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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