Holiday Hoops
My assignment last night had me shooting more high school hoops… the local paper and TV station sponsored a tournament for all of the area high schools and there were several games. The photo above is of Michael Glover from Spotswood HS — his team beat Charlottesville HS 48-47 in pretty dramatic fashion. Spotswood led 48-46 with 4 seconds left, CHS inbounded to their star Kevin Leatherwood who drove in the lane and was fouled. Leatherwood hit his first free throw while the second shot fell short. Game over.
I lit the gym, much as I have done in the past. Two Canon 580EX Speedlights, manual mode, 1/2 power, zoomed at 50mm (it’s very important to make sure custom function #14 on these model is set to “1″, else your lights will auto power off). With that, I was able to roughly get 1/250, f/4.5, iso640… not bad for a cave. I used a hot-shoe to PC adapter attached to each strobe and then attached on the bottom to the little feet/stand that comes with the flash. The foot is then attached to the base plate of a magic arm with super clamp and attached to the top of the bleachers in the two corners on the side that I’m shooting. I connected the flash via the PC port on the adapter to a PocketWizard Multimax, positioned the light to shine roughly just above the free throw line/key area and test to make sure everything works. I then attach a safety cable to tie down anything that could fall if someone were to bump/mess with my light and I’m good to go. It takes about 4 minutes per light, 8-10 minutes total.
Someone’s Number 1
Today was a doubleheader of women’s hoops — the first round of the Marriott Cavalier Classic at UVA. I had to get there 3 hours before the first game to set up my remotes, which was pretty much a worthless endeavor since I was having trouble with my lights / remotes again. I suspect the PocketWizard Multimax that’s used to sequence my remote cameras is out of whack and/or needing to run off of batteries instead of wall power. Or perhaps it needs to be swapped out with a different PW — I’ll find out tomorrow during the two games I’m shooting then. I hope to have this year’s gremlins out of the system before Xavier comes to town on the 3rd…
More photos from LA Tech vs UMBC
Images from #15 Virginia vs Rider
Using Photo Mechanic’s Code Replacement Feature
On days when I’m not shooting anything or otherwise don’t feel like posting a new or fresh image, I’ll try to describe some of the short cuts and tips that I’ve learned to make life easier. Perhaps one of the biggest time savers for me, especially when shooting college athletics, is the ability to use code replacements in captioning my images. The concept is fairly simple — instead of remembering and typing out a name like Laurynas Mikalauskas, it’s a whole lot easier (and less prone to typo and spelling errors) to look at the number on his jersey and type out something like \v11\.
Where to get started….
If you’re shooting an event that’s either NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA Football, or men’s or women’s NCAA Basketball, you’re in luck. There are automated web sites, available to the public, which will generate your rosters in a format that Photo Mechanic likes, and it’s just plug and play. There are a few quick codes and rules to learn and that’s about it. As far as I can tell, this was all started by a guy named Mike Stone. Mike’s Code Replacement Site provides rosters for all US professional sports and NCAA Football. I went ahead and created my own version, using the exact same naming and coding conventions as Mike, for NCAA Basketball — Code Replacements for Men’s NCAA Basketball and Code Replacements for Women’s NCAA Basketball.
These code replacement roster creation forms ask for a few fields. Home and visiting team prefix — this is the “code” that you want to use to represent a specific team. If Virginia was playing Arizona, I’d likely use “v” for Virginia and “a” for Arizona — pretty simple. Another option is to include player’s numbers in the roster file to be created. Using an “n” at the end of a code, i.e. \v11n\ would automatically spell out Laurynas Mikalauskas (11). Other codes to consider:
“t” at the beginning of your code, will insert the team name — i.e. \tv11\ = Virginia’s Laurynas Mikalauskas
“p” at the beginning of your code, or after the “t” will insert the player’s position — i.e. \pv11\ = forward Laurynas Mikalauskas and \tpv11\ = Virginia forward Laurynas Mikalauskas
In most of my captions, I typically put it all together — i.e. \tpv11n\ = Virginia forward Laurynas Mikalauskas (11)
There are several nuances with sports like football where multiple players can have the same number. Mike has addressed this and explains in greater detail in his Release Notes.
Using one of these resources, you’ll create a text file that you’ll then save to your computer. I put all of mine into a Roster folder, and rename them so that I know what event, day, etc. It’s a helpful short cut, should I need to go back to a shoot and re-caption/edit a batch of older images. Once the roster file has been created, I tell Photo Mechanic where to look for it. On my Mac, using PM version 4.5.3.2, it’s under the Edit -> Set Code Replacements menu at the top (you’ll get a window showing files already included, if any, and the option to add new ones). If you have an older version of PM or PC version, it may be buried somewhere in the “Preferences” menu option. Once you find it, add in your file. You will also note a field for a “Delimiter Character”. This is the beginning and end of your “code”. As in the example above, I’ve found that the backslash character “\” (without quotes) works very well. Other characters seemed to have problems, but you’re free to choose whatever you’d like.
