I had to photograph junior basketball today.
The gym was so dark the best reading I could get was 1/20th of a second at f/2.8.
I had to use my flash to hope to capture anything useful.
I put my trusty Gary Fong diffuser and dialed my camera to ISO 1600 at 1/200th at f/2.8.
The effect is kind of interesting, usually there wouldn’t be any light fall off the image would be lit the same from front to back.
As you can see here, the subject is lit nicely, but the light falls off in the background.
I love that the boy is off the ground and soaring towards the rim. Just like Mike.
Just like Kobe!
Normally, using a flash is a big no no, since it could distract the players, so on camera flashes are usually banned.
Fortunately, this wasn’t the NBA.
Be inspired!

I was fortunate to photograph former NBA great, Bill Walton, the other night.
I had never seen him speak before and was delighted at his keynote speech before the National Association of Realtors.
He was inspiring, funny and insightful.
Plus, he is tall!
6 foot 11 inches tall!
Unfortunately, the lighting was pretty terrible.
It was dark and ugly light, but I used that too my advantage.
Negative space.
It’s a tool to balance off when the main subject is in an extreme area of composition.
I placed Bill Walton in the extreme lower right area of convergence which was balanced off by all the darkness of the stage.
It’s a dramatic image that highlights this dynamic and unique man.
Try out this technique to balance your images.
Be inspired!

I was hired to photograph a 5k fun run last weekend.
Visual story telling is the answer to informing our friends where, who and what we did recently.
Here’s a few tips.
1. Think like a reporter.
The 5 W’s of reporting will help you to frame your photos. The Who, What, Where, When and Why, will tell you what to communicate for your story.
In the first photo, we have the What. Looks like a race and that’s exactly what it was, a 5k charity race.
You can photograph a sign or the runner’s numbers or as I have here, a human interest story.
The winner of the race ran back to find his sister and finish the race with her holding hands.
Some of that information is needed in a caption, but there’s lots of clues in this image. The boy already has a medal and their numbers are in sequence and they are running around a track.

2. Did something interesting happen at the event?
It rained like cats and dogs!
These friends gathered under an umbrella to have their photo taken. I focused with my long lens and made an image as they were being photographed.
3. Interesting or humorous event?

These boys gave up running early in the event and popped up their umbrellas and kept walking.
It tells the story quickly, but also gives us more information about the event, too.
Like it was raining hard!
4. Establishing shots help ground the viewer.

I always try to make a quick shot that tells where we are or what’s going on to include in the story to help the viewer.
In this set of images the beginning of the race shows the mayhem that occurred and also establishes that there was a race with quite a few people involved.
I’ve always wondered why more children aren’t trampled during these starts?
5. Details! They move the story along.Detail shots give information that is quick and concise. Visually it helps to move the story, without taking too much space.
Each of the racers were given snacks at the end of the race. Bananas!

Grab a hold of these quick tips and try them out at your next event that you want to share with friends.
In only a few images you can tell an entire story without being redundant or more importantly boring.
Be effective and concise.
Be inspired!

Today is about abstract photography and photos.
Abstraction is a great tool to expand a photographer’s skills and keep your viewer’s attention in a different way.
There are many different forms of abstraction, but today I would like to concentrate on subtraction.
The photographer subtracts more and more of the elements until the pieces that are left combine to make an image that is more form than a recognizable image.
It becomes a scene about form or shape.
In this image I concentrated on the lane number during a fun run race.
The rain turned the track into a beautiful color and the participants feet became interesting shapes that anchored the image and created a rich visual palate for the viewer.
I especially love the fact that the runners feet are off the ground in this moment.
It gives life to the image and another air of mystery that pleases me.
I also like the spectators feet which are both facing the opposite direction of the runner.
Opposites do attract!
Finally, the lane number and the lanes themselves add to strengthen the composition and create visual depth and complexity.
Abstract photography is a tool that should be practiced to create visual strength in each photographer.
Be inspired!

I had the pleasure of photographing a family friend during her college’s soccer game at CSUF.
She is one of the best soccer players I’ve ever personally known and she currently plays for UNLV.
I offered to photograph the game and made a few calls and was able to secure a photo pass.
I showed up and started shooting, that’s when I realized how different shooting sports can be.
It’s been years since I photographed a competitive soccer game and things were moving fast.
The first thing that I noticed was my timing was really far off. See how I missed the ball in the first image?
I had forgotten that the most important thing was to anticipate.
Anticipation is the key for all sports!
One of the tricks I learned shooting at the Orange County Register was that if you see it, you missed it!
????
The mirror on the camera flips up at the instant that you press the shutter and the light comes into the lens to make an image.
So, if you see it, it’s impossible for the camera to make that image.
That’s why timing and anticipation are so critical.
My friend Matt Brown shoots for the sports department at CSUF and was there photographing the game.
I commented that I was having trouble getting back my timing and that’s when it hit me.
Good thing there’s two halves!

