Russell Wilson with "Trust" written on his wrist bandage

Oh, I wish every game at NC State was like this for me.  To be sure, working at NC State covering football has had it’s ups and downs.  When Daniel Evans threw the “hail mary” 2 years ago to beat Boston College:  That was euphoric.  But for every good moment, there seems to be even more bad ones.  Traveling to USC with the team was an exercise in masochism.  Insult to injury was Russell Wilson’s concussion that put him in the hospital overnight.  But back to the point:  It is a lot more fun to work for and photograph a team that wins than one that doesn’t.

Today was one of those good days.  In what turned out to be an exciting game, North Carolina State upset East Carolina (ECU).  Some fans may dispute the use of “upset”, saying that ECU was not as good as they were thought.  But, in the end, NC State did beat a ranked team.  Here are some of my photos from the game.

You know how I like random photos, and the photo in this posting is both random, and one of my favorite photos from the day.  It is of NC State QB Russell Wilson.  Actually, it is a close up of his hands during the press conference.  I noticed his wrist taped with the word “Trust” written on it.  After taking a few photos of it, a reporter asked what the message meant.  Russell said it means “Trust in God first. Then trust in your teammates.”  Anyways, I hope Russell wasn’t wondering why I was zooming in on his pelvic section.

So college football season has started, and I am back in full force on the sports photography circuit.  Last week I traveled on the team buses down Columbia, SC with the NCSU Football team when the played the Ol’ Ball Coach.

It goes without saying that with a final score of 34-0 for South Carolina, it was a rough game.  Worse though was the injury of QB Russel Wilson.  I was walking around USC campus with Brandon in athletic communications saying that with all the injuries, the only thing that could be worse if if Wilson was hurt.

Beyond the score and injuries, I had a great time down in Columbia.  Brandon and I toured the campus and I was able to by my always essential survenior for every campus I visit: a shot glass.  I also had a great talk with team orthopedic surgen Dr. David Fajgenbaum, whose son, also named David, I’ve known back when I worked at Georgetown and David QB’ed there.

The enviroment was also a fun one.  The fans certainly get into the game, and it was loud there.  I can only imagine the intensity that comes from a Clemson – USC game.  I did hear that the NCSU fans said the USC fans were welcoming and respectful, which was great to hear.  Good to have an intense, but cordial enviorment.

Speaking of enviroment, one of my favorite photos was of Andre Brown, just as the team was about to enter the field.  He was checking out the stadium, and I was only about 2 feet from him when I took the photo.

Wednesday, with the help of my friend Danny, I did the team photo for NCSU men’s basketball.  Usually it is one of my more stressful events of the year, but this year it went off without much of a hitch.  Brian Reinhardt, media relations director for basketball, had the day’s events remarkably organized, arriving with a diagram of where each coach and player would sit or stand.

We also did some photos for marketing.  They needed some photos of Ben McCauley, Courtney Fells and Brandon Costner.  In a light hearted moment, I snapped them doing a faux pose before we did the real photo shoot. (sorry it is not composed very well; I brought my camera up from the floor and snapped this moment real quick)  Moments like these are great because they remind you that these guys are just every day guys like you and me who have a sense of humor, and I think most fans would really appreciate that.

I worked for the good folks at Inside Carolina for the Spring Football game.  The head photographer for Inside Carolina, Jim Hawkins, was stuck in San Antonio still after photographing the Final Four, so I got tried to be Jim for day (I didn’t have the bluetooth earpiece so I couldn’t pull it off.)

Linked are some photos from the game posted on Inside Carolina. [Gallery 1]  [Gallery 2]

Interesting note from after the game.  I had to photograph the post-game press conference in the football facility (which is amazing for those who have not been lucky enough to go in there).  When I left, I was only only the 2nd floor but had to go to 1st to get out.  I was lost and had no idea how to get to the first floor without taking the elevator.  So I hit the down button and prayed that no one would be on the elevator going doing, lest I feel like a lazy oaf.  I hear the elevator slow down to 2nd, the doors fly open, and no one is there but head UNC football coach Butch Davis himself.  ”Crap!” I thought, but he quickly said in a friendly tone “You going down?  Well come on man”.  So whew, embarassment avoided.  In the 10 seconds I was with him in the elevator, plus what I heard of him on the field and in the post-game press conference, I can see why this guy is so well respected.  He’s the kind of coach that players would run through walls for.  They love him, you can tell.

BTW, I’ve lately had close encounters with all three local football coaches in the last two months.  In February, I was in Duke football coach David Cutcliffe’s office photographing him and the Manning brothers.  Last month, I was at the residence of NC State head football coach Tom O’Brien, photographing him and his family for NC State.  Then this encounter with coach Davis.

ACC Football official Ron Cherry gives a verbal description on a foul during the NC State / Maryland game last Saturday.  Funny thing was I was at the game and totally missed this call.  I guess when I am photographing a game my head is in the game and I miss what is going on around me.  Enjoy…

Whoever said “timing is everything” in sports photography left out the other important part: lighting. This post will be of little interest to most people, but for students of photography or those looking to learn more about sports photography, I hope you find it of interest.

One aim of sports photography is to isolate your subject. Typically that is done through depth-of-field, namely a shallow one. You keep your subject in focus, but objects 2 to 3 feet in front of the athlete are out focus. Depth of field (DOF) is determined by three main things:

1. The focal length of the lens used. All things being equal, longer focal lengths leads to a more shallow DOF.
2. Distance to the camera to the subject. The closer the subject is to the camera, all things being equal, the more shallow the DOF.
3. The aperture or f/stop. All things being equal, as the lens is “opened up” (moves towards f/1) the DOF becomes more shallow.

But light can also be used in to isolate a subject. In this case, a sports photographer has to be lucky but also has to be able to spot the chances where the perfect lighting can be had.