One quick note: if you load multiple files into the set code replacement dialog, make sure that you aren’t overlapping team codes (i.e. the “v” and “a” in the example above). For example, let’s say Virginia played Arizona and you successfully loaded the roster file, no problem. Then the next game Virginia plays UNC-Asheville and you use the “a” also to designate UNC-A. When you type something like \tpa23n\ you’re likely to get an Arizona player if you didn’t previously remove the old roster from the list.
Then, if everything was created and loaded correctly, you are ready to start captioning using code replacements.
If you are shooting something that isn’t covered by one of the automated sites provided above (such as NCAA soccer, lacrosse, high school sports, etc.), you can still create your own code replacement files… it just takes a little longer. If you’re lucky enough to be covering an event where rosters are posted on the web, just cut and paste the roster into a text editor and apply your edits there. The resulting text file needs to be in tab-delimited form (the code followed by a tab followed by what you want displayed whenever you type the code in PM) – with a new line (return) between each record. Such a file (from NCAA field hockey) may look like:
[...]
m1 Maryland Terrapins Goalkeeper Melissa Vassalotti (1)
m3 Maryland Terrapins Back/Midfield Brianna Davies (3)
m4 Maryland Terrapins Forward Brigitte Strother (4)
m6 Maryland Terrapins Back Susie Rowe (6)
m7 Maryland Terrapins Back Emma Thomas (7)
[...]
You can mix and match things up i.e. changing the ‘m1′ code to spit out just “Melissa Vassalotti” but then creating another code called ‘tpm1n’ to replace with “Maryland Terrapins Goalkeeper Melissa Vassalotti (1)” — it’s up to you, you just have to do the work (which is why when manually creating my own rosters, I keep it very simple).
Thanks to Geoff Burke for introducing all of this to me a couple of years ago.
UVA’s Keith Payne auditioning for Superman
This is one of my favorite football photos of all time. It’s from the 2007 season. Virginia running back Keith Payne – a large dude – decided to see how far and how high he could fly with the football. It was an amazing play — only dampened slightly by the fact that he landed just short of the end zone. It didn’t matter, as UVA went on to score a TD and squeaked out a win over Connecticut 17-16. I created this image laying down on my stomach in the back of the end zone. It was shot with my Canon Mark IIN, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
My Copyright Registration Workflow
I often get questions from fellow photographers about my copyright registration process. I separate published images from unpublished images and register published images with the United States Copyright Office once every 75 days. Registering published images 5 times a year helps maintain the 90 day registration window for published images to ensure they are fully protected by any potential infringement. I usually register my unpublished images once or twice a year. All of my registrations, unless there’s a specific circumstance requiring otherwise, are group registrations. Generally, if it goes up on my website or is sent to a client for publication, it’s marked as published. Everything else is unpublished. I’ll go through the details of how/what I do below.
The first step is to get Best Business Practices for Photographers
I use a few software packages to make things easier. These instructions are based on the tools I have and the workflow that I’ve put together — if you have different packages, tools, approach; adjust accordingly. I ingest all of my photos directly from the compact flash card into Photo Mechanic.
This part is important: I create my file names in such a way as to include the date of publication (for published images) or the date of creation (for unpublished images) in the file name, along with other identifying information that’s helpful. For example, if I shoot a basketball game on December 23, 2008 the file name may look something like:
20081223 – Hampton at Virginia (NCAA Basketball)-A113024.jpg
The first 8 numbers are the date of publication (or creation for unpublished). Since this event was shot on the 23rd, the date remains the same… if for instance, I wasn’t able to publish this image until the 24th or later, I would change the first 8 digits in the file name to reflect the date of publication. Then I have a text description of what the file/event was about, followed by a serial number (which Photo Mechanic automatically augments using the {seqn} tag). If the image goes into my unpublished folder, and is later published, I rename to match the date of publication, and move to my current published folder. If you don’t do this, or otherwise denote when images were published, you’ll get a letter or phone call from the copyright office, further delaying your registration. If your group registration contains several thousand images, this could be a major problem and cause a big headache — it’s much easier to keep track of everything at the time of publication and creation and I do so through the file name (there’s also metadata but that seems to not be as easy to deal with for the Copyright Office).
