Shooting IndyCar Racing
This photo was taken by Scott Kelby of an IndyCar.
Scott Kelby, the author of Photoshop Insider has a great post about the opportunity he had/created to shoot IndyCar racing. For the photography insiders you might think that Scott got this opportunity through his connections from the speaking and instruction circuit, but you would be wrong.
His post does a great job of explaining what it is like to shoot something new in general and IndyCar racing specifically.
Shooting Indy Report (and the scoop on getting media credentials) by Scott is very similar to my experiences here at OffWing Photo. So if you are interested in any of the following give it a read.
- Getting media credentials
- Shooting something new
- Camera settings
- Equipment used
Looking For Work? Try Official Photographer For Subaru
Subaru is looking for a new photographer for their upcoming ad campaign for the the 2009 Forester. Are you ready for the big time?
I have included one of my shots so that you know what you are up against.
Of course that is all a set-up, but check this Subaru web site out. In it you role play a photographer for the their ad campaign. Let your inner photographer have some fun with the site. Your assistants have already set up the lights and your talent is about to arrive.
Becoming A Sports Photographer
Came across a pretty good video from Harry How, a sports photographer with Getty Images. I must say a lot of what he says hits home with me and validates my path to date.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Getting Those Summer Shots: Tennis
Now that summer is here and things are warming up it is time to get out there and start shooting some summer time sports. I love to play and shoot tennis.
For the past several years OffWing has covered the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC. In addition to the Legg Mason, we will be covering Washington’s new World Team Tennis Team, the Washington Kastles.
FYI – Clicking on the thumbnails will take you to a larger version of the image.
The Basics:
The great thing about tennis is that players typically hit a lot of shots to win a match, which gives you as the photographer more opportunities to capture some good pictures.
Like most pictures involving people you will want the faces visible and in focus (especially eyes).
You will also typically want to shoot with a higher shutter speed so that you can “stop” the action. Try a shutter speed of 400 to start out. If you have a point-and-shoot camera, put it into “sport mode.”
How To Shoot Different Strokes
Image 1
Groundstrokes (Forehand & Backhand): Shoot across the net or at the net post so that you can see more of the body. There is also a better chance of getting the tennis ball in the shot from this angle. The picture to the left is John Isner, in this shot I have actually went up higher in the stands and shot down on him. This angle also removed the stands with people in the background, making it a very clean shot.
Photo Shoot For New DC United’s Jersey And Sponsor
Here is a slick little video of my friend Mitchell Layton, sports photographer extraordinaire, during a photo shoot with some of the guys from DC United as they sport their new uniforms with the VW logo. DC United just inked a deal for VW to be their shirt sponsor.
Caught this as I was doing a little pre-game prep. OffWing Photo will be out there tonight to catch all of the soggy action from tonight’s game against the Chicago Fire. Game time will be just after 9pm due to a 30 minute pre-game show on ESPN2, who will be airing the show.
Knowing Your Subject
It always helps to know or even have played the event that you are going to shoot.
Here is a great example of this, famous dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov got behind the lens to shoot the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Check out the exhibition announcement for a statement from Mikahil, more info and pictures.
Fun With Flickr
OffWing Photo uses both Photoshelter and Flickr to share our photos with clients and with fans. Like any good handyman the trick is using the right tool for the right job.
One tool that I have started using is referred to as a Badge by Flickr. Flickr provides both html and flash versions that you can include as part of any website. They also have several different layout options that you can personalize. Photoshelter has just launched a similar service however it is not as robust as the Flickr tool.
Following is an example of a Flickr badge, using photos from the last game we shot.
| www.flickr.com |
Click through to see and learn more.
Fun Online Tool
I saw this first on Photojojo’s website a few days ago and had a chance to try it out with one of my photos.
Mag My Pic has many different covers to choose from, just wish that I could get it at printable quality. But who am I to complain about something that is free. Drop by the site to check out the different covers available, the current count is 16 covers.
Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com
Discount Magazine Subscriptions – Save big!
Little Big Men Play Ball
Here are some highlights from a game that my son played in yesterday. I didn’t know the team names so we will keep it as Red vs. Yellow.
For the photographers, lighting is tough in the elementary gym that I shot in. I was shooting wide open at 2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/250. I then set the camera to variable ISO, the ISO varied from about 640 – 1600. Shooting in RAW also gave the ability to brighten it up some more in post processing.
Test of offline blog editor
Something I have come across is a blog editor that would allow me more flexibility when writing for OffWing and OffWing Photo.
Let’s See how this works. I probably should have looked for something like this a long time ago.
Do any of you have any experience using a blog editor? If so I would love any comments or recommendations you have. I work from a Mac, but share you PC editors too, it might help another reader.
Photo Road Trip? – Learn How To Pack
If you are going by plane, train or automobile and bringing your photo gear take a couple of minutes to watch this video by Chase Jarvis. Chase is a world-class sports and lifestyle photographer.
In this video (run time of about 10 min) he walks through how he packs for a shoot and some additional tid-bits that he has learned.
Apple Introduces Aperture 2.0
Aperture is Apple’s pro photo management application that I use. Today Apple announced version 2.0 which I am excited to try out for myself.
Early reviews claim big improvements in speed which will make any photographer happy with.
For more information a great resource is the Aperture Users Professional Network (AUPN), they have a lot of great resources for photographers and illustrators that use Aperture.
AUPN will be a great place to check in over the next couple of weeks as more and more people work with the latest release and report their impressions.
Workflow: Image Storage And Archival
Previously we covered how to get the photos to your computer. This installment of photography workflow will cover how to best store and archive all the images.
My system for storing and archiving photos is based on a couple of principles. I have applied these principles then to my current situation which may be different than yours.
- My photos are my number one asset
- I am always looking to improve my system
- Multiple back-ups
- Images should be easily accessible
Making the back-up happens quickly in my workflow because cards and hard drives can and will go bad, guaranteed. The only question is when. For this reason I store my photos on two external hard drives (HD’s).
One HD is my working drive which has the images that I will work from as I process them. The other drive is a back-up that includes the same images.
Friday Chuckle
This post is a little off topic but will certainly bring a little joy into your day. I just came across this and I am still laughing…or crying.
This goes to show you how easy photography is. Enjoy the following link to the professional photographers of Olan Mills.
Workflow: Getting Pictures Off The Camera & Into Your Computer
While most cameras allow you to connect directly to your computer to download pictures, save yourself the headache and get a card reader that you can keep connected to your computer.
Card readers of all brands come in two real versions based on how they connect to your computer, USB and Firewire (IEEE 1394). I have been able to pick up USB 2.0 readers at my local computer store for $9.99 and typically can download multiple types of memory cards. You can’t beat their price and they work fine if you are not under time restraints for downloading and accessing the pictures.
This year I bit the bullet and purchased a firewire card reader because the consistent throughput of data is faster than a USB reader. The firewire card readers I have seen will only fit one type of card. The one I use is pictured and will only work with Compact Flash cards which are the cards used in most Pro/Semi-Pro DSLRs.
The speed at which it downloads pictures is very important to me when I am on assignment and trying to quickly download the pictures so that they can be posted onto OffWing Opinion and distributed through our syndication service.
In between periods of events you will see the sport photographers running to empty their cards and upload their pictures as quickly as possible. Time is money…because editors on deadlines will run the best photos available at that time.
This part of the workflow is pretty much Straightforward. Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them.
Have a Happy New Year!
Updates To The Site For The New Year
I am taking advantage of some of my “down time” right now to make some updates to the site that I have been meaning to do for some time.
I have been working in what seems to me to be the bowels of Movable Type’s publishing platform to create some new pages and templates.
I have also been playing around with FLICKR’s badges which is something I have also been wanting to do for awhile. I used this to put up a feed of my OffWing photos onto my personal website, you can check it out here. The photo farther down the page, below the large image slideshow.
I also hope to begin using FLICKR’s badges in different ways around the site.
Stay tuned and Happy New Year!
What Happens To All Those Photos You Take?
If you don’t know the answer to that question then it is about time you spend some time thinking about “Workflow.” So what is workflow?
Workflow is everything that you do after you take the picture. It can be simple or complicated. My workflow might not work for you, there is no single perfect workflow. There however some basic elements to workflow.
- Acquiring the images from your camera
- Storing the images on the computer
- Processing the images
- Archiving the images
Sounds boring, eh? So why do I need to care?
Ahhhh, let me take you back a few days or weeks when you first got your new DSLR with that huge sensor of megapixels and the ability to fire the shutter 3-9 times per second. You take this beauty out take some picture of your son or daughter and you come back with a 4gig card full of pictures. So what do you do with all those pictures?
Having a consistent method for handling all those images will make your life much happier and increase the chance that someone will actually see some of those great pictures you took.
I have put a lot of thought into this because of the amount of pictures that I take at a typical event. Of course these are just a reference, your mileage may vary:
- hockey game: 150 – 300images
- wedding: 300 – 700 images
- swim meet: 200 – 300 images
- soccer game: 70 – 150 images
Stay tuned as I try to help you figure out what you should do with all of your great pictures. Shoot me questions and I will try to answer them the best I can.
I will leave you today with a fun read about Sports Illustrated’s digital workflow from Rob Galbraith’s Digital Photography Insights written in 2004.
Sports Photography Classes Coming To NY
I would love to make it to a couple of these classes being offered by Adorama Camera, one of the largest photo retailers in the United States, is celebrating the first anniversary of the Workshops@Adorama (http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=WS_List).
The Sports Photography class will be lead by Jeffery Snyder and Mitchell Layton.
Jeff and Mitchell put together a great class (I have attended one of their sessions) and I shoot with Mitchell in Washington, DC. He is the team photographer for the Washington Nationals (baseball), Washington Wizards (basketball), and the Capitals (hockey). Both Jeff and Mitchell are great guys with a ton of experience.
Go here for class details.
This from Adorama:
The fast-growing series of on-site photography courses are taught by top working professional photographers and digital photography specialists.
To celebrate the Workshops’ first anniversary, Adorama is announcing an early-bird discount of 10% on all the currently posted Workshops@Adorama from today until January 10, 2008.
Winter/Spring Semester 2008 Workshop Overview
How To Shoot An Event
I came across a great post last night by Derek Powazek about how to shoot an event. Derek provides a great list of “to-do’s” and “how-to’s” that work for especially well for the sport and event shooter.
This is definitely worth the trip over to his website.
Capturing The Drama At A Hockey Game
For me tonight’s loss by the Washington Capitals to the Vancouver Canucks was overshadowed by the injury to Chris Clark of the Washington Capitals. Clark caught the slap shot of fellow Caps player, Alex Ovechkin to the head. Early reports are that he got stitches in his left ear after the game.
The following picture is a great example of being lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time (my apologies to Chris Clark), photographically that is. In several locations around the ice rink there are holes cut into the plexi-glass that protects the spectators. It is through these holes that we shoot our pictures.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 26: Captain Chris Clark of the Washington Capitals is injured during a NHL hockey game with the Vancouver Canucks on October 26, 2007 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. (Photo by Allen Clark/OffWing)
So what you say? Try taking a picture of something as fast moving as hockey without moving your lens more than a few inches to the left or right. The plexi-glass while providing safety, robs the photographer a clear view of much of the ice. I would estimate that from the hole where I was sitting tonight I could view approximately 40% of the ice.
The Thrill of the Shoot
So with the start of our new photoblog, courtesy of Allen Clark (Thanks Allen), coinciding with the start of hockey season, I thought this was a good time to reflect on the past year. It was a little over 11 months ago that Eric told me about his idea to add photographic coverage to Off Wing Opinion
