Sportrait

Portrait: por-trait [pawr-trit, -treyt, pohr-]
–noun
1. a likeness of a person, esp. of the face, as a painting, drawing, or photograph: a gallery of family portraits.
2. a verbal picture or description, usually of a person: a biography that provides a fascinating portrait of an 18th-century rogue.

Sport: [spawrt, spohrt]
–noun
1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
2. a particular form of this, esp. in the out of doors.
3. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.

Sportrait: [spawr-trit]
-noun
1. a photograph of a person engaged is a sporting activity, usually a photograph of a person's face.

Strobed Remote Camera

Today I had the chance to do something I normally would not do. I strobed my remote camera.

Normally, I would be shooting with one camera and triggering the remote camera and strobes via a Pocket Wizard mounted on my hand-held camera. With this set-up the remote camera fires 1/2000th of a second after the strobes so, this requires me to set the remote camera manually to available light. But, today I did not shoot with my hand-held camera so, I was able to try shooting in relay mode with the Pocket Wizards. To do this a total of 3 remotes are needed. (In my case 6 because 4 are attached to strobes). What i did was the strobes are set to channel 1 (they are mounted in the ceiling so are not able to be changed.) And the PW mounted to the remote camera was attached to the hot shoe and a cable attached to the camera's remote was set to channel 4. The PW used to fire the remote camera was also set to channel 4.

In relay mode the remote camera fires ~1/2000th of a second later and the PW attached to the camera's hotshoe will than relay a signal via the next higher channel (channel 1 in this case). Now the remote camera and strobes will fire simultaneously to capture a strobed image.

To strobe both the hand-held camera and the remote camera this would require a total of 8 strobes and 10 Pocket Wizards. But, the remote camera would still be firing ~1/2000 of second later but, now all the images would be strobed.

Semi-Pro Hockey

Tonight at the Danbury Ice Arena in Danbury, CT the Aces (13-2-1-0) defeated the Danbury Mad Hatters (6-6-0-1) 4-2. The Aces were outshot for just the second time this season, but remained undefeated in that situation. Danbury struck first in this hard-fought battle, when Mike O'Sullivan found Igor Karlov in front of the net for his 7th goal of the season, less than two minutes into the first. Jesse Felten evened the score at 1-1 with his 5th of the season, late in the first, and the Aces never looked back.

Chris Holmes scored for the 9th time this year on an assist from Mike Christensen midway through the second period. Later in the period Christensen struck again, leading James Brannigan to his 20th goal of the year, giving Brooklyn the 3-1 advantage. Christensen had an assist on all four Brooklyn goals in the game. Goalie Eddie Neville remained hot, stopping 35-of-37 Danbury shots on goal, improving his league leading save percentage. A late goal by Danbury's Dan Hickman would not be enough, and Brooklyn held on for the 4-2 win.

Shooting high - Looking down

Today my goal was to mount my remote camera above the 35 second clock. I was running late due to this mornings weather. (It's been snowing most of the week-end here) When I need to set up my camera anywhere above the rim I need to get to the arena at least 2 hours prior to tip-off. Well I got there only 1 hour prior to the beginning of the game. So, I needed to set up my camera and make all my adjustments on a different backboard.

Being this was the first time I was setting up the remote above the shot clock I needed some extra time to make sure everything was properly set and all adjustments were made correctly. After having the remote all set I checked with the refs and the opposing teams head coach to see if there were any final objections. Everything was good to go.

VMI informed me that their team would be heading back into the locker room 35 minutes prior to tip-off for approximately 10 minutes. This would give me plenty of time to drop the net set-up the ladder and secure the camera, and make any final adjustments needed.

With the remote set to a limited field of view I don't expect many shots. But, the shots I do expect to get should be outstanding. I was not proved wrong for today's game.

In all I got 9 images with the remote camera. As I mentioned to Army's SID, I would be happy with 5-10 shots from this view. The camera was mounted with a 15mm lens. Which covers the entire 3 point area. I think my setup for next time might call for a 20mm lens. This way I would not need to crop the images as much.

In all I am quite happy with the results I have been getting from all the different angles I have been able to get using the remote set-up.

Holiday Lights Shooting

I've been doing some driving around to try and find some holiday light to get the LensBaby another go around. I hope it is not the case all over the country but there does not seem to be to many holiday lights up this year.

