Scaughty's PhotoBlog

A Step in a Different Direction

2008-11-17T23:07:00.001-08:00

My last few sports feature photos for the paper have been pretty much the same. Player(s) standing in the middle of the frame with a blacked out background. Yeah, it looks good, but its getting repetitive and not helping me learn anything. I did a portrait of UCI soccer super star, Matt Murphy. I took him over to a secluded stair case on the back side of the Bren Events Center. I used one Sunpak 555 to the left with a mini soft-box and a Sunpak 555 from above and behind to the right. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here they are after some photoshop.

Big West Championship

2008-11-17T16:49:00.001-08:00

UCI Men's Soccer team won the Big West Championship for the first time in UCI's history. UCI played against UCSB in the finals in front of a nearly sold out crowd. I ended up with some mediocre action shots but also left with some good reactions and celebration.

With 5 minutes left in the game, UCI was winning 4-2. I knew it was over. I quickly rushed over to my bag and switched my 70-200mm for a 17-40mm. I was thinking that when it was officially over the team would run over to the stands to celebrate with the fans. Almost. Not quite. It actually happened the other way around. I was making my way over to the stands with about 2 minutes left. Then, with 10 seconds left, everybody jumps over the railing and rushes the field. I start sprinting with them. There were tons of fans on every side of me and I was caught in the middle. I couldn't stop thinking how great this was. Everybody is jumping around, yelling, celebrating. I throw my hand with my camera into the air to get a shot, then somebody bumps me...my camera goes flying into the air. I jump up, catch it, get my finger back on the button and fire away. Im not going to lie, it was pretty intense.

Anyways, I didn't want to shoot at ISO 3200 so I brought it down to ISO 1000 and had to slow down the shutter speed. The photos came out with a lot of motion blur due to all the jumping and celebrating. I kinda like the effect because you can get a feel for the energy in the moment, although it would also be nice to have some sharp photos.

Roeder's Runners

2008-11-16T20:16:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we hosted our Irvine Huckfest Ultimate Tournament with a record breaking 20 teams. For the weekend, we split up the Irvine Mens Team in two. The other captain and myself each took a team for the weekend. My team was called "Roeder's Runners". I didn't come up with the name but it was obvious there were going to be some awesome jerseys. Anyways, at the conclusion of the weekend we didn't win all our games, but we learned, improved, had an overall winning record, and looked awesome doing it.

Spray paint team tattoos.

First Time Shooting Soccer with a 400mm

2008-11-16T19:58:00.001-08:00

I had a 400mm and a Mark III loaned to me through CPS for when I shot the Club Championships for Ultimate Frisbee. Before I had to return them I shot a UCI Soccer game. I sure wish I had one for every game. The shots were sharp and I loved the vibrant colors. The noise levels on the Mark III were very remarkable compared to my Mark IIn and the D2Hs that I usually shoot with. All I ever hear about lately is the D3 and I think the Mark III is easily being overlooked, especially with the drop in price. I guess next time I have an extra 5k-7k lying around i'll consider it.

Goodnight at Crawford Court

2008-11-10T14:23:00.001-08:00

The last time I shot volleyball was about 2 weeks ago. The nice thing about shooting in Crawford is that there is a stage on one side of the court that you can stand on. Its close and provides an angle that is hard to get in most other gyms or arenas.

I arrived ready.

I left happy.

Southwest Regionals in Colorado

2008-11-10T13:52:00.001-08:00

Last tournament of the club season for Los Angeles Monster and most likely the coldest weather I've ever played in. I was busy playing most of the the weekend but found time to take a few shots on the trip over and during a couple other games.

This was my fantasy player.

All the pics can be viewed here:
http://scaughtyphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/6517817_bt4LG#414227680_SJigZ

Thanks Monster.

First time at The Wedge

2008-11-10T13:37:00.001-08:00

There is a body boarding/surfing spot in Newport Beach called "The Wedge". I've been told about it several times since starting school at UCI. I finally made my way over there a few weeks ago. This was my first time shooting any type of water sport and it was pretty fun.

