Final Shuttle Launch: STS-135

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off launch pad 39-A for the final launch of the shuttle era at Kennedy Space Center on Friday, July 8, 2011 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis is flying for a scheduled 12-day mission to the International Space Station which ends the shuttle program after 135 missions.

Wow, its been 5 months since I updated this. Lets start someplace fun..... like the final, historic space launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Here's the whole story:

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) Launch

After a 3 year and 17 flight hiatus, i made my return to the Kennedy Space Center and photographed the final (scheduled) flight of Atlantis.

How one person gets so many photos after the break....

Three Angles of the Same Play

Georgia forward Trey Thompkins (33) goes for a slam dunk as Tennessee faces Georgia in the first half of an NCAA men's basketball game at Stegeman Coliseum on Sat. Jan. 23, 2010 in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/David Manning)

Nikon D2x 16mm fisheye, 1/500@f/4 1600 ISO

Generally at basketball I will set up a few remote cameras. Sometimes you get positive results and sometimes you pull it off and then some.

Sunroof Camera

From the remote camera department: I mounted my work D2X w/14mm out the sunroof with two magic arms as to try and make a time-lapse video as part of a larger project.

Safety cabled the crap out of that. Held great at highway speeds but made a LOT of noise.

Set the camera's intervolemeter to 1 frame every 2 seconds and a max of 999 frames. (Thats 30 frames a minute or 33 minutes, 20 seconds of elapsed time). The video was 2 frames a picture at 30 fps. Looks pretty frantic and hectic. Should make for fun later.




(.....And yet somehow watching my own driving made me ill after watching it in 1080p 3 times in a row.)

More Remote Fun

Georgia's Albert Jackson grabs a rebound in the first half as the Auburn Tigers beat the Georgia Bulldogs 71-59 on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009 at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga. Auburn lead by 29 midway through the first before Georgia cut the lead to 6 points late in the second half.

With basketball remotes, its either going to be really good or really bad or such my experience has been. With both basketball programs here at Georgia having off-years, there are fewer and fewer photographers on the sidelines to share the spaces with, also meaning more available positions for remotes.

The biggest problem I've found with the available light overhead remotes is depth of field. I'm shooting wide open at 2.8 which means i have to choose a spot somewhere between someone's head and the rim to be the center of focus. If i had the strobe resources, i could just focus on the net and shoot at f/8-f/11. So i think i have that mastered and I think I'm done with all my fun in the catwalks, well for basketball anyways.

The floorplate, eh. Its an interesting look of being right under the basket, only thing is that all the subjects are looking up at the ball/hoop and 3/4 of the time it looks like a deodorant advertisement.




Georgia's Travis Leslie goes for a slam dunk in the second half as the Auburn Tigers beat the Georgia Bulldogs 71-59 on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009 at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga. Auburn lead by 29 midway through the first before Georgia cut the lead to 6 points late in the second half.



The pole remote? Gets the lane, you see the whole court, its okay. You see everyone, you see the play under the hoop.

Backboard? Same problem with available light, depth of field and it looks flat. All the remote stuff looks flat.

Which brings me to my new favorite angle (and i really have to credit John McDonough of SI and super-assistant Jordan Murph for where i got this idea from) which is putting a fisheye on the angled part of the pole looking down. I really feel that this view brings you into the game in a way that you cant get any closer. You see faces, you see action and its where all the action happens in a game thats not being played above the rim.




LSU's LaSondra Barrett is fouled in the first half as the LSU Lady Tigers beat the Georgia Lady Bulldogs 57-46 on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.

Remote FAIL

Yes, thats my camera.

Remote photography takes lots of preparation, patience and above all, a willingness to accept that you have put hours (or days) into a shot only to have one little thing you overlooked screw it all up. I've done remotes at basketball, baseball, shuttle launches, soccer (and on my dog's food bowl).

My success ratio? Slim. Very slim. The dog hated me for a day, the soccer wasn't dominant enough, the baseball never fired right, the shuttle ... abysmal failure. This leads me to Georgia's 67-66 win over Virginia Tech. Very good game. Since it was an off day, i grabbed the second pass and decided that i would get there hours early and set up a backboard remote. Here's the how-to. My only suggestion is that you add infinite patience and have someone help you focus.



Same shot as above, different angle. What's wrong with this picture....

So i get it all set up, its framed nice so that I'm looking down on the play - there's not much 'above the rim' play in the college game. I get it just right, adjust the gobo, double magic arm, all the works. Cleaned the glass too. Decided for whatever insane reason that somehow it would be a good idea to focus on the netting. Lord knows what the heck i was thinking because what was in focus? Only the rim and the net! Not the players, not the lane, nothing other than the net.

Here's the two really nice photos i really would have liked to have. Yes, i went to the trouble to crop, tone and resize two completely out of focus pictures just to show the readers why you need to double check everything.

Georgia vs Vandy Hoops

Sundiata Gaines grabs a rebound.

Georgia hoops part whatever. Georgia kept it a 1 or 2 posession game for most of the night but couldn't hold on for the win. Its the story of their season - close but comes up short on the end.




It was a busy day all around, with football's signing day taking up the rest of the time before i ran (emphasis on RUN!) over to put up my backboard remote. I like the photos better this time then before. The ones before had the camera more to the side of the rim while this time it was above the rim and looking more down towards the lane. Its my third try at this and i like these more. Granted the action wasn't all that i wanted but i have two nice ones.

Post 71: UGA vs Arkansas Men's Hoops

Billy Humphreys goes up for a layup.

