# Insider view of an 18 day sports assignment.



## imagemaker46

Some of you may remember my assignment to Sochi for the Paralympic games.  Next week I head out to Prince George BC, on Canada's west coast to cover the Canada Winter Games.  In many ways it will be more challenging than Sochi was.  I will try and post to the forum everyday, photos, challenges and whatever may come along.  Here is a brief rundown on these games.

18 days
14 days of competition
2400 athletes
20 different sports
Sports range from summer(indoor events) winter, Paralympic and special Olympics.
Apart from the sports, I have to cover opening and closing ceremonies, 10 receptions and the cultural events.  I'll be filing photos to Canadian press and uploading to another site as well.

These are the my 8th Canada Games, they are held every 2 years, alternating between summer and winter.  I hope some of you will get some insight into a real world of shooting sports on a different level.

I fly out next Wednesday, 6 hour flight and my first shoot is 3 hours after I arrive.


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## SquarePeg

Interested.


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## weepete

Sounds like fun!


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## imagemaker46

It is one of the big events I look forward to covering. On this one I'll be using a Fitbit, to keep track of the walking distances as well. I will try and cover 3-4 sports per day. Alpine events are the most challenging, travel time to the mountain is around 90 minutes, finding the best shooting spots on the hill and then getting to them.


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## runnah

Sounds like a blast! Good luck and stay warm.


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## tirediron

Hope you've got some decent snow; things are pretty bare & soggy in most of the province.


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## imagemaker46

I heard they had some snow this week. As long as have enough for the alpine/ski events in the hills. I'll be shooting a lot of indoor events.


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## BillM

We have extra snow here if you need it !!

Looking forward to seeing what you come back with


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## pgriz

Scott, always enjoy your posts and photos.  You work to a very high standard.


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## jake337

Wow!   Almost two decades of working this event! That's amazing. 

 I hope you plan, to someday, create a book of your years working this event.


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## imagemaker46

Arrived in Prince George after a 6 hour uneventful flight.  It's been pouring rain since I got here yesterday, shot my first of 14 receptions and non sports related events last night, 3 more today.

There are concerns here about the weather, rain and warm temps are predicted for the next two weeks, outdoor speed skating oval is a puddle and competition starts there in two days. I had packed both snow and rain gear after checking the weather reports before I left home.


From a personal plus, and one that most photographers like to have handy, I'm in a great hotel suite, full kitchen, and within a 10 minute walk to the grocery store and beer store, as well as some restaurants, both fast food and sit down. 

I'll start adding pictures as soon as I have anything to add.


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## vintagesnaps

As long as you're close to the beer store...

Will be interested to follow your experience there.


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## JohnnyWrench

I'm looking forward to this! Thanks for sharing your work with us.


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## runnah

what a weird world, Canada can't buy snow and the Northeast has tons of it.


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## imagemaker46

Here are a few from tonights reception.




Bad pose.












Most attractive Police officer I've ever seen.




My fridge.




For anyone that doesn't know this quick trick to figure out your exposure before the speakers take the stage. Take a quick frame of your hand.


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## vintagesnaps

No I didn't know that trick, thanks I could use that some time.

That fridge looks sadly understocked.

Who are you covering this for?


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## spiralout462

vintagesnaps said:


> No I didn't know that trick, thanks I could use that some time.
> 
> *That fridge looks sadly understocked.*
> 
> Who are you covering this for?




I thought the fridge looked like it had all the essentials to sustain life.


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## imagemaker46

Opening Ceremony photos. It was a rather uneventful day, 3 receptions shot before the opening. I also found out that the host organizers have 50 amateur camera owners running around this event. I have had the opportunity I meeting a few, good people, but out of their element and enjoying the show just pointing their camera at anything.  

Opening ceremony takes some by surprise, there is just so much going on that it's difficult for some people to see anything to shoot.  It's all spot lights and movement.  The person in charge of where the best photo positions are didn't have a clue, and that only created greater confusion for the Canada Games 50.  It worked out just fine for me, and I played around with some images.





















