Goofing off

Basketball got canceled tonight, so after I got done working on another story, I decided to test out an apparatus I built for an upcoming portrait. I borrowed the idea from Robert Seale, formerly of The Sporting News. I liked the effect he got with a photo he shot, so I thought I'd put my own spin on it. Anyway, this is the test photo.

Oh, and before any baseball analysts out there jump on me for my swing plane being grossly wrong, I already know that. It's just a test, and the space I shot the photo in was limited so I couldn't take a full swing. Besides, who said the photo I am going to shoot is going to be of a baseball player? Sheesh!

BTW ... Have I mentioned that I can't wait for baseball season? Well, I can't. If all goes according to plan, I will be at Great American Ballpark shooting the Reds' opening day game against Arizona. March 31 is right around the corner.

Couple of IU pics

It's late again, and I'm still awake. I thought I'd post a couple of IU pics that I like from the past week to pose as a real update while I try to get myself and my 8-month old son back to health. He's coming down with what I've had the last few days, and the poor little guy is having a hard time with it at night.

Oh, if anyone reading this knows of a sort of abandoned warehouse space or open floor in a commercial building located in or around Fort Wayne that could be used for a possible portrait shoot, please drop me a note by email through this site. I've got a couple of ideas for upcoming shoots that would really work out in a warehouse space, especially one that might even have some junk scattered about.



As always, the photos appearing on this site are NOT in the public domain, and are NOT to be copied, distributed, re-published, or re-used for ANY purpose without written permission. This is especially directed to those folks out there who think it is perfectly OK to use a photo on their website or blog as long as it is credited correctly, which it absolutely is not. All content on this site is copyrighted material, and all rights are reserved. I hate to have to continually put this notice up, but when people start respecting copyrights there will be no need for a notice.

Two hitter

I've been slacking lately as I'm still trying to get over a whirlwind week of travel, covering two IU basketball games while battling a nasty bout of the flu or a cold or something. In a few hours, I'll be off to Notre Dame to shoot the Irish's Sunday game against Syracuse. I will have spent twenty hours in the car this week, and who knows how many miles.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from this week. One is from the boys' state swimming finals on Saturday, and the other is a portrait of Homestead swimmer Ethan Radalia that I shot for my story on the Prep Sports page of The News-Sentinel.com . As it may have come to be apparent, I do like underwater photos. I'll post more photos later this week.



February 23, 2008 - Indianapolis, Ind. - Homestead's Zach Johnson starts with the backstroke in the first leg of the 200 medley relay championship final at the IHSAA state swim meet. Homestead finished seventh in the event, and the Spartans' team capped the meet with a fifth-place finish on Saturday at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.




February 20, 2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - A relative latecomer to the sport of competitive swimming, Homestead's Ethan Radalia has pushed himself to succeed and he will swim in two events in the IHSAA state swim and dive meet on Saturday at the Indiana University Natatorium.

Photos by Chad Ryan

***Update - Ethan Radalia kicked it in high gear to log the third fastest second 50 yards of the 100 breaststroke race at the state meet and moved up from his eighth-place seeding to finish sixth, the second best finish of any Homestead individual swimmer at state. Not bad for a kid that barely made the varsity squad. I enjoyed writing the story about Ethan, and his performance at state was an inspiration to me.

Mad Ants' Dunker

I learned just the other day from News-Sentinel sports columnist Reggie Hayes that the Fort Wayne Mad Ants had a player who was going to participate in the slam dunk contest at this weekend's NBA D-League Dream weekend. So, Reggie and I decided to go out and shoot a feature portrait of Eric Smith doing his dunks.

Originally, I had a plan to set four cameras and capture one dunk from all four angles at the same time. Unfortunately, my son was ill, so I had to shelf that plan to stay home with him. To do something like I planned would have taken a pretty good amount of time to set it all up, and it just didn't work out.

When the first plan fell through, I decided to pull off an idea that I had on another shoot, but I wanted to bump it up a notch. I decided that I wanted to shoot the photo of Eric in mid air heading toward the basket. I originally pictured the iconic Michael Jordan dunk from the side with a wide angle lens. Due to the logistics of the building we were shooting in, I decided to go vertical with the photo and come in a little closer.

I figured I would set up several small strobes to make it appear as if the crowd in the background was taking pictures of Eric during his dunk. I later had to move a couple of bursts and add one during the processing of the photo. In any case, this photo illustration is what I came up with. I'm not sure it was the photo Eric had in mind. I think maybe he thought we were going to do more of a close up of his dunk. I shot some of those too, but close up dunk shots are quite common these days. I wanted a different look.

Check out Reggie's interview with Eric on News-Sentinel.com.

Something from the archives

Here is a photo I ran across while beginning to categorize my image archives. Mallards are everywhere so finding them isn't especially difficult to do, but photographing them in good light with a pleasing background and composition can be tough. I stopped at this photo for its saturation of the late day sunlight mixed in with the clouds and the flight pattern. Ducks Unlimited are you reading? This might make a nifty cover photo.

Anyway, I found this photo while looking through wildlife photos I have made. I am preparing images for submission to The Photoshelter Collection. Once my photos are submitted to and accepted by Photoshelter, they will be available for licensing as stock photos. This process will take some time because I'm weeding through years worth of images. When it's all said and done I will have several categories of stock images for sale.

Anyone with requests for certain types of stock images can reach me through email by way of this blog. I might well have what you're looking for. If not, well, I'd be glad to go out and shoot it for you.

Take care and thanks for looking.

One hit wonder

No, not the swimmer in the picture. I'm only posting one photo right now because it's really late, and I have a long day tomorr ... uh today. Anyway here is a photo of Homestead's Tori Bagan from the girls state championships down in Indianapolis. Homestead finished in third place, and considering the competition there, that's quite an accomplishment.

Check out my story in Sunday Sports Online on News-Sentinel.com.

Also, I have a gallery of some of the swimming portraits and other swimming photos that I've shot this season posted on my SportsShooter page. Those photos landed me a front page feature on SS.com yesterday.

Recent Favorites

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the last couple of weeks. They're not the best photos, but I like them for different reasons.



2-02-2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Snider's Amalia Kobelja blasts off the starting block in the 200 individual medley at Saturday's South Side Sectional swim and dive meet at H.P. Brown Natatorium. Kobelja won the race, and her time (2:08.40) was fast enough to make the state cut.



2-02-2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Homestead's McKenzie Bagan takes a breath in her sectional championship-winninng effort in the 100 butterfly during Saturday's South Side Sectional finals round at H.P. Brown Natatorium.



1-29-2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Carroll's Aileen Ottenweller hopes to make a return trip to the girls' state swimming finals to compete in the 500- and 200-yard freestyle events.



1-19-2008 - Decatur, Ind. - Bellmont's Ryan Baker shoots in on Carroll's Wes Timmerman in the 160-pound championship match at Saturday's NHC wrestling meet. Baker won the match 7-3, and the Braves' captured the team championship.