Here I started to remember how to anticipate the flight of the ball and the athletes.
The longer the lens, the smaller the field of view and the harder it is to make good images.
Fortunately, all I had was my 70-200mm and a 1.4 extender. That meant that I was shooting pretty short compared to the 300mm 2.8 and the 400mm 2.8’s that I used to shoot with back in the day.
That larger field of view, gave me a bit more time to see the ball and begin shooting.

As the game wore on, my timing became better, not great, but better.
Shooting sports helps with so many more genres.
Ultimately, it just makes you a better photographer.
Practice anticipation and be inspired!

I was on assignment today at an opening ceremony for a local AYSO league.
I was asked to make a number of images including portraits, detail shots, news photos and even check presentations. It was indeed a busy day.
The last image I was asked to make was a feature image that represented something beautiful about the community.
It could be anything, which is freeing but can be overwhelming.
I saw it happen in a different way and area, but I wasn’t quite quick enough, so I waited and saw another man holding his son’s hand walking away from the event.
It said everything I wanted it to say.
The future.
Fathers and sons.
Relationships.
Community.
It was perfect!
I decided to semi-silhouette the subjects. There was a clean expanse of lawn which served as a nice clean background.
It was really distracting everywhere else that I looked so this was perfect.
The boy and his dad were walking under a tree and were shaded but the lawn was in bright sunlight.
I let my camera meter for the lawn and let the subjects go underexposed.
That way they would be more symbolic than a particular dad and son. They would be my every dad and son.
The boy is in the lower left area of convergence and that was good enough for me and I let the rest of the composition stand on it’s own.
Hopefully, all of us can aspire to a day with our kids or a day with our dad. A day when everything is okay because our hand is safely in his firm grip.
Be inspired!

Just a quick post about low light photography.
We had about 25 teenagers in our pool last night for our son’t birthday party.
It was getting dark, so I needed to adjust my camera settings to be able to make an acceptable exposure in the low light.
Boys will be boys and they decided to launch each other as far as they could from the shallow towards the deep end.
At first I was getting a lot of subject movement at 800 ISO. The boys weren’t going to move any slower and it was getting darker, so I decided to up my ISO to 1600 which gave me another stop of speed and I panned the camera with the subject as he moved across the frame from camera right to camera left.
My settings were as follows: f/stop 2.8 and shutter speed at 1/60 second and ISO at 1600.
The panning helps to freeze the subject since the shutter speed was still too slow to freeze him as he crossed my lens.
Try this technique the next time you find yourself with low light, an ISO that’s about maxed out and a subject that is moving.
Be inspired!

After 19 years, Shaq retires.
Early in my career, I photographed Shaq in a tournament and remembered seeing his shoes. They were other worldly, they were so large!
He was the largest person that I had ever seen in person. Not just because he was 7 feet tall, no, it was because he was also a large, large man and 7 feet tall.
I’d been next to basketball players before, but they were skinny tall.
Shaq was huge!
I was able to travel with the Lakers on their personal jet one time and got to rub shoulders for a few moments with the big guy.
In the first photo, the team was checking into their hotel in Seattle early in the morning.
The team’s trainer, Gary Vitti, is a normal sized guy and I remember thinking, “He looks like a toddler, next to him.”

I photographed one of his signature dunks on that trip and got to hang out with announcer, Chick Hearn, too.
It really was one of the highlights of my career. The plane was specially modified with every other row of seats removed.
The players sat in the front and the back, while media and visitors were relegated to the center.
Even the flight crew was giddy. Sending back huge amounts of food and asking for autographs on several basketballs that were produced mid-flight.
The 3 hour flight was too quick and soon we were on the ground in Seattle.
Chick was a gracious host, showing me the do’s and don’ts for visiting media. It was the only time I actually was able to speak with Chick and I’ll always remember how he took time out to talk to me. Some kid(at the time) who was in awe of his surroundings and trying to look and act like I knew what was going on.
It was quite a historic season to be with the team.
Del Harris was the coach and the were two rookie players on the team that season.
Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher!
Got to meet both of them and actually photographed Derek playing Playstation and doing business in his room.
Kobe was too media shy and turned down my request to photograph him in his room. I should have pushed harder, but the 17-year-old millionaire was adamant, “No photos.”
Shaq said that I could hang with him in San Antonio, but he had private business on this leg of the trip.
Unfortunately, I was only with the team for this trip. Another strike!
Still it was an unforgettable moment in my career and Shaq’s retirement brought back that memory.

