Brian Sevald Creative

Wrestling and Snowshoeing

Saturday I covered wrestling at Warren Fitzgerald for C and G Newspapers www.candgnews.com The second time in a few days that I have covered the sport. It is definitely not a sport for the faint of heart. Going toe to toe with an opponent is probably unlike most conventional high school team sports. Since I am still using a 1d mk ii I had to deal with the dimly lit gym, and had to bump my iso quite a bit to make a proper exposure. Grain is better than darkness I suppose. The gym at Fitzgerald was pretty comparable to the lighting a Utica High the other day, and my settings were fairly similar. Utica may have a been a stop or a stop and a half brighter. Most of my shots at Fitzgerald were around 1/200 iso 1600 f2.8 as compared to 1/320 with the same settings. I definitely prefer sports assignments, but wrestling is a little more difficult simply because 4 matches are going on at once, and the sports department needs photos of multiple athletes from multiple schools for publication. Since C and G covers 18 local communities, I had the task of including several schools at this regional meet in my shooting. It wasn’t easy, but I got 2 or 3 matches of the requested schools. They may not have been the top wrestlers, or the best matches, but I did what I could since I wasn’t told to cover a certain athlete.

(Saturday February 9th 2014 – Warren Fitzgerald High School – Athletic Gym – Warren, MI) Sam Tomlinson of Berkley High School (behind) grapples with a Redford Union opponent Saturday at the MHSAA wrestling Disctrics at Warren Fitzgerald High School. Photo by: Brian B. Sevald

(Saturday February 9th 2014 – Warren Fitzgerald High School – Athletic Gym – Warren, MI) Josh Young (standing upright) of Ferndale High School attempts to avoid a takedown by an opponent Saturday at the MHSAA wrestling Disctrics at Warren Fitzgerald High School. Photo by: Brian B. Sevald

(Saturday February 9th 2014 – Warren Fitzgerald High School – Athletic Gym – Warren, MI) David Morrow of Lamphere High School (left) takes down his Divine Child opponent Saturday at the MHSAA wrestling Disctrics at Warren Fitzgerald High School. Photo by: Brian B. Sevald

View the rest of the images at http://briansevald.smugmug.com/High-School-Sports/Wrestling/Wrestling-Districts-at-Warren/

And finally today I covered a Snowshoe demo trek at the Farmington Hills Nature Center at Heritage Park. The guide Carol Fink fitted a group with snowshoes and guided them on a tour of some of the trails. Some people even brought their own snowshoes. It was a beautiful sunny day and people were enjoying themselves. It was a fun assignment. I would never pass up an opportunity to head out to the woods. My outdoor research gaiters proved their worth as well walking through easily knee deep snow.

(Sunday February 9th 2014 – Heritage Park, Farmington Hills MI – Nature Center) Art Mikkola of Farmington Hills joins the snowshoe trek outside the Nature Center in Heritage Park in Farmington Hills. Photo by: Brian B. Sevald

(Sunday February 9th 2014 – Heritage Park, Farmington Hills MI – Nature Center) Art Mikkola sports hisi Michigan Made Iverson snowshoes during the snowshoe trek outside the Nature Center in Heritage Park in Farmington Hills. Photo by: Brian B. Sevald

(Sunday February 9th 2014 – Heritage Park, Farmington Hills MI – Nature Center) Paul Messing of Sterling Heights treks through the snow with his snowshoes Sunday at Heritage Park. Photo by: Brian B. Sevald

(Sunday February 9th 2014 – Heritage Park, Farmington Hills MI – Nature Center) Outdoor enthusiats enjoy a trek through the snow at Heritage Park Sunday. Photo by: Brian B. Sevald

View the rest of the images at: http://briansevald.smugmug.com/Events/Snowshoe-Trek-at-Heritage-Park

Wrestling Districts at Utica High 2/5/14

Yesterday I covered wrestling districts at Utica High for C and G Newspapers ( candgnews.com ) This is only the third or fourth time I have covered wrestling since I started shooting for the GVSU Lanthorn in 2006. So suffice to say I am not familiar with all the nuances of the sport having not wrestled myself in high school. Needless to say the match was very interesting and all the teams were pumped. It was an intense match right down to the end, with the crowd shaking the floor in anticipation of the final pin. I walked away with some decent images, I would have liked a camera with a little better iso performance, but hey, you use the tools you have.