I drove through this one town near me knowing that they tend to have some nice lights up. I found a few. and Main Street was decorated quite nicely. But, again not to many lights in and around town.

But anyways, This shot was taken with my new LensBaby Composer with the ZonePlate optic. I think it gives off a sort of mystic look to it. Hopefully before the holidays come and go I will be able to find some real nice lights to share.

First time shooting @ MSG

Finally had the chance to shoot at Madison Square Garden. That's right I made it to MSG!!!

Three years ago West Point started a tournament to honor Maggie Dixon. In 2005, just 11 days before the 2005-2006 season, Dixon was hired as the women's basketball coach of the United States Military Academy. In her first year, they surprised the college basketball world by going 20-11 and winning the Patriot League conference tournament; she took them to 2006 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament as a 15 seed, where they lost to the University of Tennessee, 102-54. It was the first March Madness tournament appearance for any Army basketball team.

Her brother was Jamie Dixon, the head men's basketball coach of the University of Pittsburgh. In 2006, the Dixons became the first brother-sister pair to take teams to the NCAA basketball tournaments the same year, as Jamie's Pittsburgh Panthers also made the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. Her brother lost in the second round to Bradley.

Just weeks after her appearance in the tournament, on April 5, 2006, Dixon was hospitalized at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, after collapsing and suffering what her brother described as an "arrhythmic episode to her heart." Dixon died the next night at the age of only 28, a little over a month shy of her 29th birthday. An autopsy revealed that Dixon had an enlarged heart and had a problem with a heart valve.

Dixon was buried at the West Point Cemetery, an honor usually reserved only for high ranking officials.

On November 12, 2006 West Point held the 1st Annual Maggie Dixon Classic, a basketball mini-tournament in Dixon's honor. It featured two games, a men's and women's game. In the men's game Jamie Dixon's Pitt Panthers defeated Western Michigan and in the women's game the Army women's team lost to Ohio State. The games were televised by ESPNU.

In the 2007-2008 season the Classic moved to Madison Square Garden and featured the University of Pittsburgh women's team against Duke University and Army and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Another college added to our local line-up

CSI: Photo would like to welcome Mercy College to it's line-up of local colleges. Since the conception of CSI: Photo we are pleased to have shot for over 15 colleges competing at all levels of NCAA competition.

CSI: Photo has shot events which include the 2007 & 2008 Army/Navy football game, 2008 NCAA Regional Hockey Tournament, 2008 Patriot League ¼ finals (basketball) and the 2008 NE-10 Conference Volleyball Championships.

As CSI: Photo continues to expand it presents in the Hudson Valley, as well as, Northern New Jersey and Southwestern Connecticut we strive to be committed to cutting edge sports photography.

To learn how CSI: Photo can assist your university's sports media department please feel free to visit our web-site.

Students, parents, family and friends can view and purchase game images HERE. A percentage of the sales goes back to the university (this is for colleges and university's that are regular members of the CSI: Photo family)

We will be scheduling our spring sports as soon as schedules permit.

Photographing the Army/Navy Game

It was my second time being on the field for the Army/Navy game. As one would expect this is a pretty fun time. It is also a pretty crazy event to be shooting.

The weather forecast for Saturday initially called for snow. But closer to Saturday it changed. It turned out to be a pretty nice day. Didn't get above 40 but at least it didn't snow.

My day started out at 6:30 waking up at a friends house I stayed at in southern Jersey. They only live about 30 minutes outside of Philly. It was good to get to see them. I have not seen them in quite some time. We had a nice dinner on Friday night and a few cocktails and did some catching up.

7:30 I hit the road. My first stop was to the Alumni breakfast for some pictures. and a little breakfast. You can't go to a Army/Navy game with-out experiencing all that goes on there. The sprint band played and the cheerleaders came out to get everyone riled up for the game.

Kick off was at 12 o'clock so at 10:30 I was headed for the stadium. I knew the security was going to be a little tighter than normal due to the fact President Bush would be attending the game. He came on to the field and walked around the field shaking hands as he went. It was a media frenzy LOL.



I pretty much knew that Army would have a tough time with Navy this year after being on the field for many of their games this year.
After awhile and not to many chances to get "good" pictures of Army I decided to take some images of the fans and other things going on around the stadium.

I was planning on staying in Philly through Sunday but after dinner It started to snow and was suppose to snow most of the night. So I hit the road and headed for home. It snowed all the way home. I was shot after what turned out to be a four hour drive in the snow. But after it was all said and done it was a good weekend. I was able to get a few shots in and around Pilly for my artsy portfolio, see some friends and and shoot my last football game of the season.

Now it's time to focus fully on Basketball and Hockey. Next Sunday I will be shooting at Madison Square Garden for the Maggie Dixon Classic. It will be my first time shooting at the garden. I will be shooting the first game for Army. Then be watching UCONN vs. Penn State. That should be a great game to watch.

Drive on a country road

I took a drive on a country road today in search of some new HDR images. Heading out with only My Canon 20D with my Lensbaby Composer and my tripod. It's nice not lugging around a ton of camera gear for a change. This to me is like hunting to my friends this time of year. But, I don't have to get up at an un-Godly hour and douse myself in animal waste. Instead I grab an beverage of choice (today it was a Pepsi). Jump in my car and wonder around. (Glad the gas prices are still dropping). I headed to Kent Falls in Western Connecticut. Normally this is a summer trip. But, it was a fairly nice day with a good cloud mix for HDR's.

In total I took about 100 images and was able to come up with four really nice HDR's.

This image is 15 images combined in Photomatix. Starting with an exposure of 1/40th of a sec all the way to 1/1000th. After the image was merged in Photomatix, I played a little bit in LightRoom. When I do HDR's this way, I normally view some pre-sets I have and when I find one I like I will start to tweak it till I get it just right (well, at least to my liking).

If you'd like to view more of my artistic work drop by my website at CSI-photo.net

LensBaby HDR's

I had a few minutes to work on an image I took yesterday. After a few attempts with the new LensBaby Composer I am starting to get a feel for what might make for some good HDR's using the new lens. I have tried some images in the city but, I think with the sence of motion and the blur factor of the LensBaby this might be a little to much to blend in to an HDR. I am really liking this lens for landscape images with the way it softly blurs to the sides. I took this image with the f/4.0 aperture ring. And it really has a nice sweet spot. I also used a 0.6 wide angle adapter for this image. I will be doing some more images very soon.

To learn more about the LensBaby visit www.lensbaby.com

Tutorial on the Backboard Remote Camera

As promised I am posting how I set-up my backboard camera set-up. This set-up normally takes about 20 minutes to get all set and ready. A few things to look at is 1) how easy do the backboard lower. They can be lowered either electronically or manually. I prefer the manually lowered net. Because they are fast and easy. Sometimes with the electronic ones you might have to wait for someone from facilities to be available and your set-up then becomes up to someone elses time.

Here is all the equipment I use to get the camera hung.
1) Manfrotto Super Clamp.
1) Manfrotto Magic Friction Arm (The friction arm is the better of Manfrotto's two arms)
1) Manfrotto Camera mounting plate
1) Camera (I use the Canon XTi)
1) Fresh Battery in camera
1 Large capacity card (sometimes you just can't get to the camera to change cards.)
2) Pocket Wizards (there are cheaper remotes out there but, the PW's are far more reliable)
2) Camera cable (to connect the camera to the PW's)
Safety Cables (you wouldn't want you equipment to fall on someone!!)
Karabiner clips (good to have a few to assist in attaching your safety cables)

As you can see here I have anything that might cause a distraction to the players covered with gaffers tape. You should always have some gaffers tape handy. Also, prior to mounting you camera you want to pre-focus it just beyond the rim and tape down the lens.
Notice the split rings on the camera. I'll get to those in a minute.


Here I use some black cloth to reduce the reflection off the glass. With out the cloth you will tend to get a reflection of the baseline and anything behind the net in your images.



As you can see in this image the camera is secured to the backboard with the super clamp with the magic arm in between. Notice the safety cable securing all you equipment. I have a cable going through the super clamp and one attached to the camera. Also 1 cable is passing through the lanyard for the Pocket Wizard. To attach the camera to the safety cable I have split rings attached where the camera strap would normally go.

Here is another view from the side.






Here is a view from the front with the net lowered. Don't forget before your raise the net you want to make sure you have fresh batteries in everything, format your card, make sure your settings are correct, and most importantly.... Turn everything on. It's a lesson you only learn once.

With any luck you can start getting images that no one else is thinking about.

Backboard camera set-up

Last night I went to set up the backboard camera and was not able to do so. So in order to have the league's permission I must submit some images of the set-up. So tonight I will be shooting another game were I will be setting up the backboard cam. I will be taking some pretty extensive images of my set-up to submit to the league.

I was however able to mount the camera in a pretty good location anyway. This might be a better way to go with the remote camera. I am able to relocate the camera between halves. And I was able to get some good images.

But I will be posting some images of my set-up for those of you that are interested, check back here tomorrow night. I'll have a few images up with some discription of how to go about setting this up.

Batteries not included

It reminds my of the movie from awhile back.

Well I got my camera all set-up and ready to go prior to the women's basketball game today. Normally, I will not set up the remote camera above the rim for the women. But, because of time constraints I needed to have it set up before for today's game.

I arrived in plenty of time to make sure everything was set and ready to go. Proper focus, camera angle, safety cables, and everything was good to go. I fired a few test shots. And downloaded them to the computer and double checked my exposures. All was good.

So I though....

I had a couple of minutes after the women's game. So, I lowered the net and swapped card. In doing this I noticed my pocket wizard was not flashing. The batteries died. I had my transmitting PW in my hand and quickly changed the batteries into the receiver. Turns out I only got off 3 (that's right three) shots. I loaded the card into the computer and noticed there were only 3 images on the card. With a BIG uh oh from me the only SID (he likes to bust my chops) in the room said laughing, "That doesn't sound too good right off the bat."

But, anyway, I didn't expect to get to many shots from the remote cam from the women's game. But, I am REALLY glad I check the camera between games.

Lesson learned. I am going to have to change these batteries a little more often, even if it mean wasting some batteries. (won't really waste them I'll save them for other stuff not so important)

Well I hope every one has a GREAT Turkey Day. I won't be shooting any more sports till after that.

32° at Kick-off

It was a cold one today!!

Well, it didn't look good from the start for the Black Knights. It started off with a fumble recovery run in for a touch down for the Scarlet Knights and they never looked back. Myself and a couple of the other Army photographers were trying to figure out if we were going to get any decent shots other than the defense today.

We are all hoping the the Army/Navy game will not be as cold in 2 weeks. But, I'm kinda thinking with the way the weather has been here it's going to be another cold one. I am planning on spending the week-end in Philly and bumming around on Saturday evening and Sunday Morning taking some photos around the Philly area. I am hoping that my new LensBaby will be here by then. I spoke with someone @ LensBaby and they have sent out a second lens for me to try. I have been expecting their new lens since the PhotoExpo in NYC since speaking with Craig earlier this month.

Well tomorrow is back to the warmer com finds of the basketball arena @ West Point for a double header. I will be setting up my backboard cam tomorrow prior to the start of the womens' game. I don't think I will be using it for the women's game but, I will not be able to set it up between games.

Faces of a Champion

This weekend I photographed the NorthEast-10 Conference Volleyball Championship at Pace University. There was a lot of planing and equipment to be either borrowed or purchased. First off, I needed to secure a second photographer. I did this through some of the photo forums I belong to. Then on to the equipment issues. I didn't have all the lighting I need to strobe a college gymnasium. So, I purchased some new lighting. Because I don't want to have light stands all around the gym with a ton of people and volleyballs all over the place during practice. I needed to purchase some additional clamps and safety cables. Firing the strobes and remote cameras I needed to borrow a total of 5 pocket wizards. After shelling out the bucks for the additional lighting I decided to borrow the wizards. I will be picking up new wizards soon so, all the running around borrowing equipment will come to an end soon.

After all was said and done, I believe all the running around was well worth the effort. I will have additional work coming though the conference and other teams with-in the conference.

So if I can offer any words of advice to my follow photographers. If you think you will need more equipment than you currently own. Do anything to beg, borrow, rent (or steal*) the equipment you need to pull it off with out a hitch.

* On a side note while I don't advise you steal the equipment. I only mentioned it as the saying goes "Beg, borrow or steal." I tossed in rent as the alternative to stealing it...

Swimming & Diving season is upon us

As the winter sports are fast approaching Swimming & Diving is getting under way. As in most indoor sports (even at the D1 level) lighting is always an issue. The best way I have found to overcome lighting conditions at indoor arenas, gym and other venues is to make sure you have some sort of white balance card. I use the WhiBal card. This will insure your shooting is properly balanced and you have correct colors. Many people will just find something white in the shot (ie white shirt, a sneaker, part of a sock ect.)
I used these items in the past with some degree of success. But, one thing your need to remember is how many times do you take something out of the laundry and say to yourself "Man this is dingy?" The WhiBal card is a true neutral, as with many other white balance cards on the market, so you know you your whites will be white.

As far as shooting and noise reduction. I will tend to under expose most of my indoor shooting anywhere between 1.5 and 3 stops. Doing this I am able to keep my shutter speed up over 1/500th of a second. This is essential for any sport at the college level. The younger athletes you can get away with slower shutter speeds. To get a image the is properly exposed I will do some post processing in Adobe Lightroom. This program is very good for batch editing. After I correct the white balance, I apply it to one image and adjust the exposure, noise and other levels to acquire an acceptable image. Then I will batch process all the images with the same adjustments made to the sample image. Some of the images may need further correcting but, 90% of the post processing is complete with batch processing.

I hope this little explanation comes in handy!! And happy shooting.

Net-Cam Denied

I traveled to Milford, CT to shoot an away game for West Point and had my net-cam almost all set up for their game against Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart plays in a public arena and I had the OK from the rink, Sacred Heart's SID and coach. I, as always, let the officials know it would be in the net. About 5 minutes later the officials called me back and after they talked about it, said I needed to take it out. They had not heard of this being done in this league. The SID for Army got the OK from the league commissioner prior to me setting it up for the season. Long story short the ref's did not like the idea of a camera being in the net with-out written permission from the league.

After some conversation with the 2 schools SID's and the coaches, the ref said I could leave the camera in the goal but, he (the main ref) was not happy about it. So, in doing what I think is the right thing, I pulled the set-up out. Monday I will be seeking written permission from the league offices, being the league has already giving verbal ok. This is just one more step I need to take.

I know I could have left it in the goal but, I know I will be shooting games with these ref's at some other time. So, I don't want them to be on my bad side.

Creating HDR's with the LensBaby

As many of you might already know I love creating HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. During my trip to the Photo Expo in NYC I meet-up with Craig Strong of LensBabies. We got into a conversation about HDR's and the LensBaby. To my surprise there have not been too many HDR submissions to the LensBaby galleries. Turns out the Craig is finds the HDR process very interesting. Craig would like to see some of my HDR images added to the LensBaby galleries. In the very near future I will be receiving the new Composer lens to work some of my HDR magic.

The image here is a HDR image created from 1 image with a +/- 2 stop exposure created with Photomatix and Lightroom. Traditionally, true HDR images are made from multiple images at different exposures. Since I currently have the LB 2.0 (it's held in focus and tilt by hand) it is very difficult, if not impossible to capture multiple images with this lens. As soon as I receive the new lens I will be creating a complete gallery of HDR images to include cityscapes, subway series, and many different subject matters.

I am very excited about this new project. And, hope that you will be checking back to see the progress on this. As soon as I have a gallery with at least 10 or more LB-HDR's I will be adding a featured gallery to my site.

Mpix Boat Tour

Friday I was lucky enough to spent the day with some really great people from Mpix. Mpix sponsored a boat tour on Manhattan. Fellow Mpix users and fellow forum uses spend Friday morning with Rick Sammon and Carey Schumacher touring around Manhattan on a Water Taxi.

We all had the chance to meet with Rick and Carey and to gain knowledge. As well as share techniques and shooting tips. All in all, I know I walked away with a bunch of useful information as well as some new friends.

I look forward to any opportunity I have to do something like this again.

White Balance and shooting sports

After a few inquires on how I get my image results I decided to post a brief summary of my post processing.

I take a test shot of the WhiBal card and it looks like this. I take this image at the iso I am going to be shooting at and set my camera to "P"

For this image the is camera set to AWB and says the temperature is 4800°K. I use the white balance picker in LightRoom and pick anywhere on the card.

This is how the image looks after the WB is set. This is corrected to 3300°K





Then, I set my camera to the readings from the light meter, but I add 2 full stops to obtain 1/500th of a second for my shutter speed. I use the Sekonic L-358, it has a module that will fire the strobes via pocket wizards. It is a very popular meter.

My meter reading for an iso setting of 400 is then taken from out on the ice, and I come up with 1/125th of a second @ f/2.8. from there I shoot 2 stops under exposed and set my camera to 1/500th @ f/2.8

This shot is straight out of the camera.







After setting my WB using the the adjustments from the WhiBal test shot. and adding the ~2 stops back into the image I adjust the image as needed. The full list of adjustment are made in LightRoom and are:

Exposure: +2.25
Recovery: 15
Fill Light: 10
Blacks: 5
Brightness: +80
Contract: +30
Clarity: +14
Vibrance: +10
Saturation: +5
Highlights: -19
Sharpening: 40
Noise Reduction
Luminance: 10
Color: 25

Testing the backboard cam

Well the way I see it is if your gonna do a test session why not test with the pros. This will be my first season using the backboard cam so I took advantage of a NY Knicks practice session held at Pace University in Pleasantville today. As in the past I have tried to get 1 or 2 test prior to the beginning of the season, and basketball is right around the corner.

This is a busy couple of weeks coming up with the winter sports starting, and the fall sports winding down. All in all I got some pretty good results with the backboard cam. I have a few adjustments to make and some parts to order. The parts are due to user error on my part setting up my remote cam in a hockey game last night. I should have the parts replaced in plenty of time to be up and running by the start of bball.

Look for the new basketball and hockey images to be posted with-in 24 hours after the event.

I love shooting from catwalks

I had a request to post a picture from my position up on the catwalk. This is looking down the walk, down the lenght of the catwalk. This is 1 of 5 catwalks in this building, it is all the way at the top of the building. I would say it is around 100 feet up, dead center of the building.







This is one of the shots I got from this location. I liked the lower catwalk I shot from last volleyball game in this building. Although it is considerably tighter, both less head room and narrower. From this location I took up my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. I got maybe 5-6 usable images, less than I would have from the lower walk.

Goal-Cam up and running

Well the goal-cam got it's first "GAME" use. It was a scrimmage but, basically game situation. I am please with the results I got today.

I was running late due to a volleyball tournament I was shooting out in Garden City. So, I didn't get there till the 3rd period. I had about 3 minutes to get everything set-up and all my settings. dueing 1 period of play there was 143 shots taken with the camera and I wound up with 27 keepers. I think that is really acceptable results.

The next game is on Saturday were I will be there in plenty of time to set-up everything and hopefully will have even better results.

The one thing that conserns me is the battery and it being mounted only 6 inches above the ice. I might try some pocket hand warmers in the housing.

2008-09 Army Hockey Media guide chock full of images from CSI

The 2008-09 Hockey Media guide is out. And it is loaded up with images from CSI: Photo. I'll have to pick up my copy this Saturday and check it out for myself. Go Army.

Football getting bumped

Well I got another call from Stonehill College in Easton, MA today. This call was for Volleyball. Initially I had a hockey scrimmage @ 10 and football @ 1pm @ West Point. I am looking forward to the hockey scrimmage so I can get my in-goal camera some "game" time. prior to the start of the season. Well, wouldn't you know the SID from West Point called today and let me know the scrimmage is @ 5pm.

So, I booked the volleyball for Stonehill College. They have a double header at Adelphia University in Garden City, NY First game is @ 1 against Adelphi and the second is @ 3 against Malloy College... I think I can make it to West Point for at least the second period. This is 1 final test of the in-goal camera housing before the season gets under way. First real game is October 18th.

Ref's, Ump's & Officials

I had a conversation with a football ref today. He asked me if I every take pictures of any of the refs. I said, "not if I can avoid it." LOL

But, anyway, he ask if I could take a few of the crew today. He said that they all have really big ego's (his words not mine) and are always looking to buy photos of themselves. So naturally, I told him I would. After going through some of the images I captured today I decided to add a featured gallery to my site today. So, if you wanna see more Ref's, Ump's & Officials let me know.

Calling it.... Yep you guessed it
Ref's, Ump's & Officials.

A view from the catwalk

I don't think there is any better place to photograph sporting events from other than up on the catwalks. I think it gets you a whole different perspective to the game. I tend to spend quite a bit of time up on those things. But, the shots you can come up with!!

Last year 1 of my hockey shots wound-up in USA Hockey Magazine. You can see the image and article bay clicking on the published links to your right.

You can view complete game images in my new storefront.

Off to Iona again on Saturday

I was suppose to do another volleyball game @ West Point on Saturday. But, I received a call late Friday afternoon, from Stonehill College in Easton, MA. They are playing Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. I photographed a game Stonehill had a few weeks ago versus Pace University. I came up with this image. And a few others. Look for these images to be in the gallery sometime Saturday evening.

NEW Storefront

I have changed my storefront and will now be adding all images from upcoming events HERE

Until I have a chance to reload past events on to the new storefront they will still be available HERE

Please bear with me during this change over. This new storefront will soon have many new choices for your favorite images.

