March Madness

Posted on by
Reply

Another March is upon us and unless you’ve been in a coma, recently returned from an outer space trip, or reside in Canada this means it’s March Madness. I’ve always been a huge basketball fan and I think the NCAA tournament brings out the best in our sports world. The whole tournament brings back the nostalgic feel of the League or County tournament in High School and the idea that anyone can win a championship by putting one good game after another until you’ve eliminated the competition. In the 64 team NCAA basketball tournament that means six wins and you’re parading around the floor of the Georgia Dome with your index finger aloft celebrating a NCAA title.

For a photographer the NCAA tournament is a tremendous opportunity to make photos. Lots of intensity, lots of angles, and in the case of the 2nd round of the tournament a lot of time spent on the court watching four games in one day with the trombone section of the State University operating over your shoulder.  As former Providence, Xavier, and Virginia coach Pete Gillen said to me in the elevator in Dayton last week, “I love basketball but four games in one day is a lot.” It is a long day but the challenge of creating something dynamic makes it for the most part worthwhile.

Unfortunately the 2nd round in Dayton didn’t produce an upset or a lot of photos with impact. Four games in a day is a challenge physically and I was a tired customer after arriving at the University of Dayton arena at 9:00am and finishing up the night after midnight. I was ready for bed and a good night’s sleep before tackling a couple of technical problems before Sunday’s 3rd round games.

My assistant in Dayton is a dear old friend John Stone. John has assisted for more than thirty years.  He is a steady hand and a calming influence during days that run pretty chaotic. Stonie kept me focused on the task at hand throughout the weekend with his Zen like calmness and complete attentiveness to the various remotes we operated around the building.

Our set up in Dayton was a bit different than in past years because we elected not to put in electronic flash units. The lighting was contrasty, spotty, and lacking in volume. Other than that it was fine. 3200 ISO? No problem with the new Canon EOS1-DX.  The files looked pretty good for that high an ISO. For remotes we did a couple of overhead cameras and a couple of low remotes, along with a side remote at basket level.

Sunday’s games were more competitive and as a result the photos were significantly better. Not world beaters. bit considerably better photos than the games on Friday. I think Sports Illustrated might have even published something if Temple had knocked off number one seed Indiana or Ohio State fell to Iowa State. But alas no upset happened in Dayton unless you consider a late March snowstorm an upset.

Interesting that before the NCAA’s in Dayton I photographed some NCAA Women’s Division II at Bentley College. From a pure emotional and intensity standpoint the photos from the final of that Regional tourney were superior to the NCAA Men’s tournament. Once again making a point that I tell people over and over that the photos are at every event not just the “big” games.

For all you gear people. In Dayton we used 3 Canon EOS1-Dx cameras, 4 Canon Mark IV cameras, and a single Mark III camera. For lenses we used a couple of Canon 16-35mm f2.8  zoom lenses and three Canon 70-200 f2.8 zoom lenses. Multi Max units did the triggering of the remotes.

A sampling below……………………

Ohio State and Iowa State battle it out on the boards in a NCAA 3rd round game in Dayton, Ohio.

Ohio State and Iowa State battle in out on the boards for a rebound during a 3rd round NCAA tournament game in Dayton, Ohio.

The Iowa State bench is fired up as the Cyclones threatened to upset favored Ohio State in a NCAA 3rd round tournament game in Dayton, Ohio.

Iowa State’s Will Clyburn gets ready to throw one down on Oho State’s Sam Thompson during NCAA 3rd round action in Dayton, Ohio.

Iowa State’s Will Clyburn goes to the basket against the defense of Ohio State during NCAA 3rd round action in Dayton, Ohio.

Dowling College players celebrate a trip to the National Championships after defeating Bentley College in the finals of the Regionals in Waltham, MA

 

Super Bowl XLVII

Posted on by
Reply

I recently went to New Orleans to be a part of the Sports Illustrated group of photographers for what was I think was my 27th Super Bowl. Actually I guess it would be my XXVII Super Bowl. Does anyone else think the Roman Numeral deal is a little pretentious? What would be the public perception if this year’s World Series was titled World Series CVIII, that would be 108 so you don’t have to go look it up in Wiki Answers like I did.

