Teams and Individuals: Hockey

[DougAxford]

Did someone ask for a hockey T&I guy??? Hmmm, that's what I've been waiting on this forum for all these years - just to answer this.

Are you shooting one league at a time or one team at a time? If one league (hundreds of players) I shoot it almost the same as any sport, except that you have to overpower the lighting. For team shots, I use 2 studio mono lights on stands hardwired into the camera and one portable (Nikon or Canon) attached to the camera. I shoot 5300K, f:10 @1/60 All of this is on the ice with a rubber backed carpet runner covering the cords and 8' tables on the ice so that no one will skate into the lights and camera set-up. Even with 3 tables side by side, someone still skated between them last Saturday.

For players, I switched to action shots 3 years ago for anyone older than Novice and a 'face-off' pose for Novice and under. Basically, when the kids can skate and stop without getting hurt. Players are shot with one studio mono light with an umbrella either on a stand just on the outside of the boards, or in some arenas, I can actually attach it high on a girder. The second light is a Nikon on a stand 5' to the left of the camera. Cameras are on tripods. Do not even think about hand-held for T&I on-ice work. If you do, I wanna be there to see thousands of camera pieces go flying all over the ice. One small flash fill on the camera - all the lights for individual players are fired on wireless (cheapie eBay works for me just fine)

Everyone is without helmet or mouthguard. I wear regular rubber soled walking shoes, coat & hat. It does get very cold after a few hours on the ice. It's a bit slippery right after a flood, but you get used to it. You can get slip-on grippers if you are afraid of cracking your head open.

The ice always is bright white, just make sure you are overpowering the crap lights they have in most arenas.

If you are shooting just one or two teams at a time, then I ditch the hard-wired on-ice lights and just reposition the one light stand and tripod. They want you on & off the ice fast, you're interupting their pratice and ice time is very expensive, so be prepared.

Biggest problem is getting rid of reflections. Arenas are surrounded by plexi and you need to keep the team lights up fairly high and the individuals are posed so relections are going away from you. The kids really love the action stuff but make sure that it's OK with league and coaches. I always make sure that it's the coach's decision and we're super careful that player's don't goof around.

Last Sat., we were 12 min. per team total time. That includes writing all their names in order for the group shot and recording each name in order for the individual shots. I'm probably the only guy alive who refuses to have forms & envelopes on the ice. The small kids forget them and the big kids - well, forget them too. Get $$ from parents, not players. For summer sports, players hand me their form, just not hockey.

The samples attached are cropped and nothing else done yet except I brightened up the team a bit, I was a stop under. The small girl was the Sat. shoot, the other 2 are Monday night with one studio light off-ice, one Nikon flash on a stand on-ice and one small flash on-camera. I see that I had the camera flash a bit brighter than it should be and you'll see the reflection of one studio light in the small girl's shot. It's the modelling light you see. I thought I was overpowering it too, but that's life. Pretty impossible to get rid of all reflections. BTW, I'll be editing out the clock in the team shot. The pile of snow in front of the guy is typical after 1 team, I should take a shovel next time. In seeing the preview of this post, the images look a bit soft, dunno. They'll be sharpened a bit at printing, but they look OK on the editing computer.

I should mention that I have never been able to shoot without at least one team having a practice on 2/3 of the ice while I'm shooting - you just get used to it. The older kids aim for me sometimes but it ain't nearly as bad as lacrosse - those balls bounce and are as hard as pucks!!

Anything else???? DougA

[Curtis Cunningham]

Originally Posted by DougAxford

Anything else????

Like I said in my previous post, I'm just gathering information right now so that I can put together a proposal, that makes a good first impression with the local minor hockey coordinator.

I did the local soccer teams this past summer, and so have that as my T&I background. I just don't think it's wise to assume Hockey is the same as Soccer. But then again, maybe I'm wrong.

Once I get a feel for the workflow, I'm confident in my ability to do a good job. Thank you for your detailed summary of what works for you. There's a lot of good information there to incorporate.

Originally Posted by DougAxford

Are you shooting one league at a time or one team at a time?

I can't say for sure, but we're a pretty small community up here, and so my guess would be a few nights of a few teams at a time.

Originally Posted by DougAxford

I'm probably the only guy alive who refuses to have forms & envelopes on the ice. The small kids forget them and the big kids - well, forget them too. Get $$ from parents, not players. For summer sports, players hand me their form, just not hockey.

So do you get the money from the parents before or after the shooting begins? Do you shoot everyone on the team first and then hope most of the team orders packages from you?

[DougAxford]

Originally Posted by Curtis Cunningham

So do you get the money from the parents before or after the shooting begins? Do you shoot everyone on the team first and then hope most of the team orders packages from you?

I have one or two people (depending upon size of league) on a Payment Table in the warmer lobby area. Since we get better than 90% buy rate, everyone is photographed. You can't sell the package afterwards if you haven't got the image. We always get calls a few days after the shoot wanting to order with a credit card. It's no different from any other sport we shoot, better to do them all.

Doug

[Curtis Cunningham]

Originally Posted by DougAxford

We always get calls a few days after the shoot wanting to order with a credit card. It's no different from any other sport we shoot, better to do them all.

Is there a surcharge for late orders?

How do you handle re-takes if say a certain player isn't there on the night of the shoot?

[Noel_Carboni]

I just want to chime in and say NICE WORK, DOUG!!

-Noel

[DougAxford]

Thanks Noel.

I accept any order on the phone w/CC until the team is actually being packaged for delivery. That's the huge advantage of printing it yourself. After that, prices are still identical except that there's a $10. charge for file search, postage and handling and they are delivered to the home directly. Even if the order is picked-up, the $10. still applies. We are thinking about changing it to be $5. higher on all prices and $5. for shipping. The goal is still the same - you want to have some penalty to prevent more people from ordering later, but low enough to encourage genuinely forgetful people. At this time I'm still not wanting to sell T&I on the internet. Action shots, yes, T&I no.

If the player is away, they can come at another time you are doing a different team - otherwise SOL. I DO NOT ever do them at the studio. Did it once, never again.

One problem you do get with sports or school is that order forms are not handed in even though they are filled-out. It's in the backpack. Not anything we can do about that. If they call with CC, I'll still process the order, otherwise SOL. There's only so much you can do for people, even though you want their money.

[Jeffrey_Nye]

Hey guys,

Don't forget about that wonderful hockey funk. Nothing like posing the team shot and walking between them and the boards and that overpowering smell! Even from the all girl teams.

I always had fun playing drill instructor to get everyone into position, especially for the team photos. If you don't have the voice or the presence to keep things under control and moving along, you or your equipment may not survive.

Have fun.