, however, it did not follow the kind of structure that Paul wanted me to follow. He wanted me to take a different approach to photographing sports this semester, rather than shooting stock sports work, he wanted a more photojournalist approach to my work. I agree with his comments, trying to expand my range of photographs would help make my photographs more diverse, but at the same time, it is my decision to photograph whatever I want. Honestly, the reason I chose to continue with my current route in work was based on the amount of work I had already done. I had stuck with sports, because it is what I want to pursue for a career, and I'm already have lots of success. I still have some time to pull the body of work together and try and capture the sport of lacrosse, I'm going to a big game next week and I'm hoping to photograph some local youth games soon, I just had other events to photograph this past week and didn't have the opportunity to make it out there recently. As of now, lacrosse season is in full swing, so it shouldn't be too hard. I only need 2 or 3 photos for the senior art show, and final critique for class is in May, that gives me a good couple weeks to work still.

I did want to shoot a wide range of sports, as i'm doing now, for my senior portfolio work, but it seems like people weren't as interested with that. Honestly, I don't care what they think, but I feel like by shooting different sports, I have more diverse photos, which I particularly like. I feel like shooting just one sport isn't really doing it for me for a body of work, but I really didn't want to shoot anything but sports for this class, plus we were supposed to continue our work from last semester. I'm actually really happy with the work that I've done over this semester, I've stayed productive, learned a lot about shooting photographs and made some great contacts. Not to mention, picking up some big photo jobs already. Everything seems to be coming together for me, i'm pretty siked about my future. Just because I haven't created a cohesive, conceptual body of work, doesn't mean I haven't made an impressive sports photography portfolio, and at this moment, thats all I'm really concerned.

Slaughterama

I had the opportunity to attend Slaughterama (spelling) over the weekend, which really turned out to be a great event. Basically the whole idea behind it is to go down to the river (Belle Isle), drink beer and enjoy the day. Oh yeah, and bring a bike, because there are all kinds of crazy events that require one. The events ranged from jousting, the gauntlet, team chug, all kinds of races, even a quarter pipe where bikers were getting some ridiculous air. I spent the day trying to get the best photographs possible that would document the entire day, as accurate and honest as possible. Besides that actual event, I spent two days prior to that sitting over my cousin's apartment, shooting away as he prepared all 20 of his bikes to go down to the river. Because I'm so close to my cousin, I tried to shoot objects that portrayed him indirectly, things like his bikes, tools, environment around the apartment. Of course, he did want actual photos of himself, but those turned out to be pretty posed and I'll probably never use them. I felt like this was the kind of event I needed to get away from sports for a little bit, shoot something with a different feel, people and completely different setting. I do think I got some great photos out of it, at the same time, I'm hoping I can get together a series of about 10-15 photographs that can completely tell the story of the day. This is really what I've been striving for the majority of this semester. I'm great at capturing an action from a sporting event, but I've lacked the ability to form narratives within a body of work. I'm hoping this will do the trick, I just needed to pull away from the stock sports genre for a bit and focus on different aspects of photography. I am happy doing so, but at times, it seems like people just keep telling me what to shoot, and by the time I'm supposed to be showing work, it doesn't even feel like its my own, but what everyone else wanted me to shoot. In conclusion the photos never feel completely cohesive to me, which comes as a disappointment. I am still in the process of narrowing down photos, but I will definitely have some posted by tomorrow. Keep checking the blog, I am going to want some feedback because I may want to include some of these within my works to show, haven't really decided yet.

Postcard Ideas

These are the photos I've been considering for my postcard/book entries. I'm still not particularly interested in having any of my photos on postcards, I feel its a waste of time and money, primarily because the type of photos I take would never be seen on a postcard, much less a gallery, so to put them in that context just for the senior show, seems pretty pointless to me. If it wasn't for it being graded, I probably wouldn't even worry about it. Really, I just want to have some quality photos to work with in my portfolio when I leave VCU, besides that, I'm not too worried about it. I know I can come up with quality images and bodies of work, but that isn't what I had planned on doing for this semester. Last semesters work was purely to be stock sports photography work, and thats all i wanted out of this semester as well, just shoot more events and higher standards for photos, unfortunately everyones trying to push my photos into a direction I dont want them to go. So i guess these are the images that are going into the gallery, book and postcards. Please give me some opinions on the photos you think would be the best to give off my point. Thanks.

