My Perspective: Men’s Basketball v. FAU (Part 1)
In my attempt to create a more consistent flow of content, I have decided to start this series. In the blog style format, I’ll go over a few of my favorite photos from an event an explain what I was seeing, what story I want the photo to evoke, but mainly serve as a behind the scene in a sense.
In this review, I will be going over a few photos that I took from the UNF Men’s Basketball Game v. FAU on Monday Night. The Ospreys dropped a tough one, but the home opener provided some bright spots and things to def build on. Let’s get into it.
This review would have been longer, but I misplaced my SD card for my second camera (thought I lost the card and had a minor panic attack when I got home) so these are the pictures that came from my Nikon D3s. Oh yea, I should probably mention my gear setup! For this camera, I shot on the Nikon D3s with a 50mm 1.8 lens. I think the 50 is a great length especially with the low light of arenas the low aperture certainly helps, but I think I would have wanted something like an 85mm to get just a tad tighter with my shots. When I used to shoot FSU Hoops, I did use a 50mm but because the Nikon D300 was a crop sensor, it was a 75mm equivalent which I found was a really good length.
Obviously when it came to location of shooting, myself and a few other photographers/videographers were on the sidelines of the court, but not in the traditional way. Usually we would sit underneath the basket but because of COVID, we were limited to the opposite side of the court and about 1/2 of the baseline without getting too close to the players. This obviously presents itself with a few problems but also gave me new angles to shoot. Usually I found myself moving around every few minutes just to get different perspectives.
Alright, now that that’s out the way, let’s dive into these photos.
From all the photos from this set, this one is my favorite. This picture was taken after a Timeout and right before the team returned to the court. What I like about this picture so much is mainly the framing, with the court bringing up to the shoes, which come up to the team bringing it up. The two flags in the background for me always give a little perspective as well. When it came to actually taking the photo, I laid my camera completely on the floor and blindly took this photo. I could have definitely moved the focus point up, but I think part of what makes this photo so good is your eye can be drawn to a few different places. You can start with the shoes, which is the part that is focused, and your eye is drawn in from the floor coming up. Or maybe your eye foes to the team huddle, which of course is the big subject of the photo. It’s a test and open to interpretation.
(Looking back now, I def should have been at a higher aperture so I could get everything in focus, so note to self to always adjust your settings!)
When I take photos, my goal is to freeze action. In this photo you can see EA is making a move to the basket and you have your defenders making a move for the ball. You’ve got your player on the right sliding starting to put his hands up, and on the left you have the help side defender reaching out for a steal. Focusing on the UNF player, he’s starting to make his move as he moves the ball to his left to avoid a steal from the FAU player on the left. It’s always important to have the player’s face in the photo, otherwise more times than not I prefer not to use the photo. I am always looking for emotion in faces and this picture def has some of that, as he’s looking to make his move and see what he can do to get the bucket.
Again, action shots! I got pretty lucky with this one because the UNF player made a Euro-step move to the left as he went for the layup. I was able to get a burst as he went for the layup. I’ll give an example of the photo I picked v. one I wont because his face is covered up by his hand. A little detail I noticed was the players on the bench in the background about to go crazy cause their guy just made a really nice move and basket.
Again, trying to draw the eye into the subject by using the floor to bring your attention to the player shooting the FT. This photo was taken well before the player shot his free throw, so I like this one because it’s somewhat a “break” in the action type of thing. Like the first photo, I took this one pretty much blind and hope for the best. I like how the players are lined up on the blocks and you see #13 looking up at the replay on the screen as he rewatches the foul. In an ideal world I’d love to get rid of the ref but refs are gonna do what refs do: get in the way. In a way I think it help frame our FT shooter a little better.
If you’ve made it this far, shoutouts to you! I hope you got something out of this and I look forward to doing this more often. As someone who picked up photography really recent and wanting to do this as a living, I hope to create more and help build myself!
Once again, thanks for stopping by!
