Five - Tennis Ace

After Hannah and I had hit some tennis balls one day this spring, I talked her in to posing for some shots for me. This was basically just a chance for me to play around with some lighting that I had never tried before. I wasn't trying to make pretty light with softboxes, I wanted dramatic light with bare flashes, one to each side of Hannah. I only had two flashes at the time, and they were being triggered remotely from the on-camera flash. I would have liked a little fill straight in front of her (also known as on-axis fill) to lighten the shadows just a bit on her face. That is something I can do now since I sold my low-power SB-600 flash and purchased two SB-700 flashes to replace it and team with my SB-800.

The reason this made my favorites list though is the reaction I got from Hannah when she saw it. "It looks like I've got muscles!" This is exactly what harsh cross lighting accomplishes. It wasn't a perfect setup, but for the first time really trying it, I accomplished what I wanted. I got a couple cool photos of Hannah while learning and getting some experience for future projects. Hint - you'll see some of those in a couple days.

Tennis Season & Photography

Quite a bit of time has passed since the middle school tennis season ended. I had hoped to write about it a little sooner, but that time filled in quickly with other "stuff". I was asked over the summer if I would be interested in being the assistant tennis coach for the girls and boys middle school tennis team. At that time, there wasn't even an official tennis team or a head coach. I said yes, because I knew my daughter wanted to do it, and I thought it would be fun. It ended up being so much more than just fun.

I had some ulterior motives - getting to spend more time with my daughter, getting to be the official photographer of the team at matches, getting to hit some tennis balls and hopefully help my attempt at getting in better shape. I satisfied all of these, but they still weren't the highlight of my time. For sure, there were days when I felt like I was wasting my time - dealing with middle school aged boys and their friends can do that to you if you're not used to it, which I am most definitely not. I had to take some online tests in order to drive the short bus to a couple of matches. I never imagined myself as a bus driver.

Once we had a coach and the team was official, I became Coach Rob. I spent a lot of time helping the head coach as much as possible and to make practices and matches go as smoothly as possible. Learning how the kids react in certain circumstances so I knew how to help them was a challenge, and I learned quite a bit about myself in the process.

I learned quickly that it's very difficult to coach and photograph the matches at the same time, let alone trying to watch your own kid play. After shooting the first few matches, I eventually gave up, concentrating on what my first job was - coaching. Whether it was talking kids down from the brink of implosion, giving them pointers on what their opponents weakness was, or just giving them a pat on the back and some encouragement, that became far more important in the long run.

Since this was the very first year for a tennis team at the middle school, we had very little money. I decided that I would use my photography to help raise some money so we could buy some much needed equipment. I took individual photos of each player - one pose a conservative one that Mom would probably like, and another giving the kids some ownership in the pose and the feel of the photo. I only took money to cover printing costs, and the rest of the money went directly to the team. I wanted to create photos that the kids would love and would want to show off to their friends. I created a Tennis Magazine and ESPN Magazine cover out of their "cover shot poses" to help celebrate the inaugural season of tennis. Needless to say, they were a hit, and we raised over $325.

We had a very successful season, but it ended in fairytale style. Our boys were heavily favored to win the season ending tournament. Our girls, however, would be challenged. A couple of them would end up facing players they had lost to earlier in the season, and one of the teams had a very strong and deep girls team. Complicating matters was a Saturday morning colder than most and wind gusts of up to 40mph. Lobs that started on one side of the court would end up far wide of the other side. Our girls hung tough, got revenge on their earlier losses, and like th boys, won the tournament handliy! It was so satisfying to see them improve over the course of the season, and have their hardwork pay off by winning two first place trophies and several individual medals. The kids were ecstatic, and I couldn't have been prouder.

A month and a half later, walking down the hall at the school, I heard someone calling to me from behind. I turned to see one of the girls trying to catch up with me, wanting to say hi. She gave me a high five and a big smile. Helping the kids improve, set and reach new goals, and watching their self-confidence grow was so fulfilling. I'll miss the 8th graders that will be moving on, but I can hardly wait for next season!

What Happened?!

Wow - where did the time go? August flew by and it's hard to believe September is almost in the rear view mirror. The business definitely helped it along - our annual family trip to Montana and Glacier National Park, the start of middle school tennis for my daughter (and me - I'm an assistant coach), the start of school, a video shoot at Purdue for the Indiana Wine Grape Council, a photo shoot at the Indianapolis Colts complex with middle linebacker and team captain Gary Brackett, several smaller projects, and, oh yeah, I turned 40.

Speaking of time flying, it's hard to believe I'm 40. I definitely don't feel like it. I've worked hard the past few months to get in better shape and feel better now than I did at any point in my 30's. Tennis has had a lot to do with that. Hitting tennis balls with the kids nearly every day has been a lot of fun. Seeing them improve by leaps and bounds and gaining confidence is a thrill I hadn't expected but makes my time with them even more satisfying.

This fall isn't going to slow down. I have a couple of websites to work on, I'm taking portraits of the tennis team and selling the prints at cost and donating the money to the team, I've got a motion graphics job I'll be working on next week for broadcast in the Baltimeore area, and I'll be on the sidelines for a Ball State football game in October. A few other projects are in the hopper as well.