DAMON TARVER

Just Shoot Baby!

2011-11-28T13:16:00.001-08:00

Well, no disrespect to the late Al Davis, but he has a point. "Just win baby" may be his legacy, but the message is one we call all benefit from. As it just so happens, the last Raiders game that I covered, I was cruising the sidelines pregame complaining to myself how much I HATE shooting pregame. I was just telling myself I should go sit down until the game started when I saw Cleveland Browns runningback Payton Hillis stretching in front of me. I will freely admit I didn't know much about him, but I did remember he was on the cover of the Madden video game this year. He wasn't really doing anything, and I figured I would get some killer action shots of him during the game, so I was about to walk on by. Then I told myself to "Just Shoot Baby!", so I quickly raised my camera and had just enough time to fire off two frames.

It turns out Hillis was recovering from an injury, and after about one series re-injured himself and was out of the game. So much for my killer action shots. Later as I was going through the pictures, cursing his injury, I was about to delete the two shots of him I did take as they were pretty lame shots by my eye, but remembering my older post about uploading everything, I went ahead and uploaded the shots.

Well, It seems Hillis hasn't played since that game. And one of the "lame" shots I took of him seems to keep popping up all over the place. It has been used many times on SI.com and a couple of other sites. Mostly on a fantasy football injury report, but hey, it still pays. So in addition to telling myself to upload EVERYTHING, I now remind myself that pre,during, and post game, to just shoot baby!

Payton Hillis in his last game vs. Oakland prior to re-injuring himself

SF 49ers vs. NY Giants

2011-11-14T16:22:00.001-08:00

So This weekend I covered Stanford-Oregon (post to come) on Saturday night, then followed that up with 49ers-Giants on Sunday. I felt like I did a good job last week with the Raiders game, and was really looking forward to this weekend. Long story short, a difficult Stanford game left me tired and out of sorts for Sundays game and I really feel like I blew it.

I think this shot pretty much sums up my weekend, Close, but just milliseconds away from a decent shot! Mario Manningham hauls in a touchdown pass.Meanwhile I get a great shot of the ball...

The game itself turned into a good one with an exciting finish. The Giants converted 2 fourth downs and came literally this close to tying the game!

Alex Smith continues to impress and played a largely mistake free game.

Runningback Frank Gore sustained an injury and left the game pretty early.

Gores counterpart Brandon Jacobs is quite a physical specimen, but was largely held in check by the 49er defense.

Eli Manning looked pretty good, but a costly interception that led to a 49er touchdown proved to be the difference in the game.

All in all, it was a good game, and I hope to rebound my next assignment and get some shots I really feel good about.

2011-11-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

So I managed to cover the Raiders-Broncos game without getting sick. The rain never materialized and it turned out to be a pretty nice day to shoot. The story going into the game was the quarterbacks. Carson Palmer vs. Tim tebow. I know Tebow gets a lot of crap, but I like the kid. Palmer looked like the same average QB that he was in Cincy. I am not sure that the Raiders didn't over pay for him, we will see. I was quite happy with some of the pictures I got, but I seemed to be the only one!

Receiver Eric Decker makes a diving touchdown catch.

Lamarr Houston celebrates a sac.

Jacoby ford gets the ball knocked loose after a big catch.

Tim Tebow during warmups.

Carson Palmer in action.

Sharks vs. Penguins

2011-11-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start sharing my recent event photos on my blog, then post a link from Facebook. I want to get better SEO for my name and my website, and I am told this is one way to do it! So here goes my latest event, the San Jose Sharks took on the Pittsburgh Penguins at HP.

Before the game, the Sharks honored "Jumbo" Joe Thornton for playing in 1,000 games and scoring 1,000 points. His Mom, Dad, Brother, Wife, and Daughter were in attendance.

The Sharks were in need of a home win, and things started out poorly for the Sharks! Neimi gave up two goals in just over two minutes! But Greiss came in and saved the day.

Clowe was sporting a black eye after this one, but it seemed to fire him up!

The Penguins Evgeni Malkin seemed unstoppable early, but Douglas Murray found a way to slow him down.

The real story of this game though was Greiss. He was great in goal tonight.

Sports Photography, Photojournalism and Perfectionism.

2011-08-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

I started my journey to being a photographer about 7 years ago. I didn't study photojournalism in college or even take a photography class. I bought a digital SLR camera to take better pictures of my young daughters and a love affair was born almost overnight. Soon after my passion for sports photography took over and has held me captive every since. I "learned" my craft mostly online, with the help of a number of great online photography forums. I learned the importance of clean backgrounds, tight cropping, sharp subjects, and most of all, peak action! Catching a play at the peak of the action became my mission. My obsession. And while on this path, I also became a bit of a perfectionist. If my photos didn't meet these all important criteria, well, it just didn't make the cut.

A few years ago, I started shooting for a wire service. One of the smaller ones, but that didn't matter, I was in. I had made it. Validation. I was finally and truly a sports photographer. And as a sports photographer, I really didn't consider myself a photojournalist. I mean, I wasn't taking pictures of burning buildings, protest, riots, or mayors. My only concern was backgrounds, shallow depth of field, sharp subjects, and above all, peak action.

Over the years I slowly began to learn that these things were not the holy grail of sports photography I had learned on these forums. I sell more non action photos now than anything else, and when I first started out I didn't even take any of those shots. My learning continues to this day and my latest lesson is one that may shake me to my core.

I realize now that any time I pick up my camera and cover an event, be it a sporting event, or concert, or yes, a burning building, I AM a photojournalist. Something happened to me this week that made me realize that I need to start thinking differently.

I was covering a preseason NFL game between the SF 49ers and the Oakland Raiders. If any of you have ever covered preseason football, you know how boring it can be. Many of the starting players will play just a series or two, and most of the game is played with players who will be cut and out of the NFL in just a few short weeks, making all of the pictures you are taking worthless. But as I diligently snapped away trying to get what little action there was, or some worthwhile player stock pictures, I noticed that there seemed to be a larger number of alcohol induced fighting going on in the stands. As a sports photographer, I rarely even looked into the stands because the peak action was to be found on the field. But in one instance, the fight was pretty close to me, and since the game was pretty boring, I turned around and snapped a few pictures. I then went back to the task at hand and finished the game.

In my editing workflow, I always go through every picture that I took at a game, and flag the ones that I want to edit and upload to the wire. I came across the fight pictures, chuckled to myself at how silly grown men could be, then kept going. The thought of editing and publishing these pictures never crossed my mind. The next day when I picked up the newspaper, I saw that a picture of this very fight was on the front page. Not the front of the sports section, but the front page. Over the next couple of days, I noticed that the pictures of that fight were everywhere! At that moment, the sick feeling of regret began to creep over me. Why hadn't I uploaded my pictures of the fight to my wire service? And it hit me. Perfectionism, and photojournalism...

When I looked at my fight pictures, I decided not to upload them because of:

1. Photojournalism - I am covering this game to get action shots of players and coaches, not drunks in the stands. I am a sports photographer, not a photojournalist. I felt that shots of a brawl in the stands had no value and that no one was interested in them.

2. Perfectionism - I barely registered it at the time, but when taking my pictures of the brawl, someone had walked into my frame and the shadow of their head could be seen in the corner of my shots. On a barely conscious level, I deemed the shot ruined. No one wants this kind of stuff to begin with, and certainly not with some guys head in my shot. I only realized this because the shot on page 1 of the paper had a nearly identical issue in the opposite corner, and yet there it was on the front page of the paper.

After seeing the pictures of the brawl almost everywhere, I came to my senses up and uploaded the shots to the wire. More importantly though, I realized that I am indeed a photojournalist every time I cover an event, sports or otherwise. I now know that my personal feelings and perfectionist hang ups have no place in deciding what is newsworthy. So now all shots go to the wire and the publications can decide what is fit to print.

Want to spice up your photos, add a pinch of fog...

2011-01-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

I woke up the other morning to a foggy day in San Jose. I grabbed my camera and went a took a few shots. It still amazes me how just a little bit of fog can take what would be a fairly boring shot and give it some mystery and drama.

My new website is up!

2010-09-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

It's finally here! After a technical problem brought down my old website, I used it as an opportunity to change a few things. I am pleased to announce that I am officially back on the air, with a new website. Check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.dtarverphotography.com/

"Shooting" a game!

2010-08-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

So I got an unexpected call yesterday from my friend Dr. Robert Malonso asking me if I wanted to go to the Giants game. It was an outing for his office staff, and he had an extra ticket. After a brief check of my calendar, I said I was in. Then it hit me. I had not been to a Giants game "as a fan", not shooting) in almost 2 years. This should be fun! But at the appointed hour, I found I couldn't just leave my camera at home, and decided to "shoot the game" as a fan. Now THIS should be fun! So I grabbed my trusty 1D MarkII and waited for Rob to pick me up.

After a printing SNAFU, Dr. Rob arrived almost 45 mins later than intended. Here he is pulling into my driveway.

Due to being late, the original plan to ride the train was now out the window, so we picked up Rolando and Rodger at the train station and hit the freeway.

I think Rob was a little frazzled, but we made pretty good time and he seemed to calm down.

At least the accident wasn't on our side of the freeway!

No train means we had to park, but we found a cheap lot not too far from the yard, so we parked and hiked in.

Normally when I shoot a game, I don't walk around the ballpark much. As we arrived and headed towards will call, we passed a few of the beautiful statues and features of the ballpark.

Here is Rob and Rodger at the will call window. Due to his tickets not printing at home, we had to go to will call and pick them up. Only, not this will call! Of course we need to go to the one clear on the other side of the stadium!

Here is Rob waiting at Will call booth #2. This time we get the tickets and head on in! Only about 5 mins late.

Here is something I have never done in all my time at AT&T park! Hit the concession stand. I can't believe I of all people have never done this, but I never had at AT&T.

And I can officially say I have been missing out! I may have to stop shooting a little early next game and make my way up and grab another one of these excellent Kielbasa's.

What the... I guess it pays to be on time.

Finally, in our seats! VB317. A little high, but we had a GREAT view of the action, and it really wan't very cold.

I normally catch the game from down there. There is my friend and fellow photog Tony Medina shooting away.

Dr. Rob enjoying his Kielbasa.

The Panda fans were out in force. I can see the advantage of those hats on a cold day, but even though I like Pablo, I think they are more than a little stupid. Shhh....

All in all, I had a great time. It really reminded me how much I enjoy just watching baseball, and I want to thank Dr. Rob for the invite. It was a blast.

Signature Series Pricing!

2010-02-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

It dawned on me after several request that I never published the pricing on the signature series! If you recall, I am releasing 3 prints per quarter for 2010, the first three of which are on sale now. I am only releasing 100 of each print, then they will never be sold again. Each is signed and numbered by the artist (me!). The price is $175 for a signed, numbered 11x17 print in a 16x20 frame. REMEMBER, the first 10 of each print I am offering $50 off, so act fast!

I will update each day with some information behind the pictures. A behind the scenes look at how and why they were captured. Stay tuned!

Announcing the 2010 Signature Series Fine Art Photography Collection

2010-02-05T11:03:00.000-08:00

It's finally here! D. Tarver Photography is announcing the 2010 Signature Series Fine Art Photography Collection. Each Quarter, I will release 3 photos following the 2010 theme, "The Elements". For Q1, the theme is "Fire and Water". I will sell only 100 of each print. Each framed print comes signed, and numbered.

Remember, once the 100 are gone, these will never be offered for sale again. The First 10 sold of each framed print will receive $50 off. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

At Long last, I Am Project #4! Dr. Derenzi

2009-12-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long Delay! #4 is finally up! Remember, if you want to be #5, please let me know!

I Am Project #3: Dr. Robert Malonso - General Dentist

2009-10-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

I Am Project #2: Tony King - Teacher

2009-10-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

The "I Am" Project is officially kicked off!

2009-09-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

The first slide show of the "I Am" project is up for all to view. A big thank you to my subject this week, Kathleen DeManti, pastry chef extraordinaire! Look for another show next week.

Thank you, and enjoy!

I'm Back!

2009-09-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I never really went anywhere, but I have been WAY to lazy on updating my blog. But I am set to kick off my "I Am" project this week, so I should have updates at least weekly, hopefully a little more often.

If you work in a cool or unique profession, or are interestd in getting a portrait taken, shoot me an email. Look for an update in a day or two, and take care until then.

Published! (again)

2009-06-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

It still remains a thrill for me to see my work published. (OK, and I can use the money!) Picked up a 1 pager in the Sporting News NFL 09 preview magazine. A shot I took at a Raiders game last year of stand out cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. (see below).

I also got a smaller shot of Matt Holliday of the A's published. Much smaller, and its in the fold, but hey, its a few bucks!

