I really don’t think many people look at these but I’ll keep posting anyway. I have been reading a lot (ya me) working on portfolio’s and working on writing some more informative blog posts on photography tips, techniques, what it takes to make a photo and things like that. I hope to start posting these more soon. I think I’m done with winter and ready for summer, skip right over spring!

I decided to head out to Pine Knob Ski Resort in Clarkston, Michigan to photograph a snowboarding slopestyle competition. I planned on shooting it for myself, for fun, since I rarely do that anymore and need to to keep my shooting fresh and fun. At the last minute I emailed the Detroit News asking if they were interested in a photo gallery and they said yes so it ended up being a paying gig. (detnews.com gallery HERE.) I would have liked to stayed a bit longer and taken my time working on some other angles but I needed to get the photos in and then get home to take my daughter to a daddy/daughter dance. (Which was great BTW) I still had fun though. I also managed to snag a loaner Nikon 200-400mm f/4 lens for the weekend and it was AMAZING to shoot with. Too bad I can’t make the $6000+ cost of the lens to get one. I might head back out on Sunday just for myself to get some photos of the snowboarder cross races and maybe hang out in the terrain park some for a few set up shots. Click on a photo below to see the gallery of images bigger. Please remember all photos are copyrighted to me and can not be downloaded and used on other blogs or re-printed in any other way without my permission. Thanks.

 

I’ve been sick with a cold the last week but managed to get a couple iPhone photos alone with a few of my kids. My two favorites are my daughter using her sled as a snowboard and the empy cairs in the classroom. Have a good weekend!

 

I don’t use Snapfish for my printing, oh wait, I have had some family photos printed by them and they look decent. I have never had a book printed by them but as a supporter of Make-A-Wish I think I might have some books made for family, the grandmas love them.

Click HERE to find out how you can oder a book and help Make-A-Wish.

Today was a snow day for my kids with most schools in metro Detroit closed. Both my photo assignments were canceled so between doing a little bit of work we played in the snow. They love it when I build snow jumps in the yard to pull them over. Then they wanted to do “night snow jumping” under the lights like they say snowboarders do in the x-games. Fun times.

Tech: (for you photog and strobist types) The Camera is on a tripod (Nikon D300). The flash is a Nikon SB800 off camera right in the top photo, camera left in the bottom photo. The pop-up flash on the camera is triggering the SB using Nikon’s CLS system. I am firing the camera with Alien Bee CyberSync wireless triggers. The shutter release cable is from Flash Zebra. I have the transmitter in my free hand and I hit the button after they leave the lip of the jump.

Okay, so last Friday I got my kids off to school in the morning and returned home around 9:00 AM.  I made some breakfast, coffee, looked at the paper, and then checked the websites I usually look over while drinking my morning coffee.

My plan was to finalize my new portrait fees and get some wedding photo FAQ’s ready for my blog before I picked up my son from Kindergarten at noon.  I didn’t have any photo assignments so I planned to exercise later in the day after dinner. That was the plan anyway.

I picked up my son Max, came home for lunch, and then went to Target to get a gift for his classmate’s birthday party on Saturday. While in Target  I received a call at about 2:00 PM from the Detroit News asking if I could shoot a high school basketball game at 7:30pm. I told them yes because I didn’t have specific plans, except working out and relaxing, and this time of the year is slow so I will take all the photo jobs I can get. My daily plan has now been changed.

With the 6 year old birthday gift secured, Max and I head home for some quality Max Guitar Hero time so that I can now plan for my assignment.  I checked my email for the photo assignment and see that I also need to get a family portrait before the game for a feature story on this basketball family. There might be 5 people in the photo, maybe more. It will be shot between the end of the JV game and the start of the varsity game. One of the kids plays JV and one plays Varsity so this has to be a fast shot.

I’m not sure where the school is so I Google it and map out my directions. I also Google both of the schools to see if their team rosters are online to ID the players.  It’s sometimes a pain getting rosters at the game so securing these ahead of time is always better. No luck, there are no rosters online.  It looks like I’ll have to get them at the game. This time they had nicely printed rosters available. Score!

