"Air Force forward Anwar Johnson (42) dunks the ball after beating Texas Southern guard DeAndre Hall (1) down court in the first half of an NCAA basketball game inside Clue Arena at Air Force Academy, Colo., Monday, Dec. 22, 2008. Air Force dominated Texas Southern with a 65-41 victory."
JUSTIN EDMONDS, THE GAZETTE
Tonight was just one of those nights where it seemed as though most everything went my way. In the life of a photographer that means that my images were well composed, well exposed and sharp. All but one image were spot on tonight and, for the most part, I'll take that every night of the week. The one image that I missed would have been close to a portfolio shot so I am disappointed about that.
I arrived a good two and a half hours early to set up a remote behind the glass but the SID said that their coaches won't let anyone do it. That was a HUGE let down because I already had it in my head of how I was going to shoot the game and that was in my game plan. We talked about a few other options but nothing worked out. I've put a remote behind the glass before but haven't don't it in a while so I was really looking forward to getting some different stuff in my take. I've done remotes just about everywhere imaginable at basketball and to be honnest I'm getting a little bored with the typical glass, floor, overhead, stanchion, ect. I really have to work on a different angle for the next game. I did however end up setting up a remote on the floor set to vertical directly underneath the basket. Here is how I had the remote setup:
I didn't want my MultiMax to get kicked or hit by the ball while on the hot-shoe since it was so close to the court so I used the PC cord that came with the wizard along with a mini-phone extension cord to place the wizard out of sight inside the base of the basket. I set my MultiMax to receive on channel 15 and relay to channel 16, which my strobes were on. I also used a super clamp/magic arm combo to secure everything so that it wouldn't move. Here is the angle the remote captured.
I didn't get anything worth transmitting to the paper but that's ok because I'm not always going to get something spectacular every time I set up a remote.
Basketball is probably one of the better sports I'm good at shooting because I know the game well. I understand where the action is going to be so I can anticipate for the peak action image. Now that probably sounds a little silly because we all know that the players have to put the ball in the hoop eventually but what I'm good at is the how and when. I understand how different teams run their offense and can pick up on that pretty quickly. Understanding why they're giving the ball to the man in the low post rather than skipping it across the key is really helpful when I'm trying to make images of peak action. I'm also shooting on the lights (aka strobes) and only get to take a picture every three seconds so I have to pick and choose my moments.
As I discussed in my last entry I LOVE shooting on the lights because of the look that it creates, the drama if you will. At Air Force's Clue Arena The Gazette has a set of strobes installed in the catwalks. Kevin Kreck and I fiddled with the setup at the beginning of the season and we really have them setup perfectly. Very little light spills into the seats which allows the players to pop. The above image is pretty much straight out of camera with the exception of a little crop.
I do however shoot a little differently than most who shoot on lights. It seems that most shooters that I run into are shooting somewhere between f4 and f6.3. I guess you can get away with all that DOF at an NBA/NHL/Big College arena because the backgrounds are so much farther away. I usually shoot in much smaller venues so I try to shoot wide open as possible. I have even cranked down my ISO to 50 to shoot at f2 with my 85. Tonight I was at 1/250, f2.8 at 100/125 ISO depending on where on the court I was shooting. The shallow DOF really allowed Air Force's Anwar Johnson to pop in the frame. IMHO f2.8 on lights is just about as good as it gets and man does Anwar make it look easy!
-JCE
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