Below is a photo from Carter-Finley Stadium, home of the North Carolina State Wolfpack Football team. There is about an 8 minute window on the field when the sun is low enough that Vaughn Towers cast a shadow over the field and stands, but there is a sliver of light that cuts through the openings where the exits are. It lets in just a tad of light over a very small part of the field, but if you can get a picture of a play in this light, it’s just perfect:

Notice how only the player(s) are in the light, but the stands and even foreground are in the shade. These moments don’t come often, but keep your eyes out for when it comes.

—- Update October 8, 2007 —-

Below I thought I would add an example of a flat photo where the subject blends in with the background. This is typically what you get as again, the sun has to be in the perfect position to get the lighting like you saw above.

Wanted to highlight some excellent work by Ethan Hyman, staff photographer for the (Raleigh) News and Observer. Ethan did a shoot of both the new football coaches together and taped the process. Thought fans would find it interesting. [LINK]

Earlier this year, Annabelle Myers, NCSU associate athletic director for athletic communications, talked with me in her office about the athletic department’s vision for the 2007 media cover. They were inspired by the cover for the DVD to the TV series The Closer and wanted to bring the concept to our cover. The goal was to have Coach O’Brien at the forefront, with his hands planted on a reflective conference room table, and the players behind him. I was excited about their idea. It is always great to have a client that thinks outside of the box and wants to try new ideas.

The photo shoot took place at the Murphy Football Center in the TV studio that has a green screen installed. Wolfpack fans are familiar with this studio as this is where the coach’s weekly show is filmed. The green screen facilitated the process of photoshopping out the background around the players and placing them onto a solid black medium.

I packed every single light and light modifier that I had in my arsenal. The shoot was not overly complex, but I expected it would require a lot of light modification. Indeed it did. We used anywhere between three and four lights utilizing softboxes, grids and snoots.

We photographed Coach O’Brien first. The first challenge was finding a table that was high enough for him to lean on, and had a good reflectivity so that his hands would reflect. Annabelle, Pat Norris (also of sports information), Rob Bradley (my friend who was helping) and I scratched our heads for about 10 minutes trying to find a strategy. We finally settled on the coffee table that appears on the weekly coach’s show as a prop. We raised the table by stacking it on top a couple crates and boxes. It was ingenuity at its best; although coach had to be careful to lean too hard on the table or it would tip over.

We had to work a couple angles and ask coach to move his hands in different places before we finally found just the right angle to that had the perfect reflection and perspective. Coach was very pleasant to work with and patient as we moved him around literally inch by inch. After we finished with Coach O’Brien, we photographed the six seniors that are pictured on the front. Each player was photographed seperatly because there was not enough room to photograph them as a group in the room. Also, we wanted to light each person slightly differently to the final image would not look flat.

For the back cover, we photographed the remaining seniors including Marcus Stone, pictured on the right. Marcus is smiling because Annabelle was able to get the always stoic Marcus to actually crack a smile.

(Quick note, the back cover is missing one person because we had one player not show up. I photographed him about 3 weeks later, but he did not make the pre-production mock-up that Annabelle sent me. The final printed version obviously has him.)

With college football signing day in the rear view mirror, fans have had a chance to see how they did compared to other school. “Hey, I got three 5-star recruits and you only got one 4-star!” Such exchanges are fine as I’m all for school sprit and competition.

But there has been a more insidious side to this competition. I don’t know why I do it but I do it; I confess that I read fan blogs and message boards. In these blogs and boards has been a festering ill-will to those recruits who choose another school over their’s. It has become down right personal at times. I’m not going to name blogs, but one was particularly troubling. While high on one recruit before signing day, a blog trashed the recruit the next when it became apparent he had chosen another school. Crazy; one day a kid is the second coming of Christ and the next day he’s a box of rocks QB who couldn’t pass seeds to starving birds as Coach Steve Logan would say. What gives?

Fans take the recruitment process way too personally. The kids have to choose the school they feel meets their best interest; fans don’t get to choose the recruits that fill the fan’s best interest. Sorry folks, it is as simple as that. Don’t take it personally. It doesn’t mean the recruit has ill-will toward your school. It just means, they were more comfortable elsewhere. Maybe they liked the weight-room better; maybe they liked their position coach better; or maybe it’s as simple as Aunt Margaret lived near the other school.

Whatever the reason, the decision is their’s, so respect it. I don’t understand why anyone would wish ill-will to a kid who choose another school. These athletes have worked their butts off to no end to accomplish what they have. So how about we give them the respect they deserve? Instead of personal attacks, just pray your team whoops his next season.

The San Diego Chargers have dismissed Marty Schottenheimer (yeah I had to look up the spellings). This despite going 14-2 I think it was last year. I’ve always thought he was a classy guy.

I first met him when I lived in DC and assisted with the head shots of all the Washington Redskins players and coaches when he was head coach there. One quote I remember vividly from that day. The photographer taking the head shots was taking a number of shots, kept saying “Just one more!” and said at one point, “Do you know what they put on a photographer’s tombstone? ‘Just one more.’”

Marty laughed and shot back, “Do you know what they put on the tombstones of coaches and owners? ‘No comment.’”

Getting ready for the Brackman project, I had put together a “soundslide” show together on the NCSU football program. It was meant to be a proof-of-concept only to explore the feasibility of using this with Brack and not be shown publically. But we decided, why not use this anyway for football and put it on gopack.com? The “why not” part came after a couple of tough losses to UNC and ECU and departure of Coach Amato. Even though we did not go forward, and the show is very much incomplete, I decided to post it on my personal site because there were a lot of great moment to remember in Wolfpack football that shouldn’t be forgotten. As this was a test case, it was put together with a demo of the Soundslides software program so sorry for the “demo” marks