Hmm, what time I should leave for a 7:30PM game but get there in time to figure out where to shoot the portrait, how I want to light it and set up strobes (flashes)?  I have never been to this school but most schools typically have dark gyms and I usually end of strobing one end of the floor.  (For non-photogs, I set up 2 small off-camera flashes in the corners and make them fire with wireless triggers.) I had to deal with traffic on  I-696 during rush hour, yet I didn’t want to leave too early and just be sitting around for a long time thinking about the time I was wasting.  A mental decision was made that 6:00 PM should work.

When did it get to be 3:30 PM?  I need to load Max in the truck to go pick up his sister Macey from school.  With both children secured we head home to start dinner so that we can eat when my wife gets home from work around 5pm.  I also need to be certain that I have the photo gear packed and that the battery on my laptop is charged for transmitting photos back to the paper via wi-fi after the game.  Well, it was charged, but not anymore. Note to self: Charge battery after each use. Oh, that reminds me, while mapping the school’s location I needed to check where the closest Starbucks or other wi-fi location was so that I could transmit the photos to the paper after the game.

I think I have everything done (right?) and I head out the door at the predetermined 6:00 PM thankfully, because traffic was really heavy on the way to the school.

Okay, if you are still reading at this point I’m impressed.

I arrived at the school about 7:00PM and of course the JV game was running late, not surprisingly, so I luck out with time to set up.  But… would this late start cause an issue later for deadline?  Hmmm, I’ll need to keep that in mind.  I set up my strobes for the game and do some quick test shots of the JV game.  They looked good.  Now, where to shoot the portrait? It’s a really small gym and very crowded.  I liked a spot high in the bleachers overlooking the court. So borrowing one of the lights I would use for the game, I put a white, shoot through umbrella on the stand and set it up in the bleachers. I’m ready…I think.  Now all I needed were the subjects and it turns out there was nine of them in the photo, not five. Hmmm, where I wanted to shoot was filling up with people and didn’t have enough room, plus 7 of them were already together on the opposite side of the court in the bleachers but lower. Didn’t everybody get my mental memo that I sent out? Guess not. I just shot where they were instead. Not a great shot at all but it works.  Looking back I should have had them all move to my first location choice.

The portrait was done and I returned the light for the game and waited for it to start. Once the game was underway,  I watched the clock as I shot the first half thinking about deadline.  I didn’t really feel like I was getting many good action shots so I ended up staying the whole first half.  I still wasn’t satisfied with what I had but I had no choice at 8:40 pm since I still needed to take down the lights, drive to Starbucks about 5 miles away and get 1-2 photos in by 9:30PM for the papers 2^nd addition and then  6-7 more for a photo gallery.

Sipping my mocha, I edited through the photos for the best images.  There were not many I liked but enough for the paper and a gallery. I started working on the photos, cropping, sizing, making sure the color was correct, and writing captions. Oh wait!  I forgot earlier in the day at home I pre-wrote part of the captions while Max was becoming the next Guitar Hero in order to save time while editing. All I needed to do was fill in the names and what they were doing before sending to the paper. Time bonus awarded!  Two photos are in by 9:15 and all of them were transmitted by 9:30PM.  It’s so nice with my newer, faster computer and when the wi-fi actually works on location.

I placed a phone call to the  photo editor on the desk to let him know the photos had been sent.  I actually had a chance to chill for a bit and finish my coffee before driving home. I arrived back at home at 10:30 pm. Time from receipt of photo assignment to completion: 8.5 hours. Time from departure to assignment to home: 4.5 hours.  Time pushing, actually pushing the camera button: Hmmm, 10 minutes?  People not familiar with photography think all photographers have to do is push the button and its done.  They never see all of the preparation that leads to that button being pushed or the processing after the fact to produce the final images.  Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what may be behind every image that you see.

The photos below are two of the final images shot with the off camera flash. The first one is right under the basket where the light is better. The second one is above the 3 point line where the light falls off some and the photo needed to be lightened some.  The photo to the right is at the other end of the court where the strobes didn’t reach.

Just a few photographs from Mondays photo shoot with Evelyn. I’m photographing her wedding later this year and asked her if she wanted to pose for some portraits so I could play around with light some. I liked these where the light is based on and similar to the old style “Hollywood” lighting from the 30’s and 40’s. It fit the look we wanted well.

 

All the photos this week were shot with my iPhone except the swimming photo. Slow shooting week and a bunch of office, planning, taxes and computer work. Click on a photo to see the bigger gallery.