Sports Photography:
Getting the shots most people can't
It's hard, damned hard, to get a good photo in a hockey rink, especially the dimly lit arenas we have in Saskatchewan. You need a great big lens and some serious lighting to really stop the action. A point and shoot camera will never cut it, either taking too long to focus, being too grainy, or not having enough flash power to reach past 20 feet. You might as well leave your cell phone to texting. Even an SLR camera like the Canon Rebel or Nikon D60, with a typical kit lens, won't cut it. Throw a high end flash on it, and you might get something recognizable, but it will be grainy, have horrible red-eye, bad shadows, or all the above. Good white balance is almost impossible without strobes, as almost every light in the arena is typically a different colour, from green to orange. This can lead to "lemon or lime ice."
We lug in enough gear to fill a medium-sized SUV to get the job done. It takes about an hour to set up.
Sports photography is the bread and butter of our business. We've shot tournaments in Battleford, North Battleford, Turtleford, and Estevan, at least 20 by early 2009. That includes well over 50,000 frames shot in this manner over the past few years, typically 2,500+ an event.
So far, it's been primarily hockey, with some fast pitch softball, dance and baton. This summer, we'll also be shooting at the Estevan Motor Speedway. However, we hope to eventually get into soccer, lacrosse, football, rodeo and maybe even swimming. As a newspaper photographer, Brian has shot pretty much everything under the sun.
We primarily offer two types of photos, plain and card, as in "hockey card." The cards cost more, but are worth it. The best value for your money is the family pack, which gives you an 8x10 card, two 4x5 cards, and eight wallet cards, all for $50. We've got prices ranging from $10 to $150, and offer discounts for multiple copies of the same photo purchased on site. You can check out rates here.
We also do team photos and "Coach's Corner." If you want a team shoot done, we offer a special deal called the team pack where you get the family pack PLUS the 8x10 team photo for $50. This is by far the most popular option when team photos are done.
Coach's Corner is a usually a shot of the coach at the bench, talking to his/her players or an official. We have a special format for this that can be found in the Hockey 2007-2008 gallery found below. They make a great gift for a coach at the end of the season. It's priced the same as 8x10 card.
Samples
Hockey 2009 - This was our first tournament in Estevan, shot with five studio strobes filling the entire arena and triggered wirelessly with PocketWizards. Note in particular the photo of Ryley Giblett, wearing the yellow Estevan Bruins jersey as he rounds the net. Using the studio strobes results in extremely sharp pictures frozen at 1/1700 of a second. In the Giblett photo, that's fast enough to clearly read the TS&M label on a puck in the air. If you want to know why we use strobe lights indoors, that's why. This is also the new card design, courtesy of Angela Zwaagstra.
Hockey 2007-2008 - At first shot with just a flash, then no flash, then with three studio lights. These are examples of the old hockey card design. You may also note the progressive improvement as we refined technique and equipment.
Fast pitch - 2008 Girls Bantam and Pee Wee Fast Pitch provincials, Battleford. The card design for baseball will likely stay the same for the time being.
Running - 2008 Battlefords Fun Run. This was a community running event, with varying lengths meant to cater to all ages and abilities.