| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2008-03-10
Awards handed out at Sports Shooter Academy V
Daniel Berman wins best student portfolio; Willie Allen Jr. wins best pro portfolio
By Robert Hanashiro, Sports Shooter
Photo by Daniel Berman
BEST STUDENT PORTFOLIO WINNER: Images from Daniel Berman's winning student portfolio at Sports Shooter Academy V.
|
Daniel Berman was the big winner Sunday as Sports Shooter Academy V wrapped up in Southern California, winning photo of the day for Saturday and taking home best student portfolio honors.
Other winners were Jesse Smith for photo of the day for Friday and Willie Allen Jr.'s portfolio was selected as tops among the professionals participating in the workshop.
Berman, a sophomore at Shoreline Community College in Washington, was out of the workroom checking out of the hotel when his name was called as the top student portfolio. He walked into the room to a big ovation a minute later confused as to what the applause was for.
"Sweet!" was his first words when told of winning the awards.
"I'm very much in shock," he admitted later.
"He had the most creative photos that we've seen," said SSA V faculty member Wally Skalij from the Los Angeles Times. "His portfolio is very well rounded and definitely stands out."
Allen, a staff photographer at the St. Petersburg Times, said he wanted to be a photographer since he was 10-years-old. While a student at San Francisco State he won Sports Shooter 2001 student portfolio of the year, which was his first award in photography.
"Every day he was close on photo of the day but even though he didn't win that he has the sum collection," said faculty member Sean Haffey from the San Diego Union-Tribune. "His portfolio has nice peak action and nice light with different angles and lenses. He's shot images with great light and emotion."
"The first day I came here I wanted to make photos that would 'wow' me, Allen said. "I wanted to surprise myself. I'm a staff photographer and day after day we tend to do things that are a little mundane. At the Sports Shooter Academy I left my safety zone."
"I learned more about shooting baseball in 30 seconds talking to (instructor) Mike Goulding than I have in years of shooting it. He (Goulding) told me about the all the photos you can make from the third base line. He told me about shooting the second base line, using parallel lines, and keeping an eye on the catcher to get him coming out at you," Allen said.
Berman's Saturday best photo winner "Collapsed Runner" shows a runner laying on the track with the lane lines and blocks in the foreground, creating a mood of isolation.
Photo by Willie Allen Jr.
BEST PRO PORTFOLIO WINNER: Images from Willie Allen Jr.'s winning portfolio at Sports Shooter Academy V.
|
"Basically I was standing there talking to Wally (Skalij) when I happened to look to my left and saw her collapse. She fell and I ran over where she was. She only stayed on the track for a little bit and that's the picture. She stayed there for a couple seconds, then just got up, brushed herself off, and walked away," said Berman.
Smith's winner from Friday's events shows an outfielder horizontal to the ground as she misses fielding the ball. "She was in right field and I was in the left field stands shooting with a 400 2.8," he said. "There were 5 or 6 frames in this sequence but I chose this one because she was all spread out and it looked much better than the other frames."
"I saw it coming and I was waiting for it. I went to the stands because I wanted to get a good photo of somebody sliding or diving. Up there, I was so far back that I had time to think about it as the catch was happening," Smith said.
Smith, a contract photographer with The Chronicle in Centralia, WA, has been shooting for four years.
Other awards made during the closing session at the Sports Shooter Academy V include:
Chris Detrick Hustle Award:
Sam Hodgson, voiceofsandiego.org, San Diego, CA
Jack Gruber Teamwork Award:
Justin Edmonds, student, University of Denver, Denver, CO
Brandon Iwamoto, student, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Michael Sasser, student, University of Denver, Denver, CO
Sports Shooter Traveler Award:
Catherine Mead, staff photographer, South West News Service, South Wales, United Kingdom
Photo by Jesse Smith
BEST PHOTO OF THE DAY FROM FRIDAY: Rutgers' Christine Royland dives for a pop fly but comes up short.
|
Sports Shooter Academy Spirit Award:
George and Melissa Macatee, Dallas, TX
John and Joy Abslon, Centreville, VA
Jenn Jedynak, Cache Bay, ON, Canada
The Sports Shooter faculty also included Southern California freelance photographer Matt Brown, Myung Chun from the Los Angeles Times, Donald
Miralle of Getty Images. The workshop staff was comprised of Jordan Murph, Crystal Chatham, Susánica Tam and Eugene Tanner.
