One Game at a Time

The Terps played out-of-town Northern Iowa this evening and put a lot of points on the board. 91-37 was the final tally. 4 Terp starters scored in double figures (Laura Harper, Marissa Coleman, Crystal Langhorne, Marah Strickland, and Kristi Toliver). Kat Lyons also knocked down 2 3 pointers late in the first half to score 6 points. It was great to see Kat score - she's a freshman guard who's looking to find her feet. Hitting 2 three pointers must have given her a confidence boost.

There really isn't much else to talk about with respect to the Terps in this game. There wasn't much competition offered by the Panthers, so it was a big stats booster for the team. Before gametime Coach Frese presented game balls to Crystal Langhorne and Kristi Toliver. Langhorne became the all time leading rebounder for the Terps, and Toliver eclipsed the 1,000 point plateaus. I believe that 4 current Maryland players are now over the 1,000 point plateau (Toliver, Langhorne, Coleman, and Harper). It's pretty remarkable.

As usual there were very few photographers present. Diamondback was there, as was Greg Fiume. Nick Waas from the AP shot from up in the stands for much of the first and second half. Yuchen has been absent for the last few games - I need to check in with him to see what he's up to. I shot from the baseline in the first half and then went up high for the second. I got some great shots from up there.

Please go read my article and take a look at my photos. I'm always looking for critiques and ideas for places to shoot from!

The Terps came home and played this evening against Middle Tennessee. Maryland sure looks tired... I can't blame them - as of December 9th's game against Temple the Terps will have played 14 games in a month. That's almost 1 game every other day!

There's also a flu bug going around the locker room. A couple of players had to leave the post game press conference early to take care of themselves! The team sure has played hard. I'm sure they've learned alot about themselves and each other having played so many games in such a short period of time.

Middle Tennessee shot a lot of 3 pointers tonight. They knocked down 7 of them in the first half and that really kept them competitive. During the second half Maryland had a tough time on rebounding. But Kristi Toliver came through with her offensive prowess and hit a 3 pointer that gave the Terps the lead with 4:17 to go. She then followed it up with a rebound and a coast-to-coast drive and a bucket. That sparked the team's offense and Maryland held on to win it 74-69.

There were about a dozen people present tonight total. It snowed in the DC area today and the roads were in terrible shape.

Please go take a look at my article and my photos over at the DC Sports Box.

The Terps traveled to Piscataway NJ to take on Rutgers this evening. I didn't invest in the 3 hour travel up to NJ, but a few people I know went. I saw Yuchen on TV and Greg talked about going. I'm not sure if he actually headed up there or not though.

Terps did well in the first half and went into the half up 10, but fell apart in the second half as a result of Rutger's defense. Epiphany Prince also came to life and shot out the lights. A big 3 pointer by her gave the Scarlet Knights the lead and the momentum. I wrote an article about it and used a file photo for the photo. You can read more about it over here.

Maryland is back in town on Wednesday night to play Middle Tennessee. The men also play on Thursday I believe against Morgan State. I'll hopefully be at both games.

The Terps participated in the Inaugural Big Ten/ACC Women's Challenge this evening by facing off against the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Buckeyes were ranked #19 and the Terps are currently ranked #3, so this promised to be a close game. Strangely it was not. The Terps blew the Buckeyes out of the water this evening and really looked sharp. I was over at soccer earlier shooting and it took me quite awhile to make it over to Comcast in time for the jumpball, but I made it in time. The usual folks were there, along with several other photographers I haven't seen before. The game was televised on ESPN2 I believe and as a result it's no surprise there were more photographers present. Anthony Amobi did the game writeup and shot the photos. You can view them up on the DC Sports Box.

The Lady Terps took to the court tonight for the 6th time in 11 days, or the 9th time in 18 games depending on how you look at it. Laura Harper crossed the 1,000 point plateau and Kristi Toliver closed to within 23 points of it. Crystal Langhorne returned to home court off of a 5 game ankle injury and scored a double-double. It was lots of fun shooting on the baseline and from the Terp Wall with my 400mm lens. Please head over to the DC Sports Box and read my article and view the photos I shot at the game.