Well its a heck of a Tuesday. I'm 0-for-2 on breaking/spot news today. But here's photos of this weekend's men's game. I went with 3 remotes - one backboard, one floor and one pole one that i forgot to triple-check the focus. Hense 400 out of focus remote shots... not like thats the first time i've done that.



Arkansas' Steven Hill blocks the shot of Georgia's Jeremy Price.



Georgia's Chris Barnes gets trapped in the corner.



Dave Bliss goes for a layup.



Billy Humphreys celebrates a three-point-shot.

Womens Hoops and Happy Remotes

Well sports fans thats the same play from two different cameras, one hand-held and one remote. Looks nasty either way.

Georgia's Angel Robinson (33 in white) gets her hand in the face of Alabama's Camilla Blands as they scrap for a rebound as the Lady Bulldogs beat Alabama 71-53 in Athens on January 20, 2008.

So we went for two remotes. A 17-35 by the press table (there was TV so under the basket just wasn't realistic) and a pole remote, as there will be NO around the rim action so a backboard one is pointless. In an effort to get consistant color out of ambient light, i preset the white balance on all my cameras off the same white towel the other day. I can't stress enough how important setting the white balance is when you're shooting ambient inside an arena. It takes 30 seconds per camera, and yea you could miss a Tom Brady Touchdown in that amount of time but really... preset the stuff and that will make you a much happier photographer in the end and much less to correct later.

Georgia played a very sloppy 71-53 victory. They had stretches of bad/not rebounding and dumb turnovers. Anyways, here's some photos.

Remote Happy Basketball

SO i went a little overboard last night shooting basketball. I set up my first backboard remote which worked fine. (D1x, 17/2.8 on AC power) Since i wasn't the main shooter for the game, i decided to shoot from various places in the stands with a 300 and put two other floor remotes (24/2.8 on a D1 and an 85/f2 on a D2h) to get some action.

Remotes are hit and miss. Either you have the stuff or you don't. I tend to fire all my cameras at the same time, synched off the camera i'm using in my hands. The problem with the D1 is image quality as well as battery. The battery likes to come loose and i forgot to tape it.





Anyways, for a boring game that Georgia won (tried to give away) 68-58 over a team who's playing D-1 for the first time ever. Pretty poor action to try and get. Lots of perimeter shooting in the first half and little driving the lane or going up for a layup, which really negated the backboard remote. A little better in the 2nd half but still very little play in the paint so that killed the D2/85. The D1/24 faired a little better but the battery seemed to have come loose (or died) when a mad scramble happened right in front of the camera, leaving me with nada from that sequence. All in all, i only kept 160 photos from the take.





Of course, this is my favorite as i'm testing the focus.... makes me laugh.

Lady's Hoops

For a 102-45 blowout, the shots weren't all THAT. For the first 5 minutes, UGA went long, shooting from behind the arc and draining 3's - with me either having the shooter in the corner right in front of me (too close) or on the far side (blocked by a mass of humanity in the paint).

So by the time UGA started working it inside by late in the 1st and the whole 2nd, it was mainly reserves and bench players. Still it was a physical game.

I went with 2 remotes (pole and floor plate), with mixed results. I was aiming for a nice reflection shot off the floor in the first half. The second half, i just moved it to under the basket looking up. Next game i should be able to try a backboard remote. Try.









This reminds me why i loathe using a Nikon D1. They're best used as paperweights and the occasional remotes. I'd go out and get some D70s but i have no way of firing them because they don't have the 10-pin input that the prosumer & pro cameras have. Any modification of their cable release requires some serious electronic know-how. I know of one person who did it (an ex-Nikon guy) and its a serious pain and more trouble then its worth.

The D100 just isn't practical because of the buffer. The D200 still goes for $1100 used. What i might do is buy a D300 in a few months and move my D2H to remote status. (It really takes an icky looking picture anymore).

Alas i'm stuck with what i've got and i try to make it work. Hey kids, take a guess which photo was taken with the D1.

This stuff is expensive. Really. The next time i hear "But you've got an easy job" from someone, i'll scream. Five year ago I wouldnt have had a clue how to set up remotes, letalone use them with some degree of success. Between pocket wizards, cables for the cameras, safety cables so stuff doesn't fall, magic arms, clamps, floor plates Then lenses and a camera, it adds up FAST. Anyways, at least i found a use for old Manual Focus 2.8 glass.

Mega Update 3 - Basketball : This is what we do now.

Well, fresh off my success of actually getting a remote to fire when i wanted it to (and in focus), i decided to push my luck at the UGA Men's basketball game.

Good game action in the first half. Reminded me of an old CAA game rather than a power conference like the SEC. Georgia is still rebuilding. They should be a .500 club come conference play. Good light in the building. 500/2.8 at ISO 1000. Had a 70-200 on one camera, 300/2.8 on a second. The remotes had a 24mm on the pole and an 85 aimed at the basket (basically a CYA remote that wasn't really needed)

Anyhow, i got some fun stuff. The top image isnt the one that was published, i didn't find it until i was weeding through the 1300 images of crap.

Anyhow, me likey.

Mega Update Pt 2: Soccer

The University of Georgia hosted two rounds of the the NCAA women's championship this past weekend. Georgia scored a total of 6 goals in the two games..... but got them all in the first game. Naturally, i shot the second. Pretty standard soccer shots. NOthing spectacular.

Finally got a remote in focus. (Lets here it for a 24mm lens at 500@f/8!) Sadly, there was no action for Mr. goalcam to capture. I was going to put up a second remote BUT the camera i had grabbed had a blown shutter. Ce' La vie.