Scaughty's PhotoBlog

A Step in a Different Direction

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

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

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

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

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

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.