Next Up - Volleyball

I will be at West Point tomorrow for some Volleyball. The Lady Knights are hosting Bucknell University. This event will be at Gillis Field House. You may expect to see images posted on my new storefront sometime Friday night.

Football action and more

Well another Saturday another football game. Today Pace lost a heart breaker to crosstown rivals Iona College.

What I'm going to try to do here is post some images from the events I shoot and post the technical data. I will post a few action images as well as my favorite sportrait and maybe a fan favorite. As it turns out I've got all 3 today.

This first one I'm always looking for some type of run back on a punt. So, from the sideline I am focused on the punt returner. As he made his way down field I was able to capture this image, with my Canon 20D. My settings for this were iso 200 Av mode with my 70-200 f/2.8 set to 2.8. I needed as much speed as I could get due to the rain and overcast skies.


Here this was an incomplete pass. But, looking for the pass down field I was ready for the play to come my way. Same settings as the previous shot. I don't change my setting unless the sun is setting during the game. Due to the rain the lighting was consistent. (poor but consistent)







On to the "SPORTRAIT" of the day. Here is where I try to capture some of the game emotions in the faces of the players. Settings are very basic 300mm lens and since it's not "L" glass (I'll be there some day Jim) it is shot @ f/5.6 and iso 800.








And last but not least the fan favorite of the day. I spend the down time of the game scouring the stands looking for that group of fans into the game.











And just one more action shot but noting to lose your head over.





The remaining images can be found on my main website in the "GAME DAY PHOTOS" section.

Summer long hiatus is over

After taking a break from blogging I will be getting back to this full time.

Here I will be posting some new and interesting shots I will be taking with my new remote camera set-up. I have already photographed many event with the remote set-up. Also, I have been busy testing the housing for an in-goal camera set-up for hockey.

To date I have used the remote camera in both men's and women's soccer. and volleyball. All have proven to be very successful. I have been working with the Army hockey team in testing my in-goal set-up. The first in game set-up will but on October 18th against Merrimack.

Also, I will be posting "SHOTS OF THE WEEK" a selection of images from events shot during the week with a listing of technical information as to how the shot was taken.

Also, you me post comments or any feed back here.

2008/09 Brochure is out in circulation

CSI: Photo is quickly becoming the Hudson Valley's leading source of Collegiate Sports Imaging. If you have not received one of our new brochures and would like to see the new services CSI: Photo will be offering this year please feel free to drop us a note.
CSI: Photo services the lower Hudson Valley, Southwestern Connecticut and Northern New Jersey's college sports media departments.

New SlideShows added

We've added several new slideshows to our portfolio page.
These slideshows include images from the 2008 NCAA East regional hockey tournament, 2008 Patriot League Women's basketball playoffs and an art slideshow featuring my artistic images that are available through Art Solutions

CSI: Photo is on-line

CSI: Photo's website is up and running. Please be patient as it is only a preliminary template. I am working on totally re-vamping the site and it is out to be coded. Hopefully the site will be complete by May 25th.

Marist Scores Hudson Valley Baseball Classic Victory

Marist scored at least one run in its final six at-bats to take an 11-2 victory over Army in front of a crowd of 2,375 fans at the third annual WPDH Hudson Valley Baseball Classic at Dutchess Stadium Wednesday evening.

Click HERE to view all images from this event.

For more information on CSI: Photography CLICK HERE to e-mail me.

FRISBIE'S WALKOFF HOMERUN ENDS FIRST GAME/SETTERS EXPLODE IN GAME TWO

Christina Pane (Stony Point, NY/Cardinal Spellman) broke the school single season record for hits as her second hit in the fourth inning of game two gave her 68 on the season and eclipsed the old record set by Tess Bair with 67 in 2003. In the opener, a pitching dual ended in the ninth inning as Alton Frisbie (Indian Hills, CO/Conifer) saw one pitch in the ninth and blasted it over the fence in left field to give the Setters a 1-0 win, while the Setters exploded for 11 runs in the fourth as they completed the sweep with an 11-1 romp in the nightcap. The Setters end the regular season with a 28-18 overall and 16-12 in the Northeast-10, while Bentley drops to 20-20 and 13-11 in conference play.

Click HERE to view all images from this event.

For more information on CSI: Photography CLICK HERE to e-mail me.