One Game at a Time

Inclement weather threatened the DC area on Sunday, and the Terrapin baseball game was moved up 54 minutes to accommodate the rain event. I wasn't sure if softball would be moved up, and that event was going to be an important event for the DC Sports Box.

Dave Lovell was asked to shoot the senior photos for Softball and if rain moved up the start time he might not make it there on time. Jason Stevens (from Zenoss) also planned to shadow me around on Sunday to get a taste of sports photography, so I grabbed him early and we headed over to Softball. The game was originally scheduled to start at 1pm but was moved to 12:30. With the rain it didn't actually begin until later and that gave us some breathing room before the official senior ceremony began.

We all kind of milled about looking for the best angles until we settled in on our spaces. Dave set up near the dugout and shot the players coming up onto the field though a cool set of baseball bats. I shot the players as they hugged the coaching staff and other key players, along with their families. Jason kind of floated around taking different shots from interesting perspectives.

It was a lot of fun and I think we did a good job with our shots.

Please go take a look at the Maryland Terrapins 2008 Softball Senior Class over on my Flickr page.

Dave Lovell recently joined the DC Sports Box and has volunteered to take on some Maryland shoots. I was really happy to hear that because it meant I had some backup on days where there were multiple games going on simultaneously. Today was one of those days...

Dave had an event that didn't end until around 2:30pm so I decided to take Game of the Maryland Terrapins and Virginia Tech Hokies in softball. I enjoy shooting at the softball stadium because the field is small, the crowd is friendly, and the players are loud and boisterous. It also helps that the stadium isn't very tall because the sun stays up longer and lights up more of the field longer.

Today's game was pretty fun and I enjoyed taking the pictures. It was sunny and fairly warm (mid 50s) and the logistics of the shoot went pretty well. I'm really careful these days after cracking my UV filter over at the baseball stadium. Today was no different.

Towards the end of the game Dave showed up and we got a chance to shoot together and talk. I'm glad we had some overlap because we got a chance to talk about shooting at Maryland as well as doing some Nationals games later on this Spring and Summer. Dave hasn't shot much as a credentialed photographer, so he's in the same boat I was about a year ago. I was more than happy to give him some pointers about what to do and what not to do.

It was pretty interesting to talk with him because he has many of the same fears I had last year: I don't want to screw up the game, I don't want to get us banned from the arena, I don't want to do a bad job, etc... I had a tough time mentally in learning the ropes and asked a lot of strangers a lot of questions. So I was glad that I was able to talk with him and tell him about the ground rules they have at the various facilities. Hopefully he'll be able to learn from what I picked up over the last year.

We're going to do a single article for the Virginia Tech series and post 3 galleries. Since we're only through 2 of the games I can't link you over to the DC Sports Box article yet. But when it's up I'll come back around and post. In the meantime you can look at my Flickr account for photos of the Maryland vs Virginia Tech Softball Game 1.

Work at Zenoss was really busy today. We were pushing out a release and when that happens the entire team gets involved to help build, test, deploy, and push out all the new files to the rest of the world. As a result I didn't make it to the start of Game 1 but I did make it by the top of the 6th inning.

I spoke with Al earlier in the day and he informed me that another photographer and reporter would be covering the game with us. I was happy to hear we have another writer. Writing is not my strong point and it's really time consuming. It's a lot of work to photograph, post-process, analyze the game, and write a meaningful article.

I arrived at the game and didn't look for Al or our new reporter. Instead I headed straight down to behind home plate to get some photos of Meredith Nelles pitching. Pitcher photos are always your go-to shot if all other shots fail. There's always action in the pitcher's area.

I was a little by an fEE message from my 400mm f/2.8 AF-S I lens. I connected it to the D3 and got the error and initially panicked thinking that I had somehow broken the D3. I then tried the 400 out with my D2H and got the same error message. I tried my 70-200 f/2.8 on both bodies and it worked fine. I then adjusted the aperture ring to f/22 and the lens started working again. It's very strange...

Eventually I bumped into Al and we chatted for a little bit. He asked if I was going to head over to Lacrosse later on and I nodded my head. Julie and I are refinancing our second home in North Carolina and we had to have some things notarized this evening. I called Julie and got her to agree to get the notary stuff done earlier so I could work the Lacrosse game.

As a result I don't have very many photos of the Softball game. You can view the photos of the Maryland Terrapins and Pittsburgh Panthers softball game over on my Flickr account.