I have a nasty cold, but I'm not infectious (no temperature and no green gunk). If I take a lot of Robitussin I can keep my cough under control. My name was on the credential list for UM tonight, and I wanted to help Greg with his mail problem, so I headed to the game against the advice of my wife. It felt good to get out of the house after working from home in the same room all day, and I'm glad I went. I pulled out my 400/2.8 lens and shot most of the game with it. I used my 70-200/2.8 for the other shots. Emery Wallace had a great return game, and Drey Mingo continued to shine. Kristi Toliver was fantastic as usual, and Marah Strickland, Laura Harper, and Marissa Coleman helped finish out the Terps in double figures. You can read more about the game, and view my photos, over on the DC Sports Box.

The Lady Terps played Delaware this evening in the PreSeason WNIT. Kristi Toliver played a tremendous game and scored 19 points. Marissa Coleman was a force with 16 points. Jade Perry came up with a double double with 11 points and 15 rebounds. The Terps won 91-43. It was a lot of fun to cover the game and report on Maryland's success. My DC Sports Box article, including a photo gallery, can be viewed over here.

With Maryland giving us the thumbs up for the men's basketball game on Wednesday evening I had high hopes of us obtaining credentials for Friday night's women's basketball game against Princeton. I asked Al to put in the credential request for me and he did so on Thursday.

I think we're on a standby list because we usually don't hear back from Maryland until a few hours before the event. I'm fine with that because it's an improvement over what we've had in the past. Anything they're willing to offer us causes great celebration with us, and we're just happy to be able to cover anything for them.

Sure enough we heard back from Maryland late on Friday with a positive email. We were set for credentials and could pick them up at Will Call. You can read my article here. The game started at 8pm so I had some time to get home and eat some dinner. Maryland offers meals to all the credentialed photographers but they also take down your name and who you're with.

All the places that offer food ask for names and affiliations. I'm not sure why they do that, or if anyone actually looks at those lists. But since I'm trying to put a positive foot forward with Maryland I'm avoiding eating unless I'm starving and haven't had anything to eat since lunch. I may just be acting foolishly, but it's my pessimistic personality in matters like these. I'd prefer to lay low and stay safe for now.

I did pretty well with my shots. The 1600 ISO from the men's game looks fabulous. At 1250 there wasn't enough light in the exposure and I had to do a lot of lightening in post processing. When I lightened it ended up opening up the background and it didn't look good at all. At 1250 ISO I also had to go down to 1/320th of a second exposure in some cases, and that wasn't enough speed for the men to stop the action.

For tonight I decided to go with 1600 on both D200s, 1/400th of a second, and f2.8 aperture. My lens choices were the same as last night: 17-55/2.8 DX and 70-200/2.8 VR.

There were remarkably fewer people at the women's game and the photographer spots were wide open. While this is bad for Maryland's media coverage it's good for us because it means there is not as much competition right now. If we attend and shoot as many games as possible right now we might have a shot at some ACC games.

I had a really difficult time working with the referees during this game. I took the #1 spot so that I could take some shots at 17mm from down low on the floor. I like those shots because they really open up the court in the shot.

The press conference for the women's games is also very convenient. During the men's games Gary Williams holds the press conference over in the Comcast Pavilion, a gymnasium within Comcast but off on the side. Volleyball plays in there. In comparison, Brenda Frese holds her press conferences in the media room itself.

It's very convenient for the media because all of our gear is in the media room. I understand why they have the different room though for Gary - I'm sure there are a lot more reporters present for the high demand games.

It was a lot of fun covering the women's game. I'm looking forward to this weekend as well because we heard that we were granted credentials for football and for the field hockey tournament. Things are really looking up for us lately and that really puts a smile on my face. It was difficult to report on 30 or so odd games in September and October and not make any noticeable progress. But with the approvals coming in these days it's really making me feel like those games did make a difference.

Although it's going to be a difficult weekend because of all the shooting I'm very excited about it all. Lots of opportunities to take great shots, get interviews, and write great articles. I just hope I can make it through the entire weekend!!!

