Self-Portrait

<sub>February 25, 2009 - Fort Wayne-based professional photographer Chad Ryan shows that although he has a serious aversion to it, he is not beyond using a Nikon camera when the assignment calls for it. But Ryan had hoped that none of his friends would've seen anything other than his trusty Canon cameras in his hand while photographing the International Hockey League's Turner Cup.

Photo by Chad Ryan.</sub>

Sisters claim titles

_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

Homestead sisters McKenzie Bagan, right, and Tori Bagan hug after McKenzie won the 100 yard butterfly championship at the Indiana State Girls Swimming and Diving championships on Saturday at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis. The pair combined for two state titles, two runner-up finishes and helped their team to a third place finish in the team competition.


_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

McKenzie, who also finished fifth in the 200 individual medley, fell behind early to Carmel swimmer Jessie Hammes, but she made up the ground and surged past Hammes in the final 25 yards to win with a time of 54.82.

McKenzie and Tori kicked off their trip to the finals with a second place finish in the 200 medley relay behind Carmel, which set a national high school record in the event.

Tori then swam the 50 freestyle and finished in second place with a time of 23.48, just .01 seconds back of Carmel's Megan Detro who touched in 23.47. After watching her older sister's finish in the fly finals, Tori also had to come from behind in the final 25 yards of the breaststroke final to out-touch Carmel's Lauren Stauder and this time win by .01 seconds with a time of 1:02.83 to Stauder's 1:02.84.


_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

Tori Bagan, right, hugs Homestead teammate Kristen Kinzer after winning the 100-yard breaststroke state championship by .01 seconds on Saturday at the Indiana girls state swimming and diving championships at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis.



_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

Check News-Sentinel.com Sunday and Monday for photos and the full meet story.



_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

Pics from Girls State finals

Here are a few photos from the preliminary round of the Indiana State girls swimming and diving championships on Friday, Feb. 13, at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.



February 13, 2009: Homestead's Tori Bagan swims in the 100 breaststroke preliminaries at the Indiana girls state swimming and diving championships on Friday at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. Bagan set a personal best time of 1:02.25 to claim the top seed in Saturday's championship final.
Photo by Chad Ryan.

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February 13, 2009: From bottom left, Homestead's Mariah Hamil, Tori Bagan, Kristen Kinzer and Emily Keefer huddle up before the start of their 200 freestyle relay preliminary heat during the Indiana girls state swimming and diving championships on Friday at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. The Spartans' squad finished with a fourth seed for Saturday's championship final.
Photo by Chad Ryan.

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February 13, 2009: Homestead's McKenzie Bagan swims in the 100 butterfly preliminaries at the Indiana girls state swimming and diving championships on Friday at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. Bagan finished in the second position and will swim in lane five for Saturday's championship final.
Photo by Chad Ryan.

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One for today

_{February 10, 2009: Fort Wayne's Ron Howard, center, ducks under Utah's Andre Ingram for a fourth-quarter lay up. The Mad Ants dropped their first game back at Memorial Coliseum after spending a month on the road, losing 113-100 to Utah on Tuesday .
News-Sentinel photo by Chad Ryan.}

Pics of the week

Well, at least a couple that I liked.




_{February 4, 2009: Trent Busse, left, his teammates, coaches and the Bellmont Braves fans celebrate after Busse pinned Yorktown's Trent Castner to pull the Braves to within two points with only one match remaining in the first round of the Adams Central team regional. Teammate Grant Melcher, not pictured, pinned his opponent in the final match to complete Bellmont's comeback 31-27 win over the Tigers on Wednesday at Adams Central.
News-Sentinel photo by Chad Ryan.}

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_{February 7, 2009: Homestead diver Mariah Kiefer completes a dive during the finals of Saturday's South Side girls swimming and diving sectional championship at Helen P. Brown Natatorium. Kiefer won the event, advancing to the Fishers diving regional on Tuesday.
News-Sentinel photo by Chad Ryan.}

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_{February 7, 2009: Homestead's Sarah Lohman launches off the starting block first in the 200 medley relay race at the South Side Sectional championships on Saturday at Helen P. Brown Natatorium. The Spartans set a new sectional record in the event and Lohman later beat the state cut in the 100 backstroke with her second-place finish.
News-Sentinel photo by Chad Ryan.}

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Was it a goal?

Sure looks like one.