On Sunday I feverishly wrote up an article on the ACC Wrestling Tournament outcome. I worked really hard on Saturday to post process as many of my photos as possible and by the time I went to sleep I had captioned all of the photos from the first round and selected my photos from the semifinals and finals. I knew I needed to caption the semifinals and finals as well as write my article but I was simply too tired to get it all finished the day of the event.

On Saturday morning I woke up around 5:30am. I've essentially been working 2 jobs the past couple of weeks: my day job as a software engineer, and my night job as a photojournalist. I've gotten accustomed to 5-6 hours of sleep for the past week. On Friday I received a D3 to demo and I was extremely excited about using it on Saturday. Either it was my excitement or my body naturally waking me up after 6 hours of sleep but I was up at 5:30 on Saturday.

My laryngitis kicked into full swing on Saturday and by Saturday evening I barely had any voice. Fortunately it came back today on Sunday but it made working on Saturday very challenging. I was looking forward to today's softball game under the full sun because I would have a chance to work alone (and not speak with anyone) and test out the D3 under supreme lighting conditions.

The D3 performed remarkably. The colors are rich and the focus is sharp as a tack. I can't complain about a single aspect of the camera - it is wonderful in every regard.

My shots came out well and I was able to get all of them posted up on our website. Before the game I shot a bunch of warmup photos I can potentially use for file photo purposes.

And by the end of tonight I posted everything. All told it was 3 wrestling duals and 3 softball games. But I spent time on the side posting Yuchen's articles and photos for LAX as well as his Wizards gallery. This second job is really a lot of work!

Please help us out by reading my article and photos on the Terrapins 2-0 shut out of the Columbia Lions in the 2008 Maryland Invitational.

During the consolation wrestling matches I snuck out to the softball stadium to take a look at the Terrapins game against Seton Hall. I grabbed my coat, a hat, and my gloves on my way out to the stadium while Greg just headed out. The weather was extremely variable and the sun was going in and out of the clouds. There were also rain clouds in the air.

I got in about an inning or so before the weather really opened up. Since I had the D3 (a $5000 camera) I was being extremely cautious with the rain. As soon as I saw the first drop I headed for the media area. I really sprinted once I reached the top of the bleachers and fortunately made it into the media area before the rain started in earnest.

To my surprise it started hailing shortly after the rain came in. I was amazed to see it hailing so hard - the pellets practically covered the infield. About 20 minutes later it all let up and we were able to resume the game.

I got another 3 innings in before it started raining solidly and I was forced to pack it in. I covered up my lens and body with my jacket but eventually it was raining so hard that I had to call it quits. I was kind of happy about it because I didn't want to stick around outside and risk getting sick(er).

Al was at the softball game and we talked for a little bit. He headed home though because of the weather.

Please go over to the DC Sports Box and read about Maryland's 3-2 victory over Seton Hall.

This afternoon the Terps played a double header against James Madison at 4pm and 6pm. Fortunately my day job affords me the flexibility to adapt my schedule to accommodate the athletic events I enjoy photographing and reporting on. But unfortunately this often comes at the cost of reduced take home pay. Such is life I suppose...

I planned to leave the office around 5pm today to catch the trailing end of Game 1 and get some decent shots with some of the golden sunlight, but those plans didn't pan out. I stayed at the office until around 6:10 before heading out and didn't make it down to Maryland until around 6:45. At that point the sun had completely set and there wasn't any twilight to be had.

None the less I pulled out both the D2H and D200, loaded up my 400mm and 70-200mm and got to work. I've somehow managed to misplace my photography gloves and as a result I was bare-handed this evening. It was particularly nippy tonight with a brisk wind and temperature in the 40s. My hands were numb by the time I was finished with the first half of an inning and I knew that wasn't a good sign at all.

It was nice being back in the Softball field. Last Spring I discovered Softball after shooting a spattering of lacrosse games in low light conditions at Ludwig and Byrd and after a brief stint shooting women's hoops inside Comcast. The games at Shipley were ideal for me. A smaller field offered me sufficient reach with my 70-200mm, and day time games offered good light. I never attended a night game last Spring.

The stadium is a very new addition to the Maryland campus and is quite nice. The lighting is fairly decent and you can get about 20 feet away from the batter. If all you have are short lenses you can actually do quite well in this environment.

The shoot didn't turn out too well tonight but I attribute that to the cold as well as it being my first game of the season for Softball and a night game at that. I'm sure the next game will be better.