On Monday we submitted a credential request to Maryland that would allow us to cover the women's basketball game against Team USA. We didn't hear anything until Wednesday at 4:30pm, and the responsive had a negative tone to it.

Al and I are very disappointed by Maryland's response and are really left speechless about what we can do at this point. Maryland doesn't perceive the DC Sports Box to be a legitimate media outlet and I'm not sure what we can do to convince them otherwise.

We have 8 people that are writing or shooting for us, and we report on the Wizards, Nationals, Mystics, Redskins, Hoyas, Colonials, and Midshipmen. All our photographers own 400mm/2.8 lenses (which cost over $5k each), and almost every person carries personal liability insurance. The number of readers we have is growing every month. We're working on our incorporation, and once that is wrapped up we're going to be looking at ways we can earn some money.

I wish they'd see our commitment and capabilities and realize that we're legitimate. In the mean time we'll have to keep shooting and hoping they come around.

I was really torn about attending the game tonight. We weren't credentialed, and if we couldn't get a credential for a pre-season exhibition game against a non-conference challenger it doesn't bode well for our hopes later on in the season. Al's thought is that we have to focus on the teams that want us to be courtside to report on them. I would still like to report on Maryland, but I agree with his viewpoint.

As a result I didn't know if I wanted to attend the game tonight. Maryland has left such a bad taste in our mouth and as a result I wasn't very motivated to attend on my own dime and cover the game. But at the same time I thought that it's times like these that you have to have a steady hand and stay consistent. I headed over to the game to cover it with my 70-200mm/2.8 and D200.

As I walked up the steps I thought about how last year I picked up a credential from Will Call with some help from a friend of mine. And here I am about a year later having shot 90+ games and having been paid for my work and I'm purchasing a ticket to an exhibition game against a non-conference team. I paid my $4 at the door to a person selling tickets and headed inside.

There were very few people in attendance and I could pretty much anywhere I wanted except for the floor. I probably could have gotten down there if I really wanted to because 2 of the CSC staff recognized me and waved to me. I stayed up in the stands though and had to move around on several occasions because I was blocked by people on the floor.

I was absolutely miserable during the event and that was the first time I had shot an event and not enjoyed myself. I couldn't stop thinking about how we were being treated by Maryland and it really irritated me. I thought about walking out half way through the game but I kept going back to what originally brought me there: even though Maryland was being cold to us I want to show them nothing but professional coverage.

You can read my writeup over here.

I wish I had some more to say about the event, but my enthusiasm for covering Maryland athletics has waned given their response.

After Monday's auditions of the Wizards Dancers I was looking forward to some basketball on Tuesday night.

During the day on Monday I thought about a 400mm lens and on Monday night I decided to purchase a used 400mm/f2.8 AF-S lens from a photographer on SportsShooter. Unfortunately PayPal is extremely slow in moving money from our bank account into our PayPal account so my seller probably won't ship it until next week.

Al's still on vacation this week so he offered the Mystics shoot to me. I was looking forward to it because shooting basketball is so much fun. And since I was in Verizon Center the evening before I had some time to think about what settings to use for tonight's game.

I reached Verizon Center early and had plenty of time to get my laptop set up and to take a few test shots from out on the corner. Unfortunately the network configuration changed again. In the past the media relations people have posted the username and password for the network on the dry erase board inside of Verizon Center.

Eventually one of the technicians came by and helped another reporter with his network settings. While he was helping I listened in and applied the same settings to my environment. That's one of the nice benefits of being a full time software engineer and system administrator: I understand a lot about computers, networking, and wireless. As a result I'm pretty good at getting my laptop working (as long as I have the proper username and password!)

I headed out to the court and noticed that the other photographers (AP for the most part) had already claimed their spots on the close side of the court. Rather than actually being out there waiting for the game to start they instead plunked down their makeshift seats. This was kind of frustrating because I was hoping to get a good spot on that side of the court. But there wasn't any room for me because it had already been claimed.

I made my way down to the far end of the court and claimed my spot out as far from under the basket as possible. I'm still shooting with my 70-200 lens and it's really difficult to shoot under the basket at 70mm. It's just too close for many of the shots that I'm taking these days.