Shaq was always pleasant, basically a big kid, having fun and making millions doing it.
At Christmas time, he would give thousands of dollars worth of toys to the kids in L.A., not for publicity, just to do it.
Was he perfect, not but he sure did make it fun for the fans and those of us who covered this game.
For all the memories, Thanks!
Be inspired!

Just a few tips about covering events like a community run/walk event.
Anyone that has been involved with community journalism knows about the dreaded 5K walk run for charity.
It seems that every weekend when I worked as a photojournalist, there was some sort of event where people were walking or running for some sort of charity.
And it was my job to make a great photo or photos.
Quickly, here’s a few tips that you can use at your next event that you end up at.
My first image is the end of the race. But that’s what people want to see.
• What happened!
Don’t forget to show that visually. I have the crowd and one of the cuter runners finishing the race and now the viewer knows basically what happened at this event. Don’t forget to show it!
* Think small not just big!
Look around for details that might explain what’s going on.
Here I made an image at the sign-up tent.
10K says it all, in one compact image.
There’s always something that tells the story, a program of events makes a nice detail. Or even a banner can make a great story-telling device.
The trick is to look around.
• Be ready!
I’ve always found the start to be a nice image to include.
Something is almost always guaranteed to go wrong. Too many people worried, running around and another group of folks, probably not even paying attention.
That’s a recipe for good photos!
Like in the next image. The man on the right had all morning to get to the right place for the start of the race. There’s even a sign that says, “Start,” but just before the starter yelled, “GO,” this guy realized he was in the wrong place!
Instead of going around, he decided to go in front of a couple hundred runners.
He wasn’t trampled, but it looked like he was going to be, and a good photo happened!
So, when most people aren’t ready and thinking, you should be, and you will capture a lot more interesting images.
That always makes me think of the Clint Eastwood movie, “Unforgiven.”
The main character, Clint, is recounting a gun battle where he faced a dozen or so me with guns and came out alive. He kept his head, when everyone else around him, lost theirs.
That’s the trick! Be prepared. Think about what could or might happen and be ready for it and you’ll find that you will be able to capture many more moments than you might miss.
Be inspired!

(photo courtesy of The Orange County Register)
Today you are in for a treat. A veteran photojournalist and past co-worker, Paul Rodriguez.
He has been a staff photographer at the Orange County Register for 26 years and before that was at the highly acclaimed photographer for the Claremont Courier for 3 1/2 years.
Paul is sharing his recent experience at a high school track meet. The photo, as you can see is stellar and I asked him to share about how he obtained it and the thought process that goes through a photojournalist’s mind on the job.
Enjoy as I turn it over to Paul:

“Shooting Track and Field is more difficult than it would seem, especially with the “photographers” and “videographers” that have seemingly multiplied in recent years– everyone is a “photojournalist” now. Anyway, one of my main concerns while covering the Orange County Track and Field Championships was trying to avoid getting these other photographers in my shot. Whereas I was shooting with a 400 mm from farther away, these other “shooters” were maybe 10 feet away from, say, the high jump bar. So it was very difficult trying to get a clean shot in between heads. Fortunately there was a hill at the end of the track where the high jump competition was taking place and I was able to get a little height to clear some of the foreground. So the position and the 400 mm lens set wide open at 2.8 allowed me to get a great shot with a clean background and foreground.”

It is a great shot with separation between the subject and the background and seemingly there’s no one else around. But now we know better that there’s almost a dozen other photographers all standing about 10 feet from the high bar itself.

Long lenses can be a real help in situations like this or when you want to really separate the subject from the background due to the “look” that a long lens gives when the aperture is opened all the way. This creates a very shallow depth of field and isolates your subject against the background that is thrown out of focus to a maximum degree.
What about composition?
Paul has placed the head of the high jumper a bit outside the right upper area of convergence and his hand near the lower right area. This placement causes the viewer to follow the torso, which is in the upper horizontal, towards the head and the hand for a very engaging visual image.
So, the next time you are shooting some sports or action type shots:
* Look to isolate your subject with either a long lens or a clean background (the best is both).
* Look for anything in your surroundings that might help. Paul used a small hill to elevate himself over the other photographers.
Think first. Then shoot.
Many Thanks to my friend Paul Rodriguez for joining me today. You can view his work in The Orange County Register and www.ocregister.com
Be inspired.