At yesterday’s Hurricanes Baseball Photo Day, I shot a series of portraits of seven student-athletes. In the never ending quest to create something different, I used the desktop version of an iPhone app used for the Hall of Fame portraits I shot earlier this year.
I shot the images on the field using Paul Buff strobes. After running the images through my usual workflow in Photoshop, I used “Pixlr-o-matic” to finish the images as you see them below.
(Click on an image for a larger version)
Before last night’s 44th Annual University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner, I shot a series of portraits of the inductees. In addition to my conventional Nikon camera I used a unconventional camera for a pro: My iPhone.
With the aid of a small LED light & a gray backdrop, I used the iPhone app “Pixlr-o-matic” to process the images as you see them below.
(Click on an image for a larger version)
After the BankUnited Center opened in 2003 and the women’s basketball team moved over from the Knight Sports Complex, the girls played in front of a sea of empty seats even though attendance remained relatively the same.
A few years ago, a gigantic black curtain was installed to hide many of those empty seats and provide a more intimate feel.
Photographically speaking, that curtain is a gem, as players “pop” off the clear background, as if in a studio, at the top of my images with a dozen or so mainly-filled rows of seats filling the lower half.
As much as I love that curtain, I’d also love to see it raised.
The 2012 Hurricanes Women’s Basketball team is currently 22-3 and ranked #6 in the country. They have won 11 consecutive games and 38 consecutive games at home. They are anchored by three seniors, two of whom are locks to enter the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in the future.
It’s a shame most of you have missed seeing them at least once during their careers.
I know the tired old argument that women’s sports are not as exciting as men’s sports, to which my reply is, “You haven’t seen this team play.” I knew it two years ago when I went to Berkeley, California, to shoot them in the WNIT final, and I know it even more so today.
The good news is you have two final chances to see Shenise, Riquna and Sylvia play. This Sunday, the ‘Canes take on our beloved rival FSU at 3:30pm. Advance tickets are as low as $1 or $5 at the door, and proceeds will go to the Play 4 Kay organization.
On Sunday, February 26th, the ‘Canes will play Boston College at 1pm and admission is FREE. It’s also Senior Day, and Shenise, Riquna and Sylvia will be honored before the game.
The women’s attendance record at the BankUnited Center is 4973, and UM officials want that number surpassed on Sunday.
So as the ‘Canes “Strive For Five,” I say “Raise The Curtain.”
And if you sit on the South side behind the benches, you’ll replace the curtain in my images. Nothing would make me happier.
I have a few self-imposed rules about what I post on social media. They include no prospective recruiting comments and no prospective coaching comments in relation to UM. However, that doesn’t keep me from commenting on past recruiting.
I’ve witnessed plenty of National Signing Day drama through the years, shooting exclusively for Canesport every year since 1996. What has changed in those 16 years is kids are learning to take advantage of their initial 15 minutes of fame and play to the media with dramatics better suited for acting school. For some, it’ll be the only 15 minutes they’ll ever get.
Therefore, don’t sweat the ones that get away, because more often than not, we don’t hear much about them afterwards. I present these three examples I’ve witnessed firsthand:
Kayvon Webster, DB, Pace HS, 2009 NSD.
Dressed with a USF hoodie and a Miami tie on the outside, Webster sat down with two of his classmates and placed a Miami and USF hat in front of him on the table. Webster then flipped the Miami hat behind him, put on the USF hat and then tucked in his Miami tie under the USF hoodie.
In three years at USF he has a grand total of two interceptions, although he does have a 96-yard fumble return for a touchdown on his resume.
Deonte Thompson, WR, Glades Central HS, 2007 NSD.
Thompson also chose to dramatize his moment for the cameras. He had been wearing Miami gear and downplaying Florida before he appeared for the media with offers from UM, UF, USC & Ohio State on the table in front of him. No one, except his family, saw what was coming, the shocking reveal of Gator hats for he and his girlfriend.
Thompson had only one 100 yard receiving game in four years at UF, and even that was against a Division 1-AA opponent.
Jonathan Colon, OL, Miami Central HS, 2000 NSD.
Colon’s story is in a league of its own, and might be one of the all-time bizzare NSD stories.
Torn and conflicted, Colon was near tears as he signed with Florida on NSD in front of the media and his very unhappy father, who wanted him to go to Miami. But a signed Letter Of Intent also showed up on Miami’s fax machine that day. Colon had signed with both schools.
While UF and UM haggled over where Colon belonged, the NCAA spent a week sorting through the mess before finally making the ruling Colon belonged to the Gators, as he had signed his Miami LOI the night before signing day – making it invalid.