But I digress, this is a PHOTO column I’ll try to keep on topic from now on, or at least until the next paragraph. Sports Illustrated dispatched eleven photographers to this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans. It was basically the same crew who has done it for a number of years and it is a great experience meeting up with old friends and colleagues in the times leading up to and after the game. I mentioned this was my 27th Super Bowl which is a lot, but it places me behind a lot of the SI shooters. John Biever and Walter Iooss have done all of them! They represent two of the four photographers who have covered each one. The others are Tony Tomsic and Mickey Palmer. That is a pretty amazing achievement. John was like nine when he did his first. Among the SI shooters John Iacono, Peter Read Miller, John McDonough, Heinz Kluetmeier have all done more than me and Al Tielemans and I started doing them for SI the same year.

Working as part of a team of photographers is quite a lot different than covering a game alone or as part of a small group. I was assigned an end zone position on the field as has been my role for several years now. Sometimes the fixed spots work out great and sometimes not so great. This year was a not so great. A lot of the action went to the end zone opposite of my position. Regardless of how the photos shake out from year to year the Super Bowl is a great opportunity to produce images of an event that it arguably the top single sports event in the United States each year. I’ve always felt honored to be chosen by SI to cover it. This year was no exception.

A lot of people who are Super Bowl veterans have the same opinion about Super Bowl locations: Play them all in New Orleans. It is almost impossible to get a bad meal in New Orleans. The bars are open nearly 24 hours, and the lack of an open container law makes transporting your favorite adult beverage handy. The people are accommodating and friendly and the weather is usually a welcome respite from the frozen Northeast. We’ll see how New Jersey stacks up against the other Super Bowl sites next year.

This year was a first for me in that I took my daughter Jessye to New Orleans to help me out. She had a great time and did a fantastic job helping out and although she had no rooting interest in the game she seemed to have a difficult time not cheering. (see photo below)

As I said earlier it wasn’t my best set of photos this year but I’m putting some of the images up below along with one of my better efforts from earlier years.

Until next time………

Baltimore quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco scrambles out of the pocket during Super Bowl 47.

Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis raises the Lombardi Trophy after the Ravens defeated the 49′ers in Super Bowl 47.

Baltimore receiver Anquan Boldin hauls in a recaption despite the defense of San Francisco defensive back Carlos Rogers.

The Strohmeyer duo pause for a photo after the conclusion of Super Bowl 47.

Jessye Strohmeyer, Sports Illustratred assistant and daughter of SI photographer Damian Strohmeyer has trouble keeping her emotion in check while action goes on at Super Bowl 47.. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS

A memorable photo of a memorable Super Bowl play.

 

 

 

 

Friday Night Lights

Posted on by
Reply

The Lexington High School football captains Ryan Wilson, Nick Nerolien and Rhett Adley.

 

The Lexington High School football captains Ryan Wilson, Nick Nerolien, and Rhett Adley.

The Lexington High School football captains Ryan Wilson, Nick Nerolien, and Rhett Adley.

The photographer tries to interject some tough guy character poses to the amusement of his subjects.

My son Zach made an Iphone image of the set.

A staple of my upbringing was high school sports and none was bigger than high school football on Friday nights. Crisp fall air, still green grass, popcorn smell in the air,  the local eleven doing their best to whoop up on the neighboring towns. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Massachusetts and our local high school played their game during the days and on Saturdays!

Athletic Director of Lexington High School Naomi Martin is one of my favorite people. She gets it. It’s all about the kids and teaching them life lessons through sports. Naomi has worked tirelessly for the kids since taking over as the Athletic Director a few years ago. In addition to trying to install a competitive but sportsmanlike atmosphere among the student athletes she has also worked with the town to upgrade the facilities.

This football season Naomi and head football Coach George Peterson managed to persuade the powers to be to install lights for a home game at the Lexington High School field. A lot of things change in life but the idea of the local team suiting up and playing under the lights transported me way back to my own Axtell High School Eagle  playing days.

A terrific crowd turned out for the November 9th game and while the game ended with a 20-14 win for rival Woburn High School it was still a wonderful experience for the athletes, students and parents involved. I thoroughly enjoyed the game and it brought back a lot of fond memories.

