One Game at a Time

On a cold Thursday evening the Terps locked up their regular season and showed respect to their senior class. I had the privilege of photographing the senior class with their family, friends, and coaches both before and after the game.

Most senior shoots involves a pre-game ceremony where each player is highlighted and presented with flowers, a plague, or a jersey behind glass. There are a series of standard photos that you're expected to capture from such an event and they're pretty ordinary in nature. Capture each player with their parents and then at the end get a group shot of the players, coaches, and family members.

I planned that shoot at f/7.1 with a 1/8th powered SB-800 flash on a 14-24mm lens at around 14mm. I thought about using the 24-70mm and shooting at 24mm but that seemed too narrow and I'd have to back away from the players too much. Shooting wider allows me to get closer for the group and family shots and since the lens is an ultra-wide I didn't have to deal with much distortion at all.

It was nice working with the CLS and not bumping into the 1/250th second flash sync limitation. With an SB-800 you can sync well above 1/250th so it's quite easy to dial in your aperture (f/7.1) for the effect you're looking for, set your ISO to something sane (e.g. 400 or 640), and then adjust your shutter speed and flash power accordingly. I could've gone straight TTL, locked the shutter at 1/500th and let CLS perform the power setting.

I chose to set the flash output power manually because I'm trying to learn more about flash photography. It seems like letting TTL and CLS take care of all the flash settings is like letting your camera meter control exposure (e.g. Aperture or Shutter priority mode). Sure you'll most likely get a decent overall exposure but you won't learn a whole lot.

Prior to the pre-game photos I took several test shots on the sideline with the help of Ali Morawski. She and Sandy Worth were good test subjects for a variety of exposure and flash settings and I was able to lock in a few different flash scenarios using them as my test subjects.

The previous evening I gave a lot of though to what kind of artistic twists I could apply to a post-game senior shot. During this spring's women's LAX season I had a lot of fun shooting the seniors after the game and I wanted to set something up for the field hockey seniors. I really liked what Patrick Smith did for Liz Snyder of the Centennials and I wanted to go for something similar.

I planned to drop the 5 seniors in the goal and to flash them with 2 SB-800s from down low. By shooting at a narrow aperture (e.g. f/16) I planned to isolate them in darkness and a goal. I thought it would create a cool shot but I couldn't figure out what to do about concealing the flashes from the camera lens.

When you shoot with flash you have to be wary of the light from the speedlights coming right back towards the lens and creating either a halo or a really bright white spot right in the middle of your frame. I needed something that would block the light from coming back towards the camera but I also needed that something to allow an infrared signal from my camera to reach the speedlights.

A goalie mask would be perfect!

So before the game I hunted down the equipment manager and asked if he had any old masks I could borrow. Sure enough he had one and after promising to take good care of it and bring it back after the game he let me use it for the shoot. The mask was perfect because the front allowed the IR signal to reach the speedlights and the top of the mask concealed the light from the speedlights.

I took a few test shots before the game and the f/16 exposures of just the helmet came out really well. I was stoked for the post-game photos but leary of my ability to dial in the correct exposure settings in such a short amount of time.

Sure enough I didn't get it quite perfect. After the game several seniors wanted their photo taken with celebratory banners and I wanted to shoot around f/5.6 rather than f/16. They raced over to the goal after I set up the speedlights and I didn't have time to shrink the aperture down to f/16. As a result my shots didn't come out as well as I had liked but they were good enough.

I'm enjoying playing with artificial light. I introduced Jackie and Yuchen to the practice of dragging the shutter and Yuchen elected to use the technique for a pre-game photo of the team in a huddle. His shot (#3) is up on the DC Sports Box gallery page and it looks pretty good. I started practicing dragging the shutter this summer when I shot a few nightlife crowds at some bars in the Columbia MD area.

By dragging the shutter you set your camera to "rear curtain sync" and set a long exposure (e.g. 1/2th a second). When the shutter opens you move the body around and the flash firing right before the shutter closing locks the subject and makes them tack sharp. It's a great isolation technique in low light scenarios where you are required to use flash (e.g. in a bar). By spinning the camera you can also draw attention to the center of the frame, further creating focus on your subject.

The game was a lot of fun to shoot because it was senior night and I was able to play with flash. Flash photography can be a challenge but also very fun if you're willing to experiment and play with the light. CLS is a great system if you can set it up properly and apply it well.

Another scrimmage for the men's basketball team brought me out to the Comcast Center this afternoon. The guys I'm working with also asked if I could bring out the lights again and get an interesting shot of Greivis Vasquez for a cover article they're working on. I wish I had a lightbox or an Alien Bees strobe but I honestly don't do enough flash photography to justify the cost.

Lightboxes, softboxes, strobes, and reflectors are really great tools for serious photographers that shoot a decent amount of portraiture. But they're pretty pricey... An AlienBees B800 strobe will cost you $280 new, the stand will run you $90, two PocketWizards Plus IIs will cost you $360, and the Vagabond II portable power pack for the B800 sets you back $300. All told you're looking at just over $1000 to launch yourself into professional lighting.

Or you can go the speedlight route. An SB-800 can be had used for about $225 on CraigsList and uses a built-in infrared transceiver to communicate with the master unit on the top of the camera. The SB-800s also support the Creative Lighting System (CLS), which allows you to synchronize above 1/250th of a second. That allows you to open up the aperture wider and shoot faster shutter speeds with flash.

When shooting a group photo for the DC Sports Box our photographer, Mike Busada, had to use a 4X neutral density filter to bring down the ambient light to a level where he could shoot us outdoors at f/7.1 under bright sun. He had a really difficult time focusing his camera using the built-in AF system while applying a 4X ND filter. Had he used SB-800s and the CLS he could've sync'ed at a higher shutter speed and avoided the ND filter.

The downside to using SB-800s over true lightboxes is that you don't get nearly the same level of diffusion. You can create stunning effects using a wide diffusion field on a strobe. In that sense you could honestly say that speedlights are no replacement for strobes. But, you could also argue that speedlights may be "good enough" for what you need to do if you're on a budget.

As I mentioned before the subject we wanted to capture was Greivis Vasquez. We weren't granted access to him until after the scrimmage and that probably wasn't the best time to catch him for a photo. He was tired after running up and down the court for 40 minutes and the team was leaned into by Coach Williams after the scrimmage. As a result the subject wasn't too happy and that came out in the shoot. He didn't want to pose the way we were hoping he'd pose and there wasn't any chance of a smile. Oh well...

I decided to switch over my WB preset this afternoon to the Comcast Center. I previously had it adjusted for Ludwig Field's lighting, but since soccer is winding down and basketball is quickly coming upon us I decided it was time for the transition. I believe there is a way to store WB presets but I haven't read the manual about it. I also don't know how much use I would have for such a feature since I can always reset the WB preset in the Spring when lacrosse takes over.

I learned a little bit about bracketing for exposure this afternoon, albeit completely accidentally. Somehow I managed to set a +2 exposure bracketing strategy and that impacted the number of frames I could shoot continuously. Rather than the normal 9 FPS my D3 gets I could only grab 2 at a time. Likewise I noticed that the exposure changed. I double checked my settings to see if maybe I had flipped to Aperture or Shutter priority but I was still on Manual at 1/500th and ISO 3200 (f/2.8).

I noticed the BKT displayed on the top display on the camera but I didn't know how to change it because I never do anything with bracketing. I poured through ever setting in the shooting and utility menus without luck. It wasn't until I got home and read my D3 manual that I realized that I could adjust the exposure bracketing by holding down BKT and using the spinner on the camera. A few quick adjustments and I was back to firing off 9FPS.

I'm anxiously looking forward to tomorrow evening's Field Hockey Senior Night photos. Greg Fiume asked me if I would be willing to photograph the seniors, their parents, and the coaching staff while he worked the women's soccer match. I was happy to take the assignment because I enjoy working with the Field Hockey coaching staff and the players have been very kind to me on the field (I don't think it's personal - I think they're just happy to have the coverage!) None-the-less tomorrow I get to shoot some more flash and that will be fun.

Lately I've been playing with light a lot for the mens and womens media days for basketball and today for the shot of Greivis Vasquez. Tomorrow I'll be firing the lights at the seniors. Maybe one day I'll give up the f/2.8 glass and go the strobist route... Nah probably not!

This afternoon the Lady Terps held their media day for 2008 and I attended. Women's basketball at the University of Maryland is the first sport I shot roughly 2 years ago and I've had a fondness for Comcast ever since I took my first steps onto the hardwood.

A lot has changed since then but the excitement of being a part of Maryland Athletics remains constant.

A few weeks ago the men had held their media event and I managed to capture a decent shot of Coach Gary Williams at midcourt. For this event I wanted to go for something slightly different but consistent with the first shoot. I elected to ask Coach Brenda Frese to stand in front of the bold ACC logo at the free throw line.

