Sportsshooter Academy Day II
Day 2.
This workshop can be exhausting. While it doesn’t necessarily start early in the morning, it does go late into the evening. Even after the critiques and image reviews, some of the best parts of the workshop are hanging out with the students and getting to know your piers. I spent quite a bit of time with two amazing photographers, Maya Sugarman and Michael Chen. Like I said in my last post, my attendance at the workshop was kinda last minute. I had planned to stay at the nearby Los Alamitos Army Air Station, or barring that, sleep in my car, but these two took me under their wing and very graciously allowed me to crash on their floor. We ended up scheduling our days together and developing a pretty solid working relationship. These types of friendships are, to me, more valuable than making the images at a workshop like this. The images are great, one or two might even make it into your portfolio, eventually to be replaced by something better, but friendships and the respect of your piers is something that is invaluable in this industry.
As for Shooting, I chose to hit up lacrosse in the afternoon and woman’s soccer in the evening. I chose Lacrosse for the portrait opportunities, as Tim Mantoani was going to be there with his lighting equipment. Tim is one of the top commercial sports photographers in the country. If you have played any EA sports video game, you have seen his work. I was really looking forward to his tutelage. However, so was everyone else, and I was the last on the list to work with him. Maya and I however searched out some other places and people to shoot. This brings me to the second great thing about what SSAVIII does for a photographer: It forces you to think outside the box to find great shots. We had a set up area to make portraits, but the lighting would be somewhat consistent for everyone, and after a while the same poses and people would be used. Maya and I found some great texture on the wall of the arena, and grabbed one of the Lacrosse players to pose for us. I loved the resulting images.
Soccer was much harder for me to shoot. As you know the field is big, and I did not have long glass. I was forced to look for unique images in the crowd or in the surrounding venue, and then wait for the action to come to me. I am not quite as happy with the results. Long glass would have helped, but lets face it, photography is not about the gear. I was shooting out of my comfort zone. I like portraits, that’s my happy area, and I would need to push outside that zone to really excel.
Sportsshooter Academy VIII Day 1
As many of you may or may not know, my orders to the Middle East were canceled at the last moment. While I am severely disappointed at this, I was able, through the grace of Bert Hanashiro and Samy’s Camera in Orange county, to get the last available spot at the Sportsshooter Academy. So, after a brutal day of travel, from San Diego to Reno and then back to Irvine, I am at THE coolest sports photography website in the country.
This workshop is truly one of the best in the country. The instructors here are some of the best sports photojournalists and photographers in the country. I spent yesterday with John McDonough, a staff photographer with Sports Illustrated, and Tim Mantoani a renowned commercial photographer from San Diego, shooting a boxing club in La Habra Ca. I was happy with my results, but the biggest reward from being here is not getting a great opportunity to take the photos that I love. The best part is looking at everyone’s images at the end of the day and listening to the instructors critique the days work. It is inspiring to see what all the students come up with. Each individual brings a different way of looking at events we all saw, and it really drives home the point. “SEE DIFFERENT!”
In the Narmy Now!!!
Hello all, It has been a while since I posted last but I have been pretty busy being a sailor the past few months. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I have been a soldier though. It all started in the beginning of July when I was officially recalled to active duty. I had to report to Naval Base San Diego to under go medical screening to ensure that I was fit enough to go to a combat zone. This isn’t as much of a given as its sounds, when I went through this process a few years ago, I was rejected for some odd reason. However, I was good to go.
Now rather than put me on a place to Bahrain, where the 5th fleet is located, and where I will be based out of for the next six months, I journeyed to the wonderful resort town of Columbia South Carolina, and Ft Jackson, for training on how to be a Narmy Soldier. Columbia is such a wonderful place to be in July. 105 degree temperatures with 90% humidity while wearing 60 lbs of gear is a great vacation. While I was there they gave us training on weapons, and IED’s, and Body Armor, and dehydration.
Ft. Jackson is an Army boot camp and our instructors were all Drill Sergeants, so I was a little nervous about how were going to be treated. However, officers and enlisted were training together, so really we were all treated as professionals rather than fresh recruits. Some people really should have been sent back to boot camp though. We had dentists in tie died shirts and doctors wearing high heels. They took the training as a joke rather that approaching it as what it should be, valuable info that could save our lives should we end up in a bad situation. Anyway, here are some out takes and images from my two weeks down there.
Great Sunset and Baseball, Reno Aces May 13th
I would like to preface this with the fact that the speed limit through Reno is 55, and not my previously assumed 65, a point of knowledge that had me running a bit behind for the game last night. David Calvert was nice enough to get me a press pass for Friday’s and Saturday’s games again, which provided a great way to end an otherwise hectic day. (more…)
Shooting the Aces
So first off, for my first blog post I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read this. Whether my musings on and growth of photography is worth taking the time to read has yet to be seen, but I hope I can make it worth your while.
So I am trying to break in as a freelance photographer in the Reno/Tahoe area. I am a member of SportsShooter.com—a great community for sports photographers everywhere. Through the community I hooked up with a great pro photographer down in Reno, named David Calvert, calvertphotography.com. He is the team photographer for the Reno Bighorns of the NBA Development League and the Reno Aces, the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He invited me out to come shoot the Aces game with him on Saturday, April 16. I love shooting sports, so I could not pass up the opportunity.
