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.

Al Bello

One photographer that I have particularly been interested with as of late is Al Bello. There is a specific body of work that he had created that really got me interested into the realm of photojournalism. He had recently traveled to Puerto Rico to document cockfighting events, which a perfectly legal in this country. There was just so many different aspects of the fight that were covered that I would never have imagined. The single most powerful image in the collection was a closeup of one of the owners taking a pair of scissors to the roosters comb, cutting it clean off. The idea is that removing the comb from the roosters head increases its speed and vision, giving it an advantage in the fight. The feathers from the torso down to the feet are also removed, most likely for the same reason. To me, it is painful to understand that these animals can live and die purely for entertainment. The winner is praised and wounds are treated, while the loser dies, just to be thrown away as any other waste, lying in a grave of beer cans and cigarette butts.

Overall, the imagery within this body are just so colorful and diverse, they show every aspect of cockfighting that you could imagine, as a newcomer or expert. I really enjoyed the idea that I can get so much insight to the sport just by gazing through twenty images. Within a matter of moments my understanding of the sport and culture has risen to greater heights. These are the kinds of images I want to take. I feel I've been so stuck on shooting stock photos that I've steered away from using my creative eye and shot strictly to what could be seen in Sports Illustrated or a newspaper. I need to go back to where photography could be whatever I wanted it to be, I could shoot a subject and there was no telling how the final image would come out. I want to tell stories with my photos, not just capture one single moment in time, but have the ability for a sequence of images to give people the ability to create the narrative simply through my visual interpretations.

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.

The Ultimate Setup: Sports Illustrated

I just wanted to post up a link that I've been looking at a lot lately. Through surfing the internet, I found an article provided by Microsoft that shows the different aspects of sports photography, primarily the camera and strobe setup. I found this really interesting because I'm familiar with the pocket wizard and multiple camera setup, its like the setup used by Scott Brown, just kicked up a few notches. They have a computer wireless connected to each camera being used on-location, including the remote and hand-held cameras. All cameras are also tied into the strobes that are setup in the rafters overhead, they're using 7 strobe heads per corner of the arena, meaning a total of 28 strobes. Thats pretty insane if you ask me. I can't really describe the rest of whats going on, all I know is that they use a wireless controller called a "flash wizard 2" which is a pocket wizard on steroids. Check out the article and get a better idea of how their setup operates. Here is the link, there is also a second part to the article, be sure to check it out.

Sports Illustrated Final Four Camera Setup

Artist Lecture: Anthony Goicolea

Just wanted to sit down and reflect the lecture given by artist, Anthony Goicolea. Initially, I wasn't too excited about sitting in for the lecture, I had a long day and really wasn't in the mood to listen to someone speak in the dark. I must say though, getting to learn more about his artwork really gave me some insight on the past work I've done, and things I had wanted to experiment with in the future. I always have ideas jam packed in my sketch book, and typically, I'm too busy to carry out some of my ideas. I'd really like that to change, especially while i'm in college, because I have access to equipment now that I won't have next year, so i'd really like to take advantage.

To start off, I was interested in Anthony's first images, such as "the last supper" and his other wear he used himself as the model. I find that interesting because to me, it deals with self identity, something I would like to address in a body of work, not sure exactly how yet, but because i'm a identical twin, there is definitely room for experimentation and finding myself through images. Maybe I could pose as me and my brother, just doing different activities, or we could both pose in an image, but have multiple instances, like Goicolea's images, so we can depict the differences me and my brother have (how we differ, our styles, interests, opinions). We may look close to the same, but our personalities are different, i'm more of a preppy jock, and Derek is a rocker, has more of that Richmond influence to him. So I find that it could be a really interesting concept. Maybe have a multiple exposures of us in our living room, but show us doing different activities, sitting in the different spots on the couch, making it look like a big crowd. I could be wearing my Pats jersey and going crazy, watching a football game, or playing a video game, while Derek could be drawing in his sketchbook or working on his computer. Just different things like that could be really cool. Or the backyard, I could be messing with the football or lacrosse stick, grilling, while we find other things for Derek.

I also really enjoyed Anthony Goicolea's later works, the ones that show multiple photographs manipulated to create one image, just digitally edited. This is a concept I have worked with in the past, and that I'd like to work with in the future. I typically just stitched different images together, mainly black and white stuff, and just make it really abstract looking. But with more thought behind the images, I could find inner meanings to the objects that I decide to use and create an underlying narrative of the finished image. I started on one thats a montage of my friends apartment in Richmond, him and my other friends have lived there for 3 years now, so its a routine hangout, i wanted to create an image that reflects on some of the memories we've had there.

To end of the recap of Anthony Goicolea's lecture, I just want to say, even if you've seen an artists work and you don't initially like it, go see the artist talk about his work, it can really change your perspective on how you feel about someones artwork. I wasn't particularly impressed with his work the first time i saw it, but being able to hear him speak personally about his work gives you an idea of his background, and why his work went in the direction it did.

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.