George M. Steinbrenner Field, Spring Training site for the New York Yankees in Tampa, Florida, Thursday, March 8, 2012.

I was in Florida all of March, with the intent of shooting Spring Training. Unfortunately, I never got a Spring Training assignment. hurrumph. Maybe next year. But I kinda expected that to happen. That’s not to say I wasn’t busy with work. Don’t worry. I made some money while I was down there. But, rather than twiddle my thumbs waiting for a phone call, I just went to Steinbrenner Field. Nobody was playing, which was fine. I really just wanted to explore the field and see what I could come back with.

Rather than just show what this stadium and its facilities look like, I tried photographing it’s character.

Allen Born and his 10-year-old son Caleb Born, from Sacramento, California,  take pictures of the Yankees Spring Training Stadium in Tampa, Florida Thursday, March 8, 2012 for a school project. Rather than miss school, Caleb is conducting a school-sanctioned independent study. Caleb is a Giants fan saw them during Spring Training last year in the Cactus League in Arizona, but Allen is a “die hard” Detroit Tigers fan. Neither are big Yankees fans, but Caleb’s teacher is.

Baseball Factory Yankee Spring Training Experience Camp at Turley Athletic Complex at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida Saturday, February 11, 2012.

I came down to Florida this year to shoot baseball! …and baseball I’ve shot!

These are some of the marketing photos I made for Baseball Factory’s 11-13 year old camps.

Oh man! This assignment had me swimming in nostalgia! When I was a kid, I used to go to baseball camps whenever my mom could afford them. As some of you know, baseball is my favorite sport. It was all I could do to sheath my cameras and put a glove on. I wanted to play catch the whole time I was there.

This camp was pretty cool. It’s the Yankee Training Experience Camp. The “Experience” is something the Yankees offer, separate from Baseball Factory. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get credentials or a ticket to shoot that. It sounds pretty cool. Breakfast. Autographs. Batting practice Premium seats.

Now, I have to be clear. Some of these photos are obvious marketing caliber photos, but others, I think, exemplify what I remember what it’s like to be a kid on a ball field.

There are way more photos on my Photoshelter gallery, too.

Last weekend Weird Sports Photographer Sol Neelman & I shot the Run For Your Lives zombie 5k in Darlington, MD at Rablewood Saturday, October 22, 2011. The event is a zombie infested 5k obstacle course. I heard anywhere from 10,000 – 13,000 participants and spectators showed up for the sold out event which raises money for the American Red Cross.

This shoot was for the magazine’s “Go!” section, so all the photos needed to be vertical.

And of course, thanks to Jim Surber for the assignment! and Thanks to David Hobby for letting me borrow his ProFotos! What a super-good friend!

My Stunt Double assistant, the talented and gracious Nate Pesce! All the gear would’ve blown over had it not been for him.

oh. and that thing draping across the upper left corner? …it’s a piece of hair (eye lash? beard hair?) that’s stuck on the sensor. weird, huh?

I got a call back in June from Red Bull Photofiles to photograph this promo stunt for Fowler’s U.S. Open stint. …and the photo above also ran in Red Bull’s new magazine The Red Bulletin.

In addition to a video crew, I was one of two assigned photographers. The other being Steve Boyle. He was down on the ground level and I was stationed up top. My options were somewhat limited, but I was guaranteed a pretty cool perspective.

The light was absolutely gorgeous!

…right up until Rickie Fowler got out of his SUV. And it stayed grey and drizzly until he got back in his SUV. If we have to search for silver linings, the light was ultra diffused. So… No Rickie Fowler raccoon eyes.

If you guys haven’t seen the Red Bulletin, it’s a pretty friggin’ cool magazine. Super-visual. I’m not just saying that because they’ve paid me once, either. It’s pretty legit.

Marriotts Ridge center midfielder Alex Price led the Mustangs to a 13-3-3 record and the girls soccer team’s first county championship.

Here’s the corresponding Howard County Time Article.

I couldn’t have asked for a better sky that day. …the temperature could’ve been better, though. If I remember correctly, it was hovering around 20-ish degrees, plus wind.

The Marriotts Ridge baseball field was going under some renovation, so rather than take Alex to the stadium (where all those gross white banners live in the background) I put her on top of the mound closest to the backstop.

…that way when she kicked the ball it didn’t go too far.

For all you gear heads out there, I used two Alien Bee 1600′s, both unmodified, at max power, powered by the vagabond II (love that thing) flanking her at the 9 o’clock and 4 o’clock position. I also used an sb-800, on the right, to light the ball.

Same Set up, sans the sb-800.

Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin is photographed in the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Virginia, Monday, March 28, 2011.

NOTE: This is a well needed revision of my original post. A few key issues were brought to my attention that I need to set straight.

…and I need to fix some grammar, too.