(Wednesday February 5th 2014 – Utica High School, MI – Wrestling Districts – Athletic Gym) Troy High’s Howard Chang (left) grapples with Utica High’s Tyler Townsend during the wrestling districts Wednesday at Utica High. Photo by: Brian Sevald

(Wednesday February 5th 2014 – Utica High School, MI – Wrestling Districts – Athletic Gym) Troy High’s Conan Stoehr (top) grapples with Robert Kadrich (bottom) during the wrestling districts Wednesday at Utica High. Photo by: Brian Sevald

The settings I used were approximately 1/320 s, iso 1600, f2.8, custom white balance, on a Canon 1d mk ii with a Sigma 70-200 2.8 These settings worked for a majority of the shots. The gym was dark, and when the wrestlers were more or less stationary this exposure setting worked fine. When they moved quickly however, 1/320 was a little slow to stop motion completely. Check out the rest of my best images here http://briansevald.smugmug.com/Sports/Wrestling/Wrestling-Districts-at-Utica/

Been a while

Its been a while since I have made a post. Still shooting many different things and keeping busy, from Notre Dame Prep’s basketball games to going to court to photograph an alleged murderer, it has been an interesting couple of months. Since the last time I posted I have come to the realization I need to clean up my portfolio on a pretty significant level. So the next few weeks will be spent on that. In the meantime I have gone and shot many things for the newspaper, and have shot all the home games so far this season with Dan Lippitt at the Pistons. The end of 2013 was a good one, and I am hoping 2014 will be even better. Here are some of my recent images. Browse my full photo galleries of everything except the pistons here: http://briansevald.smugmug.com/

Clawson High School Football Vs. Warren Lincoln 10/11/13 – Homecoming

Tonight I had the pleasure of shooting Clawson High Vs. Warren Lincoln. This high school game turned out to be even more exciting than I anticipated. The action was exciting, the crowd was into the game, the atmosphere was perfect. If only Pistons games were on this level, lol, just kidding…

See for yourself. 🙂

Check out all my favorite images here: http://briansevald.smugmug.com/Sports/Football/Clawson-High-School-Vs-Lincoln/32489759_w6kXQc#!i=2827224996&k=4kVL6h9

Back at it! New Pistons Season Has Arrived

Ever since last season I have been patiently waiting for the beginning of the NBA season. Last year I had the privilege of shooting all the Pistons home games and having my images with a partial photo credit sent to the NBA for use on their sites as well as seeing some of my images show up on Sports Illustrated’s websites and others. I am glad to say that tonight we shot the first preseason game for the Pistons. While I was a little nervous because the remote setup I devised for the photog I work with failed right before the game, (I was able to fix it thank goodness lol) but the rest of the game went off without a hitch and it was a fun evening. I got some nice images I think, and I am looking forward to shooting all the home games. Here are a few of my favorite frames from tonight.

Baseball and Softball

Today I shot baseball and softball games simulataneously at Southfield Christian. While I wish I could have covered each game in its entirety, no such luck. I did get a couple images I was decently happy with, though I have not gone through my images yet. I havent had time to edit them as of yet. It was a fun couple of games, though the last game got rained out, and postponed which totally threw my schedule off. But such is life. I will upload the game photos after I edit them to the galleries section. Thanks for looking and have a great day. 🙂

Scheduling miscommunications, and Soccer

So today yet again, I was shown the reason why yet another piece of gear is absolutely necessary to do a good job. I need a super telephoto. Games like soccer, football and baseball require a longer lens. I was limited to my 70-200, and a 100-300. I really needed a 400mm or longer. Just another thing to save for I guess. I wasn’t super happy with my shots from this game because most of them were too far away. You don’t notice how big a soccer field is until you are looking at it through a lens. View the rest of the photos at http://briansevald.smugmug.com/Sports/Soccer/Macomb-Dakota-Soccer-Vs-Anchor/29723255_M79X5t#!i=2545473704&k=bcGpCDv

Memorial Day 2013

On memorial day I was on assignment for C and G Newspapers. I had a good time shooting their parade as well as a ceremony afterwards. The O’rourke family were the Grand Marshalls of the parade, honoring their father who was a police officer that was killed in September of last year.