I shoot exclusively in RAW — my selections for publication (website or otherwise) are marked in Photo Mechanic with color codes (1 through 9) depending on their priority. I then select all of the desired images and do basic edits with Adobe’s Camera Raw (part of Photoshop) and create JPEGs from the RAW files. Then, if needed, I do additional edits in Photoshop. I caption, keyword, and apply metadata to my images back in Photo Mechanic and then transmit to my PhotoShelter enabled-website, client, etc.
From there, I open up Adobe Lightroom. I import the folder containing the images I just created. Then in LR I go to Edit -> Select By Color Label -> No Label — this selects all of the images in the folder that had no color tag applied to them and are therefore designated in my system as unpublished. I then go to File -> Export where I enter in the various settings roughly as follows: Files on disk; Folder – the location where you want the images for registration to go; Template – filename; Format: JPEG; Quality: 70; Color Space: AdobeRGB (1998); Resize to fit: Long edge; 800 pixels, 72dpi;
This can be automated by defining a “user preset”. In the same export window, click on “Add” to add a user preset, name it “Unpublished Copyright” or “Published Copyright” — apply your desired settings, save them, and then you’ll see the show up in the File -> Export with Preset option.
After exporting the unpublished images, I then go to Edit -> Invert Selection — this then selects all of the images that I have color tags (and therefore marked for publication) in Photo Mechanic. I do the same process as above for unpublished images, except I make sure these images go into my pre-designated published images folder.
The benefit of using Lightroom, especially for my workflow is that I don’t have to create a separate batch of JPEG images from RAW files to create JPEGs to send to the copyright office. Lightroom creates the reduced sized images for me and I don’t have to store the extra high-res JPEG. For me, this saves time, disk space and frustration.
I use John’s naming suggestion for keeping track of various folders containing my images that I’m going to send to the Copyright Office. A folder named U0801 would be a folder of unpublished images, created in 2008 and it is the first such folder for that year. A folder named P0805 contains published photographs, published in 2008, and it is the 5th such folder (registration) that I have for the year. John explains everything about this in much greater detail in his book. Likewise, I follow his examples and forms provided with his book for filing with the Copyright office. I now do some of my registrations via the Copyright Office’s online registration system — it’s fairly easy to use and saves $10 on the registration fees.
Mike Scott’s one handed rebound
Wow. The Hoos’ finally dispatched of an opponent the way many fans expect them to do with every team they play. Virginia, led by Mike Scott’s game high 17 points and 15 boards (a one-handed version is pictured above), dispatched of the Hampton University Pirates 74-48 at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA on December 23, 2008. For me, this was a particularly fun game, given the proximity to the Christmas holiday — the arena was largely empty, the usual radio interference problems with my remotes was non-existent, and everyone seemed to be in a good mood.
More images from this game…
Happy Holidays to all!
NFL Football – Eagles at Redskins
Washington Redskins wide receiver Antwaan Randle El (82) sheds a tackle attempt by Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Greg Lewis (83) on a punt return. Randle El had several moments where he seemed to shed two, three, four tackles to get extra yards on kick returns. An amazingly talented guy.
This was probably the coldest football game that I’ve been to since perhaps freezing to death at the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, NC. Temps were in the 30s but with a 15-25mph wind, it got down right silly. Regardless, it was a fun game — despite the low score (Washington won 10-3), there were plenty of interesting moments. Down a touchdown at the end of the game, McNabb drove his team all the way to the 1 yard line as time expired. Pretty dramatic.
Also witnessed what happens when you don’t back away from the sidelines quick enough — McNabb was being chased out of bounds on a play and safely reached the sideline about 3 feet in front of where I was standing… the Redskins defender didn’t get the memo to slow down when he dove after McNabb… I took several steps backward, but the Redskins team personnel next to me did not, and learned what it was like to eat linebacker. Ouch. Here’s another shot of a photog getting knocked on his arse at the backside of the end zone.
A 4:15PM kick off meant the entire game was going to be under the lights. I was surprised at how much the light at FedEx field varied in quality compared to even some college venues… 1/640, f/2.8, iso2000… in most places… dropping up to a stop in some corners. Definitely workable, but a couple stops less light than other stadiums. The best part was the turf along the Redskins bench was basically swamp soup… yellow line? What yellow line? Yum.
Thanks to my buddy and fellow photog Andrew for making it all happen. Andrew was about as cold as I was.
Tale of two halves… SEC v ACC game
The first half of today’s Auburn vs Virginia men’s NCAA basketball game was pretty bad… Auburn was up 32-21 at half with UVA only making 5 field goals. The second half was completely different — Virginia rallied and ended up taking the lead towards the end of the game. Auburn clawed back and took the lead by 2 with 14 seconds remaining. Virginia tried a 3 point shot, had it blocked and that was the game. Second half made for some interesting shooting and kept things interesting. Nice road win for AU, tough home loss for UVA.