If anyone wants to see all the images I am uploading each day the link is:

Flickr canadagames Photostream


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## imagemaker46

Images from my first day of sports. The transportation is a little out of whack right now. I called for a ride this morning at 7:00am and was told by the dispatcher "Good luck with a ride, we'll try and get there"  They did arrive and I headed out to shoot 2 ringette games and 2 women's hockey games.  Tomorrow's sports, archery, short track speed skating, artistic gymnastics, curling. First event starts at 9am last one starts at 7pm.


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## tirediron

Nice work Scott!


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## baturn

I have to tell you that BC has much better beers to offer than Kokanee. But to each their own.
 Oh, and what John said.


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## imagemaker46

Ya I know they do, but it was free.


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## tirediron

imagemaker46 said:


> Ya I know they do, but it was* free*.


Oddly enough, that's my favorite flavour!


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## imagemaker46

Day two shooting. Archery, Gymnastics, Speed Skating and Curling to come.  It has already been a long day, out the door at 8am, back to the hotel for a couple of hours and heading back out at 7pm for curling.


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## imagemaker46

Curling.  I did a little  slow shutter speed shooting tonight.


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## pgriz

Very nice panning, Scott.  Also, really love the intensity that you're capturing in the other shots.


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## imagemaker46

Shot Women's downhill and Wheelchair basketball.  Down side to climbing up the side of a ski hill is that sometimes the ice hidden under the snow adds a surprise, after I picked myself up and hobbled up a little higher I found an ok place to shoot from.  Tomorrow I expect my knee, which took most of the hit will be swollen and using a 300mm as prop to stop me sliding any further is just fine.

On the hill at 9:00am, and left wheelchair basketball at 8pm, made for another long day.  I found out that the long track speed skating has been moved 6 hours away because of the warm weather, I won't be covering the speed skating.

Here are a few from today.


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## weepete

Outstanding work mate. I particularly like the dynamism you've captured in the wheelchair basketball.


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## MichaelHenson

This is awesome! If you don't mind my asking (and feel free to hold your response until when you have more time...  ) what is your workflow/processing approach. I recently did photos for a marriage conference my wife and I attended and ended up spending a good deal of my downtime processing photos to correct the color (due to red and orange LEDs in the lighting), cropping, and reducing noise due to the poor lighting (despite using a flash on camera with a Fong diffuser).  It got me thinking about sports photographers taking hundreds (or thousands) of photos in a day and then having to quickly get them uploaded or sent for publication...Just curious as to your approach.

Also, your work is amazing! Inspirational!


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## runnah

Wow great stuff! Those panning shots actually give a cool look to curling.

Why are the women hockey players wearing pants?


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## pgriz

As always, powerful shots.  Peak action in each one.


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## imagemaker46

MichaelHenson said:


> This is awesome! If you don't mind my asking (and feel free to hold your response until when you have more time...  ) what is your workflow/processing approach. I recently did photos for a marriage conference my wife and I attended and ended up spending a good deal of my downtime processing photos to correct the color (due to red and orange LEDs in the lighting), cropping, and reducing noise due to the poor lighting (despite using a flash on camera with a Fong diffuser).  It got me thinking about sports photographers taking hundreds (or thousands) of photos in a day and then having to quickly get them uploaded or sent for publication...Just curious as to your approach.
> 
> Also, your work is amazing! Inspirational!


I'm shooting somewhere between 1000-1500 images a day, depends on how many sports and what the sports are.  I go through them all and select  60-100 for my clients flickr site.  These ones are cropped, colour corrected, etc.   If I have any special requests for pictures those get done right away, otherwise I go to bed. 

 All this means is that I have a few weeks after the event is over to go through everything, ID as many individual athletes as I can, team sports I just shoot the roster and attach it to the file.  The good thing is that I'm under no pressure to rush and get the images sent out, as most are being used for future promotional material.


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## ronlane

imagemaker46 said:


> Day two shooting. Archery, Gymnastics, Speed Skating and Curling to come.  It has already been a long day, out the door at 8am, back to the hotel for a couple of hours and heading back out at 7pm for curling.