My mother was a huge football fan and while I can honestly say that for the most part I never heard the crowd. I always heard her. She had a voice that seemed to cut through all the other crowd and extraneous noise and sank directly into my helmeted ears. I’d hardly call her leather lunged but she was an enthusiastic cheerleader and a fierce ambassador for her teams.

For my Lexington 300th photo portrait project I felt that football needed to be included and I had planned all along to photograph the captains of the team but when the Friday night under the lights game was announced, I knew when I had to make the photographs.

My faithful assistant Mike Clarke was enlisted for the job. I don’t think he minded much as he is a graduate of Lexington High School. But this job was a group effort involving a number of people.

Lexington High School football Captains Nick Nerolien, Ryan Wilson, and Rhett Adley were   patient subjects despite having just played a game in the wet and cold. The previously mentioned Naomi Martin pulled the strings behind the scenes to get us the field and stayed until the last piece of equipment was packed away. Head Football Coach George Peterson blessed the project and got us the kids quickly after the game ended.

My wife Joanne was pulled in as a grip as was my son Zach. These guys made it a lot more seamless effort than what it could have been. The Town of Lexington Department of Public Works worker patiently stayed while we packed up the gear to lock the gate.

Oh yes, the shoot! Lots of lights on this shoot and lots of extension cords running through the wet grass. I had some thoughts about that when I was laying on my stomach shooting the heroic pose shots. The basic lighting scheme was a Dynalite beauty dish with a 500 watt second pack lighting the center captain and two medium boxes through a  Dynalite 1000 watt second pack lighting the outside subjects. We put some side light in with two Hensel packs and normal reflectors. A slow shutter speed allowed us to pick up the ambient lights in the background. We triggered the lights with Multi Max units.

The lighting was a little tricky as there was not a lot of ambient light to work with and we needed the feel of the temporary stadium lights. It was also wet and cold and the photographer got a little cranky when it didn’t work exactly as he had it diagrammed. Thank you subjects and crew for your patience.

The fabulous Canon EOS-1Dx camera was used with a variety of lenses including a 16-35mmf2.8 and a 70-200mm f2.8.

Lexington High School football coach George Peterson in an email to me said it best when he described high school football like this: “I believe that high school football is the purest form of sport that there is.”

The list of thank you’s on this job is a long one. In no certain order: Joanne and Zachary Strohmeyer, Naomi Martin, George Peterson, Rhett Adley, Nick Nerolien, Ryan Wilson, Lexington DPW and of course Mike Clarke who probably saved me from electrocution.

 

 

The Fall Classic

Posted on by
2

After all that gushing about football in my last blog I was sentenced to do baseball for the next couple of weeks in Detroit. I know you’re expecting a sarcastic remark here about Detroit but I can’t do it. I love Detroit. I don’t wander around there after dark but I don’t wander around after dark in Myrtle Beach either. Detroit is an underrated city. The people there are warm and friendly and they have always had great sports there. The Red Wings in hockey, the Pistons in the NBA, University of Michigan football is huge and lately the Tigers have been contenders. I’m not going to mention the Lions. My mother always said that if you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything. Regardless, I’ve spent lots of time in the Detroit area and I think the Airport Marriott (motto: Hey we’re close to the airport!”) in snazzy Romulus, Michigan is perhaps my most stayed at Marriott over the years.

What was I getting at here? Oh yes baseball. Baseball always makes me think of James Earl Jones intoning in Field of Dreams. “The one constant through all the years Ray has been baseball.” Baseball does take itself a little seriously sometimes and maybe that is why it has been lagging in popularity. But the World Series is the World Series. It’s big time and big time is always good for photographers, right?

Well most of the time at least. Baseball is a funny game. The action ebbs and flows at slow intervals and it is certainly easy to let your attention wane while some guy adjusts his gloves ten different times between each pitch and then just to show him up the pitcher shakes off three signs from the catcher just to make the batter step out of the batter’s box. At which point the batter has to readjust his gloves again ten times before he steps back in. The umpire (if he’s still awake) then scolds everyone and tells them to move it along and we get a pitch, which the batter takes for a called ball and then we start the whole adjust gloves, shake off signs routine over again. An at bat in baseball moves only slightly faster than Congress.