Supporting the workshop were: Samy's Camera, Canon USA and Think Tank Photo. AquaTech and Dyna-Lite also provided loaner equipment for participants to use.
"We went into this workshop preplanning our strategy," said Edmonds, "We knew there'd be a ton of people here with a ton of gear so we thought about it and bought everything we'd need to hardwire remotes. We shared time using all the remotes by splitting it up during the events so all three of us got a chance to shoot on multiple setups."
The trio of students from Colorado used small two-way radios during events to keep in contact with each other to plan and switch off on shooting with remotes. "We had two remotes at basketball and a camera in hand on the floor so we had three total angles. We swapped out lenses and long glass with each other throughout the game. "We had enough gear for each of us to have a transmitter to fire the remotes during baseball and we each just switched our Pocket Wizard on and off every inning," Edmonds added.
For Mead, many of the sports on the workshop schedule were totally foreign to her, having never seen baseball, basketball, water polo, or volleyball.
"To be honest, I just took advise from the other photographers. These pictures don't get published in our papers because they're not our sports. Because of that I've never even seen what makes a good picture for these events," Mead said at the conclusion of the workshop, "It was eye-opening to shoot alongside 50 Americans and see how you guys work. It's very different than how we work back home."
"The Sports Shooter Academy was definitely challenging. I'm a portrait and news photographer, not a sport photographer which is why I came. I'm trying to become more well rounded. I'll come again next time if I can," Mead said.
Even stranger to Mead were some of the customs and traditions that American photographers take for granted, like the playing of the national anthem before the start of events. "That was quite intense. We don't really do that. I realized it was your anthem when I saw people putting their hands over their hearts. It was an odd moment for me.
Photo by Daniel Berman
BEST PHOTO OF THE DAY FROM SATURDAY: A runner lays on the track after falling during a relay race at the Ben Brown Invitational Track meet at Mount San Antonio College Saturday March 8, 2008.
|
"What's the deal with baseball people hitting each others' bums and spitting constantly? I've been needing to ask someone here about that."
The Sports Shooter Academy gives participants an opportunity to cover NCAA Division I sports through the cooperation of the Big West Conference and members schools Cal State Fullerton, U.C. Irvine and Long Beach State. Other sports on the SSA V schedule included beach volleyball and boxing. Classroom session topics ranged from remotes to various portrait light techniques to digital workflow.
"I just wanted to come to the Sports Shooter Academy to get better," said Allen. "Here, I've learned from mentors that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. At home, I'll take everything they taught me and twist it to make it mine."
"What a huge difference from day one to day three," said Skalij during the closing session. "You're all seeing better and cropping better. Go back and keep shooting and grow as photographers."
Added Goulding, "You came here to look for fresh pictures. Keep looking for fresh pictures. Keep seeing and growing."
Myung Chun concluded by saying: "Go home and get the safe shot for your publications and then shoot for yourself too. Don't be afraid to experiment. Shoot outside the box and have fun with it."
Asked about what he is taking away from the workshop, Sasser said: "I'm paying more attention to my backgrounds, finding more angles to shoot from and doing more preplanning. It helped to see what other people were shooting and then just cancel that option. By pushing myself away from their spots I was ultimately just challenging myself.
"It was nice to see everyone shooting where they were because they were in places I never would have thought of. It was nice to see what everyone was coming up with. I liked having the instructors at events too because I'd find a place to shoot and then get some advice on shooting the equipment I was working with. They told me to just relax and back up a bit," Sasser said.
(Crystal Chatham contributed to this story.)
Related Links:
Sports Shooter Academy
Sports Shooter Academy V kicks off in Southern California
Shooting commences at Sports Shooter Academy V
Alexander wins Photo of the Day at Sports Shooter Academy V
|
|
|
Contents copyright 2008, SportsShooter.com. Do not republish without permission.
|