Sarah Dooley struck out 11 people and led the Terps to a 2 game sweep of James Madison. Please go view my photos on the DC Sports Box.

Friday night's shoot of the Bowie Youth Street Hockey event in Bowie was fun, but I was really looking forward to Saturday's event: The Alan Iverson Softball Classic.

The Classic took place out at Bowie Baysox stadium and is a fundraiser. Part of the funds that were raised go to the local community college. Because of this Jake from the Bowie Blade asked me to cover the event. Jake even came out to cover the event from a writing standpoint.

The event was scheduled to start at 7:05pm with the press allowed in at 5pm. I arrived at 6pm and picked up my pass at the media stand. When I mentioned to the Baysox employee that I was with the Blade the person knew right away who I was as well as Jake. Ryan then walked me into the stadium and pointed out where I was supposed to go and shoot from. He also said that Jake was already here and down on the field waiting for me.

I headed down to the field and met up with Jake for the first time. It was kinda weird meeting him for the first time since we've had several dozen emails back and forth and I've been shooting for him all summer but I've never met him in person. On the field Jake and I spoke at length about shooting, media, events, and coverage. He seems pretty hungry for expanding his coverage and asked me if I would be willing to increase my coverage of his events. I said that I didn't know what my time would be like in the Fall in light of my increased involvement with the DC Sports Box.

The event was a lot of waiting for the athletes to arrive. I took a few pictures of the WPGC DJs but I was mostly waiting for Carmelo Anthony and Alan Iverson to arrive. They finally arrived around 7:45pm (just a little bit late!)

When they arrived they walked around the media area and we were able to use flash photography. This was good because my initial shots without flash didn't come out very well. I had to shoot up around 1600 ISO with f2.8 and the white balance and noise made the pictures pretty bad. Going down to ISO 300 with a flash and white balance on flash really made a large difference!

There were quite a lot of media outlets covering the event. The local Fox News, CBS News, and ABC News outlets were there, as were Comcast Sports Net and a few smaller channels (most likely Bowie Statue University or something like that). Fortunately there was enough room that photographers could easily move around the TV cameras, and they weren't using their lights. I was able to move about easily and take lots of good photographs of the athletes when they were doing sound bites and answering questions for the reporters.

I also ran into a photographer I've seen at Maryland events. I didn't catch her name, but she said she works for the PG Gazette. I believe we receive that newspaper at our house, but I usually just throw it away. I'll have to take a look at it next time to see if her shots of the Iverson Classic are in there.

There was also a photographer in attendance who was a pain in the ass. She was pushing all the other photographers around and pushing people out of the way. On a couple of occasions she'd get really close to an athlete and then miss the shot somehow. I'm not sure what her problem was, but she seemed really irritable and bossy. She was working the media relations girl for better shots and to get some of the VIP invitees out of the way of her shots.

She also kept asking other photographers "who's that?" I don't know who many of the athletes are because I don't follow professional sports very closely, but Jake does. And Jake was there to cover the story (I was just there for the eye candy). He knew a lot about the different athletes, most notably their names (which she didn't know)!

Later on I found out that she was a paparazzi photographer and wasn't there for a media outlet. I kept thinking during the event: you're going about this the wrong way! Every person that I talk to in this business has said: be nice to the media relations people. If you're mean or unpleasant to them, or you complain unnecessarily you won't be invited back. And if you aren't invited back you can't take photos! So be nice and you'll get invited back. She definitely wasn't being nice, and I doubt she'll be at another ESPN event!

Shooting opportunities during the game itself were pretty limited due to the poor light and my position on the field. I really need that 300/2.8 or a 400/2.8 to cover baseball. But, on the other hand, I really don't enjoy baseball too much so it might not be a bad thing that I don't have a long lens. But I got a few action shots of Iverson running between 2nd and 3rd base.

The real action occurred after the game when the athletes stood around on the field and signed authographs for the DJs and the fans. There were a ton of shooting opportunities (with flash!) on the field, and by far those turned out to be my best shots. Interestingly enough, the paparazzi photographer left during the middle of the game and completely missed out on the on-field shots after the game.

Overall I fired about 400 actuations and ended up with around 20 photos I sent to the Blade. I actually have a ton other "keepers" that I'll probably post back up on my server tho. It was a very good shoot, and really showed me what a difference flash makes.

I really would like an SB-800. They allow you to just shoot and shoot and shoot and not even think about the flash recharging. If I had one of these I'd really do well in situations like this. It's definitely going on my list of gear I'd like to acquire. Fortunately they're not too expensive ($350?).