Oh wait this is a photo blog. But I am getting to my point. I’ve always said that if I can keep my concentration I’m a half decent photographer. Keeping your concentration in baseball is a difficult task with all the glove adjusting, cup adjusting, spitting, squinting at the 3rd base coach while ignoring his signs, shaking off the catcher, conferences at the mound (where you know they’re discussing where to go for dinner after the game), and so many other concentration bending actions. So if you can keep your concentration and you probably can if you’re still reading this lame blog, baseball photos can be pretty cool. You just have to be ready and aware of what might happen besides the above mentioned adjustments.

Focus and concentration are key in all the sports and certainly a challenge in baseball but in big games I can usually turn the attention level up a notch and do alright. Playoffs and World Series baseball tends to be a bit more exciting with more action and emotion while keeping the adjusting and spitting at regular season levels. Anticipation of what might happen and knowledge of the situations that might arise are keys in the post season just as they are in the regular season.

On another note camera gear today never fails to amaze me. The Cabrera cover was shot at 1600 ISO with the new Canon EOS 1-DX and cropped from a horizontal frame and looks terrific. The World Series Cover was also shot with the EOS-1DX and a 600mm lens loosely framed horizontal and cropped into a cover. Amazing files from this new camera.

Talk about saying nothing relevant about anything…..Here’s the cover of SI the past two weeks, both regional covers but still covers. Notice that I managed to keep my concentration going at least for the reaction at the end of games.

Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera celebrates a win in the ALCS.

San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey rushes toward the mount after closer Sergio Romo struck out Miguel Cabrera to give the Giants the World Series crown in a sweep.

              www.damianstrohmeyer.com 

 

 

The Joy of Fall

Posted on by
Reply

 

Anyone who knows much about me or about my photography knows that I love the fall and I particularly love football. Nothing like a beautiful fall afternoon with a bunch of ogre like savages out there trying to tear each others heads off. The whole gladiator aspect of football has captivated a whole generation of sports fans and arguably turned football into the number one sport in America. No mistaking that football is a violent game and that the concussion issue is one that needs some close examination. I’m certainly in tune with all that and I’ve seen enough train wreck style collisions on the football field up close to know that we’re approaching a crossroads in terms of how much more head to head contact the current football player can withstand. I played this game in high school and while I was pretty forgettable as a player I think some of the head to head hits may explain some of my inability to finish sentences or forget why I came into the room..

Where was I? Oh yes. I love football and I love football photographs. I think football photographs are among some of the most interesting a sports photographer can make. Football photography requires the ability to understand the game, react quickly and keep all these tumbling players in your viewfinder. It’s a huge challenge but one that I relish every weekend. I covered my first NFL game in 1979, so I think that makes this year my 33rd year of covering the NFL. Nothing like my friend John Biever who has covered football since the leather helmet days, but still a long time. The challenge never grows old. I still get excited by the challenge of coming up with something new or unusual or the prospect of incredible light like we have now in the final days of autumn.

There are so many great football photographers out there that it’s impossible to name them all but if you want to make a Hall of Fame list I’d start with the previously mentioned John Biever, throw in the great Walter Iooss, add in Neil Leifer, Peter Read Miller (name on the Hall of Fame name list also), Al Tielemans and then some guys like Jim Davis, Bob Langer, Ron Modra, Louis Deluca, and so many more. (It’s that old football injury that’s keeping me from naming them all.)

Where was I? Oh yes. Here are a few photos that I’ve done over the past couple of weeks that I like.

Camera equipment: Canon EOS 1-DX cameras with a Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM and a Canon 50mm f1.4.

Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson jumps for the end zone in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

 

Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Nnamdi Asomugha intercepts a pass intended for Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson.

New York Jets tight end Dustin Keller is upended by New England defensive back Devin McCourty.

www.damianstrohmeyer.com

damian@damianstrohmeyer.com

Baseball Portraits

Posted on by
Reply

As part of my ongoing process of reinvention I recently did some portrait work with a member of the local semi professional baseball team Steve Gath. We had some fun and while we didn’t get the photo we set out to do, we did make some portraits that I like. Experimenting with different styles of lighting is a healthy and enlightening process and I learned a lot doing this set of photos.