_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

Port Huron goalie Ryan Mior snapped up a close-range wrist shot from Fort Wayne forward Mark Versteeg-Lytwyn in his glove during Saturday's IHL contest at Memorial Coliseum. Most people in the arena thought Mior had just made a great save, but did he? The goalie's glove appeared to be behind the goal line, and Versteeg-Lytwyn protested.

As the photo here shows, the shadow on the ice from Mior's arm and glove is several inches behind the goal line. Because of the angle of placement of the lights at Memorial Coliseum a shadow cast from front to back is nearly impossible. The lights there create shadows that are almost directly downward, especially as close as the goalie's arm is to the ice.

The referee waived the goal. To his credit, it was probably tough to see. But not if he had been in position. The goal didn't matter in terms of the game as the Komets won 4-0, but a goal is a goal and Versteeg-Lytwyn deserved credit for a hell of a shot.

And since we're talking about goalies, what about Sebastien Laplante? He's fresh off the IR list and back to action after breaking a collar bone early in the season. Laplante had a relatively easy first two periods of work last night, but he got peppered in the third period and nothing got by.



_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

And here's a shot of P.C. Drouin playing the body on Port Huron's Jamie Lovell in the first period.


_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

Interview with Steelers' Trai Essex

Here is a short interview I filmed with Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Trai Essex, who is originally from Fort Wayne, Ind., at Super Bowl XLIII Media Day on Tuesday in Tampa, Fl. Head over to News-Sentinel.com to check it out.

Some pics from SBXLIII Media Day

It sure is warm here

In the last two weeks at home in Indiana the temperature has been above freezing for about 20 hours, and that was barely above freezing. At one stretch we hit -20 with a wind chill of -45. Those kinds of temperatures invoke shrinkage just from reading about them.

But right now, I have a small respite from the chilling temps back home as I am in Tampa, FL for the next four days. And the temps are supposed to be in the 80's ... wow! So, anyway, I'm down here on a dual mission.

1. To pull out a few video interviews and photos from Super Bowl Media Day
2. To take a minute and just be a fan of the NFL since I won't actually be shooting the game

I got the opportunity to come down here and stay with a friend who works for a bureau of the St. Petersburg Times. He's also letting me use a car to get to the Stadium and other activities tomorrow. And if that wasn't enough, he's taking me on a charter fishing trip Wednesday. I owe this guy a steak dinner - I'm thinking Wednesday night.

Anyway, look for photos and other stuff from the spectacle that has become Media Day soon.

Even less available light

In the last post I mentioned using the available light in a natatorium and figuring out how to make it work. In this post, we'll take away some of that light and increase the speed of the athletes, making for nightmare assignments on occasion.

This weekend I drew an assignment to shoot high school gymnastics. It's the kind of draw that will make any photographer, not shooting with a Nikon D3, want to run away screaming. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but high school gymnastics is about as bad as it gets. It's not because of the quality of the competition. Those girls work hard and I am constantly amazed by what they can do.

No, it's the quality of the light, which is mostly nonexistent where high school gymnasts compete. You've all seen the wonderful gymnastics images from the Olympics. That's the fantasy world. In the big international meets, pieces of apparatus are set far enough apart that they do not distract from one another and the lighting is designed like that of a stage production with nice dark ceilings as the backdrop.

In high school gymnastics, everything is crammed together for lack of space, there are all kinds of people wandering the floor, invariably standing directly in the middle of your composition, and then there's the light. It is usually fluorescent and very FLAT - meaning zero contrast. The amount of available light forces the photographer to push ISO settings to the max the cameras can handle, introducing a lot of digital noise. Worse yet - for the safety of the gymnasts there is no flash or strobe lighting allowed, so obtaining consistent color is almost not possible.

The bottom line is you've got to find clean angles and you've got to set up to shoot areas where there is light. You also have to experiment with slow shutter speeds and moving the camera with the athletes.



I shot the meet with my Canon EOS 1D MarkIIn cameras set to ISO 1600-3200 depending on the area of the gym, and I used the 70-200 f/2.8, 300 f/2.8, 16-35 f/2.8 and 50 f/1.4 lenses to make my pictures. I honestly don't know how anyone gets usable photos with lenses slower (higher F-stop numbers) than 2.8, considering the lack of light and the terrible background clutter, though I see plenty of people shooting with them.

As with most sports photos, background is key. Clean backgrounds place the focus on the action and it usually takes a good amount of thought to find a good background, but when you do the pictures stand out from the rest of the crowd - not that mine always do, but I certainly try.