Sports

A late afternoon of high school soccer

Who knew preparing to kick a soccer ball was like preparing for flight?

Former client Valerie, owner of Aacardi Salon in Saint Petersburg, called me last Tuesday afternoon asking if I was free to photograph her son playing in his last high school soccer game that late afternoon.  Luckily, my schedule just worked out so that I could get there in time for the start of the game.  Her son is #3 pictured above, a defenseman.  

Headers come to those whose head is highest, of course.

I believe her son was the tallest player on the team, so he had several chances like in the above photograph to safely head the ball out of his team's area.  I photographed the entire first half, which ended in a 0-0 tie.

#13 was always in need of some strong defending

As with all non-direct sunlight sports action, getting sharp, well exposed images was a challenge, especially as half the field was in shadow, and the other in a golden setting sunlight, and of course most of the action took place in the former.

The keeper came out for a stroll allowing me to make this close-up image.

I really enjoy the challenge of photographing sports.  You quickly realize out there photographing alone why there are so many photographers on the sidelines of professional sporting events--you simply can always follow the action because you do not know where it will come from, you can only focus on one player well, and hope the action comes to him/her.

Equestrian Photography is fun and challenging

Jumping is a powerful action by the horse, though at full speed it looks like it takes little muscle.

To a person not versed on the intricacies of horse jumping, it is nearly impossible to tell a good ride from a bad ride unless the horse knocks down or hits the top bar on a gate.  I have photographed several all day equestrian events as a freelance photographer for Tampa Pet Photography, and I am only just learning what the judges actually look for.  The whole time I am still thinking, "why does the horse even need direction to know how to jump over the gate?  Can't it just do it on its own?"

Fox Lea Farm in Venice, Florida is a large, three corral equestrian venue.

Then there are the intricacies of getting the ideal equestrian shot.  The number one priority is making sure the horse's legs are curled under its body.  Capturing the horse at the apex of its jump while still only just above the gate is the next photographic target.  Having the rider pressed tightly against the horse's neck with her (99% of the time they are female riders) face showing would then make it a technically perfect equestrian shot.  Obviously this takes a lot of practice and knowledge of the course (i.e. which direction they jump the gates) and the ability of getting a clean field of view while still ideally having the sun to your back.  Such conditions do not often arise in the glaring late mornings and afternoons in Florida.

I try and memorize the order in which the rider and horse jump over the gates then focus on the 3 or four gates I can actually make a good shot from.

It really helps to have a camera capable of a very high FPS shooting speed.  My Nikon D300 can at its peak get 6 FPS, and that is the bare minimum.  I would certainly like to have the D3s' 9+ FPS capability.  No matter what FPS your camera is capable of, memorizing the course the riders and horses follow over the gates is essential to having any chance at making an ideal or otherwise equestrian photograph.  Out of maybe 14 gates on the largest course and about 8 on the medium sized one, I am usually lucky to be able to have 2-4 gates where it is even possible to make a technically perfect equestrian shot.  All the other gates are either at the wrong angle to my vantage point, too far away, obscured, or so directly backlit that the shot would have no quality to it whatsoever.

I don't know if I'd trust my physical well-being to a horse in this mental state. I can report the woman cleared the course on that horse without incident fortunately.

People are not the only beings to make extremely funny faces while engaged in sports.  The horses can be caught in quite embarrassing poses as well.  It is a rule not to snap away when the horse gets too close, especially if you have a really loud camera actuation (my D300 does) so as to not spook or distract the horse.  Of course flash is totally forbidden.  

The Michael Jordan of horses!

This weekend I will continue my pursuit of making the ideal equestrian shot! 

My first Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field

Tropicana Field home of the Tampa Bay Rays in its minimal glory.I joined the Saint Petersburg Chamber of Commerce in June of this year.  At the Chamber's new member orientation networking event they have a raffle where everyone puts their business card in for a prize drawing.  The top prize was a pair of tickets to the Rays game that evening.  They were playing the Toronto Blue Jays.  I knew I had won before the woman even read the name because of my business card's distinct color.  I was half stoked and half thinking, do I have time to suddenly go to a baseball game?

 A Tampa Bay Ray at bat against the Toronto Blue Jays in Tropicana Field.

I had heard that Tropicana Field was not a great baseball venue at all.  My first impression walking from the parking lot to the entrance gate was very positive.  Once inside I felt, "this isn't so bad.  The atmosphere is pretty good, lots of booths and different stuff going on.  Decent buzz."  

Lenses inside Tropicana Field have to be less than 12 inches long, not a problem from my 3rd row behind the dugout seat.

The Chamber has great seats, just three rows behind the visitor's dugout (along the third base line).  We were the first ones in our row and in the area, so had clean site lines and I was able to get unobstructed shots.  However, people filed in well after the first inning and it made getting any good shots nearly impossible.  

Scott Kamir was soon traded from the Rays to the Angels after this start.

I started to notice that Tropicana Field was actually not that nice of a baseball stadium at all.  There were lots of dark areas at the top of the dome, very poorly lit.  The neon and regular billboards overwhelmed the outfield view.  It soon felt very dreary inside the dome, despite the cheers of the Rays faithful.

