From inside the paint...

Or as close as you can be to being inside the paint while still being a spectator anyway... One week a year I am assigned to shoot sports like I used to at Purdue. One week a year, I get to sit on the sidelines once again and attempt to provide all of the official imagery for the Indiana High School All-Stars basketball teams here in Indianapolis. It's essentially 6 basketball games that have to be shot in as high of quality, and resolution as possible for glossy commercial reproduction. That can be no easy task when shooting in a high school gym, as my good friend Michael Guio learned last week while accompanying me to the Rushville Indiana exhibition game.

(Canon 1D Mark II, 500ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8IS, 1/200th@F4. Two Dynalight Uni400JR heads set to half power aimed down at the top of the key of the basket I'm sitting under set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizards)

Anyone who knows me just a little knows that I prefer to shoot my Nikon equipment when it comes to shooting sports. It's what I've shot the most sports on, and I know what it's capable of when shooting things like basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis, football, roller derby or anything else that moves. This year though I decided to do as the newspaper asks and shoot using their equipment. The main reason for this is that if I get hit by a basketball player and break the lens right off of my camera I'M the one paying to fix it, not them because they provide me gear that I wasn't using. Makes sense sort of, except I feel like I'd have done a better job with my own gear. Otherwise though, I didn't think I did too bad for someone who shoots basketball one week a year.

(Canon EOS1D Mark IIn, 100ISO, Canon EF 70-200F2.8IS@70mm, 1/250th@F4. Lit using the in house Pacers lights at Conseco fired via pocket wizard.)

Despite the fact that the days are incredibly long during this week, I do look forward to them every year. I wasn't feeling very well during Conseco series, but I pulled through. Shooting sports spoils me quite a bit though, as watching any sport any other way than on the field or court, is just not good enough. Photographers sit closer than the coaches in some cases. It's also a nice treat to shoot along side of some of the people that I've always looked up to as sports shooters since that's their job all the time. People like Matt Kryger, Tom Campbell from Purdue, Mike Conroy and AJ Mast. I have a great deal of respect for these guys becuae they've shot better sports images with their eyes closed than I'd even be able to stage on my own.

(Canon EOS1D Mark II, 400ISO, CanonEF300mmF2.8IS, 1/250th@F4. Two Dynalight UNI400JR;s about 20 feet above the court in the stands aimed at the top of the key of the basket that I'm sitting under set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizards.)

The thing I Like about shooting sports, is the same thing that I like about shooting jewelery; it's tough. You either get something or you don't. In sports you can't dwell on it though, you just have to keep shooting in sports. I've actually been known to put tape over the back LCD on my camera so I don't spend more time looking at the images than shooting them. Yea sometimes it's nice to be able to eliminated out of focus images, or images without the ball in them but like I said earlier; you either got it or you didn't in sports.

(Canon EOS1D Mark IIn, 100ISO, Canon EF 70-200F2.8IS@153mm, 1/250th@F4. Lit using the in house Pacers lights at Conseco fired via pocket wizard.)

The one down side to this assignment is also the greatest part. My assignment isn't one player, it's the Indiana team. That means the Introductions, the Awards winners, and game action from every player. It's not just about number 1, number 8 or any other individual. Yes I absolutely need photos of Mr. and Miss. Basketball, but ALL the team is important. It's nice because I can shoot anything I like. It's not as nice because I have to make sure anything I shoot is sharp and lit. It's an incredibly stressful week, but I'm already looking forward to next year. Check out all the photos for download by the teams and families here. More Soon.

(Canon EOS1D Mark IIn, 800ISO, CanonEF70-200F2.8IS@70mm, 1/125th@F4)

For the Dawgs...

Right now in Indiana there is only one thing on anybody's mind. The Final 4. Right now Butler is the smallest school in Final 4 history to make it to the final game. That my friends; is EPIC. I'm sure I know quite a few people that are at the games too. Not just shooting, but people that are actually there to watch the basketball. Unfortunately as I've mentioned in the past, I'm not the shooter that gets sent to a sporting event like this. Not because I wouldn't know how to shoot it but I just haven't been in that particular game enough to be the one the newspaper sends. Everybody else? They've got their go to shooters already too, which leaves me to do things like this:


I shot that for one of the last "Rollin with Gunner" Video's that we did for Bob Rohrman. Gunner and I had a bet that a lot of the Butler Student population didn't know their own fight song. What we found was that we were right, and that they didn't know it. Unfortunately when we tried again the following week while asking who was in the final four we were sent packing. Everybody knew that one, although even that week we had someone respond with. "heck no" when asked if they knew the fight song.