I hope I can keep it going!

Back to editing!

2009-06-08T15:08:00.001-07:00

After a fun filled weekend of shooting, its back to the computer to finish my editing work! I was out in Los Gatos on Saturday shooting youth Soccer, and in Oakland on Sunday shooting the A's (who are very hot right now winning their 6th in a row). Having shot the A's quite a few times this season, I tried to spend some shooting things a little differently. I didn't want to capture the same old images I have shot 100's of times. I really wanted to capture moments that the fan rarely gets to see. I wanted to capture the game up close, and personal.

Jason Giambi in between pitches

Rookie Pitcher Vin Mazzaro prepares to make his second start, and gets advice from catcher Kurt Suzuki.

Orioles third baseman Melvin Mora tries to haul in a pop fly

Well, my time in the sun is over for now. Back to the computer. Until next time.

I don't want to be a chicken!

2009-06-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

As much as I love what I do, I have to admit that all of the editing can get quite tedious. Luckily, I am all finished with the wedding pictures, and I have moved on the the Matsumoto PTA sponsored performance of Charlotte's Web. I took quick portraits of the entire cast, and just a couple of shots of the dress rehearsal. Here is my daughter as one of the goslings. Her performance of "I don't want to be a chicken" is sure to rock the house!

Here is Wilbur telling the world how much he wants to live!

I think it is important to be involved and give back to the community, and what better way than to support the PTA of my daughters school. I'll check in tomorrow with a preview of whats on tap for this weekend.

Editing, editing, and more editing!

2009-06-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

One of the the things that I feel separate my photographs from the masses, is the careful attention I pay to every photo. Of course that means editing, editing, and more editing. I am currently working my way through First Holy Communion pictures...

Little League Baseball...

Wedding Pictures

And a few others. I think it is critical to present clients with the best images possible, and post processing is a part of the equation. See you when I come up for air!

Welcome (Back).

2009-06-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Blog. As you poke around, you will see what started largely as a tutorial type blog, has morphed into more of a "What am I up to now?" type of blog. Check back here to see what things I am up to, what I have been shooting, and what is next for me.

So Welcome (back), check back often, and God Bless.

Oh, and if you need some portraits taken, or events, weddings, engagements, High School Senior, First Communion, or anything else you can think of, just let me know!

Damon

Lesson 1c. Backgrounds

2007-10-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

Another important aspect of sports photography is backgrounds. Though you can not always control where you get to shoot from, and as I stated in my last lesson the position of the sun has to be considered as well, you always want to try and shoot from the spot that gives you the cleanest backgrounds. Also, shooting sports is usually done at the lowest possible apertures to get the most background blur. Most sports photographers live at or around f/2.8 or lower whenever possible. The right combo of clean backgrounds and low apertures give sports shots that unique look.

What I mean by clean is a background that is relatively free of objects that can distract the viewer from the subject of a picture, or compete for the viewers eye. Here is a shot with one of the worst backgrounds you could get.

The row of porto-potties is distracting, and not a very pleasing aesthetic. Clever cropping can sometimes help, but generally you would want to re-position yourself so that the potties are out of the picture!

As I mentioned earlier, shooting around the lowest aperture possible helps with backgrounds as well. Lower apertures can really blur out a background making the subject of the picture really stand out. Shooting at higher apertures can cause the background to remain in focus and be distracting to the viewer.

Here is a shot taken at f/7.0 As you can see, the background has remained in fairly sharp focus, making the shot very busy and distracting.

Shooting with a low aperture is not always enough to guarantee a good background blur. The distance between you, your subject, and the background plays an important role as well.

In the above diagram, we see a photographer, and subjects at different distances from the photographer and the background. At a suitable low aperture, Object A is in a relatively good spot. Object A is relatively close to the photographer, and relatively far from the background. Here is the typical result of this scenario.

Though there is a lot going on in the background, because it is so far from the subject, the low aperture has blurred it out and it is not very distracting.

In the diagram, the photographer is a lot further away from Object B. Object B is also a lot closer to the background. When this happens, even a low aperture can not save you from a background in focus, and a distracting picture. Here is an example. This shot was taken at f/2.8, but the background is still in focus.

The receiver was across the field, so about 50 to 60 yards away from the photographer, but only about 10 yards in front of the players on the far sideline. There is nothing you can do in this scenario, other than possibly re-positioning yourself.