I didn't have any Pocket Wizards to help in the setup for the shot and instead had to rely on the Nikon CLS. It uses infrared beams to transmit flash signals to remotes and it works really well when you have line-of-sight on your side. In the middle of a basketball court that worked out just fine.

The only oddity I experienced during the shoot was that my remotes fired whenever another photographer fired their strobes in the ceiling. I was on Channel 1, Group A and they fired. I didn't think that Pocket Wizards could trigger SB-800s using CLS over infrared. Maybe my SB-800s were firing because they detected the strobe. It was odd whatever it was...

I met some nice photographers from a couple of different companies, including Richard from the Washington Times (I didn't catch his last name). I arrived first at the event and he arrived shortly thereafter. He stood in as a model for some lighting tests and I did the same for him. He took a really cool silhouette shot of 3 players on the baseline that were side-lit. He stood on the opposite end of the court with a 400mm lens on a DX sensor so he was really up close and personal. I took a look at the shot on his LCD and it really came out nicely!

The best shots I captured from today involved some fun action shots of the various players under the basket. I asked Sam to send any players that had some time down to underneath my basket so I could get a few shots of them shooting layups, jumpshots, and doing other fun stuff. Before each one left I had them pose for a serious shot with the net and the basket in the background. Those shots came out really well and I'm going to make a mental note to take those shots next year with the men. I bet I can get some really good ones!

Seth was present and taking notes, interviewing players, and conducting other reporter business. We chatted about upcoming games and he asked if I could shoot the men's scrimmage tomorrow. He also asked what games I could cover this Fall for women's hoops as well as men's hoops. He assured me that credentials were not an issue and that's certainly a welcome change.

Just as I arrived back at Byrd Stadium the rain began. It was a solid soaker throughout the entire football game this afternoon and that made shooting very difficult. The light was also variable due to the inclement weather. At some points I'd have to throw the shutter speed around to get an extra 2 stops of light because the clouds shifted and a bunch of rain came down.

It was also difficult because the rain itself reflects the stadium lights. Under normal circumstances the players on the field reflect the light we're interested in capturing but when you have driving rain it serves as a diffuser. The players become softer and the whole image has less contrast. In post processing I did a lot to turn up the blacks and increase contrast to bring out the players rather than the rain.

I accidentally handed my car keys to my wife Julie back during the basketball scrimmage and thus I wasn't able to get back to my car before the game to pick up my knee pads. With the field already soaked I thought I was going to wind up completely drenched by the first play.

I could not have been more wrong.

I am thoroughly impressed with the performance of REI waterproof camping gear. Having a waterproof pair of leggings saved me during the game. My jeans and most importantly my knees remained dry the ENTIRE game. I was shocked at how well that rain proof gear worked - I've had "waterproof" gear before but it never performs well. If you're a photographer and you want to stay dry I highly recommend picking up a pair of camping pants that are waterproof at REI.

The field being wet actually helped me knees because it made the ground squishy. As a result I didn't kill my knees when I knelt on the sideline.

I had a lot of trouble keeping rain off the front element of my lens. In addition to the rain there was some decent wind down on the field. Since I only have half of a lens hood I couldn't keep all the rain off the front of the lens. I also burned up the dryness on my little lens cleaner by the second time I pulled it out to dry off.

Larry, a photographer I've worked with in the past, recommended a cloth he purchased at REI. He says it sucks up moisture really well and is soft enough to use on lenses. He carried 2 or 3 of them with him and his front element looked good.

I also had some problems with my "utility belt" (the belt that I use to carry my spare lenses). It was made by Think Tank and contains lens pockets that have a water-tight bag. However, the internal linings don't cover the lens perfectly or more accurately I didn't cover the lens perfectly. Accordingly some of my glass had some moisture on it after the game. That was to be expected though after being out in the rain for roughly 3 hours.

My jacket worked well and kept me fairly dry. I was a little wet on my arms and chest but for the most part I stayed dry. My only complaint about the jacket is that it wasn't wide enough to wrap over my lens belt. I should've bought a longer jacket that extended to my thighs or I should've purchased one that was a lot larger so that I could fit my belt underneath it. It's not too big of a deal though...

Other photographers that were not prepared for the weather were miserable and cold. Several of them bailed after the first quarter. A few of them didn't have a jacket or any kind of protection for their camera. By the end of the half they were shaking with goose bumps. I didn't see them in the third!

