Canada Games Athlete Portraits-Baseball Player Sean Silliphant

Today's portrait is of baseball player Sean Silliphant.

Similar set up as many of the other images. Set the subject up in front of a bright background, expose for the background to make them a silhouette, and add light on them with the flash.

Canada Games Athlete Portraits-Rugby Player Walker Blizzard

Today's Canada Games Athlete portrait shoot is of rugby player Walker Blizzard.

This was one of the earlier shoots, so again the weather was cloudy. Which was fine, as again, it would allow me more control over the light. So I started off with Walker in front of the rugby uprights. I exposed for the sky to make Walker go dark....


allowing me to add the light with the flash.


I liked the effect, but found the sky a little blah, so I thought I'd add some color using the TUNGSTEN WB/warming gel effect. Just to recap, set the WHITE BALANCE to TUNGSTEN, which turns EVERYTHING blue, and place a CTO warming gel(orangey) on the flash to warm the light back up.


Tried some different angles with the light from the flash to create more of a "tougher" look.


Also did some monster lighting which looked kinda cool.


Like the first shoot with golfer Jennifer Armstrong, I had the option of trying to put the sun in the frame. So I had to under expose quite a bit more to get the sun a nice glowing ball, resulting in a really dark subject.


Then adding the flash to light up Walker.








Thought I'd try some throwing the ball shots too...




I also tried some shots using slow shutter speeds and panning the camera with Walker running with the ball. This one worked the best of all, but due to the fact I couldn't do the 2nd curtain sync(flash fires at the end so the sharp image is on top of the blur), there was a bit too much blur if I went too slow.






For the final shots, I thought I'd try using some of the graffiti on the rock wall at Hazen White field.
But because I needed to light up both the background and Walker, I had to have the background flash really close to the rock. So in this shot, while I like it, a little problem with the flash and stand being visible. Before you say, just photoshop it out, ethically that's a no no for newspaper photography. Anything like that, it would have to be labelled as a photo illustration.


So the solution was to set it up so Walker is in front and covering the flash and stand.


And finished it off with some more monster lighting(flash directly below the subject) which I thought looked really cool!


To see more in this series, head to my Canada Games Athlete Galleries on my site. I will be posting the images from each shoot after they have run in the paper, so keep checking back!

To read the story by Telegraph Journal reporter Jon MacNeill, click here.

Next up....baseball!

Canada Games Athletes-Swimmer Jacqueline Murchison

Today's Canada Games athlete portrait is of swimmer Jacqueline Murchison.

I wanted to start off with some portraits outside the pool. Figured it would be easier to shoot them first, that way she wouldn't get all wet and have to stand around.

Canada Games Athletes-Rower Keegan Drummond

Today's portrait shoot is of Canada Games rower Keegan Drummond. With my previous water based shoot experience, I realized that I needed MORE POWER if I was going to be able to light up Keegan while he was in the water.

Canada Games Athletes-Wrestler Megan Getchell

Today's portrait is of Canada Games wrestling team member Megan Getchell. This was another indoor portrait, which as previously mentioned, can be beneficial as you have total control over the light.

Canada Games Athletes-Volleyball's Chika Ikejiani

Today's athlete portrait is of volleyball player Chika Ikejiani.

Chika's a great guy, and I owe him a lot of thanks for his patience and the stupid amount of work it took to get this shot. You will understand why I need to thank him soon...

Canada Games Athletes-Tennis player Daniel Blake

Today's shoot is of Canada Games Tennis player Daniel Blake. Another shoot where I had an idea of the shot I wanted...the player leaping through the air, stretched out, smashing the ball...