I also learned a lot about my minimum focal length on my 70-200 lens. It's 2.5 meters, and I've never had a problem with it before because I've always shot players on the field. In this event I was covering people close up and on several occasions I was too close (less than 2.5 meters) and I couldn't focus. I had to back up, focus, and then zoom in.

Although this sounds like a problem it really isn't too bad. With the 70-200 lens I can be pretty far away from my subject and still get a great shot. With a lens with a shorter focal length (e.g. a 17-55mm lens) I would have to be directly in front of the subject when shooting. It would certainly help to have a 17-55mm but in this situation it didn't seem crucial.

With about 30 seconds left in the 4th quarter of the men's lacrosse game the skies opened up and it rained like crazy. I pay a lot of attention to weather forecasts and I had heard Saturday's forecast called for showers and possibly rain. So when it started raining I was worried that it would keep raining and I wouldn't be able to shoot the softball game. I hung out under Tyser Tower for a bit and put all of my gear into my bag and then ran back to my car.

When I got to Comcast Center the rain had fortunately stopped. During the drive over there I thought about doing some weatherproofing on my camera and lens. My D200 is weather-sealed, and my 70-200mm VR lens is supposedly weather-sealed as well, but it wouldn't hurt to put together something to better protect them in case of inclement weather. I have an old wetsuit that no longer fits and I think I can cut it apart and re-sew it as a cover for my camera. Julie can probably help me with the sewing project as well.

The game was pretty fun to shoot but it was difficult due to the low light. The cloud cover was really thick and it was getting later in the day so I had to increase the ISO setting and lower the shutter speed to properly expose the shots. Even doing that I underexposed most of my shots. I haven't yet figured out if it's better to use Aperture priority mode and let the camera calculate the proper shutter speed or if I should use Manual mode and try my best to learn what the best settings would be.

In between innings I spent some time navigating around the menus. On my D40 I knew almost every menu item by heart by the time I sold it. I haven't had that much time with my D200 and because there are so many dials on the outside of the camera I've had little need to poke around in the menus. I decided to use "More Vivid" image post-processing to see what that would do to my shots. I've noticed that in a lot of my pictures the subjects are soft. I was hoping that Vivid and More Vivid reduced the softness and sharpened the photos. I don't think this is a good test tho due to the low light conditions. I'll have to try it again.

Work has sucked lately.

I left early this afternoon and decided to watch the Maryland Softball game. It was a double header with Penn State and was nationally televised on CSTV. Jonathan Coachmen (from the WWF) called play-by-play. Unfortunately the Terps lost both games.

There were some great opportunities for pictures because there was plenty of light. The first game started at 4pm and the second game ended around 7:15pm. I was able to shoot f2.8 at about 1/250th towards the end. I attached my TC and that slowed me down to f5.6 but I could still shoot pretty reliably.

Unfortunately most of the batters for Maryland are right handed and the sun sets over their back. That makes it difficult to get face shots while they swing. Too bad they don't play early-morning games. However, the sunset does through great light onto the infield.

While driving home I noticed the lights were on at the baseball stadium. I thought about stopping by but I noticed it was only the 3rd inning and I was pretty hungry. So I kept driving and I noticed the lights were also on at Ludwig (the soccer field). I stopped and to my surprise it was a women's lacrosse game. I grabbed my bag and headed inside.

I walked out onto the field and started taking pictures. Fortunately nobody asked me what I was doing there (probably because I had similar equipment as the other photographers). I sat down and took a few shots. Shooting at night under the lights is really difficult. I still haven't figured out how the professionals do it - all of my shots come out grainy.

Anyhow, here are a few of my shots. I hope you enjoy them.

If you have some suggestions on taking less grainy pictures at night under the lights I'd like to hear them. I'm shooting north of 1600 ISO with a 200mm f2.8 lens with VR in active mode. I'm using aperture priority mode and my shutter speed is usually around 1/100 or 1/120.

I'm looking forward to tonight: Baseball.

I shot 2 Softball games this weekend at Maryland. The softball stadium outside of Comcast is superb for shooting. You're really close to the action, and the Lady Terps offer up lots of great shooting opportunities - they yell a lot and really get into the game.

Here's one of the pictures I took this weekend when the Terps played NC State. I sent some of my photos into umterps.com for posting but the webmaster dropped them. I still haven't figured out how to get my pictures posted anywhere...