That's a shot from one of my first blogs last year. It was during the 2009 Indiana All Star basketball games which are coming up again in June. I'll be there for those, and I enjoy it every time. I've mentioned a few times that I used to shoot sports at Purdue. I definitely miss it, but I don't miss having to manage a restaurant on the side to get by. I do tend to get plenty of sports time shooting Roller Derby though, which I certainly enjoy. I think the big difference is that the roller derby will let me run around and flail wildly as if I was chasing cars. Something that the people at Wolf Park were afraid I'd do if I ran around with the Wolves while I was there previously. Despite the fact that the wolves are actually socialized, there are very specific behaviors you need to avoid when around these wolves. An example of that would have been if I had been allowed to flail wildly running around the enclosure. Hense why I'm not allowed to go places sometimes. The kid in me comes out, and the next thing you know I'm wearing my pants like a cape.


That guy there seems pretty peaceful, and really is unless you run around like you're prey. Prey of course being a camera guy running around flailing or the like, which never would have been allowed to happen. I highly recommend you check the place out though, as I said in my previous post. They have a great staff, and are very knowlegeable about the wolves. Plus if you're interested in Nature Photography, they have an on staff wolf photographer that you can get shooting instruction from. Seriously. Check it out. Especially check it out if you're interested in one of the p hoto classes. Very Cool.

I'm sure at least one person noticed it's been a while since my last post. Been wicked busy. Gave a presentation on macro Photography last week that went over pretty well. Had people asking questions for two and a half hours afterward, I was incredibly humbled as to how people appreciated my work and felt like they could ask me questions. Thanks again to everyone who showed up. This Thursday I'm giving a presentation on shooting Sports, specifically Roller Derby for another group. They are excited and so am I. Also though I've got some neat things in mind for the photo below, but to make it interesting I'd like to invite people to leave some comments as to what they think should be done there. I'm also working on a great post about shooting water droplets so stay tuned because as always; More Soon.

Sports

This morning I found out that I would not be shooting the Indianapolis Motorcycle Grand Prix this year. It's fine and good, since I will now be able to spend time with friends that I have coming into town for it. In truth though, I will miss the event. Some people know it, and others don't but before I worked for the Newspaper I shot sports at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. I was by far not the shooter then that I am today (not that I'm leaps and bounds better today), but I enjoyed it. To this day in fact I continue to enjoy shooting sports because it is a difficult unlike anything else. Sports can be a ballet of action in which you are either in the right place, or you are not. You either get the shot, and are even looking in the right place; or are not. Your photos are sharp, or they are not. The horrible part is that I'm incredibly anal about photos being sharp.

(Notre Dame vs Purdue in 2005. Nikon D70s, 1600ISO, Nikon 70-300mm F4.5-5.6@155mm, 1/250th @F4.5)

Lighting challenges occur, people get in the way, you don't have enough lens, you have too much lens, you can't make it someplace fast enough, you hesitate a half a second and miss a shot, and many more problems can arise while shooting sports. It takes a special kind of thinking ahead, or at lesat it used to. With Today's cameras you can shoot at 3200ISO and feel confident that you can even crop in on your images. When the image above was taken in 2005 that wasn't the case with digital. 1600ISO was cleaner than film was, but you couldn't crop in on it very much without showing off the 'grain feature'.

(Purdue Womens Basketball 2/11/2006. Nikon D70s, 800ISO, Nikon 80-200F2.8@125mm, 1/320th@F2.8)

While I was at Purdue I shot all of the sports. Everything except for golf, which was ironic since I actually played golf and understood the sport better than many of the others. I shot for the Purdue Debris Yearbook, as well as the University itself later on, but it didn't matter who I shot for to me. I just enjoyed it, and why not? I had the best seats in the house!

(Purdue Womens Volleyball vs Ohio State University. Nikon D2x, 500ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR @105mm, 1/250th@F2.8)

Sometimes I wish I'd have been better at Shooting Sports when I was, so that maybe I'd still be doing that today. The newspaper pays better though, and I can't tell you how much I've learned about on location shooting, and lighting while working there. Honestly though, there will always be a part of me that will miss the Basketball, Football, Baseball, Volleyball, Tennis, Soccer and more that I shot at Purdue.