My favorite Scott. I'd nominate this one for consideration for POTM


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## MichaelHenson

imagemaker46 said:


> MichaelHenson said:
> 
> 
> 
> This is awesome! If you don't mind my asking (and feel free to hold your response until when you have more time...  ) what is your workflow/processing approach. I recently did photos for a marriage conference my wife and I attended and ended up spending a good deal of my downtime processing photos to correct the color (due to red and orange LEDs in the lighting), cropping, and reducing noise due to the poor lighting (despite using a flash on camera with a Fong diffuser).  It got me thinking about sports photographers taking hundreds (or thousands) of photos in a day and then having to quickly get them uploaded or sent for publication...Just curious as to your approach.
> 
> Also, your work is amazing! Inspirational!
> 
> 
> 
> I'm shooting somewhere between 1000-1500 images a day, depends on how many sports and what the sports are.  I go through them all and select  60-100 for my clients flickr site.  These ones are cropped, colour corrected, etc.   If I have any special requests for pictures those get done right away, otherwise I go to bed.
> 
> All this means is that I have a few weeks after the event is over to go through everything, ID as many individual athletes as I can, team sports I just shoot the roster and attach it to the file.  The good thing is that I'm under no pressure to rush and get the images sent out, as most are being used for future promotional material.
Click to expand...


Ah...No rush makes it nice. As I thought about it, my respect for those photographers that shoot events and then basically have to immediately upload them for clients (newpapers, etc.) grew like crazy. I'm sure you are to the point where you get pretty much exactly what you want right out of camera but as someone that ends up having to spend some time doing a decent bit of processing, the thought of an event and then a deadline or race against all the other photographers to get photos out first (like I've read from some photographers shooting fashion week or Olympics), well, it's overwhelming to even think about!


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## imagemaker46

Thanks Ron, and thanks for all the kind words from everyone.

The one thing I didn't touch on is that for all that is going on, the long hours, doing what I really enjoy and coming away with decent images, I've missed some nice images as well.  I'll talk to some of the volunteer camera owners, and they envy the gear I'm using, some take pictures of it.  Others are shy to talk to me, and that's fine.  I met a high school student last night, she was using a Canon rebel and a decent lens, but it was also a slow f5.6 and I asked her what she had her camera set at, this was at the wheelchair basketball.  I was shooting at iso-3200-4000, 400th-500th sec at 2.8, she was at iso 16,500, and another photographer told her to shoot on aperture, well, she couldn't understand why a lot of her pictures were blurry.  She was smart, had taken some courses and was enjoying what she was doing.  I helped her out with the manual settings, and then gave her my 70-200 2.8 to use.  She was really surprised that someone would do that, I don't know if her pictures got better, and  she could only uses the lens for a short while, her wrist was getting tired.  

Sharing what I have and what I do with other people helps keep the mind going in the right direction, especially when I start to get tried, wakes the brain up a bit.


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## ronlane

Scott, I have to give it up to you for that story. To spend some time sharing lenses and helping that girl while you are working is awesome.


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## JerryVenz

imagemaker46 said:


> Thanks Ron, and thanks for all the kind words from everyone.
> 
> The one thing I didn't touch on is that for all that is going on, the long hours, doing what I really enjoy and coming away with decent images, I've missed some nice images as well.  I'll talk to some of the volunteer camera owners, and they envy the gear I'm using, some take pictures of it.  Others are shy to talk to me, and that's fine.  I met a high school student last night, she was using a Canon rebel and a decent lens, but it was also a slow f5.6 and I asked her what she had her camera set at, this was at the wheelchair basketball.  I was shooting at iso-3200-4000, 400th-500th sec at 2.8, she was at iso 16,500, and another photographer told her to shoot on aperture, well, she couldn't understand why a lot of her pictures were blurry.  She was smart, had taken some courses and was enjoying what she was doing.  I helped her out with the manual settings, and then gave her my 70-200 2.8 to use.  She was really surprised that someone would do that, I don't know if her pictures got better, and  she could only uses the lens for a short while, her wrist was getting tired.
> 
> Sharing what I have and what I do with other people helps keep the mind going in the right direction, especially when I start to get tried, wakes the brain up a bit.



