In July, I was asked by Tami Provost at Fit on the Fly, to take pictures at a local event that she’d be speaking at. When I arrived at Hoopla, there was a dunk contest starting up. Being a huge basketball fan, I headed over to watch. And then the camera came out.
…and my August Photo Project was conceived.
I reached out to Dylan (above) and he was IN. Then I reached out the the Red Claws (Maine’s semi-pro basketball league) and though they didn’t have any players in town (off season), they gave me Jason Gibbon‘s name. I spoke to Jason and he was IN. But he was in Portland – and I wasn’t sure about finding a court an hour north.
I had two photographs in my head. One was a beautiful court by the sea at sunset, and the other was a dark urban court, lit by headlights. So I was looking for a court by the sea that I could pull up to in a car – oh and having access to electricity would be helpful for aux photography lights. Tall order.
So…I ended up at a park in Eliot with Dylan (along with my hubs our tribe of hooligan kids). Dylan did his thing (it turns out that he is an amazingly talented high-jumper for the University of North Carolina), and I snapped away…
After an hour of shooting, it was still pretty light outside and I realized that my vision of shooting in the dark would require several hours of waiting – which seemed out of the question. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to attempt the night shots, as these were the shots that were truly experimental.
But alas, Dylan volunteered to do another session.
After wracking my brain, trying to think of a court where I could either pull up with a car, or run electricity (or both), my hubs suggested an indoor court. Duh. A week later, Dylan and I met at the gym at EBC.
There was a lot of trial and error. Dark + Motion = blurry pictures. Every time. It’s the law of photography. You need light. Light is a required ingredient. Which makes shots like this, a bit tricky:
The other trick was getting light 11 feet in the air. But somehow it worked.
I love my little photography projects. I can’t wait for my next one…hmm…what will it be… Maybe tattoos…
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