Hoops Sportrait

I feel like my best portraits usually come by accident.

I always have a plan for one or two basic, traditional shots. Bring along a couple of Speedlites. Use the logo at halfcourt as a background. Try a goofy one where they're spinning or tossing the ball, or looking somewhere between serious/silly/smiley. That kind of thing.

Then I try to liven up the shoot. Walk around. Engage with the subject. Try to cull some emotion or passion, and use that to build a portrait. Something spontaneous.

So that's what happened today. I had a portrait with a college basketball player. Banged out a few with a one-light setup ... one speedlite with a Profoto medium softbox. Got a few reasonable ones.

But nothing spectacular. I always want stuff on the fly ... gimme my 5DIII and a 50mm and let's just bounce around for a bit. So that's what we did.

We came to the coach's office door, which is adjacent to the gym. It's a great purple color, and it had the names of all the graduating players from year's past. Very cool. Very unique. So I told her to sit down on the floor and just relax. We talked for a bit. And then, the men's basketball team started practicing on the court, not far away.

PERFECT. We're both watching, and I ask her to tell me about some of the guys on the team. She looks over, starts talking and smiling, and I bang out some frames.

Here and there: Hoops stuff

Some photos from hoops season. Found some different looks as the season wore on: wide-angle lense shooting up from the floor (typical remote-camera look in NBA) and telephoto from the stands.

Gear: Nikon D300S; Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8
Settings: f/2.8, 1/400th of a second, ISO 4000, 17mm
Thought: Love this as a scene-setter. Colorful gym. Stands are packed. Action on the court. Cool snap. (Also. Yeah, it's noisy. It wasn't shot with a 1DX or D4. There's probably some motion blur. But you don't need a $10K setup to take a unique, engaging sports photo.)

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Gear: Canon 5D Mark III; Canon 50mm f/1.8 II

Settings: f/2.8, 1/1,000th of a second, ISO 10,000, 50mm

Thought: Good, vertical action. Love being able to shoot right under the hoop for shots like this. Usually I like to crop nice and tight to focus the action, but I think this works as a full-body shot.

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Gear: Canon 5D Mark III; Canon 50mm f/1.8 II
Settings: f/2.8, 1/1,000th of a second, ISO 10,000, 50mm
Thought: This is a heavy crop from vertical. Opposite to the photo above this one, I whittled it down to the necessary points in the frame. And the quality held up, and now it's engaging across the image.

NBA Hoops: 76ers at Cavaliers

Hoops, here and there

Basketball most nights these days. Few good ones from the last few days.

Oh, and this first one is a personal favorite. You probably know that popular Robert Capa quote: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." I was reminded of it while shooting this game. Cramped sideline, and I had the 50mm on. Action was TIGHT. And this play happened right in front of me. Uncropped. Not only is it big and vertical (making these players look like titans), but it puts you right in this play. Like you're a part of it. I got closer, Capa.

Quotable

Image courtesy of: SnapKnot - Local Wedding Photographers

Daily Snap(s): Wrestling, hoops

Two-for-one special today. Saturday called to college wrestling and high school basketball:

Gear: Canon 5D Mark III; Canon 70-200 2.8L

Settings: f/2.8, 1/1,000th of a second, ISO 6400, 185mm

Gear: Canon 5D Mark III; Canon 70-200 2.8L

Settings: f/2.8, 1/800th of a second, ISO 10,000

More hoops, here and there

On that hoop grind. Some photos from here and there: