Baseball Players of the Year...

For the baseball players of the year I actually had enough time to come up with a plan of what to shoot and decided to change things up and take the shots outside the studio. Having a couple days ahead of time to plan things I was able to find a baseball field to shoot on. The Hardin-Simmons baseball coach was nice enough to let me borrow their field for a couple of hours to use as a backdrop for the photos. I got there with, Joy Lewis, one of my awesome co-workers about an hour ahead of time to scout out ideas and places to shoot from as well as set up the lights. My first thought was to shoot the pitchers out on the pitcher's mound and then the batters from the dugout.

After a few test shots from the mound and then a couple where I was planning to shoot the batters from inside the dugout, I liked the dugout shots a lot better. The bright light on the mound plus a pretty strong wind that kept blowing over my softbox was becoming a real pain in the ass! So, I went ahead and shot everyone from the dugout. It made it easier to put the light on the players and balance the light with the outside light and the players weren't squinting from the sunlight. I was a lot happier with the final product this year than I have the last couple of times, having a nice field for the backdrop worked out nicer than the dark studio for a change.

The Best on the Hardwood...

For our annual basketball players of the year we ended up getting a little bit of a late start and were scrambling to get players in on rather shorter notice than I'd have liked. That, coupled with a few of players needing to come from more than 100 miles away I was really nervous about whether they'd all be able to come in. Well, my fears were correct and for the first time all of the players weren't going to come in. My remedy for the situation was to shoot the photos really simple, with a dark background and some nice, simple light that could easily be copied. Since one of the players wouldn't be able to make it, but had a photographer friend of the family that was going to shoot a photo for us. Not ideal, but given the constraints, it was better than nothing.

For the players of the year, it was a little bit easier as far as the scheduling goes. Both players were within 20 miles of Abilene. I shot Kainon Irons, the boys player first, he was such a nice and humble kid it was kind of hard to get him amped up for the shoot. But, at the same time he was really great to work with and once he started to get into it, things went really well.

The girls player was Peyton Little, a junior from one of the local schools and the player of the year for the second year in a row. I didn't shoot her last year since I was on vacation when it was shot. So, I wasn't worried about having to shoot it different since my style is different than the photog who shot last year's photo. Like most girls, she was more concerned about how she looked in the photo than than the boys player. Once again the LCD screen of my camera helped me out a lot, after taking one look at the shot she was hooked and happy to do whatever it took to make sure the photo turned out really nice. Now, I just need to figure out how I'm going to shoot her photo next year.

Players of the Year...

It's that time of year again. Our annual football players of the year. I feel a lot better about shooting these now than when I first came here. It helps that I know how to light now, but that's not the reason why. Up until about five years ago, we used to shoot all of the players of the year as a group. And to be frank, the photo always looked like shit! When you put too many people in one photo it just looks like a jumbled mess. And that's exactly what we were doing, making a jumbled mess, when what we should have been doing is making nice images that these kids and their families would remember.

One thing I have found is the kids will give you a lot more of their time if they understand how good they can look. That's the great thing about shooting digital is being able to show them their photo on the LCD and if there's a problem (like a goofy look on their face etc.), it can be fixed. I'll usually start out shooting a few frames and getting my lights set right and show it too them. For the most part, after they see the photo and how they look, they are fine with working with me more.

One thing that has stayed relatively the same had been the style of the photos. They are pretty much all shot on a dark background. I'm ok with that. For the most part many of these kids are only on the team once. On a rare occasion we'll have somebody on the team twice, but I'll usually do a different pose. So, while I've seen them plenty, it doesn't necessarily mean that they have and ultimately that's what matters most.

Players of the Year...

Our players of the year ran last weekend. This year's group was pretty tough to pick, so much so that our newcomers of the year pick was a tie. This year's crop will most likely all end up playing D1 college football somewhere, the defensive player of the year, Matt Ritchey, has committed to Baylor. The offensive player of the year, Case McCoy, had already left for the University of Texas. Which kind of left me with a dilemma. I ended up using a photo I had taken of him for our preseason players of the year. So, basically I was kind of stuck as to how I was going to shoot it so his style didn't look too different from the others. I didn't include the McCoy photo, because it's not new. But the style is similar to these without the backlighting.

Basketball Players of the Year...

I was recently talking to another photographer who shoots a lot of portraits of pro athletes, we were talking about how much time these pros would give you. He was telling me 10 minutes is an eternity to shoot these guys, if you get 5 minutes you're lucky. Now, this is also someone who gets the luxury of hiring an assistant, so often when he shoots the subject, the photo is ready to be taken, all the person has to do is stand in.

Every year for football and basketball we do a "Super Team," basically the players of the year. For football its four players (overall MVP, offensive and defensive MVP's and a newcomer of the year) and a coach of the year. But for basketball season we have a whole lot more. There are five players, a coach, and an MVP for both the boys and the girls. A total of 12 players and two coaches. For the MVP's, I need to get two different photos, one for the front page and one for the doubletruck inside. For the front shot I try to do something vertical and similar for the boy's and girl's shot to be able to play off of each other. The inside shot isn't as important to be similar for the boy and girl, but the shape needs to be the same, or close.

Now, I don't have the budget to hire assistants. However, I usually have kids that haven't been in the spotlight long enough to get an attitude yet. In fact, most of these kids are having their photo taken for publication for the first time. Most of them come in kind of apprehensive about how things are going to work. This is how digital photography has made a big difference in the way I work. After I take a few frames, I'll usually show the kid how it looks and tell them what exactly I'm going for in the shot. After seeing this, their attitudes usually change from "ok I'm here" to seeing how they look pretty cool and will give you all the time you want to make it look really good.

For the MVP's I usually go out to the schools so I can shoot them in the gym, since I can't get a full-size basketball goal into the studio (although that would be great for those rare nights where there's nothing going on). Plus it usually takes a lot longer to shoot these, and I see it as going the extra mile for the best players in the area. For the other players I still want to make a nice shot, yet have them fairly uniform, which is why I prefer to shoot them in the studio. I don't want one standing out more than another since they are all on the same level.