I spoke with another photographer named Carroll who was there for a friend who couldn't make it. He was shooting with a Canon and he sat next to me out on the 3 point line. He was telling me that he shoots a few Maryland games but mostly shoots up in the Baltimore area. I mentioned this blog and the DC Sports Box and invited him to come take a look at my photos.

A fan in the crowd came up to me and asked if he could purchase some of my photos. I said that I didn't know the regulations regarding the selling of our photos but that I would ask somebody and get back to him. I didn't think that we could use our photos for commercial purposes and it turns out that I I was right: credentialed photographers can only use their photographs for editorial purposes.

I decided to try to shoot this game at ISO800. ISO1000 is pretty noisy, and Verizon is really bright. I've also had a lot of success at lightening my photos in Aperture in post processing. I decided not to use EV correction like the last game. I wanted to try just using ISO800 and 1/400th second shutter speed with 0 EV correction to see how it looked.

It turned out pretty well. I didn't have any problems with stopping action at 1/400th second, and the ISO800 is certainly less noisy than ISO1000. I'm going to continue using ISO800 and 1/400th for my next shoots, but I may use some EV correction just to see how it performs.

I stuck with group weighted autofocus and it worked extremely well. I also adjusted the time delay for refocusing and set it to "long". I had very few out-of-focus shots, and virtually no back-focused shots. This is absolutely great in comparison to when I started off shooting basketball at Comcast Center. I used to constantly get focus on the crowd and not the players, and that pretty much never happens any more. It occurs from time to time, but it's pretty rare.

The shoot went pretty well, and the two teams provided a lot of great chances for photos. One player in particular scored 47 points, a WNBA league record. Fortunately for me she kept driving right in front of me and I took quite a few photos of her.

I noticed that several of the other photographers under the basket were shooting using 18-55mm lenses. That's what I've been thinking I should shoot with during these games. Use a 70-200mm for the long shots at the far end of the court and a 18-55 for shots under my basket.

But I also noticed that the AP photographers on the far end of the court were using 70-200mm lenses when the ball was under their basket. This surprised me because they own 18-55mm lenses. It looked like they were using 300mm lenses for the far end of the court and 70-200mm lenses for under the basket. The next time I'm at a game I'm going to try to talk to another photographer and ask them what they use for under-the-basket shots.

I also recognized the female photographer from the Dance Team auditions the previous night. And I recognized a photographer from the AP. I think his name is Nick. He was at the Nationals game on Sunday. I suppose it's something of a small world for sports photography in the DC area.

There's a Mystics game this coming weekend, and maybe if I'm lucky I'll have my 400mm lens by then. There are also a bunch of Baysox and Nationals games the following week. I'm sure that I'll have my lens by then and hopefully I'll get some good chances to try it out.

Al's on vacation, and I like it when Al's on vacation.

When Al's on vacation he can't cover his events, so that gives me an opportunity to remove my lens cap and take a few shots. This afternoon I attended the Mystics vs Comets game at Verizon Center and had a great time. This past weekend Al covered the WNBA game (his article is here) and the Verizon Center was "sold out" for that event. I was looking forward to this afternoon's game because I was hoping there would still be some WNBA fans in town who would decide to come out to today's game.

The game was an unusual one, as it took place in the middle of the day during the week. The media relations staff explained to me that it was because of summer camps. There were certainly a ton of campers in attendance tonight - practically the entire stadium was filled with young children from various parts of the Washington DC Metropolitan region.

My plan was to arrive at the stadium 30 minutes before tipoff, but I actually end up walking out of the metro about 50 minutes before tipoff. I thought I was going to have to find time to kill, but in retrospect that was a good amount of time for Verizon Center. It takes awhile to walk from the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro exit to the Press Entrance (it's literally on the opposite side of the building from the metro entrance). Once you get to the Press Entrance they check your bags and verify you're supposed to be there.

After winding down a long corridor and getting to the media room you're offered a meal (on the house). Today's serving was a breakfast dish provided by Clyde's: eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes. It wasn't too bad...

