so in case i haven't gushed to you about the story, i recently had the privilege of shooting the illinois/penn state volleyball game at huff hall. it was the pitting of two big ten/national volleyball powers against each other early in the season, with #2 penn state, the current three-time defending national champions riding a 65-game big ten win streak into champaign to meet #9 illinois, a team that has already knocked off then-#2 texas in straight sets earlier this season. i've been a fan of illinois volleyball for a while now, but it never occurred to me that i could actually shoot their games.
i came upon this opportunity earlier this year, after a little bit of soul searching (to come in "just a dream part 2", if i ever get that finished). long story short, i decided that i wanted to see how far i could take this sports photography avenue, something i've been pretty interested in since my amateur days of shooting with my little ol' point and shoot. i'm a loyal lurker on illinoisloyalty, which is where cary frye posts a lot of his photos. that's where i got his name and twitter account, and i contacted him that way. i e-mailed him, asked him about how he got to where he is today (basically getting paid to go to illini events), and about the equipment he uses. he answered all my questions and more, and extended an invitation for me to shoot with him at events. it just so happened that the first opportunity i got to go down to a game was the penn state volleyball game. it was one i knew i was going to attend anyway, whether i was in the stands or shooting, so the possibility that i might be on the floor for it was just kind of the icing on the cake.
i talk a little bit about the game and some of my photos are on my other blog, so if you want to read about that head over there. here i'm gonna talk a little bit more about the actual experience of shooting.
i know it's only been a few months since i last made that drive on i57 but DANG that felt like a longass drive down to champaign. i was on campus mostly for business, so i kept the personal visits to a minimum. i hung out with an old friend i haven't seen in months for a little bit, and then i chatted with fozz and clurious george for about an hour or so before we realized we had to start getting ready for the game. i got to huff a little after 5pm and there was already a big line forming outside. the parking lot had already filled up and i was on the grass. when i finally got in the gym, i had a little bit of difficulty finding cary. one of the women working the floor wouldn't let me on the court (understandably), and i walked around for a while until i saw a guy holding a huge camera, wearing a nikon photo vest. the most i know about cary is that he has red hair, and the only photo i've ever seen of him is his illinoisloyalty avatar, which is him behind a camera. it was a shot in the dark but i introduced myself to this guy and it turned out to be cary, luckily for me. we got the introductions squared away, and we started talking about shooting right away. he helped me find all the settings i'd need to take photos indoors and we went over stuff like where he'd be shooting from, the use of flash, etc. etc. it was all pretty exciting.
we started shooting from the southeast balcony first. i watch volleyball quite a bit, but shooting it is a little bit different. i wasn't totally familiar with the timing for shooting, and i wasn't sure what the lag time would be for my camera. luckily the girls were warming up, so i used their warmup time to get my timing down. taking those photos was definitely frustrating, just because my zoom isn't that powerful and my flash isn't great. because i have a shorter, wider angle lens, that meant i wasn't zooming past all the heads in the crowd, so those showed up in a lot of my pictures. this was definitely the part that was whetting my appetite for shooting because i'd have good pictures timing-wise, but poor quality-wise. once i saw how those shots were turning out, i knew i needed to get better equipment, STAT. after the first set we moved downstairs and set up on the north end of the court. the view was definitely a lot better here, but again i was getting that zoom/height problem, catching a lot of heads in my shots. i was getting some decent shots of the players at the net and a lot of reaction shots. after that set we moved over to the south end of the court, right in front of the band and the student section. we stayed there the rest of the night. cary was a little disappointed, i think, because he wanted more shots from the balconies and whatnot, but the stands were PACKED and there would have been nowhere to set up. it worked out for me because my positioning made up for my equipment's shortcomings -- i got to stand right up next to the little fence they had to stop people from spilling onto the court, so there was no one in front of me except the stupid line judge, who made an appearance in waaaaaay too many of my photos. it was great, and i got a lot of cool shots.
