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.

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!”

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.

I approached this game a little differently than the last one.  Last game I had access to a 200-400mm F4 lens that is a beauty to work with.  However, today I had the relatively meager 80-200mm, so I could not shoot nearly as tight.  In a way this was good because I was able to follow the action much closer.  However, I do love a good tight image.  Eh, sacrifices.  Its not about the gear.

I wanted to focus on some of the fundamentals of shooting peak action in the game, like getting bat on ball or getting the ball as it leaves the pitchers hand

Evan Frey doubles to left field

Evan Frey Singles to Center

Wily Mo Pena connects with the pitch

Jason Urquidez closes out the 9th inning

Wily Mo Pena hits his 14th home run of the season in the 5th inning

One other thing that I kept in the back of my mind was to find interesting moments through out the game that while may not be leak action, make for interesting images.

Danny Duffy of the Omaha Stormchasers Pitches beneath a beauty sunset in Reno

Aces First baseman Brandon Allen returns to the bag after breaking his belt on a pick off play

Stormchaser Shortstop Lance Zawadzki makes an error on Friday against the Aces

And here is one shot that almost every photographer that I know, has.  And now I have it too:

Jason Urquidez closes out the ninth inning against the Stormchasers

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.

And while yes I do love shooting sports, baseball is a game that I am little more than a spectator. I know the basic rules but the strategy is something I’m still learning. It is hard for me to anticipate what is going to happen so that my lens is in the right spot to capture the right moment. David was great in educating me on what to look for. So this was an educational experience,

My images were focused on getting the basics down, trying to time the bat on the ball, or the release point when the ball leaves the pitchers hand. I did set up a remote camera on second base to catch double-plays and stolen bases, and for my first time doing so got a decent result.

By the way, Reno is a hell of a team this year: they are currently 7-2, have a team batting average of .322 and have knocked out 18 home runs in nine games. There was no shortage of action to work with.

Here are the images, let me know what you think!

1/8000s f4 1600 iso 350mm D700

1/4000s F4 200mm D700

1/1250 f4 iso3200 400mm d700

1/1000s f4 iso 3200 400mm d700

1/640s f4 iso 6400 400mm d700

1/1600s f4 iso 6400 20mm d700

1/1000s f4 iso 6400 400mm d700

1/2000s f4 iso 6400 400mm d700