First off, I should apologize to the Capitals’ front office. After rereading my hasty post I realize I made the Capitals management sound less professional than they actually were with me.

Truth be told, they were very accommodating and so so nice. The PR guy spent a good 20-30 minutes with me before hand, location scouting. And lets not forget he also made sure Alex got to me.

And he made himself available to me whenever I needed him.

So, from the bottom of my heart… I’m sorry . This was a good blog-writing lesson for me to learn.

So, when I wrote “I had literally five minutes to shoot Alex Ovechkin. Seriously…I checked my metadata.” – I should have gone on to explain is that this is normal — especially for high profile athletes.

What made this worth talking about on my blog was that this was the first time I’ve ever only had five minutes with an athlete.

This was his first day back off the disabled list, too, so, the fact that he practiced was kinda a big deal. Although, if he was still resting, I’d have a lot more time with him for the shoot. oh well.

But I did get to shoot him immediately after practice — so he’d have that bad-ass ,worn down, sweaty look. All the game jerseys are kept at the Verizon Center, so I got him in his pads — which one blog reader emailed to me saying she thought it was cool seeing him in his pads. He’s always photographed in the game jersey. Personally, I think the pads are pretty rad, too. I did worry that the good people at the Sporting News might want him in something that said CAPITALS… but, of course, if your read the article, I think you’ll figure out which team he plays for pretty quickly.

Back to the story:

So, Ovechkin barrels into this tiny auxiliary locker room (my make-shift studio), huffing and puffing, skates & all, and as he crashes onto the bench and catches his breath, I put the finishing touches on my set up.

I bang out a few close ups, a few medium shots, move the lights, sit him on the bench, and then make a few funky verticals.

And that’s it. He was gone. — off to a meeting.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with myself. I made a nice variety of photos in very little time.

The one thing I did miss was not getting to really connect with him.

After about the first frantic minute of shooting, I realized I hadn’t properly introduced myself.

So, I pull the camera down, extend my hand, and say with a smile,”Oh, by the way, My name’s Matt.”

He chuckles, smiles back and says “ha. I’m Alexander.”

And we get back to business.

I think that little gesture made a world of difference. Beforehand I was just some camera jockey, but after that little gesture I was some camera jockey named “Matt.”

One of the things I love about shooting portraits, in general, is the back and forth I get with my subjects. I didn’t get all I knew I could’ve gotten from Ovechkin. I hear he’s a pretty fun guy.

Maybe next time…?

To see more photos visit here.

Why oh why do I love this picture?

Everything about this shoot makes me roll my eyes. First of all, I’m breaking one of my cardinal rules! I HATE HATE HATE making portraits of people holding books, or whatever it is the writer decides the story is also about. So, I don’t do it. If I can make a book or a photograph, or whatever the subject made into a detail photo, that’s what I’m gonna do. — especially with authors. It’ll probably help the layout, and add an extra “click” to the website. This woman, however, is a faux finisher. Rita Melnick’s is a featured artists in the resource book “Modelo by Design, Volume 2,” — which is what she’s holding — and that’s pretty much what the article was about. Ugh! This newspaper article reads like a website bio. I could talk at length about how this assignment isn’t really journalism, but I think y’all are smart enough to figure that out.

So, why in the world do I love this image? Well, on the one sense, Rita was super pleasant to deal with, and got what I was going for. She was up for anything. …and why wouldn’t she be? We’re giving her faux finishing business free advertising! But this image (not unlike the article) is just ridiculous, isn’t it? I could try to make a heady analogy about faux paint/fake news/faked enthusiasm blah blah blah.

…but the fact is, every time I look at it I chuckle.

I get something out of it.

And hopefully the readers do too.

when I see this I think… POLITICAL CENTAUR!

@lopossay

Scott McIntyre

Wilde Lake sophomore golfer Tyler Silberberg tied for 11th in the state and is the boys golfer of the year. He is photographed at Hobbits Glen Tuesday, November 30, 2010.

Here‘s Brent Kennedy’s season wrap up.

In case you’re curious, there are two more photos after the jump.

The above photo is one of my initial “test shots.” And if I’ve learned anything in my eight years as a pro, is that “test shots” can just as easily become your “A” shot. I quite like this photo. Depending on your school of thought, this photo skirts the line of success or failure. On the one hand, the mood, subtlety, setting, body language, are all working really well. If you wanna get all heady with the right slogan this image is a best-selling motivational poster. …am I right? high five!

Now, if you’re in the camp that thinks the shadows in his midsection are too dark, and for that reason alone, the photo is unusable, then, you probably need to do some soul searching. …that is, you need to find your soul. Remember, a lit photo is so much more than the sum of its lighting technique.

Tutorials can be all about the lighting,

…but photographs need to be all about the content.

But this is a tutorial… so lets talk BEAUTY DISH!

