Today is Super Bowl Sunday and I spent most of my day today up until the game with the baseball team. They started around 9:30am but I still worn out from the basketball game the night before did not arrive until 11:30. I arrived again when they were stretching so made my way out there to take some photos of that.

When I started the project I made a number of rules for me to follow. One was to not use an on-camera flash. However, after today I’m tempted to break that one. There are just too many times outside that I need just a kick of light in the subject to bring it out. I did however use a circular polarizer (CPL) for the first time since I was a student of photography. For some reason, the use of filters has become a lost art with the advent of digital photography. The clouds today however were in a perfect formation to make a CPL effective at bringing out clouds and producing a satisfying effect.

Andrew did not pitch today but he did have an interview with the media. Tim Peeler from gopack.com was there along with reporters from The Technician, 850 the Buzz and others. He talked about being at the game and the excitement of beating Carolina. It was interesting to hear his perspective as a former player for the team.

Once the scrimmage was over I rode with him from Doak Field to the WB weight room. We were there for a little over an hour and I got some good photos of him working out. Once finished in the WB I rode back with him and called it a day.

Andrew had asked me how many pictures had I taken in total. I had no idea when he asked but I thought on the blog I would post the number of pictures taken. The numbers are high because you have to take tons of pictures to get real winners where the technical execution of the photograph is perfect and the look of the subject is also perfect. Some of the photos will be trashed b/c they are out of focus, etc.

Number of pictures taken today: 617

Total pictures taken for project: 1,168

Below are some images today. Again, I’m embargoing my favorite photos until the final deliverable. But here are some assorted others.

Probably the only color picture I’ll post but I liked the sky…

Media Interview…

Weisiger-Brown Weight Room…

Back in the locker room. David Lindsay on the right…

The team began today with around 9:30am with a warm-up, stretching and finally a scrimmage that started around noon. The weather wasn’t too cold except when you were in the shade or if the wind blew. If one happened, you could expect your face to turn blue. If both happened, you could expect your face to freeze off.

I arrived at Doak Field around 11:45am and took some photos of the team doing stretches. I then went over and took some photos of Andrew Brackman warming up and throwing some pitches. I was pretty near him while he did this and this was the first time I was so close to a pitcher throwing a ball. Obviously, it is not something I can do during a game. What really struck me was how when Andrew threw the ball you could hear it slicing through the air like a missile. Hearing that conveyed just how fast these balls go when pitched. Even more impressive was he was not throwing full throttle. He was only warming up. Man I would hate to be hit by a stray ball thrown by him.

I tried getting some photos of him with the sun behind him. The effect was cool except the lens I used (Canon 16-35 2.8L) was really refracting sunlight and rendered a lot of the photos unusable.

Once the scrimmage started I went into the stands to take some photos of scouts in the stands who were armed with radar guns getting a reading on Andrew and other’s speed. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what the readings were, but I was impressed. I can say trying to frame the scouts with Andrew proved difficult. Because of the layout of the stadium I had to use a wide angle to get the scouts in the frame. But using a wide focal length made him tiny in the background. So there is work to do there.

Andrew pitched around 3 innings, then ran “poles” and then went inside the club house to do strength exercises. Being the professional stalker that I’ve become, I of course went in there with him. Talking with him I discovered that he took photography classes and knows what an f/stop is.

After finishing at Doak, the entire team went to RBC Center where during the first official timeout of the 2nd half, they were introduced to the crowd as the men’s basketball team played UNC-Chapel Hill. The baseball team must have brought good luck with them as the Wolfpack upset the Tar Heels 83-79 who were ranked #3 at the time. Today was Andrew’s first time on the floor of the RBC Center in front of a crowd after deciding to concentrate on baseball after being a dual-sport athlete in basketball. In addition to the presentation of the floor, I took some great photos of Andrew and the other players cheering on the sidelines and also storming the court after the win. I didn’t post any of those below as they were some of my favorites and I’m withholding some of my favs until the final project is presented. But below are some others from today.

In the training room….

Cooling down after running “poles”…

Trying on his new (size 15!) shoes…

Doing strength exercises…

Today the Technician, NC State’s student newspaper, did a photo shoot with Andrew under the lights of Doak field starting around 6:15pm. They used some strobes to light him while using the press box and stadium lights as a back drop. I can’t wait to see the results. I used this as an opportunity to kick off the photo project and took some pictures of the photo shoot. Shoot didn’t take long at all; only around 10 minutes which is impressive for students to work so fast. When it finished, Andrew shook hands with the two Technician photographers which impressed me. I’ve done photo shoots where the athlete wasn’t nearly as nice.

After the photo shoot was finished I went to the locker room with Andrew to take just a couple pictures back there.

Below are few photos from today. Tomorrow is a scrimmage where Brack is pitching and Sunday he is being interviewed by members of the media.

Bummer. Potential inclement weather has pushed off the Brackman photo shoot for today until Friday.

A couple months ago I was reading my latest copy of Inside Lacrosse. I’m probably the only person in America who subscribes to IL and doesn’t play lacrosse; call me contrarian. One article in the November 2006 issue caught my eye. It was a story about the Duke Lacrosse team. Instead of talking about the current legal case, it documented the team’s slow return to normalcy. The photographer and reporter followed the athletes as they went to class, practiced and ‘hung out’. I loved the angle of following an athlete around and showing to everyone what the life of an athlete was like. It was an idea I contemplated doing myself for sometime. So of course, I wanted to do it too.

As I thought about potential projects my connections with NC State seemed the best route to go. I have the great fortune of working for the athletic department doing action photography, PR events, head shots and the like. Thinking of athletes at NC State that would would be a good story, pitcher Andrew Brackman immediately came to mind as a good choice of someone to do a story with. Read the rest of this entry »