Sometimes we’re called to shoot just a head and shoulders portrait of a person (often referred to as a mugshot). In a studio a photographer can control the light, but out in the field the lighting conditions usually aren’t ideal. You can often ameliorate bad light by using a fill-flash technique or simply moving your [...]
The sports of baseball and softball share many similarities. They both involve someone throwing a ball while an opponent tries to hit said ball with a bat. They’re both played on a diamond-shaped infield surrounded by a large outfield. There are 3 bases and 1 home plate, which the players run around counterclock-wise. If you [...]
I know a lot of people love baseball, but I’m not a big fan of the game. It may sound funny coming from someone who’s photographed hundreds of games over the course of a 30-year career, but I don’t. Years ago I photographed a cropduster pilot who once described his job as “hours and hours [...]
Stefan Mitrovic of the Serbian water polo team swims out onto Kjeldsen pool before an exhibition game against the U.S. water polo team at as color from some orange poolside tents are reflected on the water at UOP in Stockton.
In March I photographed the World of Outlaws dirt track racing event at the San Joaquin County fairgrounds in Stockton. I wanted to travel light so I left my camera bag with most of my gear in the trunk of my car. Using only a belt bag (sort of like Batman’s utility belt only not [...]
Recently I photographed Kimball High senior tennis player Logan Staggs during a match in the Seniors Challenge Cup at the Oak Park Tennis Complex in Stockton. I shot it as I normally shoot a tennis match: Using a long lens (a 200-400mm zoom) and a fast shutter speed (1/1000th – 1/2000th of a second). After [...]
There’s a saying that goes: “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.” Not being an angler, I wouldn’t know if that was true, but I bet that fishermen Jason Lee and Simon Chen of Stockton were having second thoughts when they cast their lines from their small boat on [...]
When shooting sports for the newspaper, getting IDs on the athletes is as important as getting shots of them. You never read a caption that says: “So-and-so is tackled by what’s-his-name.” Or “Boxer X connects with an uppercut to Boxer Y’s chin.” Football tends to be one of the easiest sports to identify the players [...]
Capturing motion is different depending on where subject is and how it’s moving relative to the camera. If a runner is moving from one side of the frame to the other (left to right or right to left), he/she will look like they’re going faster than if they’re coming towards or away from the camera [...]
When I got to the youth boxing matches at Yaqui Lopez’s Fat City Gym in downtown Stockton, sitting around the ring were officials wearing white polo shirts with a “USA Boxing” logo on them. I sat down with them, not paying much attention to them, and waited for the fights to start. As I waited, [...]
