Something Different for Father's Day

First of all Happy Father's Day to all. This being my second Father's Day I wanted to make this year as memorable as my first. So I decided to enter a triathlon. I know weird.

Yesterday I competed in a spring triathlon that consisted of a 1/4-mile swim, 8-mile bike ride and a 3.1-mile run. I've been training for the last six weeks varying my distances to help my endurance as well as time of day to factor in the heat.

Standing on the beach at Clermont's waterfront park I could feel the adrenaline pumping as I looked out at the buoys in Lake Minneola. I was in the mountain bike division which meant I was the last group that started because those type of bikes are slower than racing bikes.

I decided that I wouldn't run full steam into the water but instead jog and try to make it as far out as I could before diving into my swim. The water was extremely warm which slows me down. It was also very brackish making it difficult to see any swimmers ahead me.

I knew I was doing well as I only saw one neon green swim cap in front of me (different divisions had different cap colors). As I rounded the second buoy I aimed for the exit chute and navigated through a sea of slower swimmers from the division that started before mine.

Going into the first transition I felt pretty good. My breathing was down and I was able to get out on the bike quickly.

The bike route took us around the lake to places that I used to patrol looking for feature photos when I worked at the paper. The only time I was ever passed during the entire triathlon was at mile two of the bike segment.

My second transition time was quicker due to the the fact that I already was dressed. All I had to due was rack the bike and head out to the run.

Going in to the race I knew my strengths would be swimming and biking thanks to my years on the high school swim team and my Poister thighs cranking the bike along.

The run was the grueling part for me. It had more to do with the heat and lack of breeze more than the physicalness of it. Last week I purposely trained later in the morning to get acclimated to the heat and humidity. It was a good thing because it helped.

The last mile I really felt the heat. I kept my pace slightly slower than I normally would have just to give myself a kick at the end.

With .2 mile left I picked up to a full sprint for the finish line and crossed it with a time of 1:08:07 which was good enough for third place in my division.

I'm very proud of the fact that I made the decision to enter a triathlon but more proud that I did well enough to place. It was great to see Benjamin along the route cheer me on. Behind my sunglasses my eyes welled up seeing my son point at me and yell whenever I ran by him.

It was because of Benjamin that I started swimming, biking and running which led me to race yesterday. In the process I hope that I showed him by example that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish any goal you set for yourself.

Happy Father's Day!

Covering the Finals

So here's a video I produced during Game 5 of the NBA Finals this past Sunday with the help of Cathy. I've been thinking about shooting this video for a few months but never had an opportunity to have an extra person for scenes that would require someone to follow me around.

This video gives some insight as to what I do when shooting a basketball game. It shows that I don't just show up an hour before tip-off and sit on the court to take pictures. It's usually a 10-hour day and rigging remote cameras. The remote camera help me hedge my bets that I don't get blocked during the key play.

After editing the video I've developed a drinking game for it. Man I say the word "so" often during the video. I may also have to upload the blooper reel. The opening was shot over several takes as Cathy kept cracking up every time. Eventually I had to make her go down to the court until I was done.

Anyways, hope you enjoy.

Capturing a Champion

What a game. To document the Lakers' 15th NBA Championship was simply amazing. And shooting pictures of Kobe doing what Kobe does was astonishing. There were some shots he would take that I was certain there would be no way he'd make it and he did.

Watching the Lakers celebrate on the Magic's home court was disheartening to me as a fan but great to capture as a photographer. Photographing basketball history in the making was special. Getting images of Phil Jackson holding the Larry O'Brien trophy for the tenth time and surpassing Red Auerbach is something I know I'll always look back on say, "Yeah I was there."

I also documented Magic center Dwight Howard sitting on the bench and watching the Lakers' pump their fists and celebrate their title. That had to be rough for a player who wanted to carry his team to the stage and hoist the O'Brien trophy himself.

Covering The Finals was a great moment for me professionally but those three games were exhausting. I'm glad to say that the basketball season is over and I was able to work the final game. Hey doesn't NFL training camps open in four weeks?

Putting the Wife to Work

After the Magic beat the Cavaliers and advanced to the NBA Finals, I got an email from my editor at EPA asking me if I could find someone to help run digital cards from the shooting positions back to the editing room during the games in Orlando. Wow talk about a tough find. It's not like I had everyone and their brother calling or emailing me after Game 6 asking if I needed an assistant.

I knew I better call and offer it first to Cathy before calling my buddies up. I told her that two of the three games in Orlando didn't start until 9pm and that we probably wouldn't be going to bed until 2 am. Didn't matter she was in.

We made some logistical arrangements for Benjamin as well as for us to stay with my mother during Games 3 and 4 so we could get as much sleep as possible following the game.

Cathy's responsibility was to retrieve the cards from our two photographers on the floor who were shooting while I had a separate runner for my position in the stands. She said following the game that she developed a series of signals with John and Larry to communicate if they needed a card picked up or not from her position just off the court. So she was able to watch most of Game 3 from an area that people were paying close to a $1000 to do the same thing.

It was funny listening to her after the game talk about the celebs that she saw and literally ran into during the game. (Apparently Charles Barkley collided with her coming out of the bathroom. Don't worry he survived.)