Hopefully one day I'll get up the nerve to shoot from in the water.

Schocktoberfest/Midnight Magic 2008

2008-11-07T15:09:00.000-08:00

Long Day. I got to the Bren Events Center 4 hours before they let anybody in. I ran into a bunch of problems while trying to lag multiple remote cameras + strobes and ended up without the setup I had planned out. I'm still a little disappointed that I didn't get it all working but I definitely haven't given up.

First up: Shocktoberfest. This was the first concert I've ever shot. Performers consisted of: Three Six Mafia, Matt Costa and Kaba Modern.

Then there was the Midnight Magic Dunk contest. I didn't get to shoot it last year and was pretty excited to finally get to shoot it.

Arena Lighting - Strobes in the Bren!!!

2008-10-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

I finally got my strobes setup in the Bren Events Center at UCI. Only two but better than none. I cant wait for Basketball season!

This is what I used:

White Lightning X1600 (2)
11" Sport Reflectors (2)
Super Clamps (2)
3" stud for superclamp (2)
Miniphone-to-household cable (2)
Add-a-tap's
Zip-Cord
Zip-Ties
Plexiglass
Gaffers Tape
Extension cords
Home made safety cables

This equipment does not include the Pocketwizard remotes needed to fire everything.

Anyways, here are some pics from the day that I set them up. A journey into the catwalks...

Most people don't know about the secret door that goes to the catwalks. This is what it looks like when you open the door (location of the door is still secret).
One you go up the stairs there are more stairs.
Then you have to duck to walk under and around a few ventilation ducts.And yet another door.Once through the door, you are overlooking the whole arena.But wait! There are more stairs.And more stairs...We are now approaching the top.The view from the top. There are only a few dim lights on in the arena at this time, which is why its so dark.Here is one of the lights that I installed. As it says, its a White Lightning UltraZap 1600. All plugged in and ready to go!Here you can see a sync cord that runs from the strobe to an add-a-tap that hooks into the brown zip-cord that is used to sync all my strobes together. It took me awhile to figure out exactly how it worked, but trust me, it makes sense and works. Here I have a miniphone-to-household cable running from a Pocketwizard remote (set to receive) to an add-a-tap that hooks into the zip-cord sync line. So bascially, when I send a signal to this pocketwizard it sends out a pulse to both of the strobes that are connected to the zip-cord sync line, and makes them fire. The Pocketwizard remote is also extended out from the metal railing to reduce signal interferance.As you can see, there is a sheet of plexiglass attached to the front of the reflector. This is a safety precaution just in case a bulb breaks. It would be bad if a bulb overheated and broke and fell all the way down to where the fans were sitting...but I got it covered. Literally. There are also holes drilled in it so that the bulb can cool better.Home made safety cables made from supplies found at a local Home Depot can support up to 250 lbs and only cost about $2ish to make. Once again. Light falling 100+ feet down into stands = bad news.250 ft. spool of zip-cord. Since I only had two lights, I only had to go half way around the court. I ended up with a lot to spare.Using only the strobes, this is how bright it is.Two strobes does a very good job of lighting half of a court. Little orange wire-holder clips from Home Depot. I like.
I did a bunch of research before installing these strobes. Here is a small list of resources that helped me:

I also attended the Sports Shooter Academy V (SSAV) photography workshop where I took an arena lighting class taught by local freelance photographer Matt Brown.

Goodbye ISO 3200.

Hidden Valley Denial

2008-10-23T23:37:00.001-07:00

I emailed Hidden Valley about them sponsoring our Ultimate Frisbee team. It didn't go as well as I expected:

Original email:

"My name is Scott Roeder and I am the Captain of the Men's Ultimate Frisbee Team at the University of California Irvine (UCI). I am contacting your company because we are interested in pursuing a sponsorship from your company. We are a competitive club sport and play teams from all over the country. We were having a team dinner the other night and it came up in conversation that we all happen to like ranch dressing on pretty much everything we eat. We would are willing to have your logo printed on our jerseys and represent your products.

Thanks,

Scott Roeder"

Response:

"Dear Mr. Roeder,

Thank you for contacting us.