I can't say that I haven't shot any sports while for the paper. I do shoot the Indiana All Star Basketball games as you can see in this previous post. If you've read my blog more than once you'll know that I also shoot for the Naptown Roller Girls Roller Derby Team. I love shooting the Derby, it's like nothing I had ever shot before and it maintains a special place in my portfolio because just like any other sport; it's not easy to shoot.

(Nikon D300, ISO 1600, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@102mm, 1/250th @F2.8)

I guess the whole point of this blog is that when I do get to shoot things like sports I feel lucky. I just find it a unique challenge that is different every single time I have a chance to shoot it. Last year I got to shoot the MotoGP, and I"m not sure exactly what circumstances allowed that but hey I'd rather be lucky than good right? The shot below was from the 1st Annual MotoGP last year. I have a 24"x11" version of it hanging on my wall here at home because I liked it. I'd never shot a motorcycle race before, and was incredibly pleased with this shot.

(Indianapolis Motor Speeday's 1st Annual Motorcycle Grand Prix. Canon 1D Mark II, 800ISO, Canon 400mmF4DO with Canon AF 1.4X extender, 1/100th@F13)

Funny part about the GP shot is that it might have been during the worst shooting experience of my life. That weekend in Indy was the worst weather in IMS History that a race had been run. The rain and the wind was so bad, that Matt Detrich had to use his belt to tether himself to where he was stationed on the roof to make sure he wouldn't fall off. With 40mph winds the rain felt like needles on your face, and visiibility was low enough that the auto focus in my camera was having trouble on the bikes traveling at 200mph several yards away. That was of course if you were lucky enough to be able to hold your lens pointed towards the bikes in the 40mph wind and rain. The weather was pretty awful, and honestly I'm glad I shot with Canon Equipment on loan to the paper from CPS that day instead of my stuff. It was an unforgettable experience, and I'd do it all over again. Why? Because I love what I do. Maybe one day I'll figure out exactly what I'm doing. Of course if I do I think I'd still almost rather be lucky than good. More soon.

Basketball, Weddings, Overtime, Derby, Conflicts and Birthdays.......

So Wow. This has been a heck of a week. For work I drove almost 800 miles this week shooting Restaurants, Basketball, and Fire chiefs. Roller Derby, Police officers, and Course Guide covers. It's been a crazy week that culminated on Saturday with 2 Weddings, two All Star Basketball Games, a Roller Derby Double header, and a Birthday. (Happy Birthday Dawnya, wherever it is you've ended up).

Obviously I couldn't do all of those things on Saturday so It turned into a game of, what trumps what. Honestly it's good to have choices on what you want to do, but when you want to do everything it comes down to what you HAVE to do.

In the end I HAD to shoot the All Star Basketball Games in Conseco. I don't shoot basketball except for 1 week a year, and this was it. I love shooting sports, I used to shoot them at Purdue, but it just wasn't in the cards for me to continue doing sports on a regular basis.


I did end up making it to the second half of the second game at the Roller Derby, but that's only 30 minutes of Derby out of 120 total bout minutes. As this was the last bout of the home season, I was sort of disappointed that I couldn't be there for the girls. I did manage to get a few shots though, which you can find here.



Congrats to my friends Greg and Allison who got married last weekend in Michigan. I'm sorry I had to miss the wedding, but work obviously got in the way here more than once. Congratulations to John and Tina who got married as well; whose wedding I was unable to shoot because of all of the fore mentioned conflicts as well.

Otherwise this week has been particularly stressful because the basketball was a priority, but it was along with what normally takes me 40ish hours a week to accomplish anyway. I shot the cover for next semesters IUPUI course guide, a couple of dining guide inserts, as well as the Greenwood Fire Chief for the upcoming Honor our Hero's section at the paper. I wish I could have come up with a more dynamic image for the Fire Chief, but the weather wasn't very nice and there wasn't a whole lot of room in the foyer in the Fire Station so this is what I ended up with.


Over all I am looking forward to a bit slower of a week this week. I've still got a Cat I need to find a home for, that isn't happy I was gone for 80 hours last week; but that's why I didn't have a pet to start with. Despite the slightly less busy week, hopefully next week I'll have something interesting to write about. More soon.