Virginia vs Hopkins

I attended to different caliber lacrosse games over the weekend, i've been trying to spread out my subjects over one sport, rather than just photographing one team. I had the opportunity to use a f2.8 400mm lens, along with a few other lens, which yielded some really great photos. I had the chance to photograph one of the biggest lacrosse games of the season when I went back to Charlottesville for the weekend, the Virginia Cavaliers took on the reigning National Champs, Johns Hopkins Univ. Eventhough Hopkins had already lost 2 straight games, they put up a real fight agains the Cavs in a heated battle that went back and forth in the scoring. The majority of the game consisted of either a one point lead, or a tie. The game went all the way into overtime until Uva overcame the obstacle, scoring, to give them the win in sudden death OT. I wanted to capture different perspectives of the game but because of the circumstances, I really couldn't get away from my "post" and walk around. The crowd was so intense and packed, I had to stay put and watch over my camera gear. There was just too many people there to go wandering off. I do think going to the game gave me some different levels of the game, ranging from club team to division 1 team. I also want to cover younger and older ages as well. Before the end of the semester, I plan to document youth teams too, giving a lot of diversity in age groups, hopefully images as well. I feel the change of faces and atmosphere could lead to interesting photos, but could also help point out stereotypes that are found around the game of lacrosse.

Here are some of the photos I gathered from the two games I shot this weekend.

Overall I was really pleased with the outcome of the photographs this weekend, I am just still having trouble with piecing everything together. At this point, I am just photographing different age groups and finding different aspects of the game that I can show the viewer to illustrate characters of the game that may not be obvious. I may even try just photographing one person, a 5-6 photo collection showing sides of a person that may not specifically relate to the sport of lacrosse, but show how their personality translates to the sport, how they dress, wear their hair, act around people. There are many parts of the game that could potentially change how a person acts. Personally, playing lacrosse made me exaggerate the athlete in me. I'd bring my lacrosse stick everywhere, always wear mesh shorts, grow my hair out longer. I think maybe these are the things I should focus on, but I'd also like it to contribute to the stock sports aspect, not linger in a completely different direction. I do want to focus on my abilities to create stories through images, but I don't feel that this is the right event to do it with. I am planning photographing the Richmond bike scene, which may be a little better, subject wise, I am not familiar with it, so I feel like I have a lot more to see and learn about the atmosphere and people I will encounter.

Results from lacrosse

Well, it seems my project is taking a little different direction than i had originally intented. For some reason, people keep trying to steer me away from the stock sports photography that I had my heart set on, now i'm going more into the photojournalistic approach to the team. I've tried to dig a little deeper and photograph the aspects of the game you typically don't see in Sports Illustrated or ESPN, its turning more into a photo essay than sports photos. Sure, i do want to throw some in there, because those are the kinds of photos I take, but I am trying to make this into something that usually doesn't come from me. There are a few artists I've been looking at, i'll have to add them up after this post, I really do need a few more research posts for this semester, I've been looking at tons of images, I just haven't had the time to actually sit down and talk about them one by one, instead I've been shooting non-stop, maybe not for this class, but a combination of all of them have kept me on my feet for quite a while. I will post up 2 images that I really liked from the finals, I'm still having some trouble narrowing them down because i took so many photos, and dont' want them to go to waste. At the same time, I feel like I need more time to look over them, see how the flow of the body is going and where i need to fill in some gaps. Dont mind the editing though, I haven't color corrected or any of that stuff yet, just posting some preliminary shots.