Recent Work

So my posts lately have gotten few and far between. I have been fairly busy, working, working, and working.

I have been busy shooting for C and G as well as working with a Pro Photog in the area. A couple of the assignments for C and G were rather enjoyable. I like shooting sports, but anything that makes an interesting image is fun to photograph. Getting to use longer exposures at the Relay for Life event in Clinton Twp brought out a more creative side of me, and I was able to mess around with exposure times without really worrying about making a perfect image.

Admittedly I really miss the Pistons games and am looking forward to shooting that again in the fall if the opportunity arises. With any luck I will get to shoot them again, and hopefully they will do a little better next season. For now, I am having a great time doing what I am doing, and continuing to learn and look for more work.

Detroit Zoo

A day without creating images seems like a lost day to me sometimes, even when I accomplish other tasks that just may be more important. The other day, Katie and I went to the zoo, so naturally I took the opportunity to shoot. It was a nice day in the 70s so not uber hot, and it was sunny. I captured some good images, and one that I am more proud of. We were in the tunnel underneath the Polar Bear exhibit, and Katie almost started shouting “look!” a bear was swimming in the water towards the tunnel. There were a few people in the tunnel, and I wasnt on assignment, and I wasnt getting paid, so I wasnt about to shove my way through a crowd to maybe get a shot. The glare on the glass of the tunnel proved a little difficult to shoot through, and my first few images didnt come out very good because of this. However, the bear made a second pass over the tunnel, pretty much right over me and Katie, and I was able to capture a decent image.

Chicago Bulls Vs. Detroit Pistons / Salt and Pepa Halftime

Last night’s game was a refreshing change from the loses we have sustained for a while now. It was good to see the Pistons finally win a game. Though I am told they will get a better draft pick the more games they lose, so maybe they just should have lost. I showed up early as usual to make sure that the remotes were in working order, and that the overhead camera was functioning. There was a Pistons Academy going on when I arrived, it is good to see young kids excited about a sport, even when their hometown team isn’t doing so hot. I guess to kids their age, stats, scores, and numbers don’t mean a whole lot, they will idolize whoever is playing for the Pistons. After checking all the wires and setting up the cameras I got to shoot flight crew as they came in to perform for the Pistons Academy. I took advantage of the opportunity to shoot available light, since I have to shoot with lights for the duration of the game. I came away with some pretty good images even in the lowly lit Palace. When it came to game time, my backboard remote decided to stop working. Rather than sacrifice any good images I could make with my handheld cameras, I opted to try and fix it at half time. With Salt and Pepa’s performance startign immediately after the players left the floor, it was difficult to get the ladder under the basket and figure it out. I went up the ladder, checked everything, reset the camera and the pocketwizard. It seemed to be fine. Soon the game started again. The remote fired successfully only about twice. Then ceased to work for the rest of the game. My guess is the batteries in the pocketwizard on the backboard were low, because my transmitting pocketwizard set off my overhead camera successfully the whole game.

Woods, Kites, Smiles, Laughs, and Deer Poop

Today was a fun assignment for the paper. I was assigned to photograph a nature camp at the Lloyd Stage Nature Center in Troy. When I arrived, the group was going on a nature walk. I quickly tried to get ahead of the group so that I would be able to capture the group walking towards me. Leader and naturalist Debbie Williams was leading the group and was very patient, kind, and eager to educate the kids. We stopped at various points along the trail where she pointed out objects, plants, or animals of interest. The woods is one of my favorite places, but I normally focus on photographing nature, so it was a fun change to photograph people in nature. We then headed back inside where the kids made kites. A simple but fun project kept the kids busy for some time. Mrs. Williams guided the kids through a simple but effective kite design, and each child made their own kite. After all the kites were made, and several test runs around the room were made by some, the group headed outside to attempt to fly them. The wind wasn’t quite strong enough to carry the kites by themselves, but with a little run, the kites stayed aloft. As the youngsters were running around laughing and flying their kites, one of them yelled, “Whoa!!… Poop!!!” I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as they gathered around a pile of deer droppings to check it out. Things like poop were always more interesting at that age. Overall it was a fun assignment.