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12/06/2006 10:08:47 PM · #1 |
the continuing sporadic chronicles of my freelancing...
a month or so ago, while shooting a daylong event for the william & mary alumni association, i ran into the alumni magazine's art director. she mentioned that she had another assignment for me; i told her i would make sure to catch up with her before i left. i am SO GLAD i did. as soon as she told me who and what the subject was, i immediately had the shot fixed in my head. i have seen this shot before, but i have never tried anything like it, and, even better, the magazine had never tried anything like it, either.
the subject was megan moulton-levy, a senior on the william & mary tennis team. she and her partner captured the national doubles championship this past season. calls were placed, and arrangements were made to meet up at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center on a clear, but chilly october morning--chilly enough to be glad to be shooting indoors!
i had brought a ladder and set it up before megan arrived. after trying a couple test shots on the writer, i realized that my 6' ladder just wasn't tall enough. then megan arrived, and i had to do something...
i saw that the umpire chairs had wheels! in no time, we had rolled one over to the service line, and set up just to the left of the hash mark. i climbed up and told ben to keep me steady. even though it was fairly wide, it was made for sitting, not standing and reaching. oh well.
after climbing up, i asked megan to show me her serve, just to get an idea as to how far she would come around. i mean really--i had no intention of having her smack my mark like a cheap pinata. once i was satisfied i could stay above her reach, i manually focused and dialed in my settings (iso800, f/3.5, 1/160). with one foot on the seat and the other on the top step i stood up and leaned out as far as i could, stretching the mark out as far as i could, pointing it straight down, trying to keep the camera somewhat framed up square with the service line. i tell megan to go, she'd toss a ball, and i'd start firing. we only did this three times. i got this shot on her third attempt, and was fairly satisfied that it was the one.
even so, we spent another 30 minutes or so trying other more traditional shots. i just wanted to make sure i wasn't leaving anything to chance. if you want, you can see the rest of what i turned in here, including the mostly unprocessed version of this image.
the post processing wasn't too much work, except for 1) cleaning up the scuff marks, and 2) adding a bit more real estate to the right-hand side. the image was shot to be a full-page bleed, composed so that there would be room for an article title at the top and room for the article to start on the right. well, after rotating to straighten it up, i lost about 15% of the right-hand side. fortunately, that side was clean enough that it was no big deal to select, copy, paste, and heal the seam.
i am so stoked as to how this turned out, and can't wait to see it in the print.
cheers,
skip |
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12/06/2006 10:25:41 PM · #2 |
Woot! Go Skip! That is an amazing shot - no doubt about it. :)
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12/06/2006 10:35:08 PM · #3 |
Skip,
That shot kicks a$$!!!!!!!
Beautiful work.
Nald
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12/06/2006 10:35:39 PM · #4 |
sweet shot, grats on the mag cover :)
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12/06/2006 11:24:39 PM · #5 |
thanks for the notes and comments, muchly appreciated! just to clarify, this is an inside shot, not the cover (at least not as far as i know).
one other thing i'd throw out with this, is that while it is really to your advantage to have a good vision as to what you're looking for when you head out, it's always good to have a backup plan, cause you never know just how things are going to play out outside your head... |
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12/07/2006 12:00:17 AM · #6 |
The angle is great, fantastic shot. Thanks for sharing you inside scoop.
SI will be knocking on your door pretty soon. :) |
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12/07/2006 10:17:35 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by Cam:
SI will be knocking on your door pretty soon. :) |
thanks, but i think i've still got a ways to go before that happens... |
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12/07/2006 10:22:16 AM · #8 |
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12/07/2006 10:28:12 AM · #9 |
Great shot Skip. I've been wanting to try this same kind of shot with other sports but the venues haven't been set up to let me try.
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