Hanford Sports Photography: Hanford vs Hanford West Boys Basketball

The Hanford West Huskies boys varisty basketball team, who are currently first in the West Yosemite League, played their crosstown rivals the Bullpups of Hanford High. This turned out to be one nail biter of a game with the final score being 53-52 in favor of Bullpups. For more on the game see the Sentinel.

Hanford Sports Photography: Two Soccer games and baskeball

I took a little mini-break earlier this week to do some snowboarding. When I came back I found out that I a few sports assginments waiting for me, which is quite a treat. I don’t get to photograph as much sports as I’d like to because of scheduling. But on this day there was Hanford High and Hanford West soccer lined up. Also a girls basketball game between Hanford High and Lemoore High.

Nice that the soccer games were scheduled for the day. Usually they are played at night but the storms that came through last week left schools’ fields to soggy and dangerous to play in.

Portrait of Xavier “Professor X” Foupa Pokam

Usually when I photograph the weigh-ins for the Tachi Palace Fights I  take three basic poses. One is a fighting stance. The other two is the person looking tough with their arms folded or on hands on their hips. These three pretty much cover the poses the designer need to use on a poster. But every once in a while someone likes to try something different, which is fine by me. It breaks up the monotony. Plus it feels less like a factory line process and a lot more creative.

“Professor X” came at me unknowingly while I snapped pictures of him. I wasn’t prepared so that is why he is so far from my collapsible backdrop. But I thought that he made a great expression. I definitely wouldn’t want to fight him in a cage.

Tachi Palace Fights 2: Brawl in the Hall

This month started bang, well actually a brawl, as Tachi Palace Fights held its second event with Gladiator Challenge promotions. It proved to be an exciting night at the Tachi Palace Casino and Hotel. I was able to see my first ever choke out in a live match.

Results [via Sherdog.com]:

College Sports Photographers: What they’re using to catch the action

The above graph is a sample of the data collected by the College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) contest. They collected the metadata from over 600 entries in the sports action category. Shutter speed, focal length, apreture, and camera make/model were all recorded. It seemed like the Nikon D3, with a 300mm lens, shot at f/2.8 with a 1/1000 shutter speed was the most used.

I think this was an interesting way to show what and how photographers use their tools at work. But in bigger picture remember most of this doen’t matter. Most people looking at your photographs won’t care how you made the picture. They just care how that picture makes them feel.

Using Radiopopper Jr’s with Lemoore/Hanford Volleyball

This was the first time I’ve ever used off-camera flash for volleyball. For some reason or another I’ll usually stick an on-camera strobe. If the gym is bright enough, like in the case with the Lemoore Event Center, I’ll use available light.

But using the latter two methods pictures look relatively flat. So when ever I can I use off camera flash to help me make the players pop out a little more. To trigger them I used my Radiopopper Jr’s, which I have only mostly used for portraits. I’ve been really delighted with them. There hasn’t been any problems with misfires or interference. And it kept up with my cameras high frame rate setting even though my flashes didn’t.

For more on the Radipopper Jr’s see Strobist.com

For more Hanford High vs. Lemoore volleyball pictures see the HanfordSentinel.com

9five Eyewear and Pedro Acevedo

I did a real quick lifestyle shoot of my friend Pedro Acevedo for his sunglass sponsor 9five. I only shot one action picture, a switch heelflip, during the short time we had. Check out some of his skating in their promo video. This gave me a chance to play around with the two Alien Bee B1600s, which came in that day.