17 August 2007

*Recent Work or Just Having Fun Out in the Field...

*I just love it when the opportunity and creativity just flows & I get to make images like these:
Newburgh, NY. August 2007.
Youngsters kept cool in the spray of a sprinkler at Audrey Carey Park on Liberty Street in Newburgh, NY on Thursday, August 16, 2007. Times Herald Record/CHET GORDON
Fire Chief's Funeral. Middletown, NY.  Aug. 2007.
Middletown, NY firefighters salute as a caisson bearing the casket of Chief Donald Kimble Jr. passes in front of Middletown Central Firehouse during a funeral procession in Middletown, NY on Saturday, August 11, 2007. Chief Kimble who died on Monday, was the Chief of the Middletown Fire Dept. from 1997-2000. Times Herald Record/CHET GORDON *(see my earlier post "Gadgets, gizmos, remotes, & what'chamacall-its..." on how I made this image with a remotely mounted Nikon D-1X.)

Playground Basketball Features.  July 2007.
Jamar Lindo, 15 in background, drives to the basket during a shoot-around game at Fancher-Davidge Park in Middletown, NY on Wednesday, July 11, 2007. Watching from the court are Andrew Webb, and Jason Stephens, partially hidden, both 15, as seen through the legs of P.J. Plunkett, 7, seated on the bench. Times Herald-Record/Chet Gordon

*this is from a quick take the other day dodging late afternoon raindrops where I was assigned to find people doing something on the most boring Sports day of the Year. (during the MLB All-Star Game break.) this image didn't make the paper, BTW.

07 August 2007

On Photographing Sports. or hey, "These are Really Good Seats...!"

Yankee Stadium. Oct. 2004.
*Touching home plate at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY on Thursday, October 21, 2004. The Yankees were defeated by the Boston Red Sox in Game #7 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) the night before. The Red Sox now advance to the World Series.

As long as I can remember & ever since I've wanted to be a 'pro-photographer', the glamour of photographing sporting events has remained high on my list. I mean, I was one of those kids, like countless others, who used to cut out images made by the big name guys at Sports Ilustrated and Sport Magazine. I would very carefully crop & edit the images to be scotch-tapped to my bedroom wall as a young teenager. I started photographing sports when I was in high school on the NJ Shore. Even processing and printing small black & white images to give away or even sell to the varsity athletes. My small prints even included a hand printed, "Photo by..." on the back. Growing up in Newark, NJ and then the NJ Shore, my father instilled a deep appreciation of professional sports, at least from the fans' point of view. He always made it a point of taking me to pro baseball & basketball games. I grew up an avid fan of the NY teams. Having played three sports in high schoool and even while in the military, I was a decent athlete, with profound understanding of the games. People have commented that I'd be a good coach.
Fast forward to today. After almost 20 years in the news business, I've been privledged to have photographed a MLB World Series, 2 NBA Championship Series, countless US OPEN Tennis tournaments, as well as NFL games, major college sports and everything else in between, from Little League Baseball to various individual and team high school sports. Basically, in a nutshell - Shooting Sports (for me at least) can all be looked at the same way. Sometimes you only have to get "A picture." Little leaguers in action on a Saturday morning, or gymnasts in competition during a weeklong sports festival. But when it's the World Championships of whatever, then you're expected to get the "The Picture." You know, Michael Jordan pumping his fist in the air after hitting the game winning jumper in overtime. "The Picture" is an image of the game turning event or the star of the game at his best. "A Picture" or a few good ones are now being combined as a web gallery and carry the visual story. That's what I find myself doing a lot of lately, but still work pretty hard to be prepared, should a game turning moment present itself. Sports photography incorporates all aspects of editorial image making. Obviously capturing peak action is of prime importance here. use of high shutter speeds and "long glass" is a must. 300mm, & 400mm f/2.8 lenses are commonplace. I'm really using a 300mm with a 1.4X tele-extender a lot lately. There are also wonderful opportunities to make well thought out & produced portraits of athletes, coaches, officials, management personnel and even the hot dog vendor at the big league ballpark for a feature story when called for. I also find sports picture stories an invaluable tool in the story telling approach to my documentary work.
Here are a few recent favorites as well as some made through the years with accompanying explanation and anticdotes to follow.

Nowhere more than when photographing sports is my work slogan more appropriate:

"Go early. Stay late. Get the uniform dirty..." -cg.

1996 World Series. Bronx, NY. The Journal News. Oct. 1996. NBA Playoffs.  4/2004. HS lacrosse *lighting a collge gym for high school basketball playoff tourney.  March 2007. High School Basketball Player of the Year. March 2007. (#1.)*2007 EMPIRE STATE GAMES.2 Days of High School Track & Field Championships. June 2007. Floor remote for Track & Field. May 2007. Studio setup for HS Baseball All-Stars. June 2007. Army Football Media Day. Aug. 2007. High School swimming. Feb. 2007 *2007 EMPIRE STATE GAMES. High School Baseball Championships.  June 2007. *2007 EMPIRE STATE GAMES. *2007 EMPIRE STATE GAMES. Army Football. Sept. 2007.