People scramble to catch a home run ball in Tropicana Field.Still, as home runs started to be hit I felt excited.  I must confess also this was the very first major league game I attended.  I can make the claim to fame, however, of seeing Michael Jordan plan a spring training game years ago.

How I was thrown out of a girl's fast-pitch softball game!

I (as a photographer) got thrown out of a girl's (age 16+) fast-pitch softball game.  This made me both angry and excited.  I felt nervous like I had done something wrong, but I also felt cool to have been tossed from the field.  How could such a thing happen to an innocent like myself?  This is how . . .

I have photographed baseball tournaments in the past, so I thought photographing my first softball tournament would go pretty much the same way.  In a sense, from a photography standpoint, they are quite similar, but everything else is rather different.  I will elaborate on this point in a future post.  For now, I will concentrate on getting tossed out of the game by this blue:

Here is the setup:  it was toward the end of the game (tie score), so I was on the 3rd baseline in front of the visitor's dugout getting infield andthe ump who threw me outhome plate action shots.  There were two outs and a runner on third.  The batter (#23) made decent contact and was trying to beat the throwout to first so the runner on third could score.  Even a single run here probably would have secured the win for the red team.  

Usually, from the 3rd baseline it is very hard to get a clean shot of the play at first because you have the 3rd baseman (woman) often in the way and you almost always have the pitcher in the way.  Due to the possibility of a play at home I guess, I found myself with a clean shot at first base.  I locked on to the first baseman (woman) and fired away not knowing the gravity of what I was about to capture.  

 The runner was called out.  Of course the red team did not like the call.  After the inning changed I showed the 3rd base coach for the red team the above shot to show it was seemingly the correct call (I cannot see the runner putting a foot on the bag before that ball gets in glove).  He concurred.  

Well, the blue (what umpires are called since they wear blue shirts) who made the call, and who was all the way on the other side of the field, seemed to guess what I was doing and charged across the infield.  No warning was given, just a "get outta here!"  I was like, "why?"  He said photographs cannot be shown to players or coaches during the game.  I of course had been doing this in all previous games with no complaints from any other blue.

There was no negotiating.  I said I had a right to photograph the game by contract and that no one had ever said there was a "no show" policy before.  This just made the blue angrier.  I thought about kicking dirt on his shoes as I left, but did not want to endanger my D300 or Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm F2.8D lens, so I just left giving defiant looks over my shoulder.  

So that is how I got tossed from a softball game!

The 11th annual All Faiths HAT Tournament

This afternoon I went out to Walter P. Fuller Park to photograph a few of the games from the 11th annual All Faiths HAT Tournament.  For a mere $20 entry fee players got a t-shirt and a huge spread of food provided throughout the tourney, along with music over a proper PA system.  I was quite impressed. 

The games themselves were pretty organized with a few zone defenses seen, as well as a few Ho-O offenses called, if not exactly executed in a textbook manner.  The ability of players, as one might expect in a HAT tournament, varied widely.  Some players were laying out, others were somehwat mobility challenged.  However, the spirit of the games seemed to be quite high and appropriate for ultimate.  I heard cheers and chants, and saw high fives given to players who made mistakes on the walk back to receive the pull. 

PURCHASE action and candid photographs from the tourney

My first Little League shooting experience

 

This past weekend was my first paid sports photography gig.  I was hired to photograph two baseball games on Saturday and two more on Sunday for RBI Tournament Baseball.  The games I photographed were part of a championship tournament for 14-year old boys.  Some teams came from as far away as North Ft. Myers, a good two hour drive.  One team I covered in three different games, the Yard Dawgs, are ranked in the top 20 teams in the nation for their age group. 

Let me tell you, outdoor sports photography in Florida is hard.  Even in April, the sun is very strong and can beat you down.  I am still not used to the strength of the Florida sun at all having been in temperate northeast Asia the past 9 years.  The baseball games were only 7 innings, but still lasted over 2 hours each.  The first day I forgot my monopod at home, so I had my D300 with Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens hanging off my neck the whole afternoon and evening.  I brought my monopod the second day, but used it only for half of the first game.  I just did not like how it restricted my mobility. 

What did I learn from being on the field with these young baseball players? 

  • The umpire is called "Blue" in reference to the blue uniform they wear
  • The players call each other kid, and some coaches even say kid too.  The word is pronounced like this, "kiiiyiiid!"
  • You hear this constantly from the dugout batting, "Find your pitch and drive it, kiiiyiiid!"
  • When the count is 3-0 or 3-1 the coach actually says to the pitcher, "Throw him a pitch he can hit!'

Some teams are a lot more fun than others.  The Tampa Heat were the best to hangout around.  They have a pitcher, #9, who had me cracking up all the time.  Some teams are intimidated by their coaches, even I was!  I had to approach them to setup the team photo, but felt like a kid having to go ask his dad for permission to do something.  There were a lot of big comebacks in the 7th inning. 

I averaged about 450 shots per game.  This is the equipment I used:

  • Nikon D300 on continuous high
  • Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm IF f/2.8D lens, set to f/4
  • ISO 200 mostly because the Florida sun is bright
  • Velbon RUP-L43 monopod sparingly