Rick’s Rants and Raves

(Update 10/21/10: Check out Volleyball Portraits, Take 2)

(Update 12/09/09: I actually got to do the team portrait.)

Yesterday, I prepared to do team portraits for my daughter’s volleyball team. Today, I actually did the shoot.

The moment I got there, I acted like I was the official team photographer. The coaches knew I was there to take portraits, but I also assumed that I could shoot the game.  I conferred with the referee as to where I would like to be positioned (he was fine with it) and he made sure I understood there was to be no flash. Understood. As a result, I was allowed access on court and on the near sidelines that other parents were not allowed. I shot the whole time without a flash, and I now understand that our camera really doesn’t handle ISO800 very well–it has more grain than I would like. I also understand now why professional sports photographers have multiple cameras strapped to them–they don’t have time to change lenses.

I spent a fair bit of time trying to get decent shots during warm ups. Not many of them turned out terribly well. But here is my favorite.

During the first game, I used my long zoom lens and quickly discovered that was great for capturing the serves, but too difficult to capture game volley. As such I got a number of decent service shots, and turned a lot of them into triptychs, like this one.

I switched lenses to my 18-55mm for the second game to see how it would work. It turned out to be not so great for the serves, but a bit better for the play action.

Unfortunately my daughter’s team lost an early 10+ point lead and ended up losing by 2 points, ending their season on a real downer. There were a few tears among the players, and I wasn’t sure anyone was going to be in the mood for portraits. Alas, goodie bags and pizza cheered every one up, and the coach said I was a “go” for individual portraits.

Being very worried about my timing (not having enough of it), and not wanting to move the referee’s stand to do portraits like this, I set up in the more traditional style. I took about 5 test shots of my daughter to get the settings right and then started photographing the team.

Some of the girls were obviously comfortable with me taking their pictures. I spent very little time with many of them–I shot the first 5 in just over 2 minutes. I tried to spend a little more time with the ones who were clearly a little bit uncomfortable, trying to loosen them up. I’m pretty sure I failed on every one of them, which reminds me of a conversation I had about photography at work today**. So, next on my skills development is camera-side-manner.

Of course, my daughter’s portrait is the best.

After I finished the regular portraits, I realized it was probably best that I didn’t try to replicate the more complicated portrait with all the girls. Many of them were uncomfortable with a basic pose–anything more complicated might have been frightening. As the crowed thinned out, I asked my daughter if she wanted to do the overhead shot again in her uniform, and she declined. Even she had had enough.

After the portraits were done, I noted that I had 15 minutes before the bus took some kids home. I asked the coach if she wanted me to do a group shot. She wanted to wait until a later date (DONE!) since a couple of kids had already gone home, and the team captain was out of town. I explained the concept of the “emergency shot” to her–take a shot as soon as you come upon a scene in case it changes before you get the “ideal” shot. I wanted to take a group photo, even if it was incomplete, given the risk that we might not be able to get everyone back together again. She was unmoved, so I didn’t take a group shot.

As for my fear of volleyballs knocking over my light stands, nothing bad happened. However I had a minor heart attack after the end of the game: the visiting team was jubilantly making their way out of the gym through a narrow passage not intended for regular traffic RIGHT OVER MY CAMERA BAG. I had thought my gear was safely tucked away, but no. Four or five girls had safely stepped over the bag before I had an internal conniption fit (maybe I muttered “Holy Crap” under my breath) and moved it out of the way.

So lessons learned: acting (with professionalism) like you have authority is enough for most people to grant you that authority; when batteries are weak, flashes don’t fire consistently even if they indicate they are ready; sports photography is tough, and off-camera flashes do you no good; keep poses simple for folks not ready for anything more.

So, overall, I consider the experience a success for me. In fact, there wasn’t anything negative about it. I’ll be giving a CD (or a bunch of them) with the pictures to the coaches so they can distribute to the rest of the kids. I hope the other parents will appreciate the photos.

**I mused for a brief time today that it would be interesting to work in a “big box” photo studio for 6 months. Since the technical details and gear would be taken care of, it would be an ideal time to work on people skills. The best photographers in those situations are the ones who can make their 20th family of the day feel at ease and coax great shots out of the 3 year old who hasn’t napped all afternoon. Those would be some valuable lessons for a budding professional photographer.