getting paid

I was asked by a friend to do some product shots for a client of his. At first I was a little hesitant. This would be one of the first real photo shoots I would be in charge of. I’ve assisted several important shoots. I’ve shot stuff for the school newspaper. I’ve freelanced when I knew there were several other photographers.

This was different. I was being asked how much I charge. The client was trusting me with his money. More importantly, I had to trust myself to get the job done and get the job done right.

I borrowed a 9ft wide backdrop kit and bought a roll of white seamless paper to go with it. I borrowed a ProPhoto 2400 watt kit from UCI, which came with 3 heads, 1 power pack, 2 soft boxes, 3 lightstands, several umbrellas, and more. I had to put down my back seats in my car to get everything to fit. My car was transformed from a four seater to a one seater/portable studio.

The nice thing about this particular shoot was that they wanted all the photos to be consistent. Once I got the lights setup right, all I had to do was switch out the products. Pretty easy.

I had my laptop out and after taking test shots I would upload them and review them with the client to make sure that it was exactly what they wanted.

Even though it wasn’t sports, it was a good chance to work on something different. Plus it paid pretty well. And at this point in my career I can’t really afford to be picky.

mine from beginning to end

I’ve been snowboarding since I was 10. I’ve looked through countless magazines and watched all the videos. I interned at Snowboarder Magazine with the photo editor. Great photos passed through my hands everyday.

I recently went to Mt.High and Mammoth with the UCI Snowboard Team. I had never shot snowboarding before this trip but I figured it would be easy. I had seen all the angles and camera setups. I came prepared with all my equipment:

• 2 lights stands
• camera
• pocketwizards
• 2 sunpak 555’s
• tons of extra batteries
• 2 paris of gloves
• big tripod
• small tripod
• memory cards
• laptop
• card reader
• hard drive
• all my snowboarding clothes and equipment

I expected to get some really good photos. Easily. It didn’t turn out this way.

First of all, its takes longer to walk around in the snow. This sucks when you are trying to setup multiple lights. Then you have to test your setup, and unless your shooting with a fisheye, you end up walking really far to test your shots. The other big thing is that after a rider hits a jump or wallride, it takes a while for them to get back to the top of the hill to try it again. Its hard to get the setup right the first time.

It takes practice. I realized that its going to take many more times to really figure out what I’m doing. I’m going to have to figure out exactly how I want to compose my photo and then figure out how to make it happen.

My first time wasn’t a disappointment. I think it went OK. I was more excited about these photos being “mine”. I edited tons of photos while interning at Snowboarder Magazine. I did a good job. When I was done with a photo I would look at it and say, “Damn this looks good”. Even though I did the editing, it wasn’t my photo. I now have some that I can claim as my own.

Here are some of the better ones:

Overhead remote, Part II

Before last week I had only done one overhead remote at a basketball game. The first time I did one I was shooting at f/2.8 and ISO 3200. I made the mistake of focusing on the rim and didn’t get any shots of the players in focus. But it was ok. It was a new angle that I had never done before and I got some good action. One of my photos ran in the paper the next week and I was happy.

I thought I was happy. That was until last week when I tried it again. This time I shot at f/11 and ISO 250. I got there early and set my focus to about two feet below the rim. I wasn’t shooting on burst mode but I had my timing down and got some peak action.

None of my photos from the game ran in the paper. But I was happy.

I really liked this one. UCI player Michael Hunter drives through the middle and passes the ball out. Its not what you would expect from this angle and I like how its composed.

I included two different crops of this shot. I’m not sure which one I like better.

Recent feature assignments

I’ve done two feature photos for sports articles in the past two weeks. It amazes me every time I pull one off. On top of work, ultimate, basketball, and school, I have no idea how I manage to take some photos on the side. And its not only taking the photo. Most of my time is spent calling up friends, tying to borrow equipment, finding locations, getting access and asking for help.

Anyways, the first shoot I did was with four guys from the UCI Men’s Volleyball team. The sports editor called me up and told me that he was writing a sports feature about these players who were the “foundation” of the team. He immediately pitched the idea of shooting them on one of the many construction sites on campus. I was definitely in. I had already had the idea of doing a portrait shoot on a construction site, the only problem was who to shoot. And actually a bigger problem was access. But, the sports editor had already been talking with the construction company and a UCI Athletics Communications person, and got them to say yes.

I borrowed a Mola dish with an AB800 from a friend and used it along with my two sunkpak 555’s. I planned to shoot each player separately and then create a composite but it didn’t work out. I didn’t have the manpower to move the lights for each player, plus the players were pressed for time. I think it turned out pretty well though.

Here it is after some PP, all done in lightroom.

The next feature photo I shot was of a UCI Men’s Basketball player. I again spent a lot of effort gathering equipment and planning out the shoot. I had a few shots that I was set on taking. I borrowed my friends Mola dish again and used a similar setup, although this time I shot inside a gym. Everything seemed normal….although this time I left with a feeling of dissatisfaction.

During the shoot I was taking pictures and looking at the back of my camera. Nothing was turning out right. I had all the lights in the right places and I knew what I wanted it to look like. But nothing. Not nothing, but not what I was picturing in my head. After changing just about every setting, I just finished up and called it quits. I had shots that were usable but nothing that really stood out. As I was packing up all my equipment I saw a small white cloth bunched up on the ground next to my bag. It was right then that I realized what happened. I forgot to put that small little cloth over the Mola dish. It would have softened up the main light and it would have came out beautifully. I couldn’t believe that I had missed something so small. Anyways, I managed to save it a little in photoshop. It turned out ok. I learned my lesson.

glad to be back after a long break

Winter break was rough. It was good to get a much needed break from work and school but I didn’t intend to take such a long absence from shooting. Anyways, I came back to school a few days early to shoot the conference opening basketball game against Fullerton who beat us in the finals of the Big West Tournament last year. Thankfully we beat them in overtime. I only had one camera so I didn’t set up anything special, although I did roam away from my usual spot on the baseline and shot from the stands for a while.

I also shot my first swimming and diving competition. It was a last minute decision. I woke up at 9:45 and decided to shoot it. After getting dressed and driving to campus I got there by 10:10. I only had until 11:00 so I quickly found which lanes the UCI teams were swimming in and immediately went there. I really wanted to setup a remote near one of the starting blocks but got there after the competition started so it was out of the question. I was shooting with only my 70-200mm which limited my shooting because it was hard to shoot all the way across the pool. I managed though. Shooting the swimming was easy because I could identify our team by the swimming caps they wore. Diving was a different story. All they have is a little logo on their swimsuit and when they are up on the diving board its pretty hard spot. Here are few shots.

Trip to the ER

A mishap at the skatepark led to me driving my friend to the ER. My camera was calling to me from the trunk of my car.

I was kicked out after the last photo. 15 stitches and about and hour later we were back at the skatepark.