Shooting (and lighting) Prep Hoops
Tonight’s assignments were shooting boys and girls high school basketball games. I used to really stress over this type of game because nearly every single HS gym might as well be a dark hole as far as available light goes. To figure out a better solution, there’s already a ton of stuff (Like here and here) detailing what to do. It’s pretty simple, and with a couple of magic arms and two speedlites mounted at the top of the bleachers, it literally takes 5 minutes and you’re ready to roll. I shoot in manual mode at 1/2 power, zoomed at 50mm… for this game, that gave me roughly 1/250 at f/5.0-5.6 and ISO500-640. Much better than the alternative of shooting with ambient (1/200 f/2.8 ISO 1600 ish).
More shots from the girls game…
More shots from the boys game…
Tough day… got to shoot basketball though
It’s been a very very long day for me. Got to shoot a women’s basketball game though. Unfortunately, not much went right. Set up four remotes — 2 on the backboard, one below on the padding, and one in the stands. From the combined 300 frames from the remotes only 2 were lit in sequence with my strobe system. And of course, none of those two magical frames had anything usable. That’s pretty terrible. I was experimenting with introducing speedlites into my arena strobe system — the thought being a 580ex or two could help eliminate some of the hard shadows caused by the nets, etc. Good idea in theory, not so much in practice. Back to what I know works 
Mount Victoria Mushrooms
At the top of Mount Victoria, in the Devonport community (a short ferry ride across the Waitemata Harbour from Auckland, New Zealand), are these mushroom painted “things”. A local who was on his morning walked told me that they were a water pump system that were painted as a prank several years ago. Apparently everyone, including children, loved them and so they’ve remained painted as polka-dot red mushrooms. Rather Smurf-like.
End of the trip – Sydney Harbor
Today is the last full day of my 17 day trip to New Zealand and Australia. Minus a few hurdles and difficulties (ear, etc.), it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve seen a ton of amazing things. This shot is from the Sydney Opera House — I waited a while for the light to be the way I wanted it. Pretty much the end to a perfect day — great weather, nice skies, a wonderful city. Time to start thinking about a few last minute shots and packing for the flight home tomorrow.
Australian Pelican
Here is the Aussie version of the pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus). There were a bunch of these guys sitting on the banks of the Torrens River in Adelaide. They weren’t very shy, but were weary of me getting close. It took several minutes to get close enough and then I was losing a lot of my ambient light because of sunset and clouds… so I used a little bit of flash to fill in. I wanted to get something a little different than a standard bird shot… I purposely tried to keep the background dark, mainly because just seconds before along the river banks was a danger sign warning people not to swim in the “polluted water”. It seemed to me to be an interesting contrast that these beautiful birds (and dozens of other ducks, swans, etc.) seemed okay with the water. Then I realized that the part of the pollution might not be man made… the green grass covered banks were covered in tons and tons of bird poop. A humorous, yet surreal part of my day yesterday.
After walking the city most of the day, by the end of the day I knew exactly where I wanted to be. Great light for the most part. Adelaide surprised me a little bit — I came in with mixed expectations and was blown away. It’s a really neat city with a lot going for it.
Solar Mallee Trees, Adelaide
I found these guys “growing” in front of the Adelaide Festival Center… they’re designed to look like Mellee Trees, except with solar panels on top. Unlike the real trees, these also provide lighting around the area — each one estimated to have the same environmental impact of planting six trees per year. Not only do they look really cool, but seem to make sense as well. These would definitely look better than the black wooden people cut-outs on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville.
Mount Wellington, Tasmania
After my ear drum ruptured in the middle of a Virgin Blue flight from Brisbane to Cairns, ruining a good part of my trip, it had been several days since I went out and actually felt like shooting again. I finally felt good enough to take a short trip to Mount Wellington in Tasmania. Rising above 4,100 feet from the Derwent River and the town of Hobart, the views are stunning, albeit often cloud filled. This is my favorite shot from the trip up — showing the enclosed observation deck, surrounding hills and mountains, the river, harbor and town below. While there were certainly tons of people up top, I felt very much removed from the rest of the world.
An interesting unanticipated challenge was that directly behind me was a very large (and apparently powerful) transmission tower that interfered with the communication between my camera body and the lens. The view finder kept going dark like I pressed the DoF button — and then random never-before-seen error messages on the LCD of my 1Ds… pretty freaky.