I recently bought an Avenger boom arm which was a game changer. Now I can do things like

hang a beauty dish over 11-year-old weight-lifters’ head and not worry about his barbells breaking anything (lightbulb, my foot, his head). The idea is simple. I wanted to light him brighter than the rest of the room. BOOM! (hehehe see what I did there?) over head beauty dish! It’s like one of those cool lights you see at a wrestling match. Fall off was inevitable, (thus the midsection shadows), but that was okay. I had like two to three more Alien Bee’s to play with. Aside from varying power settings and angles, the boom never changed stage position. It was always to my left and above Tyler.

So, if any of you read the Strobist blog you already know about his love for “on axis fill lighting.”

While David usually uses a ring-flash (or a speedlight close to the axis of his lens to fill in the shadows) I opted to go the big-dumb-light route to fill in my shadows/the rest of the room. I used a HUGE umbrella. And like my boom set up, it also never really moved its stage position. It remained set up on my right at like 2:30 o’clock position. I don’t know the specific dimensions of the ubrella, but I know it doesn’t fit in my light case. Oh, and I’m also shooting through it. The original idea was to have it behind me — you know — classic on axis fill style. But the room was a little too small to accommodate both of us on the same plane.

I think we can all agree the big-dumb-light flattened-out the moodiness from the first photo. The light’s a bit more normalized, which isn’t something I necessarily wanted, but I saw the usefulness in it. In hind-sight perhaps a ring-flash might’ve been a better way to “light the shadows” on Tyler. …but I don’t have one. Don’t worry, it’s on my buy list. In the future I’ll probably use the speedlight-under-my-lens trick.

The shot still needed some pizazz! Don’t you guys think? So, I messed around with some power settings, changed the directionality of the big dumb umbrella and introduced some contrasty side light. I first used a grid, because I didn’t want the spill off to make gross shadows in the background, but I think I ultimately abandoned the grid and just powered down my AB 800. I think I also flagged the light with something. My next purchase will probably be some barn doors.

So, I like the composition of this image. Well, I like way the weights look. At a glance, the lighting looks fine. …fine-ish. Okay, so there are some gross shadows I wanna get rid of. At this point I totally messed my lighting up. I think I powered down the big dumb umbrella light a little too much. Bare with me folks. It’s been a while since I shot this. I also think I maybe angled it too severely, defeating any semblance of the “on-axis” effect I was using it for. I also think I powered up the overhead beauty dish a bit too much, too. And rather than point it straight down, using it like a bad-ass, directional key light, I think I angled it to much. So, as you can see it’s lighting the background a bit better than Tyler, who has shadows underneath him again. I’ve also introduced the “pizazz” side light to the right of Tyler.

heh. pizazz fail. . See how gross the shadows are? It looks like bad stage lighting.

So, why am I explaining all this failure? So, you know how it works. At this point in the shoot I realize I have shadow problems and now I gotta fix them! It’s important for photographers to know mistakes are awesome. I’m still learning. Every setting is different. The more mistakes — and this is key — and the faster i learn to correct them — the more versatile and faster I’ll be at making rad photos. And isn’t that what we all want? …Rad photos?

I would like to say that I still think this photo works. The composition is clean-ish — at least where it needs to be (head, feet, weights, body). The setting and the subject matter are still interesting. Right now the image ruiner is the lighting. My fault. I need to fix it.

And I did. The lighting set up in this photo is the same as the lead image in my original post. Sure, there’s still some shadows, but they’re more defined. The background is darker. He’s brighter and more evenly lit. There’s an unfortunate shadow on his face. It’s a product of the weight eclipsing part of the side light. When you have so many moving parts in a photo, something’s gotta give.

But here’s the thing, I didn’t not choose this photo because of the shadow on his face, I chose the other photo because his face had a better expression. It was more interesting.

To be sure I worked hard to achieve this somewhat underwhelming lighting scheme. And I think the photos are more effective because of it.

Before I left I tried a quick “dramatic” lighting set up on Tyler’s mom, Pat.

Admittedly, it’s sloppy. Of course, if i put more time into the design I think it has potential be a really slick photo. But, here’s the thing I notice right off the bat — to me, the photo all of a sudden becomes more about the lighting, and the mood I’m creating. It’s almost discounting the the built in charm this room came with. And that big hot light on her face distracts from those awesome socks she’s wearing.

Do y’all get what I’m saying? (yes I said y’all. I’m a Georgia boy living in Baltimore). Sometimes its best to use lights only to accentuate awesome places. I’ve certainly been guilty of juicing the natural charm out of a setting. Of course it’s important to keep your ambiance creating skills sharp. Sometimes you’ll be called to make an office look interesting and, maybe even, otherworldly.

The bottom line is, it’s important to build up range in your lighting skills.

For this tutorial I used 2 AB 1600′s 1 AB 800, a beauty dish, a BIG umbrella, a grid spot, light stands (duh), a boom arm, and pocket wizards.