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Saturday, March 22, 2014

Atlanta Brave Spring Training Fantasy Camp 2014 | #BTS and Recap




    For the past few years I have been working with a crew that covers the Atlanta Braves Fantasy Camps in Orlando, Florida.  For those of you who do not know what Fantasy Camp is.  It is a one week camp where participants get to train, play, and hang with some of the best Legend to ever play with the Atlanta Braves.  The participants basically get to fill al life long dream to be part on a team and see what happens behind the scenes. 
    


    This is always a very fun experience for me for so many reasons.  I get to do so many types of photography in just a few days with a sport I do not commonly cover.   I get to shoot outdoor lifestyle shots, looker room shots, action, behind the scenes of the sport, event and ground coverage.  It is a very long week with days from sunrise to sunset but it is well worth it, and the cold post game locker drinks seal the deal!

73 Portraits in 35 Minutes or Less



    One of the requirements is to get a portrait shot of each participant and the Participant Atlanta Braves Legends.  Sounds pretty easy at first until there are 73 athletes not including the Legends.  There are no time slots for the portraits to be shot either.  I have to basically show up super early, 5 am with one an assistant and set up the all the equipment.  Then as the participants come in I have to pull them from the locker room and shoot as well as pull them from the batting cages.  With the allotted warm up time being just around 30 minutes I would have just about 20 seconds to shoot a solid shot for a poster of each participant.  This time includes getting them into the right position, getting some action, and getting some standard portrait shots.


    My first setup was the typical right at Home Plate.  The flash setup is my usual quick 3 light setup, with a scrim to block out the sunlight.  I use all Elinchrom Ranger Speed AS pack for the daytime flash power, The Elinchrom 27 in Beauty Dish, Elinchrom 53in Strip boxes, and the Westcott Scrim Jim 6 foot model.  Everything was fired with the Pocket-Wizard Flexx TT5 using Hypersync.  I shot with the Nikon D800 and 35mm F 1.4.  I love this setup for the portraits fro the high recovery of the D800 in the highlights to make up for the white uniform.  The lower F-stop of the 35mm Prime lens also helps separate the participant form the background.  This was great setup as my assistant or I could grab the participants as they went into the locker room.


#BTS shooting a participant with the Elinchrom setup.

A different angle of the #BTS shooting a participant with the Elinchrom setup.


Here I am holding the Scrim Jim and Boom set up during some of the random gust of wind on the field.





    I also Decided to step it up and set up and outfield shoot to get a different background than the previous years this year.  I love this shot because it gets the massive green wall and score board. 


    The biggest challenge with this spot was not just getting the shots but also the setup.  I did the same 3 light setup for this location but I used the Wescott Apollo Strips and Orbs as the Light source.  I also set up the Elinchrom Ranger Speed as Packs and Nikon D800 with the 35mm F1.4 again.  I left the Nikon D800 on the Induro C313 Tripod so I can run back and forth between the locations.  The most intense part of this shot was setup just outside for the sprinkler system that was running at the time and still getting the background that we wanted.  You can see some of the sprinklers running on a few of the shots below.  I was able to get all the participants shots by corralling them as they went to or left the batting cages from this location.


The Setup for the outfield location






    For the third and back of the baseball card shot I set up in the locker room.  There was extremely limited space and it was packed.  I could only set up a single lite and was lucky to get that.  I used on Elinchrom Ranger Speed AS and the 27in beauty dish set up.  This location was a super fast click and run witch each participant.



The All Day action and Event Coverage



    One of my favorite parts is going into event coverage mode after the portraits.  I have total freedom to move all over the field and park during the games.  I also have full access to the locker room and any other are you can think off.  For example I was able to get on top of the massive scoreboard to get a good overview shot from an unusual angle.  I am even able to sit in the filed during play, or even get right on the pitchers mound during warm ups!  I love that I have the creative freedom to get some different angles for each participant in their different positions.

Here are a few shots from a the Event Coverage
























    The event is truly amazing for everyone.  Participants get to play baseball and hang out in the locker room just like one of the Atlanta Braves.  They actually use the main Atlanta Brave Spring Training Locker Room.  There are also post ball day poker games at the hotel, “man cave!”  They even get an entire day off and play a round of golf with the Braves Players of they want.  If you have not experienced the Fantasy Camp yet I would highly recommend it to anyone that is into baseball!  It is such an interactive experience with the Baseball Legend that you almost forget you are only on the team for a week!


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