Winter Olympics 2010 Day 9: Portrait, Portrait Portrait.

Shot a portrait of gold medal Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi today for ZUMA press at the P&G Family Home.

Since time was limited, I enlisted the help of a Boston Globe video journalist and our liaison from P&G beforehand to aim my strobes and dial in the settings so we would not waste Kristi's time.



Trying to step up the portraiture here, I decided to use a David Honl speed grid on from the back over the balcony on a second 580EX to add a nice rim light - in front I used a 580EX with an Omni-Bounce to add the front light and diffuse. Shot it with a 50mm f/1.2 at f/1.6.




Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, spokesperson for the "P&G Thanks, moms" program, during a portrait session at the P&G Family Home in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. © Patrick T Fallon/ZUMA Press

While the lit portrait was nice, I also had the advantage of being able to shoot on ambient light as well, which was perfect when I was getting set up and Kristi started laughing naturally with some fans greeting her on the stairwell to our right.


Kristi laughs as some fans chat with her before the start of our portrait session
This was my favorite frame of the whole shoot because it was natural, rather than cold or staged - I like shooting candidly whenever possible, so I was happy to have the balance in my take between the two.

Shot with just the 50mm at f/1.2


Had a great time working with the P&G Family Home staff, they got a great setup for the athletes and their families, hope to return soon to do some more portraiture.

Winter Olympics 2010 Day 6: Portrait In The Rain

Didn't get to shoot much today, had to handle a lot of image editing from photographers and work here in the Main Press Center. However this evening I was able to shoot the press conference for two time gold medal winning snow boarder Seth Wescott.



Seth won the gold twice now for Snowboard cross - out of the two years it has been an Olympic sport. The press conference was a normal presser - but he was cool enough to let me take him outside in the light rain for 2 min. for a quick lit portrait behind the bay here. Awesome to work with and totally fine with getting a little wet.


Seth was lit by a single 580EX II strobe with a 1/4 CTO gel and Omni-Bounce - shot on a Canon 1D MkIV @ 6400 ISO. The blue lights from the International Broadcasting Center made for a great rim light and a splash of color.


The beauty of using speedlights, being able to shoot quickly, even in the rain, without causing any trouble or hauling a lot of gear around like big strobes.

Tomorrow should be an early start, but more shooting hopefully and if I get a chance, I will start working on my multimedia project about Canadian fans.

Winter Olympics 2010: Day 5 - On Assignment - Hannah Kearney Portrait Shoot

After getting back to the MPC from shooting the Finland - Russia women's Ice Hockey game last night, my editor gave me a last minute assignment - a portrait session with the first team USA gold medalist, Hannah Kearney. I left the MPC and made my way up 6 blocks to the Team USA House on Seymour.



Hannah was super cool, totally happy and excited about her win in the moguls skiing. However, she has been swarmed since her win with press, interviews and excitement from her Gold medal win, so not much time to make some pictures and only a press wall or the lobby of the Team USA house as available portrait locations.



I ended up borrowing a 50mm f/1.2 and a Canon 5DMKII from my editor Ruaridh, this was a perfect combination with a 580EX flash off camera with a 1/4 CTO warming Gel. USA Staffer Garrett Hubbard was an awesome lighting assistant holding the flash off camera for me [I returned the favor after]. We only had about 3 min. to do the shoot before she had to get another interview - but the setup was great and Hannah was a lot of fun to work with. The medals are really cool, each an individual piece of artwork unique to every medal.



Days have been pretty long - going to bed at 3am, waking up just a few hours later and hauling around a huge pack of gear the entire time, but this experience has been awesome so far and continues to get better.

Our Community: Sports Shooter Academy VI

Looking back at what has happened this year, I thought it might be good to write about my experiences from SportsShooter Academy VI.



The Sports Shooter Academy is a memorable opportunity for students and professionals striving to move their sports photography to the next level. Like with any great photojournalism workshop, you'll make some new friends, see some old ones, and have experiences you won't forget - but here, its about sports and great pictures. Robert Hanashiro and the rest of the SSA faculty have put together a cool workshop featuring three intense days of shooting college basketball, volleyball, soccer, swimming & diving, water polo, track & field, softball and tennis.

The chance to shoot sports completely new to yourself - but with the coaching of experienced photographers - is fantastic, plus the faculty is great about encouraging students to think differently about their work, to make frames that you would not normally make for a "daily newspaper" - to get creative and shoot pictures that you want to shoot.



I am particularly grateful for the SSA experience as one of the images I made at SSA VI was part of my sports portfolio that won bronze in CPOY this year. Beyond just the pictures I made then, I learned a lot more that I have yet to express in my images. The experience from the workshop continues with you into every assignment you have after that week.



There is not a set way of shooting at SSA - you can shoot how you want to, but you can also get advice and ideas from other students, you start to think more about how you see the world and sports - the emotion, relationships, and moments that happen on and off the field. The workshop doesn't just deal with the technical [though a lot of that is available], it teaches you about how you think about sports photography as a whole, making every picture mean something.



I really cannot say enough good things about the workshop and would encourage other students and professionals to apply, you will find it time well spent. I did not apply this year, but I will certainly do so again in the future.

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For more information about the Sports Shooter Academy, or to apply for SSA VII check out SportsShooterAcademy.com


Horse racing remote camera set up under the fence with the help of LA Times' Wally Skalij at Santa Anita Park.

On Assignment: Speedlight Lighting

This afternoon presented me with an interesting challenge - a sports feature about a new tradition within the Parks family - tattoos.

The initial assignment sheet was confusing, since the 'climax' of this story - getting the actual tattoo - had already happened. This looked like a portrait situation was in order, but little time or gear was available. The concept was to feature the tattoos, but to also show a sense of family.


Rock Bridge senior forward Logan Parks and his sister Morgan Parks display their matching tattoos of a Chinese symbol meaning "family", Thursday evening, Dec. 10, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. Parks got the tattoo on his right shoulder as a symbol of the bond he has with his sister, who first had the symbol tattooed on her wrist. (© 2009 Patrick T Fallon/Missourian)
Shot with a Canon 1D Mk. IIN at 30mm, 1/250th sec., f/14, 50 ISO

With Nikon SB-800 on the SU-4 Slave Mode, I could get a second speedlight off camera, with no extra pocketwizards or radio triggers, just the flash from my Canon 580EX II on a TTL cable.

Stopping down the lens and using low ISO, with the flashes close, I aimed to create a studio look inside a living room with lots of distractions and clutter in a small working environment. Knocking down the ambient light made my flashes the only source of light.

Since this was in a tight space, the "strobist" style lighting was perfect, Dynalites would have probably been too big.

I would have appreciated some additional light modifiers like grids and gobos, to block off more of the light and the addition of a reflector perhaps to try and get an additional hair light.


Shot with a Canon 1D Mk. IIN at 35mm, 1/250th sec., f/22, 50 ISO

Rock Bridge senior forward Logan Parks displays his tattoo of a Chinese symbol meaning "family" on his right shoulder. (© 2009 Patrick T Fallon/Missourian)

Ultimately I think this was a success, though looking through the take, I am seeing how I would like to try some things differently in the future and improve my lighting in the new year!


Rock Bridge senior forward Logan Parks displays his tattoo of a Chinese symbol meaning "family" on his right shoulder. (© 2009 Patrick T Fallon/Missourian)
Shot with a Canon 1D Mk. IIN at 35mm, 1/250th sec., f/14, 50 ISO