I think my iPhone died due to water injury. I thought that the Think Tank belt case for carrying business cards was weatherproof but I guess I'm wrong. I kept my phone, business cards, media, and spare battery in there and they wound up pretty wet in the end. Hopefully the iPhone will come back to life in a couple of days...

Lastly I was perplexed by some water landing on the sensor towards the end of the fourth quarter. I have no idea how this happened. I used a 400mm lens the entire game and didn't switch out until after the game when the players ran over into the student section. I also used an Aqua Tech that thoroughly wrapped the lens and body. The camera stayed relatively dry with the exception of my went hands touching the shutter release button.

Towards the end of the fourth some water droplets landed on my sensor. I'm really confused how it happened since I didn't disconnect the lens and didn't even pull it out of the Aqua Tech. I thoroughly cleaned the sensor when I got home to protect against any debris remaining on the sensor but I'm still wondering how that happened.

I also did a thorough clean-job on my glass. The front element of the 400 was pretty dirty from all the rain and the UV filter on my 24-70 was pretty dirty. It felt good to sit down in my little office and clean everything up after the event.

We're now off for a week and then it's down to Virginia Tech for a Thursday night game on ESPN. Hopefully it won't be a downpour!

When basketball finally let out I walked out of Comcast Center and into Lot 4 to take a gander at the Field Hockey scoreboard. The brick building of the complex occludes the score but you can still see the time remaining. Fortunately there was 15 minutes to go...

I decided to race down to the complex and catch the final few moments. Prior to heading inside I remembered to change the folder in the camera. When I have multiple events on the same day I change the folder in the camera so that importing the photos into Lightroom is easier. Rather than having to know that event #2 began with photo DSC_2335.JPG I can partition the events at the directory level. Event #2 is in the 102 folder, event #3 is in 103...

I only captured 11 minutes of field hockey but it was worth it. I got a good isolation shot of Reilly as well as a cool shot of Amanda Himmelheber. Greg Fiume was at the event as well and I hardly recognized him because of his rain gear and hat.

Immediately after the event I packed up and hoofed it back to Byrd Stadium for football. I didn't want to be late for the kickoff and I still had to pick up my TERPHOTO sticker.

Seth and Jeff from the Turtle Sports Report assigned me to photograph the scrimmage at Comcast on Saturday. I gladly took the assignment since any opportunity to be inside Comcast Center is worth pursuing!

Saturday was a busy day for me with men's hoops at 12:15, Field Hockey at 1, and Football at 3:30. I didn't have a copy of my credentials for football so prior to heading to Comcast I stopped off at Tyser Tower at Byrd Stadium around 11:15. I wanted to give myself enough time to pick up my football credential, walk over to Comcast, and get settled in there for the practice.

Tyser was a ghost town. It's understandable though - who's going to show up 4 hours before game time. Even as I left the IT folks were just starting to show up. I headed over to Comcast without my football pass in hand but I was confident that I could resolve the issue later on in the day.

Walking across campus is always an enjoyable experience. Having grown up around campus, spending 5 years studying for my undergraduate degrees, and meeting my wife while an undergrad every building has some kind of memory associated with it. Most of it involves late-night rollerblading around campus, but some of it involves going to class.

Once I arrived at Comcast I headed to the media room to put down my gear and get prepared for the basketball scrimmage. That basically meant shedding 2 layers of rain-proof gear (sweatshirt, leggings, and a rainproof jacket). Mr Dull was in the media room and he connected me with the credential I would use for football.

After disconnecting my 400mm f/2.8 lens from my body I hooked up my 70-200mm f/2.8. Since there weren't any photographers in the media room I expected I would be one of the few media people to attend the scrimmage. I was correct - there were a few TV people as well as Doug from the Baltimore Sun and that was about it. Mark Clem from the Terrapin Times was on the sideline shooting as well.

I spoke with Seth before the game and asked him what photos he needed. He said that Scout is doing a feature on one of the assistant coaches and asked me to get some shots of him coaching. He also asked for shots of Braxton Dupree, Greivis Vasquez, and Adrian Bowie.

With so few photographers present I had my choice of spots along the baseline. I grabbed the position Greg normally takes - right on the 3 point line. Choosing which side of the basket to shoot from was nice and easy - normally photographers are contained on one side of the basket while cheerleaders are on the other side. With nobody present today you could sit wherever you want - it was great! I chose the left side of the basket when you shoot because most players are right handed and penetrate from that side. By shooting at them from the left I get their chests and faces as they drive to the basket.

