Artist Lecture: Alan Berliner

When I had originally stepped into the lecture of Alan Berliner, I really had no interest in being there, I was tired, wasn't in the mood to watch a film, really wanted to just walk out. But I'm really glad I didn't, he wound up showing his film entitled "Nobody's Business" which made a real connection with me during the viewing. I feel like recently I have been growing up a lot more lately, and by doing so, I can relate to specific issues that I probably wouldn't have been able to, or just didn't feel was as important. Family has always been a huge part of my life and having viewed Berliner's film made me think about a lot of things. It made me think about my relationship with my dad, which is great, me and my dad are very alike, we get along great and he completely supports me in anything I do. I think having me and my brother go through art school may have made him feel a little hesitant, but see how far we've come and how successful we're becoming, he's realized we're exactly where we are supposed to be in life and that theres nothing to worry about. A lot of my dad's characteristics have definitely rubbed off on me, he's a very intricate, technical person, he's the kind of person who gets into a hobby, but has to know everything about it, he can't go into anything half-assed, I'm the same way. For example, when i started playing lacrosse, it took up my whole life, i was obsessed with it. Not only did was I part of a team, worked out and practiced regularly, but I bought around 6 different sticks, learned to hand-string them, all with a completely different style. There is no stone I leave unturned, which is the same route I'm going with photography. At this point, I'm definitely trying to make myself as well-rounded as I possibly can, which should help me out greatly in the future.

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.

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