Jeff Hinds Photography Blog

Sports Photography Workshop

jeffhinds — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:39:33 +0000

Over the past couple of years I have really wanted to find a way to host a sports photography workshop. Since my college days at Mt Hood I have been shooting thousands of action photos and advanced my skills as a photographer on and off the playing field. This past fall term at Mt Hood Community College I was invited to teach a lighting course for the Integrated media program at Mt Hood and that kicked the door wide open for a sports workshop.

Once a year I sit down and review the Mt Hood sports schedules after they are published and I get a few game dates on my calendar. This year I noticed something rather different….4 basketball games in 2 days at the Mt Hood gym! The first thing that jumped into my mind was that this was the perfect opportunity to get a lot of shooting time in to teach a sports workshop…it was ON!

Over the next few days I made some calls and emails and things started to fall into place (HUGE thank you to Kim Hyatt, coach Larry and coach Gib for allowing us to shoot at the MHCC gym!).

Originally, I wanted a 4-day workshop but narrowed it down to 3 days. With the 3 days, I would have day one for classroom with 2 hours dedicated to camera & lens review, and an arena strobe review, then we would all head out to the court to shoot 2 games for some hands-on shooting under ambient lighting conditions (I wanted the students to get images in the challenge of low-lighting, before we set up the arena strobes on day 2). On day 2, we would set up the arena lighting and shoot the games, and for day 3 we would have a critique and review of the student images with awards handed out for the top 3 in the following categories: Best Sports Photo: Ambient Lighting, Best Sports Photo: Arena Lighting, Best Detail, and Best Celebration/Emotion. (Another HUGE thank you to Vanessa and Google Hotpot for the prizes & t-shirts).

To give a brief explanation of how Google Hotpot fit into the workshop, here’s the deal: are you familiar with Google Places and how you can rate & review restaurants and other businesses? Well, anything can be rated so my thought was why can’t photographers rate and review photography-related venues and locations? We can explain the best shooting angles, best time of day for lighting, if it’s indoor for sports: where the power outlets are at a specific gym or arena or wedding venue, who the contact people are…you get the idea. With that, I had each student sign up for a Google Hotpot account and add me (jeff@jeffhinds.com) and we can all rate and review places and share them with each other. Such an awesome idea!!!

Now, after the students signed up for Hotpot, they had some ambient shooting time on day one, and after they could see the extreme challenge of stopping action, it was time to set up the arena strobes and get them each some shooting time “on the lights”. We started day 2 with a quick setup and I showed each student how to set up and aim the lights correctly, while being safe for the players and spectators. Again, we reviewed the settings for the camera, and each student got 5 full minutes of clock time to shoot on the lights, per each game (remember there were 2 games per day, women’s and mens). The games progressed and the students got a ton of shooting time and a ton of photos taken…everyone had a great time at the games!

Ok, now on to day 3. I wanted to wait a full week to give the students time to edit and submit their top images per each awards category. Once all the images from each student were submitted during the week, I made my choices and we met back in class on day 3. Without further adieu, here are the winners for each category! CONGRATS TO ALL WINNERS!!

FIRST PLACE: Best Sports Photo, Ambient Lighting:

Image Copyright: Devin Courtright

Second Place: Best Sports Photo, Ambient Lighting:

Third Place: Best Sports Photo, Ambient Lighting:

FIRST PLACE: Best Sports Photo, Arena Lighting:

Second Place: Best Sports Photo, Arena Lighting:

Third Place: Best Sports Photo, Arena Lighting:

FIRST PLACE: Best Sports Detail:

Second Place: Best Sports Detail:

Third Place: Best Sports Detail:

FIRST PLACE: Best Celebration/Emotion:

Second Place: Best Celebration/Emotion:

Third Place: Best Celebration/Emotion:

Again, CONGRATS to all the winners!!!

Here’s our group photo!

1st Annual JHSP Sports Workshop 2011

For info on future workshops or to add Jeff on Google Hotpot, contact via jeff@jeffhinds.com.

I’ll leave the blog post with a few of my best images taken during the workshop, enjoy!

Frozen Mud

jeffhinds — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 06:32:17 +0000

This week’s keyword phrase for the students in my DP250 lighting class was “freeze the motion”. I wanted the students to capture an image in which the subject was moving and they had to use a fast shutter speed to stop that motion.

My opportunity to photograph some action happened this past weekend as I attended the co-driving school at Paul Eklund’s Primitive Performance rally driving school. On Sunday October 10th, 2010, (10-10-10 is the now infamous date), I shot the morning session of the SCCA and Oregon Rally Group, Rallycross!

Here are a few images I captured to freeze that action. (Camera settings: Canon EOS 1-D Mark2n. 400 ISO. 1/1250th @ f/4.0. Auto White Balance. Images captured RAW, post processing included: sharpen, saturation, cropping for web, name credit.

Oregon Rally Group, Rallycross. October, 10, 2010. Hillsboro, OR. Paul Eklund's Primitive Performance Rally School

Location Sportraits

jeffhinds — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 06:05:24 +0000

This week I am teaching sports and action photography in my lighting class…..right up my alley and it’s gonna be a fun week!!!

We started monday’s class on location at the Mt. Hood softball field to demo a lighting setup for location sports portraits, or “sportraits” as I call them. I arranged to have 2 players, Amanda and Kendra, to meet me and the class for a quick portrait session in the dugouts. The assignment for the students is to create a portrait of a sports player, someone they do not know, in their respective environment, using a 3 light setup. Can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Here’s a few I took for the softball lighting demo:

Mt. Hood Softball, Location sportrait shoot

Blazers: Fan Fest

jeffhinds — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:42:32 +0000

This past friday, October 1st, was the 2010-2011 season kickoff event for the Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden. The Wells Fargo Fan Fest is an in-arena scrimmage/practise between the Blazer players, open to fans to give them a preview of the season. Rookies and veterans put on a great show, sign autographs, and meet and greet with the fans.

