Orange & Blue Revolution

I was asked to make some high impact portraits of student athletes to help cornerstone an upcoming Gettysburg College Orange & Blue club fundraising campaign, which will help fund the school's athletic teams & the very athletes I was to portray. The focus of the project was to communicate intense game-focus determination through intimate portraits, without an overbearing suggestion to a specific sport.

So I choose to approach it with a simple black background to highlight the subjects; and with the use of striking lighting, I attempted make a bold impression that would translate well into print publications for National distribution to their alumni.

It was an exciting opportunity to research & orchestrate a new creative production, travel with my mobile studio, & make images of athletes who I normally only catch on the field or court.

Off the Wall ...

01/14/12 - Erie, PA: I had a request from a good friend & colleague to make some maternity images of her, while in Erie covering some sports for her school. Now I usually stray from this type of work, but the stars were in allignment & we went for it. We did a lot of conventional shots & used some researched stock for ideas. This image began as a typical "pregnant woman peaking around the corner of a wall" shot. We did that, than I noticed that cool homemade wall art & the clean walls. So I did a 180° and put a umbrellad strobe behind her & camera left. I got the belly highlight I was going for, and I was pleasantly surprised with the light's reflection off the foreground wall. I've never made an image quite like this, & it may be one of my favorite personal portraits. And I really dig the wall art.

Urban Roots Farm

8/9/11 - Springfield, MO: I photographed my first urban farm last week. It's something I really find fascinating and inspiring. Urban farms are a complete reversal of conventional perceptions of what a city should be … and I like that. They help redefine a cityscape, and often reclaim land that has long been overlooked as a dump site or unsafe open space.

Melissa & Adam Millsap are owners of Urban Roots Farm. They're civic pioneers with a bold vision to help their city, feed and educate its citizens, and maintain a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their family. They lobbied city legislators to establish urban agriculture, and funded their business with social lending which has helped energize their West Central neighborhood. They use spent grain as compost from a local micro-brewery, and have developed a non-profit called The Springfield Urban Agriculture Collation which is helping to feed school students in their USDA declared food desert. They are making exponentially positive changes in the Ozarks.

Thanks for viewing some of my favorites from a day on the farm …

American Ingenuity ...

... or as my neighbor calls it an "Old Hill Billy Trick" used on a water pump off a 1973 Firebird, to protect the flange belt from its hose.

2 days | Men's Lacrosse

3/15>16/11 - PA: Both my teams came out on top, a pleasant occurrence that translates into energy & into my frame. F&M powered through Susquehanna 16-7, & Gettysburg earned a back and forth double overtime win over Cabrini 8-7. Great days too ... slightly overcast and mild. I tried to spread the focus across the field except when needed, tried to avoid flying plastic, and I traveled with my 20mm prime wide open with relative success (tweaked).

Softball | Gettysburg

3/11/11 - Salisbury, MD: Here are some pics from today's Softball roadtrip. I had to extend a little from the corners & camp behind metal to avoid absolute obstruction, but it helped me to find some newer angles for myself. Some of these are a bit grimy, without ball, and imperfect, yet interesting I think.

Gettysburg Swimming 2/2

This was my first meet in Gettysburg's sparkling new pool & a warm up for the conference championship weekend 2/18. It was nice and bright - ISO 6400 with around 1/800th - 1/1250th of a second shutter at f/2.8. With the generally high shutter speeds I was able to capture some pretty cool water formations as the athletes swam. Here's some of their water art ...

The Mecca of Christmas Lights

I had an assignment to capture some Holiday illumination this week, so I had to take a journey to 34th street in Hampden. Here are a few classic scenes from a classic street where miracles happen everyday. Happy Holidays!

Gettysburg Basketball

Balance

This image struck me as I combed through my Gettysburg Football coverage from this weekend. I was trying to cover the defense. I had noticed the intensity in this guy's face earlier in the game, and as I was following him through a play this wonderful symmetry happened. It was one of those things that you really can't plan, and luckily just falls together. This is my kind of pic; I really like its balance, his expression, and the action unfolding in the foreground.

