Detroit Sports Photographer, Drone Operator, FPV Pilot, Videographer and Freelance Creative
Congrats Matt and Lori and thanks for letting me help make your images!
Today I had the opportunity to shoot with Tony Harrison, a local Detroit boxer, for Valiant Brand, an up and coming clothing company. Here are my favorite 5 images from the shoot today. Photos by: Brian Sevald
I have had the honor of being able to shoot again for my fifth season for the Detroit Pistons. Shooting for the Pistons involves shooting on strobes, available light, and syncing remote cameras on strobes. It has definitely been a long learning process, and I still have a lot to learn. Hope you enjoy the images and if you feel like it let me know what you think! Here are some of my shots from this season so far.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to work with Gilda’s Club of Detroit to provide images for their 5k Walk and Run. Even though it rained during the entire event, the turn out was great. The walkers and runners were not afraid of a little rain. Here are a few of my selects from the event.
I have had the honor and the pleasure of working with the Detroit Pistons again this season for my 4th season with the team. In those 4 years I have certainly grown as a photographer, and learned faced paced sports photography. I also certainly still have a lot to learn. I have gotten lucky with a few great remote shots so far this season. There are a few I am proud of. I actually would like to create a post/tutorial on how to set up a remote. That would be a fun article to create. I just need to set aside some time to do so. Here are some of my best captures from this season so far. Click on the individual photo to enlarge.
Photos copyright: Brian Sevald http://www.briansevald.com
Last night I was surprised to see what I assumed when I walked into the gym to be the underdog team come back from a 20 point deficit and defeat the opposing team soundly, even if only in the last few moments of the game. It was an enjoyable game to shoot and I give Hazel Park props for playing strong and coming back.
The whole album from the game can be viewed in this gallery: http://briansevald.smugmug.com/High-School-Sports/Basketball/Farmington-High-School-Boys/
So it has been a while since I last posted, or updated anything on here. I really need to change that. However I still have been busy, with the Pistons, and with C and G Newspapers. I recently upgraded to a 5d mk iii, and man, I can’t give it enough praise. I had been using 2 1dmk ii’s a 40d and a 50d, so saying that the image quality went up is an understatement. I’ve had a sigma 70-200 2.8 for a long while, and it has been my main lens. After some pretty hard use, one pretty decent drop, and the finish peeling off of the lens body, I started to notice that I was getting less and less sharp frames. Of course there would be sharp frames. But I feel like I was continuously getting less and less. So I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new lens. After investing some money in pocketwizards, a wide angle lens for my backboard remote, and prerelease cables and such, I couldn’t justify the expenditure of a 70-200 2.8 IS. The other thing I like to do is go backpacking. a 70-200 would be a wonderful lens to have with me, but it is so dang heavy. So after some research, and the realization that I would probably end up buying 2 lenses, I bought the 70-200 F4 which is super light and very sharp, and the 70-200 2.8 the price of both added up to what the cost of the 2.8 IS version would have cost. So I spent the same amount, but ended up with a better selection of glass in my opinion. I would also like to purchase a 300 F4 a 400 f4 and another 5d mk iii in the near future. We can all wish 🙂
Pistons games remain my favorite thing to photograph, because of the diverse things going on, lighting, and of course because sports is always fun to photograph. Keeping busy with the paper as well with several high school sports basketball games as well. I seriously need to update my portfolio. It could use some updating.
This past summer, my family joined some family friends in Canun. I like to travel light, and sometimes I end up leaving things behind I would have rather not left behind. But such is life. I wanted to take dive gear, and camera gear. Both of which take up lots of room. So I decided I couldnt bring my underwater camera gear, it just wasnt happening. Dive gear was a go, when else was I going to get to dive cozumel. And that left the limited camera gear I could take. I ended up taking it as a creativity challenge. While it was difficult in itself, I especially misjudged how many wide shots I would want to take. But I stuck to my challenge, more because I had not choice than anything. I used a canon 1dmkii and a 50 1.4 for the entirety of the trip. All of the images below were shot with that combination. Photos copyright: Brian Sevald
It proved to be fairly difficult, but at the same time liberating, not having to think about switching lenses was interesting. I knew that whatever the conditions I had to try and make the shot work with the equipment I had. If I was forced into the same situation again, I would welcome it, but maybe use a different lens. maybe a 35 or wider prime lens.