Ironically, Colon ended up at Bridgton Academy in Maine in the fall of 2000 and re-signed with the Gators on NSD in 2001.
Colon started only 22 of 43 games during his career with the Gators.
Back in the spring, when we did a studio shoot with head coach Al Golden that went well and resulted in the artwork (shown above), little did I know it would only get better.
Last week Coach Golden was off the charts. After the ‘Canes defense held on a 4th down conversion attempt, as the play ended in front of the ‘Canes bench Coach Golden celebrated with enthusiasm.
And speaking of charts, Coach Golden runs full stride with headset in one hand and charts in the other towards a game official to protest a non-call. I have shot over 500 college and pro football games and I can’t recall ever having witnessed a head coach running like a player.
In one half last week it seemed I shot at least as much variety of Coach Golden as I did the previous coach in his entire 4 year tenure. Here’s to many more halves of action from Coach Golden.
See a larger version of this image with expanded web tools here.
The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera. ~W. Eugene Smith
Last Saturday I took those words to heart when I climbed up to the overhead camera position just before the start of our game against Ohio State.
While I took a standard fisheye shot of the stadium with a modern digital equivalent of a 35mm camera, I had something else in mind and in hand.
I had a GigaPan Epic robotic unit holding a Canon G12 camera, which shot 66 individual pictures across a grid from that same overhead camera position at the top of Sun Life Stadium early in the 1st quarter. Those images were then downloaded to a personal computer where software stitched, rendered, and projected the image together into a single image. The massive image was then uploaded to the free user community site gigapan.org, which allows high-resolution images to be stored, shared, annotated, commented, linked, geolocated, and embedded on any website.
The GigaPan process is far from perfect at public gatherings, such as a football stadium. It’s impossible to keep people from moving for a second, let alone the seven and a half minutes it took to complete this image. You’re going to find duplicate people who appear in more than one frame, or parts of people who were at the edge of a frame. Items that move during the process also can oddly appear. There were also a few spots where frames did not align correctly.
There is also new technology which allows users to tag themselves and/or their friends to post on Facebook. Licensing of that technology is still a bit pricey for us.
Photographer and UM alum (and my old college roommate) David Bergman embraced the technology early, creating this famous GigaPan image of President Obama’s inauguration, and these GigaPans for Major League Baseball. Ironically, Bergman was at the game Saturday, shooting conventional images for Sports Illustrated, and can be seen in my GigaPan image.
You can access all of GigaPan.org’s tools to explore this photo here. We are also making a 5×15 print of this image available for purchase at Caneshooter.com.
GigaPan Statistics for this image:
Date Taken: September 17, 2011
Size: 0.58 gigapixels
Field of View: 144.7 degrees wide, 59.1 degrees high
Panorama size: 581 megapixels (37720 x 15404 pixels)
Input images: 66 (11 columns by 6 rows)
Field of view: 144.7 degrees wide by 59.1 degrees high (top=24.0, bottom=-35.1)
Camera model: Canon PowerShot G12
Single image size: 3648×2736 (10.0 megapixels)
Capture time: 2011-09-17 19:41:53 – 2011-09-17 19:46:50
Aperture: f/4.5
Exposure time: 0.004
ISO: 800
Focal length (35mm equiv.): 142.3 mm
Digital zoom: off
White balance: Automatic
Exposure mode: Manual
Horizontal overlap: 7.4 to 20.6 percent
Vertical overlap: 6.6 to 8.4 percent
Computer stats: 4096 MB RAM, 2 CPUs
Total time 7:33 (6.9 seconds per picture)
Alignment: 1:06, Projection: 28 seconds, Blending: 5:59
Today was the start of my 17th season as the Hurricanes’ Team Photographer, and my 21st overall including my student years. Things have changed over that period of time, going from processing and printing film in my closet to digital processing and Photoshop work on a Mac. Photos that were distributed to primary clients via FedEx back then are done so via FTP today. Outside sales to editorial clients have been nearly entirely eliminated by agencies suck as Getty Images, who have largely commodified the market for stock photography, resulting in use fees at a fraction of what was realized in the past. In its place some photographers have moved to promoting themselves via websites and social media sites including Twitter and Facebook. “Caneshooter” has become my identity and my brand online and in social media after just being a nickname hurled at me by another photographer back in the late 1990′s. I spend more time promoting my brand than I do shooting photographs. I have over 91,000 photos online, of just Hurricanes Athletics. I have this blog, a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account. I hope I post interesting stuff, and that you’ll look at my website, my blog, fan my page on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. And I really hope you’ll buy a print or a download! ABOVE: Kenny Kadji poses earlier today during our basketball freshmen/transfer studio shoot at the School of Communication.