Remotely Successful

I attempted remotes this weekend, and again, I was challenged. I'm striving to balance the multiple variables that accompany photographing "off person". Camera control and image quality through protective glass just aren't the same, but remote work provides a fresh angle. I'm most satisfied with the Women's basketball backboard remote where cinefoil was in place improving contrast and reducing glare. I was unlucky in the Men's game when the officials immediately balked at the black block; I had to remove the foil but fortunately was allowed to keep the camera in place. Squash in a cinefoiled protective box was an improvement. However, box position, subject focus, and battery life came to haunt me. I'm looking forward to a final winter remote opportunity this Wednesday with a backboard remote fixated above the board onto the shot-clock support. Wish me luck.

Santorini Sunset

I've been nominated as a finalist by Canon's "Explorer's of Light" panel! My image "Santorini Sunset" has been selected to be exhibited in VisArts at Rockville’s Points of Departure exhibition opening February 19, 2010 at 6:30p. Come out to see some great photography!

The photograph was made November 1, 2008 on a cliffside trail hike on the Greek Island of Santorini. My wife and I were on our honeymoon backpacking through Europe. That day we were exploring a few different areas of the island by bus, taxi, then foot. We had decided to do a sparse trail between the towns of Ia and Thira at Sunset. Naturally I didn't give us enough time and we ended up hiking back mostly in dark. But we had a good adventure, a little precarious at times, and we met up with a cool little dog we named Jack who thought we were made of food. Fortunately, he had taken the route a couple times.

D700 & 17-35mm @ 26mm, ISO:1000 - 1/80th @ f/20 and slow breathing.

Shooting Squash (with a remote) is Hard!

This was my first squash remote of 2010. Following a box shattering experience in December, I had to make a new one over the holidays. To say the least, I think I made it strong. Inside, I used the D700 with a 20mm and pocket wizards (and fresh batteries across the board). Settings of 1/320th (which wasn't fast enough) @ f/8 and ISO 6400. And happily (cough) a custom WB on each of the 6 courts.

There are all sorts of additional variables to remote work that can be kind of maddening even when you get there 3 hours in advance. Looks like I could have started with the basic stuff like leveling the camera first! Just shooting action through glass can be frustrating as you have to pump contrast & saturation to make it look OK. Next time, I think I'm going to remove the back plexiglass wall and fit the installation with some cinefoil to help with the internal reflections. Oh well, small steps.

Here's a link to the full coverage.

McDaniel Wrestling 1/13

It has been nice to shoot in the same facility regularly this week. I was able to work on some white balance details and spend some time tweaking the bodies a little with their new firmware. I like the mobility of shooting wrestling without lights. But the exposures on the shadowed faces can often be lost, and the grain is more noticeable.
I adjusted the new Custom AF (A4) focus tracking - down one from Normal. I used the 51 point 3D tracking AF for the first time in a while. They were in a small enough area that the AF tracking was pretty accurate and I was overall satisfied. Wrestling is tough to stay locked on the face, if you're wide open and are focused on the chest, it easy to lose the face. I basically used the same settings as the previous evenings. I'm going to use Standard Picture Control more often because Vivid has been burning me on yellow and too intense primaries. I used +1 contrast, and +1 saturation @ ISO 6400 mostly @ 1/500th f/2.8.

McDaniel Men's Basketball 1/12

Trying to beat the Yellow; thanks to RM I went with Standard/+2 contrast/with 2 notches of Cyan added.

Chich'en Itza 12/18

Angie and I were in Mexico last week. Over the weekend we were able to do a guided tour of the Maya ruins at Chich'en Itza. We took one of those cookie-cutter tours and really didn't have much free time. I'd love to camp there for a week and just observe light patterns. It was a great experience and I hope to be lucky enough to get some more time there again.

I brought my D700 without the grip, a 50 f/1.4 & a 20 f/2.8. I loved this combo, it was light and sharp; and the fixed lengths forced me to be more mobile and see things a little differently. Here are a few snapshots.

Weekend Road Warrior

Baltimore to Princeton to Meadville to York, then Lancaster and finally home. I just woke up from my weekend daze thankful for safe travel and to St. Anthony for a little work-flow help. Here are some favorites from the tour.

Gettysburg Men's Basketball

I feel like it's going to be a slow start for both me and the GBC Men's team this winter. It felt like I was always a step behind. Maybe it was the 300 f/4 I was trying to give some work. Their new gym lights are BRIGHT - I was getting 1/800th @ f/2.8 w/ ISO 2500. But, as you can tell, I still had a little trouble matching the WB in both bodies. It's always a little red for me in there. Small steps.