Sports Teams!

I did a shoot for my school today. I took pictures of all of the spring sports teams and the senior athlete's individual portraits. A lot of fun.

I had my good friend Cody Snipes helping me out today. He was awesome. I don't think he's ever done something like this before today, but he knew exactly what he was doing....he seemingly read my mind sometimes. I couldn't have done the shoot today without his help. So, thanks, Cody! For the record, Cody has lots of pride. (That one's an inside joke....the students in Ms. Tripp's 2B class (Including Cody) will get it.)

I brought in some of my studio lighting gear. Two Paul C. Buff Zeus lights and one Zeus power pack. Nothing too special with the group shot light. I could have done more with it, but for something that'll be seen in black and white in a yearbook, is it worth it?

I just placed the two lights on stands bouncing into umbrellas, on either side of the camera aimed at the ends of the group. It worked.

For the individuals (which had to be done right after the team photos before we shot the next team), I just moved one light nearer the other and did your basic clam shell lighting. With the background totally black, they turned out pretty nicely.

We took three photos of each team. A serious one, one with everybody smiling and a "Facebook" picture. The "Facebook" picture is the one where they can make crazy faces and stuff. It's a great incentive actually. The line "Stop messin' around dude....let me get what I need to, then y'all can do a fun shot" works really well. For those who still won't comply, baseball bats usually work pretty well.

I did the whole shoot with my Canon 50D and my 17-40 f4L lens.


Later guys.....
-A