Beach volleyball action garners second 'Photo of the Day' at SSA IV

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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2007-04-08

Beach volleyball action garners second 'Photo of the Day' at SSA IV
By Crystal Chatham

Photo by Bob Ford

Photo of the Day: Janelle Ruen digs for the ball during a Beach Volleyball exhibition at California State University Long Beach while Jenn Snyder waits for the return.

Preparedness and quick thinking paid off for SportsShooter.com member Bob Ford while covering an AVP pro beach volleyball scrimmage on Friday, April 6, 2007.

Ford's image of Janelle Ruen diving for the ball was selected by Sports Shooter Academy IV faculty members as the workshop's second "Photo of the Day."

"It happened right in front of me. I turned for a couple seconds and had the right lens on when she just dove right there," said Ford, a Times News photographer from Leighton, Pennsylvania.

Ford shot the image hand held with a wide-angle lens while lying on the ground hanging over into the court's sandy beach.

"Normally in that situation I'd have a 400 in my hands," he said. "But I was hoping it would happen and put a wide (angle lens) on. At that point, I'd shot with a 400, an 80-200, and a lens baby, so I was just trying something different."

Faculty member and Los Angeles Times staff photographer Wally Skalij voted for the image though the competition was tough.

"It was really hard to decide, but the action was just too good to pass up," Skalij said Saturday.

"Everything was perfect: the light, the peak moment, she was off the sand, and the fact that it had the other player in it gives it another element that you don't get too often."

The image joins a sports feature from SportsShooter.com member Ikuru Kawajima which won the Academy’s daily award Thursday, April 5.

Sports Shooter Academy IV continues through Sunday, when one of the three daily winners will be named "Best Single Photograph" for the workshop and awarded a set of PocketWizard Plus courtesy of LPA Designs.

Sports Shooter Academy IV wraps final day of shooting

Just hours after completing their Friday evening critique session, more than 20 Sports Shooter Academy IV participants - running on less than four hours sleep - woke up to cover a collegiate rowing competition at sunrise on Saturday, April 7.

The Academy's final full day of shooting included a variety of traditional and non-traditional collegiate and club sports.

First-time crew shooter and SportsShooter.com member Nick Iwanyshyn from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada took advantage of both the action and feature opportunities during the race.

Photo by Crystal Chatham

SSA IV participant Bob Ford shows a photo to the Orange Coast College crew team during a collegiate crew competition in Newport Beach on Saturday.

"For action, it was hard to find something different from everyone else. I went down to the finish line to look for something there," said the Loyalist College photojournalism major.

Features were aplenty at the event, but shooting with so many photographers offered new challenges, he said.

"There were a bunch of features if you were working for them. I just didn't want the same shots as everyone else."

Back at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Irvine, Sports Shooter founder and USA Today staff photographer Robert Hanashiro led a demonstrative portrait class while photographing AVP pro beach volleyball player Logan Tom for the cover of Oblique magazine.

Community Newspaper Company staff photographer and SportsShooter.com member Shawn Lynch attended the session to pick up tips for using his own recently purchased lighting kit.

"It was a pretty simple set up and it was nice to see how the lights all worked together," said the Concord, Massachusetts shooter.

"I shoot a lot of portraits at work, so it's useful to go back with skill I can apply immediately."

In Newport Beach not far from the hotel, Academy participants had the opportunity to shoot noon rugby matches between two area club teams. Overcast lighting and tough backgrounds combined with the sport's fast pace provided a challenging assignment for workshop students.

"It (rugby) is a much faster game than football, but I felt a little more in my element because I shoot a lot of football and it was similar," said SportsShooter.com member Marilyn Indahl from Minneapolis, Minnesota who freelances for WireImage, Prep Sports Online, and Minnesota Score Magazine.

"I'm still going through my take now, but I got some stuff I'm happy with. It was a good way to end things."

Photo by Jordan Murph

SSA IV faculty member Jack Gruber critiques participant Natasha Chornesky loose edit on Friday night.

Saturday's shoots culminated three straight days of back-to-back shoots at the hands-on workshop. Early starts, full days, and late-night critiques push Academy participants to work efficiently and effectively while maintaining an ever-present awareness of nightly deadlines.

SSA's marathon schedule and deadlines mimic real-world experiences faculty members encounter on the job.

"This is the closest you're going to get to shooting the Olympics," said USA Today staff photographer and first-time faculty member Jack Gruber who has photographed five Olympic games to date.

"You're covering multiple events in a day and dealing with traffic and different real life situations that come up every day," he said. "And then you have to deal with editors and deadlines."

"You're working every day for 18 hours a day four days in a row. It's as close to the Olympics as you can get as a student - but with a little better access."

Sports Shooter Academy IV draws to a close on Sunday with final edits and critiques and followed by an awards brunch recognizing the best work of the Academy.

Related Links:

Awards handed out at Sports Shooter Academy IV

Ikuru Kawajima Wins First 'Photo of the Day' at Sports Shooter Academy IV

Sports Shooter Academy IV underway

Sports Shooter Academy

Bob Ford's member page