2/19 Meeting

Just wanted to post anything new thats going on in my photography dealing with this semester's work. I have been shooting a lot, but most of it has been assisting Scott Brown. I'm actually pleased that the meeting is rescheduled, I have a few sporting events to choose from this weekend. I'm either going to in Charlottesville shooting a UVA lacrosse game, i've been in contact with InsideLacrosse.com, the biggest lacrosse publication in the world, and I will be shooting with them this season, not sure if they want me there this weekend. If not, VCU lacrosse has a tournament as Univ of Richmond, which will be multiple games, I think it will be a better opportunity for images in my opinion. I'm actually planning on borrowing a lens and camera from Scott Brown, we'll just have to see what happens. He's fine with me borrowing equipment, he trusts me a lot, now that I've been working with him a bunch lately. Its really just a matter of what is going to be rented out and whats available, i've also never borrowed stuff over the weekend, so we'll have to see how that works out. Hopefully I can though. I just need to figure out what lens to use, I'm thinking somewhere between a 400 or a 600mm, just a matter of whether he is going to allow me use something that big, they cost a huge amount of money. I have a 200-500 lens that I can use, but everytime I zoom, it stops down and I lose light, so it'd be a lot better to just have two cameras, one designated to a 400 or 600, then another using a lens such as a 200, then I can switch out, depending on where the action is. just have to see what happens. But thats the plan.

Homecoming

So i wanted to have some time this past weekend to photograph different events for homecoming, well it didn't exactly happen. Saturday was a really busy day, there was a concert the night before at Siegel Center, which means we had to show up even earlier to make sure we had a good time to set up the equipment. You cannot hang any cameras when teams are on the court or with any other activities going on the floor, so we had to get there early. The game was pretty cool though, there was tons of people who showed up, a sell out crowd actually. The atmosphere was loud and very bright, everyone was getting into the game, taunting the visiting team, all the great aspects of team sports. I didn't get a chance to shoot as much as I wouldn't liked, but i still got more experience with the cameras and the wireless setup. Besides that, the game was a good one, we won be around 20 points, which is always good, especially at homecoming. The only subjects I shot for the game were faces in the crowd, which is cool becaues I've been wanting to focus more on them lately, but I didn't like shooting with such a wide angle lens that i was given, I'd rather shoot a lot tighter, focusing on one or two people, not 20. Some of the shots came out pretty cool though, there were lots of playfully dressed people: a super hero, fans with their bodies painted, and lots of gold mardi gras beads. I tried to get a lot of reactions in the crowd, like when the refs made bad calls, during foul shots, as well as, big plays such as dunks and 3 pointers. I need a little more practice, with the wider angle lens, you have to step in a lot closer, which makes me shy at times, having to point the camera right in someones face, not too accustomed to it yet, but i'm getting there.

D2X

Over this past week, i got to use a Nikon D2X along with a 80-200 mm f2.8 lens, everything seemed to work out really well, i was just unfamiliar with the equipment so I hit a few snags. I didn't realize it until after the game, when I was viewing the resulting photos. I didn't realize it, but the ISO was set to 1000 instead of 1600, so i got a some motion blur. In some of the photos it looks good, but in others, it kinda ruined it. The ISO on the D2X goes from 800 to HI 1 then HI 2, i thought HI 1 was 1600 and then up to 3200, which i was mistaken. I know this now and won't make the same mistake. Besides that, there wasn't anything else that really was a miss. I got some good locations for the game, so I think i did come up with some good shots, I had to get back into the feel of the games, I've been to a bunch of games, just haven't been shooting many on my own, mainly just assisting, so it took some getting used to. There are some more games coming up soon, i'll be assisting on saturday, plus i think there are some other upcoming events i'll be able to learn from. I was going to attend the tennis match, but I couldn't go because of scheduling conflicts with my screenprinting class. Oh well. I guess the next step is to shoot a few more games, see where the flow of my work is going, see if i'm getting more face shots or action. I've also been experimenting with the same thing that Dustin Snipes was doing, where you find hotspots in the floor (from lights) and exposing for the highlights, trying to get silhouettes of the players on the floor. Kind of an abstract shot, but different from the normal stock sports photos. Still just need to keep shooting, see what i can find that stands out from the normal photos. I liked the idea of shooting the cheerleaders and players during half time, they usually step off to the side and prepare, but see if I can get some promising shots when I can catch them off guard. We'll see whats up.