-Brian
For the past two years, I have had the privilege to be able to photograph the Detroit Pistons at every home game. This has proved to be a huge learning experience for me. This year will be my third year, and hopefully not my last. It was at the Pistons that I first started to realize the extent that you could use artificial light and flash. It was at the Pistons that I learned about remote lighting, remote cameras, pocketwizards, sync cables stretching 150 or more feet, all for the purpose of shooting a pro sporting event. Its kind of crazy really, the setup that goes into a few hundred photos in the end. Sports and nature are probably my two favorite things to photograph. But getting to photograph Pro sports is unbelieveable. It would be even more unbelieveable if the Pistons end up doing well this season. Here are a few of my selects from this season so far. All photos copyright: Brian Sevald.
All photos copyright: Brian Sevald.
All in all I am grateful to have the opportunity to photograph the team again. It is an honor, and I will be grateful for every frame. I hope to learn even more, to grow as a photographer, and create some meaningful, lasting, quality images.
-Brian
brian@briansevald.com
313-466-4389
It has been a very long time since I have posted. In the past months I have been busy shooting for C and G news and for a few private clients. Today was filled with a new photographic adventure. My buddy Bryce is a Pro cyclist who rides with a club out of Grand Rapids. I had the pleasure of figuring out how to shoot cycling today. Which proved to have a set of nuances to it. The riders were moving so fast that my minimum shutter speed was around 1/1000 but I shot around at least 1/2500 to maintain sharpness, I felt sharpness diminished less than 1/1000th. Shooting cycling is just like shooting any other sport. You have to be in the right place at the right time. Inside or outside of turns, straight aways, there were plenty of vantage points. When the riders whipped by I tended to prefocus and blast away hoping that they would be centered, especially on the inside of the turns shooting with a 24-70. Shooting long lens had its times during the race, but I found myself liking the close, inside of turns shots with the 24-70 best. They tended to be more visually appealing to me.
So it has been a relatively long time since I have posted. Fall is here and sports assignments for the paper are picking up. I have been shooting soccer and football pretty regularly. Both sports end with games in the evening hours under artificial light. I find myself trying to get the shots I need before the sun goes down. But this isnt always possible. I have found I may need a new 70-200. I am not getting as many sharp frames as I used to. Admittedly, I may have dropped it once or twice pretty good, so its really no surprise. I have also had a couple chances to experiment with lighting, and smoke. In the self portrait you can see below, I tried to light smoke rings on a black background. It went pretty good but I would like to keep trying different techniques. Then finally I still enjoy taking photos at family functions. I think the people you care about make great subjects, and sometimes ridiculous subjects. My cousins are usually a pain, but make great photos if you can control them a bit lol. I have also found myself with several memory cards worth of photos waiting to be edited, while the paying gigs take priority. Hopefully will have much more to share soon. Enjoy the gallery below and have a great day.
Today I had two gigs, one my mother volunteered me for, and was the most work of course. She volunteered me to film some testimonials given by individuals that are given scholarships to participate in activities and use the South Oakland YMCA because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to afford to. The testimonials were given at a luncheon in front of an audience. Since I wanted to do the best job possible, I ended up filming from 4 different angles, and recording the sound track separately. Lets just say I have my editing cut out for me. It does feel great to give back to the organization that helped shape me as a child and young adult, since I spent most of my childhood at the Y. Hopefully I will have an edited video to share soon.
The next gig I had was an evening basketball game that I shot for c and g newspapers. http://www.candgnews.com I thoroughly enjoyed the game between Ferndale and Berkley. Both teams played hard and fought until the end. It was a close game throughout. It was almost as exciting as some of the better pistons games, but I guess that isn’t too hard to do as of late. I came away with some decent images. I will say Berkley’s gym is fairly dark, so I did have to bump the ISO and shoot at a slower shutter speed than I would have liked to in some situations. Click on the images to enlarge. To see all my best images from the game at Hi Res click here: http://briansevald.smugmug.com/High-School-Sports/Basketball/Berkley-Vs-Ferndale-Varsity/
Brian Sevald Creative