SSA Day 4—Rugby Friday, April 13, 2007

Back Bay RFC (white) defeated Santa Monica 23-19 Apr. 7 to stave off relegation from the Men's first division of the Southern California Rugby Football Union. It was their last league game of the season.

The final event for me at Sports Shooter Academy IV was a rugby game in Newport Beach. The Southern California Rugby Football Union has been around since 1937. These days, at least, its players are an eclectic mix of men ranging in age from their 20's to their 40's, or maybe older, with a disproportionately high concentration of English and Kiwi accents.

Access was great (it is an amateur event), and there was plenty of action to shoot. Unfortunately, most of it happened on the opposite side of the field from me. The home side, Back Bay RFC, beat Santa Monica 23-19 in their final league game of the season. With the win, they avoided relegation to Sr. Men's Division II.

The field was ringed by palm trees, so I tried to use those as a graphic element. The photo above was the best result of those efforts. It was selected as a finalist for the photo-of-the-day competition, but it never really stood a chance of winning against Kenneth Gatlin's photo, and one or two others. (As well as photo-of-the-day, that shot won the Best Photo award, and was part of the best pro portfolio from the workshop.)

I wish I had more photos of this guy (left). Even the dogs were getting in on the action at half-time (below).


















Newport Beach (left) is an odd place. The rugby field is in Peninsula Park, on a long spit just 100 feet from the ocean. On the inland side of the park is this public sidewalk, replete with people on Segways, then a row of houses that undoubtedly come with obscenely high prices. Finding a parking spot there is about as much fun as it is in my neighborhood, except there it's all metered parking.

Sports Shooter Academy IV concluded with the faculty judging the SportsShooter.com photos of the year (Saturday night), and the Academy awards brunch Sunday morning. I left for the airport at 3 and, apart from a 1-hour delay on the second leg, had an uneventful trip home.

SSA Day 4—Crew Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Out on the dock at Orange Coast College in Newport Beach, Calif., kids wait for the boats to go by during OCC's rowing regatta against UCI and Cal State Fullerton Apr. 7, 2007.

After going to bed after 1 a.m. Saturday morning, I pried open my eyes at 5 a.m. to photograph rowing in Newport Beach. We beat the rowers to the boathouse.

The one consolation for rising so early is the pretty morning light—you've seen the photos before of shells on the glassy water in beautiful, golden sunlight. Saturday morning proved to be overcast.

Eventually a few rowers arrived and started warming up, so we photographed that. Then we all moved from the old, beat-up UC (Irvine) boathouse to the swanky Orange County College boathouse, which was hosting the regatta. Originally, we'd been told there would be an opportunity to photograph the rowers from a motorboat running alongside them, but for some reason that plan was kiboshed. So we were stuck on the dock.

As we were waiting for the boats to go past (we were about halfway along the course), I saw these two kids in OCC crew tee-shirts just hanging around at the end of the dock (see above). I thought, gee, won't that be a great photo when the boats come through? So I hung out there and waited. Just as the boats were about to come in sight (there was a loudspeaker with commentary describing the race), all the girls left on shore ran out to the end of the dock and changed my image. The shot I got (right) is fine, but not quite what I'd hoped for.

Most of the races had just two boats (OCC and UCI), but a couple—including the premier event, men's 8's—had three (OCC, UCI, and Cal State Fullerton). Irvine led that race for almost the entire length of the course, but OCC came back at the end to win by about 3 seconds. With that race in the bag, they swept the regatta. Someone ran a corn broom up the mast.


Early call time, boring light, limited access, and an overabundance of photographers notwithstanding, shooting crew was fun. I'll have to do it again sometime.

Volleyball Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Long Beach State's Tommy Pestolesi (left) and Teddy Liles get ready to block Ernie Vidinha's spike in the 49ers' match against the University of Hawaii Apr. 6 in Long Beach. Hawaii held on to beat Long Beach 30-27, 30-20, 22-30, 27-30, 19-17.

The last event for me Friday was an indoor volleyball game, still at Long Beach. As mentioned previously, I'd never shot volleyball before (which is one of the reasons I went), and it showed in the results.

After shooting a bunch of uninspired shots from the stands behind one back line, I moved around to the sideline. I found this big banner for "Beach" and tried to use it as a background. I was hoping for a Long Beach player to spike under it, but the plays always came from the left of it, or the right. After waiting for the better part of a game for that to happen, I gave up and started shooting the Hawaii players spiking under it. This was the best frame from that attempt, but it's still the back of the guy's head.

The shot I had in mind might be there, but you'd probably need a 400mm lens from up in the back line stands to my right. Oh well.

Portrait session at SSA IV Monday, April 09, 2007

Bert Hanashiro (left) makes a portrait of AVP player Dana Schilling Apr. 6 in Long Beach, Calif.

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, we had the opportunity to make portraits of the beach volleyball players after they played. Bert Hanashiro took one group of students over to Court 2 to make some lit portraits. Wally Skallij helped the rest of us make natural light portraits on Court 1. I spent a bit of time in each area.

Rather than put my other camera in the sand while I was working with Wally and Janelle Ruen, I asked another photographer to hold onto it for a moment. Later, I discovered he'd taken this picture of me at work. Unfortunately, I can't remember who it was ... Bob Ford, maybe? But yes, I'm still finding sand in my wallet.

Matthew Ginn makes a portrait of Janelle Ruen Apr. 6, in Long Beach, Calif., with the assistance of Wally Skallij.

The (better) results of my efforts are posted below. Nothing particularly original, but they look nice.

