Category: Photography

Weights Testing

Today I was lucky again as there was new material for me waiting in the weight room. The team today did testing in the weight room at different stations with tests including the bench press test, squat test, stretch test and vertical leap test. I’m guessing the point of the tests were measure the maximum weight they can now lift to establish a new baseline. The tests also provide the opportunity to monitor progress throughout the season.

Michael J. Burns probably had one of the more impressive lifts while doing squats. It looked like at one point the metal bar could fatigue and snap under the load that he was lifting. Most all the teammates gathered around him and encouraged him as he did his lift Jack Ryan also stood out in the vertical leap, almost getting higher than could be measured.

I’m not sure how much I’m going to be able to write between now and January. I will be out of town traveling for business traveling the next couple of weeks for my “real job” as I call it. But next semester is when the project should really start to get interesting as the season starts up. 

As a housekeeping note, special thanks to James at Inside Lacrosse for linking to this blog. I appreciate the attention to it. Coach Haus was kind enough to mention the attention the project is getting today after lift. The players clapped and that was very encouraging to me as I work on this long project.

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UNC Lacrosse Projects: Weights and Running in the Garage

As the project progresses, I’m finding I’m struggling more and more to get original material in the weight room. I’ve made a commitment to come out at least once a week and work on the project. The downside to that is the environment gets to be monotonous. I’m not sure how many angles I can photograph someone doing bicep curls. To break my stale photography, I’ve been looking at books from some of the master of photography to try and get some insight from their work on how they would approach creating photos. What are angles that I’m not thinking about? How could I mix up my photography techniques to create a new vision?

Sometimes I get lucky, and something totally new is put in my lap. Such was the case today when after weights, the team went to the parking garage behind the field house for endurance training. The session consisted of two, 7-minute events. The first consisted of running laps, alternating between sprinting and jogging. The second session was done in the stair case. The guys raced up three flights of stairs on one side, and down another side. They alternated going up and down for seven minutes straight. It looked excruciating to me, but everyone made it the entire seven minutes. Although if they really want to know what is excruciating, they should come up with me and walk up to the catwalks of the Dean Smith Center where I have strobes installed. Before every basketball game I have to go up there and turn them on. There’s no elevator, instead it’s a mix of stairs and steep inclines.

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UNC Lacrosse Project: Hanging with the Sophomores

The project was in need of some major help – I was having a lot of problems getting up with some of the guys while they were just “hanging out”. As photos capturing that was going to be a big part of the project, I was really worried about that facet of the book. Last night I sent an email out to a few of the players hoping to get a response and fortunately Michael Jarvis called me and invited me over with him and some of the sophomores as they watched the Patriots vs. Colts game. Beyond Michael there was also Tommy D’Alessandro, Mike Burns, Joe Howard and freshman Kevin Piegare. Kerry McCormick poked his head in every now and then too. Around 2nd quarter the guys started talking about where to get some food. It came down to Shakura’s Japan Express or IP3 (Italian Pizzaria III) on Franklin Street. Shakura’s won out easily when Jarvis said he wanted to go there. So we all, minus Kerry, packed ourselves into Joe’s SUV. Tommy got stuck in the back since there were too many of us to fit in the seats.

I took some photos in the restaurant and I wondered at times it the two people working the counter wondered who these guys were, and why were they so famous that a photographer was following them around taking photos? Maybe the latest recruits for Roy Williams?

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2008 NCSU Men’s Basketball Poster

In September, I photographed the shots that would be used for the NC State men’s basketball poster. Chris Alston in marketing and promotions wanted to have action photos of the players mirroring action photos of players from the ’83 team. 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of the national championship team with Coach Jim Valvano.

The players were given a copy of the photo by Chris of the ’83 player they were going to emulate while I set up the lights to strobe the court. For each player, I met quickly with him to look at the photo with him and discuss strategies to getting the right shot. We took three or four photos and compared what I had on the camera vs. the photo. Usually I needed to talk with the player again to have him move his angle or hands and retry. For the most part, the photos came out pretty good. The poses were not perfectly the same, but given the time pressures we had, I though it was a pretty solid job.

Kudos to Chris Alston and staff for coming up with this idea. I thought it was a really creative way to remember the the ’83 team. Thanks to the players too. They were eager to do the best they could to honor the ’83 players and do the best job possible. They were patient and accommodating.

Here is the poster. The ’83 player is in B+W behind the current player.

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