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looking away from the action…looking for more

Posted in: Sports

For once, I wasn’t the staff photographer covering the basketball game. I knew this was my chance to try something different. I wanted to get a new angle that I had never tried to get. Something away from the action. Something with a clean background. Something that people can’t see on their own. I had read an article about the 12-14 cameras that SI photographer John McDonough brings to an average NBA game, and came across this unique angle. An overhead remote of the players bench. I was told that I was not allowed to be up in the catwalks during a game, so I decided to setup a remote. I like how it turned out and am happy with all of the photos. The only thing was that the UCI Athletics photographer was actually up there during a game and got a shot that looked identical to mine. And his was all over the front page of the website that week…so much for a unique angle.


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March 10, 2009 - 10:11 pm

Nik - You should totally try being the UCI Athletics photographer. You practically are already.

raining in the OC?

Posted in: Sports

Since living in Irvine for the past four years I have yet to see a storm. I’ve seen maybe three or four rainy days a year down here. During winter quarter I shoot basketball and volleyball. I get the beginning of baseball, but for the most part everything I shoot is indoors. Out of all the days for it to rain in winter quarter, it rains on the day I have to shoot outside. I took a mens tennis assignment. I borrowed my friends D3 and was going to use the papers 300mm. I got to the match all ready and about 5 minutes into shooting it started to rain. Thus, lack of shots.


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lights, camera, work it

Posted in: Portraits

My last feature-photo assignment was to shoot a portrait of UCI Womens Basketabll player Kiara Belen. The sports editor told me that Kiara was also a model and I knew immediately that this shoot was going to go smoothly. I was right.

I was hoping to get some help on this assignment but all my friends were busy.

I arrived at the gym early. I made three trips from my car and had to carry over a backdrop kit, light stands, camera bag, equipment bag, Alien Bee, umbrella, and a 9ft wide roll of paper. I then began to assemble the backdrop, which is pretty difficult to do with one person.

This was my first time shooting with a real backdrop. I had planned to use it on several other shoots but things fell through and I never got the chance.

Basically once I got everything setup I called Kiara over. I knew she had experience and wouldn’t need much direction, so I told her to just work it…and it worked out. She was relaxed and confident. She had an array of posses. The photos were turning out great and it wasn’t an accident.

Its nice to work with people who know what they are doing. As a photographer its important to learn how to work with people, make them comfortable, and learn how to direct them. I do this with just about every shoot, but its still nice to get a break.

I think for this one I might have said something to make her laugh. Usually with these types of shots you will get the subject making some weird face. I got lucky and I think it turned out pretty well.



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never rely on your remote camera

Posted in: Uncategorized

At the last basketball game I shot, I set up a remote camera on the shot-clock. It was a big game against our rivals, Cal State Long Beach, so I got there four hours early. I also dropped by earlier in the morning to make sure that none of the teams had an open shoot-around scheduled. From 3pm-5pm the court was clear.

I arrived at 3pm and brought all my equipment in through the court-level entrance. When I got there I was faced with the choice to either setup a overhead from the catwalks or a clockcam. I ultimately decided on the clockcam because you see more faces from this angle, and I was covering the game for the newspaper. I had only set up a camera in this position once before. It took me a little over an hour this time. I had the arena staff lower and raise the hoop several times. The hardest part about setting up a camera in this position is that the shot-clock changes position as it is raised and lowered.

I borrowed a 40D from another photographer from the paper as a second body, which I would have wanted to use as the remote camera, but since I was there 4 hours in advance I needed to use my camera because I had an AC adapter.

As for the game, it came up a little short, picture-wise. I spent a lot of time setting up my camera and making sure that everything was perfect. The only big plays that were made on the basket where I had my camera set up were made by the other team. All I can say is that its a good thing I had an extra body.

Never rely on your remote camera.


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experimenting with volleyball

Posted in: Sports

This past week was the first time that I shot volleyball with my strobes. When I put my strobes in the Bren Events Center earlier this school year, I took into consideration that I would be shooting volleyball at some point. I found out which side UCI would start so that I could position my strobes facing that side of the court. This way I would be able to shoot at least 2 out of 3 matches per game with my strobes, since I am only lighting half of the court.

Anyways, this was the first volleyball game I had shot all year. I missed the previous two home games due to being out of town.

I found that using the strobes wasn’t too bad. The pictures were sharp and they popped. They also didn’t have any noise. But with the strobes I could only shoot from the end of the court. When I tried shooting from the side, I ended up with some pretty bad shadows all over the players.


I’m still trying to decide what I think of these strobes…or at least the fact that I only have two instead of four.

Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. My creativity is fueled by the opportunity to use them. But at the same time, my creativity is limited by them.

Getting two more lights is not an option at this point. Selling all my canon gear + strobes then buying a D3 is tempting.

I guess we’ll see.


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