i definitely learned a lot about the different camera settings and angles and things like that. shooting with ultimate is different because you get natural lighting, and usually there's no need to use flash. but shooting inside is totally different. also, because generally (unless you're shooting at a huge tournament like nationals), the sidelines are pretty clear and you can usually get a pretty good shot just sitting down. for all the nationals games, i was pretty much just parked on the sidelines with a camera in my hand. but for this game, i was standing for the entirety of the three hours, camera in hand, ready to go. i had no idea how sore my arm would be after the game! my right arm is actually still SUPER SORE today, three days after the match. pretty crazy. my back was killing me by about the third set. i mean, just a deep ache. i guess i don't really stand too much when i'm shooting ultimate. luckily my feet and legs were feeling okay. i knew huff would be hot as hell so i wore shorts and a t-shirt, but i'm so glad i also decided to wear gym shoes instead of flip flops -- my feet would not have been able to take standing there for three hours in flip flops or even slides. but seriously, i still can't get over the whole arm soreness thing! and my camera is pretty small, too! i can't imagine what it's gonna feel like when i start shooting with a bigger camera. guess i'm gonna have to do a lot more bicep curls ...
results-wise, i took 904 shots on the night, and found 135 of them "acceptable". of course, none of them would be posted on any website or anything like that, but those 135 shots are shots i think could be improved once i get a little more experience shooting and once i start using better equipment. i really don't know how to explain how shooting felt except to say that it was completely addicting. i love that feeling of chasing the "perfect shot" -- capturing the exact moment or emotion you want to capture, and getting it at just the right time. god i loved it. and the players are just so much fun to shoot. they all get so hype and just look like they're having so much fun playing. it was such a surreal experience. not just shooting but actually just being at the match. "history at huff" definitely lived up to its billing. the players were into it, the fans were into it ... it just made for an incredible atmosphere. it was definitely hard to stay impartial while i was down on the floor shooting. there were times when i'd want to put the camera aside and just watch the game, and when the team was down i just wanted to cheer and rally for them. when they got a big block or put away a kill, i wanted to do something, fist pump, anything, but i had to be content with just smiling or laughing. the big ten network rebroadcast actually has a shot of me laughing before i go back to take another picture. it's great.
i really couldn't have asked for a better teacher or a better first shoot. cary was great all night, and super patient and super kind. he let me follow him around and he was giving me great pointers all night. he said that he started out kind of like me, as just someone interested in shooting until someone gave him a shot and helped him learn the ropes. cary's a self-taught photographer, and he does this stuff as a side job, so it's pretty cool to learn from someone who's doing what i want to eventually do one day. i really can't get over how awesome it was of him to let me follow him around on that particular night, what with it being such a huge match. MAJOR thanks to cary.
it is definitely an experience i'll cherish for a long time. i still can't get over that i was on the FLOOR of huff for one of the biggest volleyball games in illinois program history. i was actually so close to the action that i almost got hit by the ball multiple times. i think it was in the fourth or fifth set, a penn state ace literally almost knocked the camera out of my hand and took my head off. i felt the wind as the ball whizzed by. it was pretty sweet. the girls all ran by me on their way back to the court after the intermission, and they all lined up in front of me for the alma mater. probably the coolest thing was that sometimes when the girls would serve, they would literally be DIRECTLY in front of me. like so close that i could just reach out and touch them. i didn't, of course, but it was pretty cool to think that i was actually that close to everything. i'm still in awe.
i'm not good enough at shooting that this could be a profession or anything like that for me, but this is definitely shaping up into a pretty expensive hobby. like i said, i'm addicted to wanting to get that perfect shot. it's really, really fun, and i don't know, i just felt right out there shooting. i would have loved to have been in the stands too, of course, but being on the floor behind the camera just felt right. i'm definitely gonna be back multiple times to shoot more games, and i'll definitely be going back with better equipment. now that i know how shooting goes with my own camera, i'm gonna go out and rent equipment for the next time i go down to champaign. eventually i'd like to own a better camera for myself, but for right now i'm only learning, and i'm still trying to figure out what's out there and what's best for me. but oooh i'm still riding an adrenaline high from friday night, and i can't WAIT go get back down to huff and shoot some more.