Although we realize the worthwhile purpose behind your request, I'm sorry that we cannot honor it at this time. As I'm sure you understand, we receive a great number of requests similar to yours. Hidden Valley is a subsidiary of The Clorox Company. Because of the difficulty in controlling the selection of organizations to receive contributions, The Clorox Company has chosen to contribute a quantity of its products for natural emergency situations. For example, in the aftermath of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, Clorox has donated large quantities of bleach to help with massive cleanup and disease control efforts. Clorox has also contributed charcoal to aid stricken areas without electricity for food preparation.

Again, thank you for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Rose Hill
Consumer Response Representative
Consumer Services "

Maybe next time....

Updated Tearsheets

2008-10-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

I just updated the tearsheets on my website. I now have about 100ish published photos.

http://scaughtyphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3947070_2TvHw#398142812_Pu8Rd

Sportrait...Kinda

2008-10-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this photo in my last post. I took an assignment to shoot the ASUCI President, who is also a player on the Women's Waterpolo team. I always wanted to do one of those shots where you build a plexi-glass box and have them stand on top. It just happened by luck that I was walking through the arts school at UCI and found a huge piece of plexi-glass laying around. Anyways, here's the shot...I wish there were clouds in the sky to make it a little more interesting but I still like it.

Zero Rest...

2008-09-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I've been busy with training for my new job. On top of that school is starting up again and I'm constantly overlapping my commitments by packing my schedule with class, work, ultimate, internship, shooting for the newspaper. All this extracurricular stuff is killing me right now...but its worth it.

Anyways. I don't know how many people actually know about my blog or even visit it but I think I could do a better job of posting more often. I'll try.

Back to the good stuff. I shot some soccer and waterpolo in the last few days.

Soccer. Same old story. Dark as a cave. ISO maxed out on my Mark IIn and on the D2Hs. Noise ninja during post processing. Longest lens is a 300mm 2.8 = only shooting the closer half of the field. While shooting 2 games in a row and sitting out on the field I also managed to slowly become soaked by the night time dew. Here are two photos I know wont be going in the paper:

Wrong sport?

Touchy-feely? Wrong sport?

Waterpolo. Thank you waterpolo! After shooting soccer again in the dark I was starting to loose hope. This was my first time shooting waterpolo and it has instantly become one of my favorite school sports to shoot. DAYLIGHT. ISO 100. Clean, sharp, noise free images. Shooting water sports also provides opportunities for unique reflections, flying water drops, and glistening skin. On top of that, the games are relatively short and the playing field is easy to get around. I've also been trying to shoot tighter lately. Its much harder but also very rewarding. Here are a few shots:

This last photo is nothing too special. I just though it was cool how the water splash distorted the players face.

I recently shot some headshots for a friend from my work. I had never shot headshots before but they never looked very complicated. I'm happy with how they turned out, especially for my first time. Here is the finished product:

Soon to come...Strobes in the gym!

SB Classsic 2008

2008-08-28T14:25:00.001-07:00

New House....New Toys!!!

2008-08-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

I just recently moved into a house in Irvine with my former roommates plus two other guys. Right now we have a bunch of empty space because our place is huge. We decided to fill some of the space and started with the backyard. One word...trampoline. I hope its not against the housing association rules. Its a little hard to hide....

Lately...

2008-08-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've been shooting my roommate who is an aspiring model. Fashion/glamour photography is still new to me and I've slowly been experimenting. Anyways, here is some recent stuff from the past few days.

Unused photos...Olympic Volleyabll

2008-08-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

The US Mens Volleyball team played a game against Argentina at UCI before going over to China. John Speraw, the assistant coach for the US team, is also the head coach for UCI's Mens Volleyball Team. I thought that our sports section could have used some photos of him in action....i guess not. Anyways, it was fun getting to shoot such a high profile game.
Here is a shot of outside hitter Reis Priddy celebrating after a victorious point.

Big Cake!!!

2008-07-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

I surprised my girlfriend on her birthday. I think the picture explains it.