The equipment is pretty simple in the photos. Canon EOS1D-X with a 70-200 f2.8 lens. Lighting in the outdoor photos is a single Chimera soft box powered through a Hensel Porty 600 watt second pack. Multi Max units triggered the flash unit. For the indoor portraits we used a Dynalite Beauty Dish as the Main light directly over the shooting position with a small Chimera on the floor as the fill light. Two Chimera strip banks on the sides of the subject provide the highlights. Power for the strobes was with Dynalite 500, 1000, and 2000 watt second packs.

Baseball Portraits

Lexington Blue Sox player Steve Gath poses for a portrait.

Baseball Portrait
Baseball Portrait
Lexington Blue Sox player Steve Gath poses for a portrait.

Baseball Portraits
Lexington Blue Sox player Steve Gath poses for a portrait.

www.damianstrohmeyer.com

Lexington 300th Anniversary

Posted on by
Reply

My hometown Lexington, MA is turning 300 years old next spring and I’m working on a project in conjunction with the 300th committee to document our town in a series of portraits. I’m hoping to showcase the diversity and complexity of our town’s demographics in a way that will be enlightening for our current population but also as a look back at our generation for future Lexingtonians. The subjects will run the gamut from the first baby born on Lexington’s actual anniversary March 31, 2013 to the eldest resident, to our many ethnic groups to the descendants of our town’s founders. It promises to be an interesting and rich project. Here are a couple of photos from my first shoot yesterday with Rick Deangelis, the founder and coach of The Lexington Blue Sox baseball team.

www.damianstrohmeyer.com

Lexington Blue Sox manager Rick Dangelis poses for a portrait at the Lexington Center baseball field in Lexington as part of the Lexington 300th Anniversary portrait project.

Lexington Blue Sox manager Rick Deangelis poses for a portrait on the mound at the Lexington Center baseball field as part of the Lexington 300th Anniversary portrait project.

Canon Explorers of Light Presentation at B & H Photo

Posted on by
1

As part of the Canon Explorers of LIght program I did a presentation at B & H Photo in New York, NY August 15. If you’ve never been to B & H it’s an amazing store. Like a really good camera store, on steroids. B & H stocks more camera gear  in house than is imaginable. They have an Events Center where they bring in speakers almost daily, even multiple speakers in a day. I was there a couple of weeks ago. If you’ve got a lot of time they posted the video of the presentation. The Link is here:  http://vimeo.com/48324890

Billerica BMX

Posted on by
Reply

I spent a couple of days recently photographing at the Billerica, MA BMX course.  Bicycle motocross or BMX is the sport of racing bicyles in motocross style on tracks which use an inline start and have obstacles and also refers to the bicycle itself, which is designed for dirt and motocross cycling.  These guys are really dedicated to their sport and of course very happy with any media attention. I shot a bit of action and some portraits at the end of a practice. Here’s a look at some of the images. The racers run the gamut from kids as young as five years old to guys who are sort of “semiprofessional.” The track is shrouded by trees so it’s a little tough with light. The end of the last practice we got some nice color in the sky and I set up a quick portrait studio to use the fading light and colorful sky as a background.

The portraits were a really simple lighting job. One small Chimera soft box with a Hensel 600 watt second portable power pack for the power. Multi Max units for the triggering. I used a Canon EOS 1-DX camera with a Canon 70-200 f.8 lens as my camera/lens combo.

Equipment used in shoot:

Canon EOS 1-DX cameras (2)

Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8 II USM Lens

Canon  EF 24-70 F2.8 L USM Lens

Canon EF  70-200 F2.8 IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens

Canon EF 300mm F2.8L  IS USM Telephoto Lens

Canon EF 400mm F2.8 IS USM Telephoto Lens

Hensel Porty L Power Pack

Chimera Pro II Small Softbox

Pocket Wizard MultiMax Transceiver (2)

 

 

BMX racer Jose Catano takes to the air during a practice at the Billerica BMX track.

BMX racer Jose Catano goes airborne during a practice at the Billerica BMX track.

BMX racer Matt McDonnell poses for a portrait after a practice at the Billerica, MA BMX course.

BMX bicyclist Jose Catano poses for a portrait after a practice at the Billerica BMX course.