New Direction

In correlation with my last semester's work, I'd like to continue shooting sports for my body of work. This semester, I have more resources which means I should have more freedom to get a little more creative with my photographs. Working with Scott Brown for my internship has been great so far, he's a really nice guy, has lots of experience, and being able to work on shoots with him has allowed me to learn so much a very little time. Anyways, because of my internship, he's going to allow me to borrow lens, possibly even cameras from him. I want to continue with shooting basketball, I've had a lot of fun shooting that over break, we've set up strobes, been using multiple remote cameras, all wireless connected to the strobes. Its pretty intense setting it all up, but I need to continue shooting sports on my own as well, I don't get to do all that much shooting when I attend games with him, I play an assistant role. Getting back into games for myself will allow me to get more timing down, getting a feel of when to shoot. But I'll have learned a few things, like where the good spots are to sit, when to more and get other shots, when to aim for the sideline, coaching, different aspects. Its nice to have a mentor figure to show me the ropes, learn things directly from him, it saves time not having to go out on my own and learn from my mistakes. I'd like to experiment with different angles, I want to mess around with some wider angle lens, I'm already shooting from a low angle. Maybe try getting shots of the atmosphere as well, crowd, stadium, etc. I'll be shooting a tennis match on friday, first home match of the season, that should be interesting. Pretty excited to see how that turns out, I've never sat in for a tennis match. I've watched on tv, but the closest I've come to tennis in first person is playing homerun derby and just cranking the balls out of the court. They have a new court for matches at Cary St. which has a deck that over looks the court, so I'm hoping I can get access to try and sit up there, get some high angle shots. I just need to get in touch with Chris or Justin from VCU athletics, called already this week, didn't get an answer, I got time though.

I have also thought about doing some sports portraiture as well, stuff that you'd see in magazines such as ESPN or Sports Illustrated, just to get a feel for the lighting, maybe somewhere down the road it'll give me opportunities to photograph pro athletes, it would be a great experience. I've already gotten a little experience with commercial portrait photography with Scott Brown, so I know some things, but I would like to work a little more on portraits, so I can expand my horizons a little more, explore different areas of photography so I'm more well rounded. I'll be taking the fashion photography course this semester, so that will help with experience. Taking the course seems kind of cheesy, but it seems a little better after going to one of the classes, I just wanted a chance to work with a real client in a class, rather than just pleasing classmates all the time, some of the can be really close-minded and hard to please just because they have a different perspective. Anyways, thats about all I've got for now, I think this semester will be more about fine tuning what i've learned so far, and shoot more specific areas of sports, and moving into a little portraiture photography. Sports portraits probably won't be part of my semesters work for this class, but I may do it on the side for individual research and portfolio pieces.

Shooting the Rival Game

Saturday, what an exciting day it was. That was the day of the basketball game between Virginia Commonwealth and University of Richmond, a big rival game for our city. Even though the game didn't start until 7:30, our day started around 12. We had a lot of equipment to set up prior to the game, and because the women's team played before the men, we had to show up even earlier. It was a good learning experience. We set up multiple remote cameras that would fire through a setup of pocket wizards and endless amount of wires. One camera we had setup on some bogen clamps, mounted to the backboard, looking through the glass. A really cool shot, but you have to set it up right, in manual focus (tape down the focus so it doesn't change), theres a lot of specifications you need to follow as well. Everything has to be black, so not to distract the players or referees on the court, anything that isn't, must be covered with gaffers tape, a best friend of us photographers. You must also make sure everything is reinforced with a second clamp, so it doesn't fall on someones head. For these type of shots you want to use a lens somewhere around 15mm, so you can get a wide angle of the action. We also set up a 14mm fisheye lens that looked straight down under the basketball, so you can get some action on the paint (rebounds, slam dunks, etc.). Besides the cameras, you have to set up strobes, so you can get more desirable photographs, we had 4 set up, one at each corner, two were set up in the rafters, the other two on 20 or so foot booms, to keep them elevated. The pain was getting the strobes to all sync up to the cameras, including the ones that fired remotely, so no matter which camera was going off, all 4 strobes would fire. I'm still figuring out how it all works, kind of overwhelming when you go from shooting with one camera, to shoot 7, so its takes a little getting used to. There were just so many wires that I couldn't understand what was going where, I'll get more accustomed to it once I set it up a few more times. On his 70-200mm camera, there were 2 triggers, both controlling the cameras in the backboard, which was on our end of the court. The 3rd trigger was set on the 300mm camera, used to photograph the action on the other side of the court. From what I can tell, the trigger was made of individual switches he made into a homemade switchboard, each trigger plugged into a pocket wizard, firing the cameras remotely. Besides that, I think all the strobes were also connected into a pocket wizard, so they'd fire simultaneously with the cameras, can't tell you how exactly it works at this time though.

