Nikon D3, 70-200mm @ 34mm, 500iso, f/2.8, 1/180, manual

UCI Men’s Basketball guard Michael Hunter poses for a quick photo before warming up to play UC Riverside.

While he was gone I set up one softbox in the narrow hall where the locker rooms are. I didn’t have much room to work with and I wanted to keep it simple. I had two photographers, Lee and Rashmi, helping me setup. In the photo below, Rashmi stands in and tries out a few poses.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm @ 35mm, 500iso, f/2.8, 1/180, manual

About an hour before the game Michael came back to the Bren Events Center and everything was already set up. I already had the pose decided and all he had to do was stand in. I did the first shot with just his street clothes on.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm @ 34mm, 500iso, f/2.8, 1/180, manual

After a few shots, he went into the locker room and changed into his uniform. When he came back out we took a few more shots. This is the shot that ran in the paper, although I liked the previous one a little better.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm @ 35mm, 500iso, f/2.8, 1/180, manual

Check out the slide show below…

I was so busy with other stuff leading up to Shocktoberfest that I didn’t really get to put as much effort into shooting the dunk contest as I wanted to. I had my strobes back in the Bren and I had one remote camera set up on the top of the shot clock. It wasn’t the best choice, and actually a pretty bad choice. Once again I am reminded not to rely on my remote camera. Anyways, below are some photos of my assistants Ryon Tanara, Pratik Panda, and Ian Massey.

This last weekend I shot volleyball players from UCI, Argentina, Netherlands and Korea. I was trying to replicate this Power Rangers poster below:

I shot it in one of the gyms with all the lights out. It was big enough of a room so that the light would not spill out far enough to hit any walls. I knew that I would need a relatively soft light to light the main part of the players faces. For the main soft light I angled it so that the light would fall off on the face and fade to black. Then I used an additional light more to the left of the camera and set to a higher power, to give more of an outline on the edge of the face.

I shot each player individually and then merged the photos later in photoshop. One thing I did not intend to have was the shadow cast on the players faces from the nose. It was from the more powerful light that I used to outline the players from the side. Hopefully I can learn of a better angle to place that light in order to cut down on that specific shadow.

Below is a group shot that I took with one player from each team together. I needed to take a back-up photo just in case the other photos didn’t turn out as planned.

I had a lot of fun just messing with the lighting on this shoot. It was pretty simple but it showed fundamental ways to manipulate light.

I couldn’t use my white lightnings because I don’t own a power pack, so I ended up using my Sunkpak 555′s. How many lights did I use? Where did I put them? I only used one light. I did this by using a long exposure and flashing the car from multiple angles to create the effect that there were multiple lights. I also got the inside of the car to glow red by gelling one of my flashes and firing it multiple times inside the car.

I was there for about 20-30 minutes until I was done. When I had finally packed everything up and was getting into my car a security patrol car came blazing through the gates and was headed straight towards me. I was immediately kick out for being in a “restricted area”, luckily after I was all finished.

Hopefully I’ll be doing some more car shoots in the future. I’m also looking into building a rig if I can afford it.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 18mm, 200iso, f/24, 30 sec

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 24mm, 200iso, f/18, 29 sec

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 18mm, 200iso, f/18, 30 sec

Below, Pablo climbs up onto the halfpipe shaped platform, which happens to only be several inches wider than his board.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 24mm, Manual, 200iso, f/2.8, 1/2000th

After pumping and gaining enough speed to almost reach the top Pablo lets out a yell as begins to roll fakie back down the ramp.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 24mm, Manual, 200iso, f/2.8, 1/2000th

Pablo takes a break to explain what adjustments he needs to make in order to do a rock to fakie.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 14mm, Manual, 200iso, f/2.8, 1/2000th

Originally I was shooting this without a flash. The only thing was that it was casting a pretty bad shadow on this face. I ran back to the car a took out my PW’s and and a Sunpack 555. Below, Pablo stalls at the top of the ramp.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 14mm, Manual, 100iso, f/8, 1/250th

Before calling it quits I threw a red gel on the flash. It was pretty harsh but after some PS, I was able to get the coloring on his face to look more natural and make him stand out a little more.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 14mm, Manual, 100iso, f/8, 1/250th

The game was scheduled to start at 4pm and I arrived early at around 1pm to set up a remote camera. I decided to set it up at home plate today. I had my camera behind home plate, looking down towards third base.

Once I got my camera all set up I was ready to head out and come back later before the game started. As I was leaving I realized that it would be cool if I could shoot from behind the center field wall where one of the ESPN cameras was. I walked over and found that behind all the trees and bushes, there was a permanent wood platform. I couldn’t believe that I had never known about it. Anyways, I asked the camera man if I could shoot a few innings from up there and he agreed as long as I went up and came down while his camera was off. Below, a wide angle shot of the field, taken from the center field camera platform.

Canon 5D, 15mm, 200iso, 2.8, 1/4000th

I knew that even with a 400mm I would still need to crop in a lot from this angle. I called up a friend and asked to borrow a 5D Mark II. I knew that with 21 megapixels I would be able to crop much more than with 8 megapixels. I then drove over, picked it up, and made it back in time before the game started.

About 10 minutes before the start of the game I grabbed my gear and went up on the center field camera platform. The first shots I went for were batting shots. Below, Jeff Cusick gets a solid hit off of the San Diego pitcher.

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 320iso, 2.8, 1/4000th

It was too bad that the newspaper was already in production as I was shooting this game. Shots from this angle had never been published in our newspaper before. Once I got enough batting shots, I moved on and shot the outfield. Below, UCI’s Jordan Fox catches a ball that popped high and deep in the outfield.

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 250iso, 2.8, 1/3200th

Below, UCI shortstop Ben Orloff catches a ball that is thrown in from the outfield.

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 250iso, 2.8, 1/3200th

Shooting the infield was also different from this angle. I got the backs of people that I usually don’t get, but also the fronts. Below, UCI shortstop Ben Orloff prepares to catch the ball as a San Diego player slides into second.

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 250iso, 2.8, 1/2000th

Below, a UCI player dives back at second plate but is too slow and gets tagged out by the San Diego player.

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 320iso, 2.8, 1/4000th

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 320iso, 2.8, 1/4000th

From the center field camer platform I was also shooting into the sun. As the game went on the players became more and mroe backlit, and from some angles they were sidelit. I played around with the light a little and got a few cool photos. Below, Eric Deragisch stands ready in the outfield.

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 100iso, 2.8, 1/4000th

Below, Ryan Fisher throws in a ball that is hit deep into the outfield.

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm, 250iso, 2.8, 1/3200th

Here are the rest of the photos:

I want to thank these photographers/UCI students who lent me equipment:

• Michelle Kim
• Greg Thompson
• Nick Vu
• Drew McCarroll

This was the last UCI game of the year, but hopefully there will be a chance for me to shoot some baseball over the summer.