(right) Janelle Ruen

(below) Dana Schilling shows off her wingspan.

A long day in Long Beach

San Jose State's Geraldine Hazlett (right) attacks Long Beach State's Andrea Angstadt in the second half of the Trojan's 13-6 win in Long Beach, Calif.

I spent pretty much the whole of Day 3 (Friday) in Long Beach, shooting water polo, beach volleyball, and indoor volleyball. Probably because I had never shot any of these sports before, I didn't have a particularly good day.

I wasn't even planning to shoot the water polo, but we arrived early for the beach volleyball (right next door), so we shot the second half of the game. I didn't really come away with anything special from the water polo, certainly not this shot. But I'm posting this image because just about everybody came away with a photograph of Hazlett, or "Crazy Eyes," as she became known in the editing room. All the photographers were stuck on one side of the pool, and maybe that was the side she played. Or maybe she was just trying harder than her teammates. Or maybe she's just more expressive. But she ended up in a lot of photos.Then it was on to the beach volleyball. This wasn't a league match up, but Bert Hanashiro (organizer of SSA) had arranged for two pairs of players from the AVP to play a practice match for us: Jen Snyder and Janelle Ruen squared off against Dana Schilling and Alicia Zamparelli. Their season starts next weekend in Miami.

As mentioned before, I was having an off day. I ended up with a few "almosts" (e.g. both of these) but nothing particularly noteworthy. Yes, I did get some cya "safe shots," but that's not what this story is about.

(right) Janelle Ruen dives for a ball. (below) Jen Snyder and Janelle Ruen both went for a ball hit in the middle.

After the girls had played for an hour or so, we had a chance to make portraits of them. But this posting is getting a little long, so I'll start another one to talk about that experience.

Driving in LA Sunday, April 08, 2007

Todd Spoth (left), Shawn Lynch and Corey Perrine change a flat tire en route to shooting boxing in La Habra, Calif., Apr. 5.

This is the first time I've spent an extended period in the Los Angeles area. Sports Shooter Academy is based at a hotel in Irvine (in Orange County, east of downtown), but we've been traveling all over the east side to photograph events: La Habra, Fullerton, Long Beach, Newport Beach, and Irvine for me.

I haven't been driving, but I have been riding with, and sometimes navigating for, others who are also unfamiliar with the area.

Thursday was particularly challenging. After our morning classes, Shawn, Kasia, and I piled into the Corolla that Todd and Corey had rented and headed off to find La Habra. Vague directions, unanticipated exits on the left, unsigned splits in the road, and a flat tire all conspired against us. The pit crew did a great job on the tire, though, changing it in less than seven minutes. And even with the 55 mph limit on the tire, we arrived at the gym ahead of the SSA faculty.

SSA day 2 Saturday, April 07, 2007

Andrew Martin, 9, works on the speed ball at the boxing gym in La Habra, Calif., Apr. 5, 2007.

For me, Day 2 at Sports Shooter Academy IV included a session on arena lighting, followed by photographing boxing at the gym in La Habra and baseball at CSU Fullerton.

Art Bojorquez, aka Bruno Franco, tapes his hands before a work out at the La Habra gym in La Habra, Calif.

The boxing gym was really cool. It was inside a little, old church, barely wider than the boxing ring. It was dark, though, so faculty member Matt Brown set up some lights on the ring for us. That helped, but the area around the speed balls and heavy bags was still dark.

At least initially, the photographers--about a dozen plus two faculty--outnumbered the athletes. A couple of pro boxers who compete out of the club were working out, and there were a few other men around. The pros sparred for a couple of rounds under the lights, so we shot some of that. Later, some kids and a few women arrived for their session.

After boxing, it was off to baseball, UC (Irvine) at CSU Fullerton. The two schools are natural rivals, just a few miles apart. Fullerton was favored, but UCI prevailed, 2-1. It was a night game, so the light wasn't very good, and as I was limited to my 200mm lens*, my shots were somewhat limited. I shot some action (right), but mostly I played (below). And yes, Gary, I was thinking about Tanya Tucker when I shot that.

(right) Matt Morris of UC Irvine (OF) dives back to first base before the Titan's Matt Wallach can apply the tag in the second inning of the Anteater's game at CSU Fullerton Apr. 5. Morris scored the game's winning run later in the inning.

I have more images I want to post from Day 2, but I've been up since 5 a.m. ... I'm tired, I'm going to bed.

CSU Fullerton pitcher Wes Roemer recorded 10 strikeouts and allowed just two runs in a complete game against UC Irvine Apr. 5. The two runs were all the Anteaters needed, though, as they beat the Titans 2-1.

*Canon is sponsoring the workshop, and providing a lot of loaner gear to participants, such as 300mm and 400mm lenses, which are better suited for shooting sports like baseball ... but I shoot Nikon, so I'm stuck with the equipment I brought. Do what you can with what you brung, right?

From one OC to the other Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Yesterday, I was taking pictures in Oregon City. Today, it's the other OC--Orange County, California.

I'm here at the Crowne Plaza hotel (left) in Irvine for Sports Shooter Academy IV. It will be my home for the next few days, although I will be traveling around the area, from Long Beach to La Habra.

The first early bird session begins in a few minutes, with the main action starting tonight. Look for lots of sports shots ... if I have time to post them.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of the hotel's neighborhood (below). Maybe there's more to it than that, but from what I've seen, it's all low-rise office buildings and 8- to 10-lane roads. The star attraction, right around the corner from the hotel: Taco Bell world HQ. I wonder what they have in their cafeteria?