But between walking around the building, getting in through security, and sitting down to have a bite to eat it can actually take quite a bit of time. In the future I'm going to shoot to arrive 45 minutes before a game begins so that I have sufficient time (rather than 30 minutes). I also noticed that the wireless network worked differently this time. Last time it was a WAP that didn't broadcast it's SSID (you had to key in the SSID by hand as well as the WEP passphrase). This time it was a wide open WAP that brought you to a webpage where you keyed in a username and password. Today's setup was much better than last time - those cloaked WAPs are so cheesy. And who's going to steal the signal? I couldn't even get a cell phone signal from the media room for crying out loud...

I headed out to the court and said hello to a few people I recognized from the last game. One guy had an almost identical setup as me: D200 with the MB-D200 battery pack, 70-200/f2.8 VR lens, and an 18-55/2.8 DX lens. I don't have the 18-55/2.8 yet, but I plan on getting one at some point in the future.

I decided to break away from the rest of the photographers and instead shoot from the opposite end of the court. All of the photographers were positioned under the basket that the home team defended during the 1st half. I'm not sure if it's because they wanted to have dibs on their spots for the 2nd half action, or if they chose that end because they could cover coaches and players reactions during the game. Either way, it was completely filled under that basket so I headed down the court to a wide open spot.

I sat out around the 3point line next to an AP photographer who was shooting with a 300/2.8 and a 70-200/2.8 lens. With 70mm being my closest range, and with the 1.5x crop factor on my DX sensor, I really struggle being under the basket. Even out at 3 point range I'm really in too close for a lot of the under the basket shots. I do manage to get a lot of good baseline drives tho.

I read last night about exposure compensation (EV) and I have to say that I still don't understand this beast yet. Seems like it's just an auto-darken or auto-lighten that is applied when you shoot a photo. The D200 manual recommended positive EV when the subjects are darker than the background, and negative EV when the subjects are lighter than the background.

Most of the basketball players on the Mystics are African American, and thus they tend to be "darker" than the background. I decided to apply a +0.3 EV correction thinking I would see their faces a little better. I took a few test shots at 1/400second, 1250ISO, f2.8, and +0.3EV and they looked pretty good. I decided to stick with it during the entire game, and I had pretty good results. My shots are definitely brighter than the last Mystics game I covered, and I didn't have to touch 1600 ISO.

My only complaint about the +0.3EV is that it really made for some bright jerseys. The Mystics wear a white uniform at home, and it's really bright in some of my shots. I guess it's a difficult call - you increase the EV correction to get brighter faces, but that washes out the jerseys.

I've heard a bunch of people talk about noise reduction filters that they apply during post-processing. I really need to look into that and see how well they work (or don't work). If I can shoot at ISO1600 and then reduce the noise through software that might turn out better than shooting at ISO1250 and using a +0.3EV correction.

I kept using the group-weighted autofocus system on the D200 and it worked really well. I noticed that the other D200 shooter was using group-weighted autofocus system, so that's positive reinforcement that I'm on the right track. I'm still getting a lot of soft photos, but in this case I don't think there's much I can do due to the lighting situation. Outdoors I can reduce my f-stop to a higher value and that might improve my sharpness. But in low light I think I'm pretty much stuck with f2.8 for exposure purposes. Not sure how that helps me or hurts me in the long run.

On the other hand, it could be the case that I'm just looking at my pictures under too large of a microscope. Any picture, when zoomed in by 800%, looks like crap (either blurry or over/under saturated). I noticed that my pictures aren't too bad when I look at them on my blog or on DC Sports Box, even tho I think they look like crap when I view them at full resolution on my laptop. It would really help if I could follow someone like Al around during his post processing to see what kind of sharpness his shots have. Then I can determine if this is something I can improve or if this is a limitation of my equipment. I suspect it's something I can improve, but it would be good to have confirmation.

Lastly, I would like to point you over to my new website, BlunckSports. It isn't a whole lot to look at right now, but I'm planning on putting more content up there as I increase my skills. I'll continue posting my story to this blog about what techniques I'm learning, but I plan to be working on BlunckSports, as well as the DC Sports Box in the future. Please give both sites a look and an RSS subscription.