I have to say that it was nice that I was able to get Cathy into the Finals. I know that most of the games I cover she could care less about attending but this is special. I mean The Finals only comes around to Orlando every 14 years.

photo taken by Phelan Ebenhack

FINALly

Last night the Magic were able to do what previously they couldn't. Win an NBA Finals game. Yeah I know it's not winning a Championship but for this town last night's win was huge. The frustration of the previous six losses was apparent.

So here I am still shooting basketball and it's June! It feels a bit strange but I enjoy it. In the last seven months I've shot my first World Series and now my first NBA Finals. Not bad but it's still just shooting a game.

I will remark that shooting last night's game was a little different. For starters I'm shooting from what is commonly referred to as the "up" position and not the floor as EPA's staffers who are shooting all the games are in the floor spots. I am in the upper bowl of Amway Arena which is kind of nice because I don't get blocked by players, refs or ABC cameramen as they scramble onto the court during a timeout. Nor do I have to worry about the guy sitting behind my spilling his beer on me and my gear when Rashard Lewis hits a three-pointer.

The game in general seemed to fly by for me. I don't know if it was the play of the game or because I was running down to drop off my digital cards to the runner. I think it was also because when covering the Finals you are always looking to make images no matter what's happening. there is no down time especially during the game because the game changer could happen at any moment.

It was a very long day and didn't end until early this morning. With just a few hours of sleep I'm back at Daddy Daycare and in a couple hours I'll be off to another shoot.

Now that I have my first game of the Finals under my belt I think I'll be able to enjoy shooting game 4 more tomorrow night. Go Magic!

Where was this 20 years ago?

So I stumbled upon this video on the WIRED RSS feed and thought it was pretty cool how far video gaming has come. I mean I thought The Legend of Zelda was cutting edge when I was growing up but this is mind blowing.

I've been a fan of Tony Hawk for almost 25 years. As a teen I skated all around Temple Terrace with my friends. We would buy the Powell & Peralta videos whenever they'd come out (I still have my VHS tapes including The Search for Animal Chin.) and watch them endlessly.

Watching Tony transform himself from professional skateboarder into a household name was interesting. He really hit it big when he started designing and producing skateboarding video games and the latest is incredible.

In the video Tony shows how gamers will be able to use a special deck to perform tricks in the new game and accumulate points. It's kind of like Tony Hawk on the Wii.

If only I'd had this 20 years ago I could've probably saved myself the pain of a lot of scraped knees and elbows.

Slam Cam Setup

Last week during the NBA Eastern Conference Finals I was informed that I would be responsible to set up the pool remote for all of the wires that goes behind the glass backboard during Game 4. This wasn't a problem as I've done this for years at USF basketball games. The main difference was that this was the NBA and not USF. I knew that I would have to get approval for where I positioned this remotely fired "slam cam" so as not to block TNT's cameras. At USF I was the only one who ever clamped a remote behind the backboard so I had carte blanche. Now it was a little different.

Only the NBA and Sports Illustrated are allowed to set their cameras behind the glass at every game in the playoffs. All the others had to share a pool camera. Well it was EPA's rotation and I was the person in charge of rigging the camera as well as firing it during the game.

Tipoff for the game wasn't until 8:30pm which meant I needed to get my remote installed around 2pm. No joke. Because you have the teams practicing in the morning, then rehearsals for all the performers during the game and halftime before the players come back to warmup the only time I could rig was six hours ahead of time.

The key to rigging any remote is safety. The camera is locked into place using a special clamp that screws into the tripod socket and then clamped to one of the support arms connecting the backboard to the stanchion. Once you have it locked down, a safety cable is connected to the camera and support arm in the event the clamp fails the camera doesn't come crashing down on someone (specifically a multi-million dollar athlete).

The next part is to focus the lens to where the anticipated action will be and shoot a couple test frames to see if it's sharp. Finally you have to connect the camera to a remote triggering device. In this case I use a Pocket Wizard Multi Max to fire the camera. Once the shutter release cable is connected to the Wizard and the camera I do anther test fire to make sure the remotes are receiving the signal and then I turn everything off.

About 40 minutes before the game I had to scramble up a ladder to turn on my remote camera and double check everything. This was important as it would be the last time until halftime that I would be able to change any settings.

Now during the game I have two cameras in my possesion. One is used for the times when the action is at my end of the court and the other had a long telephoto lens attached for the times the action goes to the other end. It is on the down court camera that I attached the remote trigger for the "glass cam".

The Pocket Wizard transmitter fits into the flash hot shoe at the top of the camera. This is so that I just have to follow the action and fire whenever something happens. Thus allowing me to have an action sequence from both the camera in my hand and the one behind the backboard. I don't have to make a snap decision which camera might have the best angle I can see both angles later to decide.

At the end of the game I took a look through the hundred of shots I got and felt pretty good about what I captured. It was just a little stressful because I couldn't tell if it was firing during the game and I was responsible for more people photo feeds. And that was the last thing I needed. Someone else's picture editor yelling at me when I don't even work for them.

Now on to the NBA Finals. Go Magic!!