Outstanding images--but that's what I expect from a real pro.!
Looks like you're really in the "zone" and having fun.  I like the story of the young lady struggling with her amateur equipment and that you took the time to help her to the extent of lending her that lens--you probably weren't using it much on the slopes, though.
Jerry W. Venz  M.Photog.,Cr. CPP


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## imagemaker46

Out shooting biathlon and freestyle moguls today.  Had a good shoot with the biathlon, really sucked shooting the freestyle, I picked the wrong side of the hill as the competition was delayed because it was too sunny for the judges to see. It was nice early with the snow kicking up behind the skiers being lit, but it went away.  I also had another fall down the hill and once again used my 300mm to stop the slide, but not before hurting my knee again and now my shoulder.  I don't plan on climbing anymore hills until next week, I don't think my 59 year old body could take another slide.

Here are some from today.


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## vintagesnaps

Well worth the effort is probably an understatement, but your hard work is paying off in the results you're getting. Spectacular shots, every set is just superb.



(Someone asked about the women athletes wearing long pants, that's ringette I think isn't it? can't say I know much about it.)


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## imagemaker46

Oh ya forgot to answer that one.  Yes it's Ringette. It's pretty big in Canada, one of the top countries in the world along with Finland, Sweden.  They play it in the US, but I don't believe it's very popular.  The ring they use is basically a rubber donut, no blades on sticks.  The girls that play it are generally better skaters than most women hockey players.  It's a fun sport to watch, and shoot.


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## imagemaker46

Today was a rather uneventful day, first shoot started at 9am-1:30, two ringette games, off to short track speed skating until 4:30 and right to a hockey game until 6:30.  I shot around 700 images during the day.


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## imagemaker46

I've attached a couple of the overall shots of the venues I was working in today, Shooting and Gymnastics, both were shot with a 40mm, just to give an idea of how busy things look.  The shooting venue is more challenging as you're not allowed up to the shooting line. The air pistol targets are lit so I used that light to help the images.  The gymnastics venue is small and very busy, for the rings I shot from where the overall was done, the others I moved to an overhead running track and worked there, just for a cleaner background and a different look.  Tomorrow is the last day for these sports, a new set of sports starts on Sunday.


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## vintagesnaps

Interesting to see the place. The one of the judges is so cool! what a shot. Another great set, some real nice close ups. But what are those ghostly hands??


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## imagemaker46

Those are the hand prints from the gymnasts on the mat, I shot it from the running track.  You can see them behind the gymnast in one of the shots.


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## Designer

Excellent!  Thank you!


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## MichaelHenson

Amazing stuff! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us!!


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## runnah

Whats with the hockey pants? It's bugging me.

Fantastic shots, although the one with the hands is a but horror film-esque.


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## imagemaker46

runnah said:


> Whats with the hockey pants? It's bugging me.
> 
> Fantastic shots, although the one with the hands is a but horror film-esque.


The girls are playing ringette, they wear the long pants, the lower body pads are thinner than in hockey with the puck.


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## runnah

imagemaker46 said:


> runnah said:
> 
> 
> 
> Whats with the hockey pants? It's bugging me.
> 
> Fantastic shots, although the one with the hands is a but horror film-esque.
> 
> 
> 
> The girls are playing ringette, they wear the long pants, the lower body pads are thinner than in hockey with the puck.
Click to expand...


OMG I am a moron. Didn't even notice it wasn't hockey.


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## vintagesnaps

Gee doesn't anyone remember the Philly Flyers from... I don't know when? lol  have just seen pictures myself, good thing they gave up that idea.

Makes me think of broomball. I think in roller hockey they wear long pants too, haven't seen either recently.

I see the handprints now in the background of the photo of the gymnast wearing blue, very cool.


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## imagemaker46

The NHL used the long Cooperall pants for a short time before switching back to the traditions pants.  They are great to wear, I still have mine when I play hockey, most of the young guys have never seen them before.  They weren't very popular, the Flyers and Hartford Whalers used them in the early 80's, goalies hated them as they lost site of the puck against the black pants.  Jr hockey used them into the late 80's.


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## vintagesnaps

This is getting OT but I would think they'd be more restrictive. I've seen players with the inseams of their skate pants ripped. Of course they don't seem to care. Or maybe like it, might let them make longer strides.


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## imagemaker46

I'm at the half way point today, no sports as they are moving all of last weeks athletes out and the new ones are coming in, competition starts again tomorrow with badminton and squash. The other sports coming in are figure skating, table tennis, cross country skiing, women's curling, men's hockey, synchronized swimming, snow board and trampoline.

The photos I just added are from the bronze, gold medal ringette, gold women's hockey and a speed skating shot.

Yesterday started at 9am and I finished uploading 125  shots at 2am, a long day that not even coffee can help this morning.


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## vintagesnaps

Whoo, long day. Those first three are great, catching unique moments in some unusual shots.


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## imagemaker46

I've had a day and half off now, recharged my mental batteries, picked up more food for the week, sent out pictures to all the requests I've had this week.  Tonight I have two hockey games.   

Tomorrow it's  badminton, table tennis, squash, women's curling and men's hockey.  9am-10pm. Being able to shoot badminton, table tennis, squash  and curling means that I don't have to cover them again this week until the finals.  Planning ahead leaves me room during the day to pick up any surprises that may come up. Big events is all about pre-planning so you don't suddenly become overwhelmed if something happens, weather delay or time changes, staying flexible and relaxed makes all the difference when shooting anything.


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## imagemaker46

Hockey from today. I have to say that I ended up leaving the second game early out of frustration, I was off my game today, missed shots, timing was off, lack of consentration.  It happens.


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## dennybeall

Really very nice photos, you're very good at catching the "right" moment.
Too bad there aren't more spectators in the stands


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## imagemaker46

Images from this morning.  On a side note, Nikon is loaning gear to accredited people here, pretty much all the best gear they have.  It has been pretty amusing though.  If someone handed you a D4 and no instruction book and you have never used Nikon before, how well do you think most of these people are doing.  I have heard the questions, "how do I make it go faster"  "how come it doesn't focus" "what do all these buttons do" "how do I see my pictures"   From me it has mostly been, "while you're trying to figure out what you're doing, stand somewhere else"  I'm not sure why Nikon does this, they aren't a sponsor of these games and the brand new gear is getting banged up.

Here's some badminton, a couple different angles, I'll be going back to work on this one. Table tennis is a nice venue with clean space, and squash in the glass cage and captive players.


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## Derrel

My favorites are the wheelchair basketball images, which to me show the most emotion. For me, those were really the gold medal winners.


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## imagemaker46

Thanks Derrel, the wheelchair basketball is great to shoot, always lots going on.


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## imagemaker46

Shot more hockey and some figure skating tonight. The hockey I decided to shoot from just off the edge of the net, it cuts down on the amount of ice surface that can be covered, but it worked out better than I expected, probably more luck than anything.


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## imagemaker46

Today was Novice and  Special Olympics figure skating, it wasn't so much about just the skating but the interaction with the skater and coach that I watched for. Picked up some hockey games as well.  Had a little run in with a security guard today who claimed that my accreditation wouldn't allow me to go to an area I had been shooting in for a week.  I mentioned that he was incorrect, I told him that I didn't care what he thought I was going to work...he grabbed the sleeve of my jacket, and I smiled nicely and told him that he was about to make a big mistake and that he should just turn and walk away.  I went to work.


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## imagemaker46

Another long day with some of the new sports. Judo, synchronized swimming as well as squash, figure skating.  The shot of the girl from judo has a dislocated elbow.


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## MichaelHenson

Dislocated elbow? That just sounds incredibly painful.


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## pgriz

Scott, beyond the technical stuff, what is very notable for me is your skill and ability at catching the peak moment.  A fraction of a second before or after, and it's not as compelling a shot.


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## MichaelHenson

pgriz said:


> Scott, beyond the technical stuff, what is very notable for me is your skill and ability at catching the peak moment.  A fraction of a second before or after, and it's not as compelling a shot.



This = Difference between a true pro and someone like me...

I've progressed to where I can recognize a great, compelling shot and capture it at its peak from time to time but still miss the shot occasionally or recognize, "Man! That would have been a cool picture." But at that point it's too late.

Great stuff here, for sure!


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## tirediron

imagemaker46 said:


> Another long day with some of the new sports. Judo, synchronized swimming as well as squash, figure skating.  The shot of the girl from judo has a dislocated elbow.


 Great images Scott; but let's be clear on one thing:  Synchronized swimming is NOT a sport!


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## imagemaker46

Don't get me started on synchronized swimming, I agree.


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## Derrel

Ahhhh, the judo stuff is really good. Loved those! I also liked the hockey shot with Tyszka and the player from M are going at it.


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## pgriz

tirediron said:


> imagemaker46 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Another long day with some of the new sports. Judo, synchronized swimming as well as squash, figure skating.  The shot of the girl from judo has a dislocated elbow.
> 
> 
> 
> Great images Scott; but let's be clear on one thing:  Synchronized swimming is NOT a sport!
Click to expand...




imagemaker46 said:


> Don't get me started on synchronized swimming, I agree.



Try it one day, keeping your legs in the air (gracefully) while trying to hold the body position underwater...  It requires stamina and ability much beyond what swimming and diving do.  I'm a very good distance swimmer, but when I tried to do what those ladies do routinely, I failed miserably, and even after a few minutes of this, I was gasping for breath.  Whatever the merits of the sport as a sport, it really puts the body through a lot.  Certainly much more than another "sport" like show jumping.


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## imagemaker46

I agree it takes a lot of training and they are athletes, I just have a problem with judged sports.


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## JohnnyWrench

Really great stuff. As a hack sports shooter this is truly inspirational. Thanks for taking the time to post these.

And ringette?  Who knew such a game existed???  (Says the guy from Arizona)


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## pgriz

imagemaker46 said:


> I agree it takes a lot of training and they are athletes, I just have a problem with judged sports.



Ok, there I'm with you.


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## imagemaker46

Only a few days left and I have to say I hit the wall a couple days ago, but grabbed a good sleep and am ready for the last 3 days, including a sport I've never shot before snowboard slope style.  I'm looking forward to the challenge  tomorrow.  Today was an easy day with just 5 hours of cross country, perhaps a total of 20minutes shooting, the rest was just standing around, sitting in snow banks, just waiting. I shot 20 minutes of Judo finals tonight.


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## imagemaker46

This pic is of a buddy of mine that works for The Canadian Press, this is the glamour side of the wire service. He is editing figure skating while the event is going on and sending the photos via his cell phone.


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## AceCo55

Well I have certainly enjoyed this thread! Very generous of you to share your insight in what must be a busy and tiring schedule for you. I just love the range and diversity of your images - and I am not talking about all the different sports. Rather the story telling of the sport, the action, the emotion, the environment, the details ... simply superb! I am blown away with the high quality images that you keep posting. Inspirational.


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## imagemaker46

This is the snowboard slope style event, I have never shot this before and found it really quite boring for pictures. It was a 30 minute walk up the mountain to the course, a lot faster walking back down.  It helped that it was a bright sunny day.


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## vintagesnaps

Love the close up of the reflection in the glasses, so cool. Even if this wasn't exactly your favorite event you got some gorgeous photos.


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## imagemaker46

Thanks for all the kind words, I really appreciate them.  One of the things I didn't touch on is that with the exception of a few of the sports where I can cover the entire game, most it's more of arriving at the venue, looking for a good spot to shoot from, check the backgrounds and then make sure that the officials aren't going to come along and tell you to move.  Some of the sports I'd really like to be able to spend more than 20 or 30 minutes but trying to cover several sports in one day doesn't allow that.  What it does do is force you into reading the venue quickly, checking the light and then shooting. It's frustrating  that you can come away from a sport knowing that there are better pictures to be made, but have to put that out of mind.

Tomorrow is the last full day of sports, I am hoping to shoot 4 gold medal games.


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## imagemaker46

Judo and Squash.


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## imagemaker46

Well this is it. I shot the last event, gold medal hockey, it is easier to shoot from a high spot, but also the only place that allows  coverage on most of the ice. It was a good game, some good pictures.  I could post  20 or 30 but have just selected a few.

Thanks to everyone that commented, or just had a look, I hope you were able to take away some ideas and maybe a little inspiration from what I was posting.


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## Designer

Expressions on the winning side are perfectly captured!


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## W.Y.Photo

These are some really good captures!! I can't wait to see the final edits!!


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## imagemaker46

Here's a quick edit follow up, I've been averaging about 6 hours per day since last Tuesday and have worked my way through six days of images, I expect it will take me another week, and then I start putting the athletes names to the images.  Sure is fun.


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## AceCo55

Just wondering if you would be kind enough to share some info.
1) Did you shoot JPEG only / RAW+JPEG / RAW only?
     (I can't imagine processing 1000's of RAW photos under changing light conditions)
2) How many photos did you eventually take ... and how many did you keep?. Is that your usual keeper rate? Do you have different levels of keepers?
     (eg stellar images / good / keep but borderline)
3) How do you add the metadata / tags ... so that it doesn't become your life 24/7! What method do you use to know the correct name for each player/competitor?


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## imagemaker46

I always shoot  jpeg. I didn't do a first count on the images, but was shooting between 750-1200 per day. I do a lot of in camera deleting while shooting and depending on the sport the keeper rate is a lot higher than others.  Generally I would say my keeper is around 90%, of that I would say that they are all good usable images, but again depending on the sport, using figure skating, I would say that keeper rate is around 95%, and 80% are solid images.  I may keep a few that are border line in the first edit. I run everything through photoshop, and then go through everything again deleting the ones that don't work.  Most of these are the borderline that end up getting dumped.

I use photo mechanic and go through and ID each image, when I originally download the raw files, I add the event and the date, I also get a copy of the game roster so I can add the correct names. For the team sports I copy the roster and add it to folder.  Names have to be correct. I don't add any other file info to the images.  For the athletes that have numbers, it's easy, for the sports where they don't, judo have names on the back, so I shoot the match board and then their back for the name. For Badminton I shoot the match board with the names, and then just shoot, each player is wearing team colours so that's how I ID those.  Any I can't ID by name I just ID by the team.


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## runnah

Yeah I hate to say it but you missed the mark on the snowboard shots. Next time shoot really close up with a wide or super far back with a 300mm+ . Showing the jump.scenery is way more important than being in tight.

http://payload111.cargocollective.com/1/0/4976/4539732/NikeSnowboarding11_1260.jpg


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## imagemaker46

runnah said:


> Yeah I hate to say it but you missed the mark on the snowboard shots. Next time shoot really close up with a wide or super far back with a 300mm+ . Showing the jump.scenery is way more important than being in tight.
> 
> http://payload111.cargocollective.com/1/0/4976/4539732/NikeSnowboarding11_1260.jpg


You assume that there was an option as to the backgrounds and shooting locations. There were no mountains as a background, the jumps were right against the tree line, about 10 feet from the edge.  What I shot was the cleanest background available. This is why critiquing images is difficult, without knowing the venue or surroundings a critique is pointless. Comparing what I shot to a Nike set up, not the same.


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## runnah

imagemaker46 said:


> runnah said:
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah I hate to say it but you missed the mark on the snowboard shots. Next time shoot really close up with a wide or super far back with a 300mm+ . Showing the jump.scenery is way more important than being in tight.
> 
> http://payload111.cargocollective.com/1/0/4976/4539732/NikeSnowboarding11_1260.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> You assume that there was an option as to the backgrounds and shooting locations. There were no mountains as a background, the jumps were right against the tree line, about 10 feet from the edge.  What I shot was the cleanest background available. This is why critiquing images is difficult, without knowing the venue or surroundings a critique is pointless. Comparing what I shot to a Nike set up, not the same.
Click to expand...


Sorry, I should have assumed you would've done what you could've if the opportunity was there.


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## imagemaker46

No worries, I was expecting more to work with than what was there. The other shooter I was up there with shot the snowboarding in Sochi, he shot it wide from just off one side of the second hill, and came back with a bunch of trees, he was expecting more like Sochi.


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## AceCo55

imagemaker46 said:


> I always shoot  jpeg. I didn't do a first count on the images, but was shooting between 750-1200 per day. I do a lot of in camera deleting while shooting and depending on the sport the keeper rate is a lot higher than others.  Generally I would say my keeper is around 90%, of that I would say that they are all good usable images, but again depending on the sport, using figure skating, I would say that keeper rate is around 95%, and 80% are solid images.  I may keep a few that are border line in the first edit. I run everything through photoshop, and then go through everything again deleting the ones that don't work.  Most of these are the borderline that end up getting dumped.
> 
> I use photo mechanic and go through and ID each image, when I originally download the raw files, I add the event and the date, I also get a copy of the game roster so I can add the correct names. For the team sports I copy the roster and add it to folder.  Names have to be correct. I don't add any other file info to the images.  For the athletes that have numbers, it's easy, for the sports where they don't, judo have names on the back, so I shoot the match board and then their back for the name. For Badminton I shoot the match board with the names, and then just shoot, each player is wearing team colours so that's how I ID those.  Any I can't ID by name I just ID by the team.



Thank-you for being so generous to share that. It helps confirm what I'm doing is around the mark ... although I usually have a MUCH lower keeper rate!!! It is/has been a wonderful insight into the life of a working sports pro photog. I love shooting sports but I certainly would not like the pressure and schedule you are dealing with. I hope you still find it "fun" and a joy to capture "that" shot.


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## imagemaker46

AceCo55 said:


> imagemaker46 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I always shoot  jpeg. I didn't do a first count on the images, but was shooting between 750-1200 per day. I do a lot of in camera deleting while shooting and depending on the sport the keeper rate is a lot higher than others.  Generally I would say my keeper is around 90%, of that I would say that they are all good usable images, but again depending on the sport, using figure skating, I would say that keeper rate is around 95%, and 80% are solid images.  I may keep a few that are border line in the first edit. I run everything through photoshop, and then go through everything again deleting the ones that don't work.  Most of these are the borderline that end up getting dumped.
> 
> I use photo mechanic and go through and ID each image, when I originally download the raw files, I add the event and the date, I also get a copy of the game roster so I can add the correct names. For the team sports I copy the roster and add it to folder.  Names have to be correct. I don't add any other file info to the images.  For the athletes that have numbers, it's easy, for the sports where they don't, judo have names on the back, so I shoot the match board and then their back for the name. For Badminton I shoot the match board with the names, and then just shoot, each player is wearing team colours so that's how I ID those.  Any I can't ID by name I just ID by the team.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thank-you for being so generous to share that. It helps confirm what I'm doing is around the mark ... although I usually have a MUCH lower keeper rate!!! It is/has been a wonderful insight into the life of a working sports pro photog. I love shooting sports but I certainly would not like the pressure and schedule you are dealing with. I hope you still find it "fun" and a joy to capture "that" shot.
Click to expand...



Thanks for the words. I do still enjoy being out shooting. These shoots in spite of the long days are really relaxing and pretty much stress free.  I have more stress when I'm not shooting.  Working with the same client for 15 years, they give me a list of the receptions they want me to cover, if I have the time, I cover what I can, and they understand this. I look at the schedule a couple of days before, and was adding shoots and changing it daily. Not having to work on a rigid schedule is much easier.


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## Roba

Thanks Scott, that all made for interesting reading, and i haven't read 7 pages straight on here for ages.


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## imagemaker46

Final wrap.  Just finished all the edits, a few hundred images over 10,000.  On to my next shoot starting next week, 4 days of swimming.  Thanks everyone for following along and all the great comments, much appreciated.


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