I originally planned to head off to Field Hockey at 1pm but the scrimmage went a lot longer than I expected. It consisted of 2 20 minute halves that actually went pretty long due to timeouts for coaching. Since I was there on assignment for Scout and Yuchen was down at Field Hockey covering the event I thought it would be best to stick around for the entire event.

The shots from basketball came out pretty well. I moved around a lot and pulled out the 400mm for some isolation shots of players and coaches. Overall I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the performance of the D3. I shot at ISO 2500 for the entire day on auto WB and 1/500th of a second at f/2.8. The AF system tracked well and I had very few OOF shots.

After volleyball I headed down to the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex to photograph the Terrapins play the Delaware Blue Hens. I enjoy the field hockey games because the coaches smile, the support staff is great, and the players are pretty friendly.

I was looking forward to this game because it was a chance to introduce myself to a new member of the Maryland media relations staff: Sam Angell. Sam joined the staff and will temporarily fill in for Field Hockey and Women's Basketball until a permanent staffer can be located. I wanted to introduce myself because the DC Sports Box covers Terrapin sports extensively and being able to map a face to a name will help both Sam and our organization work smoothly. I waited until after the game to introduce myself because I was sure that Sam was busy coordinating his first solo game.

While on the sideline I noticed that the MVP Testudo was absent. After each game Coach Meharg identifies the MVP and has them sign a porcelain Testudo. There's some algorithm they have for identifying who will get to receive Testudo after they graduate that I don't quite understand but it's important and that's what Sandy conveyed to me. She also explained that it was accidentally broken while the team played at ODU and the players picked up the pieces and attempted to glue it back together again. They apparently used rubber bands as supports but it didn't work. In the end they chose to place the pieces in a plastic container and attach some take-home gifts the Pan-Am players brought home. A sombrero, a tequila shot glass, and some sort of spanish rug...

I like getting the back-story and I feel like I am privy to that information because I attend the games regularly. I also feel like we do a good job reporting and take exciting photographs and that helps the team relate to us. We've had several players (and parents) tell us that they regularly check out our site because we post articles and photos after every home game.

While on the sideline I had a chance to talk with Greg Fiume for awhile about the complexities of licensing images. He brought up some good points about it and we talked about dual-purpose vs single-purpose licensing and how it's different than a wire service. We also discussed "use" of photos and how the rule of "editorial use is ok" is not universally accepted. He specifically pointed out that the NBA and the NHL have completely different rules for what you do with your photos.

At this point I feel like I benefit more from conversations of that nature than conversations oriented towards exposure. While I certainly learn from other photographers I've been to enough games at this point where I'm comfortable getting my shots and then experimenting a little. I may look to other photographers for some inspiration for a different shot but I'm not a fish out of water floundering trying to figure out basic exposure settings (aperture, ISO, shutter speed, white balance).

Conversing with professionals in the photojournalism (note: emphasis on JOURNALISM) industry is becoming increasingly valuable as I'm becoming more aware of the complexity of the rules in this industry. I've always been borderline between "I don't know and I don't even know that I don't know" and "I don't know but I'm aware that I don't know" states but I now feel as though I'm leaning more towards the "I don't know but I'm aware that I don't know".

As a result I look to other professionals in the industry for advice. This is naturally a tricky proposition because this industry is cut-throat. Accordingly you have to weigh the combination of the advice and the giver of the advice. Quite frankly: can you trust that the person offering you advice is not trying to screw you? It's a tough call because personalities and motivations are difficult to judge. It's certainly more difficult than figuring out proper exposure settings.

All in all I trust myself because I don't have any malcontent towards the people I've worked with and I put a lot of thought towards what we're doing. If I had an axe to grind or some other dubious intent I'd be concerned that I would act inappropriately and try to do something foolish. Fortunately that's not the case. I've made a lot of mistakes in my brief career as a photographer and I've learned from them. I try to surround myself with people who are more experienced than I am so I can learn both the techniques and the business. Right now the trick seems to be making sure those experienced people are the people I can trust and are people that have an interest in my success. In such a competitive industry it's difficult to find people like that.

And I thought all I had to do was show up and shoot pictures...

As usual, an article and photos are available on the DC Sports Box website. You can read about Maryland's win over Delaware and view game photos on the DC Sports Box.