This will be my 10th season shooting sponsorship and promotion photography for the team and the job just keeps getting better and more exciting as the years go by. Here’s a recap of photos I took during the 2010 Fan Fest!

Blazers Fan Fest 1

Blazers Fan Fest 2

Blazers Fan Fest 3

Blazers Fan Fest 4

Blazers Fan Fest 5

Blazers Fan Fest 6

Blazers Fan Fest 7

Blazers Fan Fest 8

Blazers Fan Fest 9

Blazers Fan Fest 10

Blazers Fan Fest 11

Blazers Fan Fest 12

Blazers Fan Fest 13

Blazers Fan Fest 14

Blazers Fan Fest 15

Blazers Fan Fest 16

Blazers Fan Fest 17

Blazers Fan Fest 18

Blazers Fan Fest 19

Blazers Fan Fest 20

Blazers Fan Fest 21

Blazers Fan Fest 22

Blazers Fan Fest 23

Blazers Fan Fest 24

Inspiration: quads.

jeffhinds — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:06:32 +0000

When I need to clear my head for a weekend, i ride…..well, now before i sold my quad i did. Anywho, check out my “killer quad clips” of 07-08. LOL, I couldn’t resist. This will waste a couple minutes of your time. hehehehehehe

…and if that wasn’t enough drama…..click HERE for part 2 over on Vimeo….

Inspired by Rally!

jeffhinds — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:59:12 +0000

Now some of you know that I have been following rally and rallycross for almost 2 years now. It all started with an invite to shoot the Oregon Trail events at PIR in March of 2009 when I was fortunate to get to ride around the track with Rally driver, Pat Moro:

After my pre-stage ride with Pat, I returned the next day and went out on the course to shoot the first stages of the day. Here’s a video from my first shooting location:

The weekend ended and I shot some awesome images, including this one which hangs in my office as a 20×30:

Travis Pastrana, Oregon Trail Rally, 2009

That Christmas I was surprised, by Brenda, with a certificate to attend Paul Eklund’s Primitive Performance Rally School in Hillsboro, OR in March 2010. I attended the weekend school with my friend Kevin and of course shot pix and videos when I wasn’t in the car. Needless to say I was hooked!

Here’s a video of one of my practice runs during the school:

…and a couple photos of me driving and with the car:

So, after rally school in March 2010 I attended most of the local rally events and the Oregon Trail Rally. I’ve met a ton of awesome people and there are future plans for me to rally for many years to come (stay tuned for exciting news on that).

For now, here’s something that I shared a while back with a link on facebook. This video will surely get your blood pumping, and it’s a true taste of what stage rally is all about! Enjoy my rally Inspiration!

Inspiration

jeffhinds — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:39:25 +0000

This week’s blog assignment/keyword for the MHCCIM Students is: Inspiration. For me, I had to think a lot about this one and how I could relate it to a photograph. I’m inspired by quite a few things. Music always keeps me going no matter what I am doing. Other photographers images can be an inspiration….seeing how they view an image and how they choose to light it. Just the challenge itself of creating and lighting a portrait can inspire me. I think one of the very first things that inspired me to pursue photography in the first place was sports, action, and being up close at events to try an capture the moment of impact or winning goal.

Lately, I think what’s been keeping me going is in fact, lighting. Controlling light can be inspirational. Seeing how modifiers work, and using them to create an image is an undescribable feeling, especially when it’s an emotional wedding image or picture of the winning team.

I’m still thinking about what else inspires me but for now here are a few images I’ve taken that have inspired me to keep shooting.

Sunset Sailboat In Jamaica

Light Painting

Swimming Action

Jenny & TJ's first dance

Hawthorne Bridge

Subaru Rally Cars!

Olympic Rings

jeffhinds — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 06:06:58 +0000

June 26, 2001. In the weeks following my graduation of the Mt. Hood Professional Photography program, I signed up for the Rich Clarkson Sports Photography Workshop in Colorado Springs, CO. I teamed up with a photographer friend, Jeff Miller for the trip. The Workshop “provides participants with an opportunity to listen to, study with, and network with the very individuals who are uniquely positioned to help with career development. Included in the instructional sessions will be lectures on remote camera installations, large arena lighting, and the business of freelance sports photography”. This was exactly what I needed to give a great kick start to my photography career just out of my college training!

I did return to the workshop again in 2007 with photographer Chris Ryan for another round of hands-on training and the opportunity to network with some of the best sports photographers in the nation. The highlight of trip #2 was an arena lighting session at the Olympic Training Center swimming pool with Sports Illustrated photographer, John McDonough (John’s SI gallery here).

Here’s a photo of me in the Olympic Rings at the training center (also counts as a circle photo for this weeks assignment!)

Jeff Hinds in 2001 with Olympic Rings

Firewood Circles

jeffhinds — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 02:13:47 +0000

Today was mainly a chill day and work-around-the-house day. With that, I cut some firewood for the fire pit and…viola….found some circles for the class assignment! Both images taken with my Blackberry…

Firewood Circles 1

Firewood Circles 2

Circles, Assignment 1

jeffhinds — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 04:38:02 +0000

This first week of class Justin & I have assigned the students to create a blog page. Along with that page they need 2 separate updates, both containing circles. We put no limits on the content, how many, etc…..we just want them to concentrate on photography and always be thinking photography. I posted my first few circles in the post: “Class is in Session“. Now here are 2 more images, one from today, one from a recent trip to California Adventure, both were taken with my Blackberry:

Circles on the Subaru Dash

Circles at California Adventure