It’s good to be back inside shooting sports again, particularly an early season big game here close to home. Managed to arrive early in a familiar gym, put a few studio strobes on stands in the corners at one end of the court and added a small Canon 550-EX strobe clamped up in the stands near half-court to give a little more light in the back court, as a lot of good images like rebounds, dunks, and just plain good “filers” of the starting guards bringing the ball upcourt are always good to make with the 300mm at the other end of the court.
A game like this between two sectional rivals will usually offer good images, but I also wanted to be able to make a few file images of some of the starters, coaches, etc. for stories later in the season.
Although this was sort of a difficult gym to shoot in, as I was blocked by the referees on a quite a few plays near the basket, and distracted by fans walking too close to the photographers working the baseline, it’s the kind of game I secretly needed to be assigned to. This game quickly got me back in the mindset to prepare for more games where I can “light up” additional HS / college venues not only for basketball, but also wrestling, and swimming. Of course I am looking to begin running a remote third camera body, occasionally on strobes as well. Stay tuned. -cg.
Chet Gordon resides in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York. A photojournalist for more than 25 years, he recently worked as Westchester Magazine's first photo editor, and previously was a staff photographer at four NYC metro area newspapers. He was also a photo editor at the NY Daily News for 5 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, MailOnline (UK), Army Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Popular Photography magazines, among others. He is a career member of the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA), and a former board member of the NY Press Photographer’s Association (NYPPA). He served honorably as a U.S. Marine in the mid-1980's, including 2+ years stationed on Okinawa, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia. A longtime volunteer and travel enthusiast, he accompanies several humanitarian aid clients on their international disaster relief and medical missions. Since 1997, he's worked in several African countries, the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, the Russian Federation, and Thailand. He routinely mentors young photographers looking to break into the industry and vacations in Bermuda and Kenya.
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