This was a fun photoshoot that I did with UCI Track star Charles Jock. I went out looking for a cool location to shoot and came across the UCI boiler room for all the water that is distributed throughout the campus. I went in and told them that I wanted to use the facility for an athlete photoshoot and they said it was ok, so a few hours later I came back with all my equipment and a few assistants. It was a pretty cool location to shoot because it was industrial, unique, and there weren’t any disturbances. The place was really loud and I was pretty much shouting the whole time, but there were very few workers actually in the space and the ones that were there just worked around us like we weren’t even there.

Check out the behind the scenes video below!

Charles Jock Photoshoot (May 24, 2010) from Scott Roeder on Vimeo.

5/23/10 – Irvine, CA – UC Irvine freshman Pratik Panda gets in the right mindset as he poses for a portrait.

On the same day as the fencing photoshoot, I also had another photoshoot. Once again I wanted to shoot something unique that doesn’t usually get much recognition. I have always loved playing ping pong and for part of this past year it got pretty big in my dorm between a few of us. I have always seen photos of actual ping pong matches but had never shot one myself so I attempted to create the perfect illustration. I set up a backdrop behind the table, two lights from the sides and big soft box right above my head. After some spray on sunscreen, water, and natural sweat, we were able to get a nice glistening on the skin. This photoshoot was prompted by the 2010 UCI Photolympics.

We even tested out spraying water into the shot, which had potential but didn’t work out.

My friend and fellow photographer Lee was there to help me set up equipment and also stand in as a test subject.

5/23/10 – Irvine, CA – Jessica Enriquez keeps her eye on the ball during the ping pong photoshoot for the 2010 UCI Photolympics.

I usually like to get both a female and male subject for most of my photoshoot sometimes one might just look more natural than the other. I think Panda looked a little more natural and fierce in his photo but I still liked this one too.

Below is a shot of the kids from the dorm who came out to help.

5/23/10 -  Irvine, CA – UC Irvine Fencing team member Alex Helmintoller poses for a portrait.

When the 2010 UCI Photolympics were happening I knew that I definitely wanted to enter the max amount of photos in the portraits category. I like shooting athletes and I wanted to do something unique. Luckily Alex from my dorm was on the fencing team at UCI and was willing to help me out with my photoshoot. He brought all his gear and we headed out late one night to shoot these photos. I also wanted to get a female subject wearing the outfit just to see what it would look like, so Jaclyn Wang also accompanied us on the shoot. The photos of Alex and Jaclyn both turned out great, but I could only select one to submit so I went with the one of Alex. Below is the shot of Jaclyn, along with a shot of our crew for the night.

During fall quarter I did a shoot with two of the UCI Baseball team players, Danny Bibona and Jeff Cusick. The article was about Ants vs Eaters baseball series, which is a inter-squad series of games to get them started for the season. The photo turned out pretty good and the photo editor and the sports editor wanted to save it for a later issue so that they could print it bigger and in color.

Long story short, it finally got printed in winter quarter but ended up not getting printed bigger or in color.

Below, assistants Marlon Castillo and Pratik Panda stand in for a test shot.

Nikon D3, 105mm, 100iso, f/18, 1/250, manual

Nikon D3, 105mm, 100iso, f/18, 1/250, manual

When I got the call for this photo I knew I wanted to shoot it on a backdrop. I don’t really get to shoot much stuff on a backdrop and wanted to get the studio feel for a change. I realized that I didn’t have any backdrop paper and that I would need to go out and get some before the shoot. I decided to buy a blue one and figured it would be good since its one of our school colors.

I made sure that he brought as much of his gear as possible for props, but also had him in a nice shirt and tie to show the scholarly and professional side of his personality. I originally wanted to have him wearing his uniform underneath his dress shirt but when we actually tried it the photos didn’t turn out as I expected. I had a back up plan and we tried a few different things during the rest of the shoot. These were the shots that I ended up submitting to the paper.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm @ 105mm, 125iso, f/8, 1/250, manual

Nikon D3, 70-200mm @ 98mm, 125iso, f/8, 1/250, manual

Thanks to Lee and Panda for helping assist on the shoot, and Ian for doing the interview.

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