High Dynamic Range Imaging, or HDR, is an interesting concept that has come with the advent of Photoshop and digital imaging, specifically when Adobe released it’s built in “merge to HDR” function in 2005 with Photoshop CS2. Explaining what Dynamic Range is would take a long time. But basically, it is a scene’s range in brightness from completely black to the completely bright. For Ansel Adams fans, it’s Zone 0 to Zone 9. HDR imagine could roughly be translated to the traditional B+W photography and printing techniques of dodging and burning although there are some differences. Read the rest of this entry »

Today was opening day for NC State Baseball. For someone who is anal-retentive about time and is never late, I was really late today. I thought the game was at 3pm so I arrived at 2:10 thinking I would be early and could get some photos of the warm-up. However, the game had been moved to 2pm and I arrived at the bottom of the 1st missing Andrew Brackman’s opening pitch. That was something I wanted so I’m already messing this project up. Thankfully Brack’s pitching was better than my luck as the Wolfpack took out the William & Mary Tribe 9-4. I didn’t spend much time getting action photos; instead I spent most of the time in the dugout and clubhouse getting pics of the players.

When the game was over, I rode with Brack to the weight-room where he took the initiative on his own to get some running in before going to dinner. I guess it is going this extra mile (literally) that makes one MLB-caliber.

Had to get at least one action photo in here…

Since the weather was cold and the wind chill colder, the pitchers stayed in the clubhouse between innings to stay warm…

Coach Avent congratulates Brack on a good game…

On the treadmill…

Shutter Actuations

• Pictures taken today: 541 (not including ‘action photos’; only non-action)
• Previous total: 1,233
• Total Pictures taken for project to date: 1,774

Hours spent on project:

• Hours today spent shooting: 4.5 hrs
• Post production: 3 hr
• Previous Hours: 16 hrs
• Total Hours to Date: 23.5 hrs (11.75% of 200 hr estimate)

**Update (2/10 9:45pm): The News and Observer has posted an article about Brack’s start. Also, Tim Peeler from gopack.com also posted an article on Friday that I neglected to link to. There is one photo up there that I took from the basketball game.

Fairly light day today as the only thing I did was photograph a photo shoot being held by USA Baseball to get photos of Brack in the USA Baseball uniform. The photographer for USA Baseball was my buddy Brian Fleming. I was going to stay through the practice which occurred after the shoot. But between Brack saying he wasn’t lifting afterward and me realizing I should really get back to work, I left after the shoot. Anyway, Brack looks sharp in the USA uniform don’t ya think?

Shutter Actuations (a fancy smancy way to say the number of pictures taken)

• Pictures taken today: 65
• Previous total: 1,168
• Total Pictures taken for project to date: 1,233

Hours spent on project:

• Hours today spent shooting: 30 min
• Post production: 1 hr
• Previous Hours: 14.5 hrs
• Total Hours to Date: 16 hrs (8% of 200 hr estimate)

For those interested, the audio from the press conference (in the photos from day 3) has been posted to the website for the local sports radio station, 850 The Buzz. Here is a link to the mp3.

One thing that is cool is he talks about rushing the floor after the men’s basketball team beat North Carolina in an upset. By the grace of God I was able to get an awesome picture of Andrew running on the court with fans. I mean I was in the right place at the right time like I’ve never been before. Of course, that picture is so good that it’s going in the final product and I’m not releasing it to the public; only the athletic dept and Brack himself (and maybe my mom) will see that one beforehand.

For grins, I thought I would start keeping track of how many hours I spend working on this project; both taking photos and all the editing and post-production work it will take. Why keep track? Maybe to quantify just how masochistic I am I guess. When I started the project I estimated I would spend a total of 200 hours on the project all told. I’ll see how close I come to that. Here is where I stand do far: Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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

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