So, to re-cap; after taking the direction of the action, and the position of the sun into account, you now want to try and pick a spot that gives you the cleanest backgrounds possible. Shooting at a low aperture, and a clean background give the sports subject the isolation and full attention of the viewer.

Lesson 1b. Position of the Sun

2007-10-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, the position of the sun can help determine the best place to shoot from when shooting outdoors.

Ideally, whenever you can, you want to put the sun at your back. This will typically put the most even light on your subject. See the below diagram.

As you see, position A has the sun behind, and is throwing the most light on a subject moving towards the position. Here is an example of a shot with the sun at your back and the subject moving towards you.

Now position B (Side lit) is not necessarily bad, but has a chance of putting a shadow over half your subject if the subject is moving towards you. Proper exposure can help, but if not exposed correctly you could end up with something like this.

Now, position C (back lit) can be one of the most challenging lighting situations to deal with outdoors. Shooting back lit can wreak havoc on exposure, and if not dealt with properly, the results can be less than desirable. Here is a typical example of what the camera likes to do when shooting back lit.

As you can see, the subject is very underexposed. When you shoot with the correct subject exposure, you tend to get something a little more like this.

Even with the proper manual exposure for the subject, I am not a fan of shooting back lit. The entire photo looks washed out and over bright. Sometimes you cant help where you have to shoot from, so learning to deal with proper exposure when shooting back lit is essential, but I recommend avoiding it whenever possible.

Next time I will cover backgrounds, and how to get the best and cleanest backgrounds.

lesson 1a. Where to stand

2007-10-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

So, you have checked, and re-checked your camera settings. You have made sure your battery is charged, and you have plenty of compact flash (or SD, or whatever your camera takes) So now you want to know, where should I stand/sit?

Many venues have rules on where you are allowed to position yourself during play. The higher level the sport, the more rules and restrictions there are usually. But there are places to position yourself to get the most out of your shoot. If you are shooting for a specific team, this makes things a lot easier. Generally, you want to put yourself in a corner or in the end that your team is attacking.
As the team you are shooting is attacking to the right, positioning yourself in the corner or end will assure you the maximum amount of faces towards the camera and the most action. Shooting from the end, down the Field, also has the added benefit of reducing undesirable backgrounds.

Here is a shot from the corner of the soccer field shooting all the way across the field diagonally.

Because of the distance between the subjects and the background, shooting down the field has taken what would normally be a distracting background, and blurred it out quite nicely.

One other point I want to make. It seems obvious, but I want to stress positioning yourself in the direction your team is coming towards. Once the action is moving away from you, your shots become FAR less effective.

As you can see, the back shot is far less compelling.

Next time, I want to dig a little deeper into backgrounds, and how distance between you, the subject, and the background can dramatically change the effect of the picture. Also, how the position of the sun can help determine the best spot to shot from. Till next time...

Prologue: Pre shoot basics

2007-10-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to my blog, Sports Photography Basics.

I've wanted to do a blog for a long time, but I could never think of anything I considered worth my time writing, and your time reading. But while helping a friend who recently has gotten into sports photography, I decided to start this blog on sports photography basics.

Writing these tips down helps me to reinforce the concepts, and hopefully can help the new sports photographer pick up some tips as well. This blog will assume the reader has basic photography knowledge, and is familiar with basic photography terms.

Entry One I will call the prologue. The basic, basics of sports photography.

Before any shoot, whether indoor or outdoor, daylight or low light, I would always recommend you check, then double check all of your camera settings.

First, ISO. Many cameras do not display ISO information in the viewfinder, and if you shoot say a night football game on a Friday night, and then a Saturday matinee, it is easy to forget to change the to the appropriate ISO. A clue may be getting extremely high shutter speeds, even for daylight. 1/8000 shutter speeds can be a clue that you are at a high ISO and the ISO needs to be checked.

Another setting that could be a problem is White balance. I have set a custom white balance for basketball in a gym, then went to shoot football during the day without changing the white balance. I happened to pick that day to not shoot RAW (I will cover RAW in a later entry) so I spent a LOT of unnecessary Photoshop time tyring to make my images usable!

So the first thing I do before any shoot is check and double check my settings, ISO, white balance, battery life, compact flash... checking everything over gets you ready to have a great shoot!