Not only was it a lot of work to set it all up, but once the game is over, then the fun part comes. PACKING IT ALL UP. Coming to the game, we had something like 6 cases full of camera equipment, including around 6 cameras, a mess of lens, flashes, clamps, brackets, just about anything you can think off. One case was basically dedicated to carrying a miles worth of cables. It was a lot of fun untangling it all too. Anyways, I dont want to go into too much more detail, just wanted to document my day. It was a lot of fun, but definitely realized all the work that goes into getting great images. It doesn't bother me much though, i'm not discouraged about the work involved into photographing sports, I think its well worth the effort.

One Down

I had to give my presentation of sports photography to the class this past Thursday. I thought it turned out well, even though I was a little nervous at times, and probably could've been a little bit better spoken. Its no mystery that I have a huge passion for sports, and surround myself around them every waking moment, either photographing or watching ESPN, its a big part of who I am. I just feel with the amount of research I did, I could have expressed my thoughts a little clearer, but based on the people in my class, they all know how I feel and the amount of work I put into this semester. I'm confident I'll do well in the class, and I'm really excited about the internship I'll be doing this upcoming semester with Scott Brown too. He should be able to learn a lot more about the business and things I need to focus on to be successful within the field. I guess the next step is to shoot two more games that I have coming up this week, both VCU basketball. I'm assisting Scott for one of the games, so I probably won't get any of my own photos out of that game, but I'll get to help setup some remote cameras, which I'm really excited about. Can't wait to be able to do that kind of stuff on my own. For the other game though, I'd like to see if I can borrow that 60mm f2.8 from Scott, so I can get some good shots for the game I am shooting, I want one more opportunity to get some new photos for my final critique on the 12th. Pretty excited about that, except the fact we're presenting to the first class, not our own. But I guess I do need to be able to present to a different crowd and talk about my work, shouldn't be too bad. The photos have been turning out really well, and I've gotten a bunch of good feedback on it, so I'm happy. I'm just ready to wrap this semester, and get it all done with so I finally have some time to relax and do stuff for myself, like finally get my portfolio site up. I want to shoot a bunch of sports over the break, hopefully some VCU basketball, I don't plan on spending a whole lot of time in Charlottesville this break, I want to work a lot and hopefully get some money in my pocket.

VCU Lacrosse

I got the opportunity to shoot one of our club lacrosse games yesterday on University of Richmond campus. Although we (VCU) got out butts kicked, I think i got some good images, which really is all that matters to me at this point. I used to be all about our lacrosse team, and I obviously do cheer for them, because I still have friends on the team, but really, as a photographer, I'm just looking for that great photograph, whether that happens by us losing really bad or winning. My job is to follow the game and document aspects of the game that some may not see or find different aspects of the game that I can bring interest to. It was an afternoon game so I was able to take advantage of the late afternoon, dramatic sunlight, which to me, always makes a great photograph. Ever since I started looking at Simon Bruty's work, specifically his photograph with the dramatic, chierosciro lighting on the tennis player, I really started to thinking a lot more about the light that was present in the frame of my images. One of my main focuses has been to try and replicate that type of feeling that his image gives you, at least for me. I love being able to try and incorporate beams of light stretching across the frame, while capturing an athletic feat at the same time. Doing so adds a whole new level to photographs I feel, obviously you can take great sports photographs but if you can utilize the atmosphere around the game and somehow include that within the images, it adds to the narrative and overall impact the image can have.

I also starting to consider what adjective words i may use for my presentation, it started to make me think more deeply about the real meaning behind my works, and the ideas i was trying to capture through my experience of sports photography at this point. Some words i've been considering include: drama, light, triumph, passion, just to name a few. I'm looking for words that show the dramatic lighting i'm trying to incorporate into my photographs, as well as words that describe the passion in sports, doing everything you can to pull out and W in the end of the game. Leaving everything on the field, shots that show emotion in the face, as well as body language showing the extent of what goes on in sports: on the field, sideline, anything. The thing with sports is there are so many, and eventhough there are certain shots that are comfort shots: ones that you know will be good, there are so many angles and directions you can go with a photograph when including a team, or the geometry of the field, ball, equipment, the list goes on forever. These are things I encounter when I approach a sport through my lens.