Maloof Money Cup

2008-07-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

From July 11 - July 13 I was at the OC Fair Grounds shooting the first ever Maloof Money Cup, the worlds largest skateboarding competition. The top street and vert skateboards from all over the world were invited and it was crazy. It was put on by the Maloof brothers, owners of the Palms casion and the Sacramento Kings, and who gave away $5oo,ooo is cash prizes to the top skaters. Here are a few pics from each day. You can find more here.

Big Red Night Session

2008-07-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

In Alameda there is a place that Pablo and I like to skate, which we call "Big Red". A couple weeks ago while I was back home we skated it and I took a few shots...

Irvine Business Park Gap

2008-07-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

My friend Pablo came down to Irvine to visit this past week. There was a gap that I had passed by countless times since being in Irvine and have always wanted to skate it. I finally made it over there with Pablo before he had to catch his flight back to the bay area. Here are some photos:

Shot at 17mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/10, Sunpak 555 @ left of camera

Shot at 17mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/10, Sunpak 555 @ left of camera

Shot at 17mm, ISO 400, 1/1250, f/5.6

More Vans...

2008-06-30T20:44:00.001-07:00

Vans Product Shots & Light Painting

2008-06-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

My brother just finished up a pair of custom Vans and I decided to do some product shots. The first shot was done outside on a ping-pong table and was lit with one Sunkpak 555. The other shots were done inside to show that the shoes glow in the dark. The inside shots were lit by light painting, using a flashlight and a blue LED.

First Strobed Skateboarding - 6/15/08

2008-06-15T00:03:00.001-07:00

I finally got to use my Sunpak 555 to shoot some skateboarding. I think it turned out ok. I'm going to try work on it as much as I can over the summer. Hopefully I can pick up another strobe, maybe a Vivitar 285, so I can add another element to my shots.

Frank Doorhof Lighting Workshop

2008-06-09T22:52:00.001-07:00

I got to assist Holland native, fashion and glamour photographer, Frank Doorhof, at the "Secrets of Lighting" workshop in Los Angeles. The workshop was organized and run by Palm Springs photographer Bill Miller. It was a lot of fun and a good way to spend my weekend before finals. I learned a lot and got to meet a bunch of other photographers, models, and makeup artists. On Saturday we shot at a $5 Million penthouse suite on the 21st floor, at the most expensive apartment building in L.A., The Californian on Wilshire. On Sunday we shot in a courtyard area behind a photo gallery, The Perfect Exposure Gallery, in downtown Los Angeles. Here are some of Frank's behind the scenes shots.
Although I was kept busy by carrying equipment, setting up lights, and running errands such as picking up water and lunch, I was lucky enough to be able listen in on Frank's teachings and even get in a few shots myself. It was definitely worth driving up to L.A. two days in a row for.
Here is a link to Frank's website : http://www.frankdoorhof.com/

Mesa Parking Structure Shoot

2008-06-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

Late night photoshoot at the Mesa parking structure. The prophoto lighting kit was due the next morning so I figured I should get a few more hours of use out of it. I was limited by the number of power outlets and the length of the extension cord. Luckily there was a UCI maintenance vehicle parked right next to one of the outlets that I was able to work into the photos.

These have some Dave Hill style post-production. The originals are at the end of this post.
Here is how I had the lights setup.
Here are the originals without any major post-processing.

Bicycle Remote in Aldrich park

2008-06-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

Theses shots are from a photoshoot we did for the photoclub on 4/7/08 and have been sitting around on my hard drive ever since. I had some magic arms, super clamps, and pocket wizards that were being neglected since the end of UCI's basketball season, so we decided to put them to good use.

Messing around with a lighting kit

2008-06-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

I got to use a Prophoto lighting kit over the weekend. The headshots were done with an orange bed sheet used as a backdrop.

Heres a shot of how I set up the lights. I think it worked out alright for my first time. I wish I could have gotten the soft box up higher, but ceiling was a bit of a problem.
I also used the kit to shoot a local band at UCI for an assignment for the school newspaper.

First Post.....First Drink

2008-06-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Then there was dino cake....