Week 7 Forum

     

Topic 1 

1. Two tips from the textbook I learned about shooting sports photography are to check with staticians on various sports teams to see if any major records are about to be broken, and see if you can capture the moment as well as summarizing the entire experience into one photo, say for a newspaper. Both of these tips are extremely useful in furthering my knowledge of the art. For the first tip, this means to always be aware of what you are shooting, and know when you could take the biggest photo possible. There is a difference between a routine double and a franchise record for most consecutive doubles in games throughout the season. The second tip covers the issue of taking that one picture that will give viewers everything they need to know. If it is a basketball loss, try to catch the winners celebrating as well as the losers dragging their heads within the same picture.
2. Without these techniques, I bet there would be a lot less dramatic sports photos throughout the years. What both of these techniques do is add emotion to the shots, giving the viewers a sense of what was going through the participants' minds when these events occurred. It also gives an incentive to these photographers to attend these important events, where maybe even more crazy things might happen than expected. It will also help out with the filling of the story. 
3. Taking these tips into consideration when shooting my own assignments is paramount, because it will make my photos and their "captions" 1000x better. If I don't remember these tips, I might miss a huge moment or a perfect summary of whatever event I am at. I will try to look for reactions and emotions in faces from now on. At the end of every event, I will be look to get both teams in the shot, so I can show how the event was concluded. I will start asking around for anything out of the ordinary, like a bench player having a big game or a starter about to break his schools' record. I think my photos will drastically improve moving forward. 

Topic 2

1. I think I will try to shoot a youth basketball game or a playoff volleyball game. I know it will be harder to capture a "beautiful shot" in these harsh lighting environments, but I will try my best. Football is getting tougher and tougher to shoot with the extreme weather conditions and it is not baseball season yet really, so I am going to try to shoot a gym-based sport. 
2. I heard about a youth basketball game going on on Thursday, the 17 at the Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis. I will be there to take pictures using my newly acquired tips. 
3. For the different angles, I want a close up of a free throw being shot. Players show immense concentration when shooting free throws, and I think it would make for a good photo. For the medium, I want to try a routine jump shot, but try to get one that is contested so I can get both the defender and the attacker, to make for an extra dramatic shot. For the overall, I was thinking to take a good picture of the jump ball. The jump ball is like the calm before the storm in basketball, where players are poised and ready for action. 

Week 6 Blog 

Topic 1 

My hometown:

1) I am going to shoot Corvallis, OR because even though I am from Philomath, I have spent most of my life in Corvallis. I think there are more photo opportunities in Corvallis as well. 

2) For the landmark there are a couple things I could do, such as Reser stadium, the courthouse, wildcat park, the abandoned train, Avery park, and the downtown graffiti art. For the portrait I could shoot my old teacher who works at Timberhill as a work out instructor. For the event I might do a kids soccer game at Adams middle school. 

3) The biggest challenge I think I will have to face will be the portrait, just because I don't like taking pictures of people I don't know. I will have to find someone that will make the shoot meaningful and make the assignment eye-catching. 

Topic 2

1) The first tip I learned in this class that really stood out was the cropping. I started finding out that when I crop photos they really do look 100 times better. You can turn an "okay" photo into a great photo just with some simple cropping techniques.  

2) The second tip I learned was to always take as many as you can. When you are just starting your photo career, you want to take a lot of pictures because most likely a lot them them will be bad, simply due to inexperience. When you take a lot of pictures you are likely to find at least one you like, or at least can use. 

3) I can use these tips to make my photos the best the can possibly be. Without cropping, editing or taking lots of pictures I would really be limiting myself with the turnout of my assignments. With these tips I can make my blog look enticing. 

Week 6

For week 6, it was the photographers choice for the assignment. I chose to wake up early and head up to Mary's Peak on Thursday morning to capture the views.

In Image 1, you can see the sun just beginning to peak from behind the mountains. A lone crow decided to soar right in front of my lens as the trigger was pulled, at about 7:36 am. Mary's Peak was a popular location to watch the sunrise, with about 8 other vehicles of people bundled up to brave the blistering winds and freezing temperatures.  

Image 2 captures the still life around Mary's Peak. This was taken after exploring the area a little, finding backroads leading back to Alsea. I climbed high enough to get above the sea of fog, which made for a cool shot above the fog but beneath the clouds, with a landscape that is not often associated with Mary's Peak. This photo was taken over an hour after Image 1, at 8:47 am.

I ended up spending the day outdoors with good friends, and happened to capture a runner finishing up his jog as the setting back at Mary's Peak in Image 3. 20 year old Christopher Hoppe likes to run along Mary's Peak watching the sunset as he keeps in shape. Hoppe is in the Air Force, stationed in Denver. He had some time off and decided to visit his mother. Once he saw me taking photos of the sunset and knew he was in the shot, he decided to strike a pose.