Prep Basketball

Last night I had the chance to shoot a couple of prep basketball games up in Salt Lake County. The first was a game played by Lehi and Hillcrest as a part of the 2005 Pro Look tournament at the E Center. I shot the game from the press box with a 300mm lens (The biggest lens I've used for a game thus far) and a Canon 1D Mark II. It was a blast using real equipment. The response of the 1D is beyond compare to that of my 10D. The 10D is great for portraits, but is slow for sports shooting. The above shot was from the game.

After shooting, I went to Juan Diego---a nice new Catholic school in Draper---to shoot their game again Jugde Memorial. Shooting in their nice new gym was like shooting in a cave. At first I thought the light felt different because I had just come from the nice lighting in a professional arena, but after metering I new the light was bad. What a shame to build a beautiful new facility and have crappy lighting. The lighting at my alma mater, Spanish Fork High, is just as good and it's 50 years old.

New Portrait

Today I took a trip up to Pictureline to pick up an ExpoDisc white balance filter. After shooting a bridal in the Joseph Smith Memorial building downtown Salt Lake, I learned how valuable an accurate white balance setting can be.

After picking up the filter, I hooked up with my friend Jason for lunch. After lunch I tagged along to a portrait he was shooting for the Deseret News. I helped him test his light. (Picture shown)

I'm always amazed by how calm Jason is when taking pictures. I'm always sweating like a dog, trying to make sure I'm getting everything right. Maybe the difference is that the people I'm taking the picture of are paying me, while the pictures he's taking are for the paper. Most likely, it's a differnce in confidence. Jason's been doing this for a long time and is confident in his work. I, on the other hand, still worry about how my work will turn out.