Not Sports?

Finally was able to go out and do something besides shooting sports. Sunday afternoon I was able to get to Mendon Ponds Park even though it was getting late in the day. The number of birds was a little discouraging but the deer were out in full force. Along with some crazy squirrels that wanted seeds. Here some shots...check out the animals section of my website for more.

Girls Hoops on a Friday Night

Finished up a long week of sports with a Friday night game at Gates Chili H.S. between the ladies of Gates Chili and Webster Schroeder. Gates top scorer did not play but the rest of the team played really well and beat the Warriors. Here are a few shots and remote flash was used for the whole game.

Girls BBall: Spartans v. Warriors

Fairport Two Times

Gates Chili faced Fairport twice this week. Tuesday it was hockey at Genesee Valley. Very tough game with the Red Raiders coming out on top 3-1. Wednesday the basketball team played Fairport in GC. This game was the first overtime game in the shortlived new gym of GC. In a great back and forth game, Fairport won it on a three point shot with ten seconds left in the game. Here are some of my favorites from this double dose of Red Raiders.

Hockey: Spartans v. Red Raiders

Basketball: Spartans v. Red Raiders

Wrestling with a Flash

I am on the remote flash kick in the gym, so I used the speedlite again to shoot some wrestling. Positioned the light stand at it's lowest height and pointed the flash into the mat so it was not directly in the wrestlers face but more or less bouncing up and filling in shadows. I liked the results but was upset to find out there was only going to be five matches. Some of the wrestlers had injuries and they just didn't fill in some of the weight classes. Out of the five matches I took some decent shots but nothing really portfolio worthy and this was my last chance this year to get one. The matches featured Gates Chili v. Penfield and was Gates first annual wrestlers alumni night. Here are some of the shots...

Wrestling:Spartans v. Patriots

More Flash Please

I continue to try and create some decent images with the remote flash. My brain gets tired when I write too much, so here are a few pics of two back to back games I shot on Monday. The two games were Gates Chili girls v. Aquinas L'il Irish followed by the Gates Chili boys v. East Orientals.

Girls Basketball:Gates Chili v. Aquinas

Boys Basketball:Gates Chili v. East

Skiing in the Woods

Had the chance to drive south of Rochester to Harriet Hollister Spencer Park near Hemlock Lake. The drive was for the opportunity to shoot some skiing. Not downhill skiing but nordic skiing. For those who have no clue what nordic skiing is, it is pretty much cross country skiing through the woods.

I finally got to the park and had to park along the road due to the very small parking lot taken up by the many school buses. With camera in hand and my backpack I followed the row of cars leading to the trail entrance. I walked through the woods with skiers everywhere warming up along the many small trails. I followed the major trail until I started to see cones and parents. I walked a while until I found a clearing with a view down towards Honeoye Lake. When I reached a decent position varsity girls started their race.

I was only there for two hours and came away with a few good shots. Well decent for never shooting any previous skiing before, especially nordic.

Rest of the pics: Nordic Skiing at Harriet Hollister

Remote Flash Basketball

I have read a lot about shooting sports (mostly indoor) with strobes and flashes. I have not purchased any strobes yet but I do have a speedlite. I own a Canon 580ex II. I also have two pocket wizards to remotely trigger the flash. I decided to try out some remote flash shots during the Gates Chili v. Spencerport basketball game.

I set up the flash with a light stand and pocket wizard up on the second floor track at the Gates Chili gym. I aimed the flash from the corner I was going to shoot from up top and on the bottom floor. The flash was pointed at the foul line near the basket that GC was shooting at for two quarters. I tryed shooting from three different locations during the game. After setting that up and attaching the other pocket wizard to the camera, I did a few test shots during warm ups to get proper exposure. I ended up shooting with the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM. I kept my settings at f/2.8, 800 iso, and 1/250 ss.

When the game started I shot from up top right next to the flash. A shot from that angle.

At about the 4 minute mark of the first quarter I moved toward the middle of the basket but still up top. Still had a small angle so it wasn't straight on. Heres a shot from that angle.

For the second quarter I moved down to the floor and sat at the baseline on the same side as the flash. Here is two shots from that position. I stayed in the spot for the third quarter to get some shots of GC on defense and also Spencerport players.

The fourth quarter I moved to the other end of the court to finish some shots of Gates Chili's offense. I turned the flash off and just used a high iso at the end. Overall I was impressed with the way some of the flash shots came out. There is definitely room for improvement. It also limited the number of shots I took because I was only using batteries and not a powerpack. Monday (MLK Day), I will try some different shots with both a girls and boys game. I also will be shooting Nordic Skiing for the first time......

Rest of the pics: GC v. Spencerport

Titans v. Spartans on the Rink

Spartans hockey had them facing the Webster Thomas Titans on Wednesday. The game looked to be a close one but GC needed to stay away from the penalty box. Gates stayed out of the penalty box for most of the game and neither team took any in the first period. Gates scored in the first period and then late in the third to seal it with a 2-0 win.

I thought this shot really told a story. It was the first goal of the game and shows a Titans player looking back at Gates-Chili celebrating.

Rest of the pics: GC v. Webster Thomas

Basketball Boredom Creates My Artistic Side

I now have shot many basketball games for Gates in their home gym. I still love to shoot the sport and team, just looking for a little variety in these cold winter days. I decided to change things up for this game.

Left the house a little early to setup before the game began. I decided to bring the tripod and start off up top where the track is located above the gymnasium floor. I put on the 18-55mm lens and attached it to the tripod. I also attached a ND 2x and a Circular polarizer to the lens to slow down the shutter even more. I set the iso at 100, aperture at f/11 and the shutter to 4 seconds. I ended up with a photo that was nicely lit and what looks like ghosts playing on the court. Definitely looks different to my normal photos and kinda liked it. Here it is...

After I was done shooting a few slow shutter shots from above, I decided to stay up there and get a few more with the 70-200mm 2.8 lens. I actually liked the way some of the rebound and lay-up shots were coming out, so I stayed up there for the whole first half. Here are some shots from above.

More photos here: Varsity GC v. Penfield

Take it to the Mat

Gates-Chili finally had a home wrestling match for me to shoot. They hosted Rush-Henrietta in their new gym. I shot both JV and Varsity. It seemed that Gates Varsity had many forfeits either due to the lack of wrestlers or participants weren't able to make weight. Anyways, for the first rasslin' match some of the photos came out pretty well. I will try some different angles during the next match for comparison purposes. Even with the great lights in GC's new gym, I did have to shoot at a 3200 iso and use some noise software (Noise Ninja). Here are some of the varsity shots.

Gallery photos here: Varsity GC v. R-H

Dane Miller

Had a chance to go shoot a division I recruit that plays for the Rush-Henrietta Royal Comets. His name is Dane Miller and he has verbally committed to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. R-H played against Gates-Chili in there new gym. I was impressed with Dane. He is 6' 5" and needs to add a few pounds, but he plays great defense (he had about 6 great blocks in the game) and rebounds very well on both sides of the court. Hopefully in a few years I will be able to see him play against the 'Cuse. Here is Dane and some other shots from the game...

Rest of the photos: GC v. R-H