It’s a problem we often have when shooting high school sports. Cross country runners don’t wear numbers during meets (except in the bigger meets) Ditto for high school track athletes. This time of year our biggest problem is high school soccer. Many of the teams we cover don’t have numbers on the fronts of their jerseys.

I shot this photo at a recent soccer match.

West Valley High School's Forrrest Chapin, left and Sunnyside High School's Alfredo Gomez battle for the ball in the second half of their game May 15, 2010. West Valley won 2-0.

No numbers. How to identify the players?

One solution is to shoot the backs of the players, where there are numbers.

West Valley High School beats Sunnyside High School 2-0 in the regional soccer championship May 15, 2010.

Sometimes, though, the players don’t turn around soon enough for us to photograph the backs of their jerseys.

Then, we must look for other identifying marks on players. In the first photo above, the player in red has white athletic on his left hand. We can look for that tape in another frame, hopefully a frame in which we can see the jersey number of the player.

Shoes are also good way of identifying individuals since most players wear different shoes with different markings.

If all else fails, we can take a copy of the photo to a coach or other player later in the day (or e-mail it to them) to get help identifying players. But the photo has to be really, really good to merit this amount of effort and often there’s not time to do this.

Trying to sort out players’ identities can be time consuming and frustrating (especially with a looming deadline) but it’s part of the job. We sometimes joke about each of us on the photo staff chipping in money to buy numbers for the fronts of jerseys.

But until that that happens we will continue to photograph back of jerseys and look for tape and different shoes.

–Gordon King

Attorney Richard Bartheld makes a point to the judge in a divorce case Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 in Yakima, Wash. as opposing attorney Daniel Lorello listens. Bartheld is one of the attorneys who has agreed to volunteer as a judge to help resolve the backlog of civil cases in Yakima County Superior Court.

There’s wall molding sticking out of the head of the older attorney. Also, a TV monitor is sticking out of his head and shoulders. You can’t really see the face of the younger attorney so you can’t tell if he’s showing any emotion. And, as if all that wasn’t enough, the photo is shot from eye level.

But there’s something very right about this photo and that’s that the photo was taken in a courtroom during legal proceedings.

We’re very lucky in Washington state to have outstanding access to courtrooms. In fact, it’s presumed we  have the right to be there. If a judge wants to exclude cameras from courtrooms he must state for the record why he (or she) is not allowing cameras in the courtroom.

But once in the courtroom we must follow certain guidelines to minimize the impact of our presence. It’s understood that still photographers will use the quietest camera possible and take a minimal amount of photos so as to cause the least amount of noise. Once the photographer has found a place to stand he doesn’t move from that spot. No shots of the jury. If you leave at some time other than during a break, do so quietly and don’t let the courtroom door slam behind you.

This is why the above photo has issues. I was planted in one spot and couldn’t move once proceedings began. I knew the attorney in the foreground would be speaking only to the judge (there were no jurors) and so I had to pick a spot where I could see as much of his face as possible even if the background was distracting and even if it meant I could see only the side of his face (I couldn’t shoot from behind the judge). These are small prices to pay for such great access to the courtrooms and we should never take our access for granted.

–Gordon King

Sometimes, however, it’s more appropriate to say “using available dark” when there’s virtually no available light.

Such was the case when I went along on a survey of bats in Boulder Cave, northwest of Yakima. Bats there are hibernating this time of year making it much easier to count them as they hang on walls and in crevices in the rocky walls of the cave.

Headlamps and two flashlights provided the only light. I could have used a flash but (a) that would have completely altered the mood and character of the scene by introducing the strobe light and (b) the biologists preferred I not use the flash for fear it would disturb the bats. So, the flash stayed stowed in my camera backpack.

So, how do you make photos in near pitch-blackness? High ASA, wide apertures, slow shutter speeds, a steady hand and prayer were my answers to the challenge.

U.S. Forest Service district ranger Irene Davidson uses a flashlight and headlamp to look for hibernating bats in Boulder Cave near Clifdell Feb. 3, 2010. She and biologist Joan St. Hilaire eventually counted 75 bats in the cave as part of a biennial bat survey at the cave.

Vital stats: 1600 ASA, f2.8 for .4 seconds. I braced myself on a rock to steady the camera. It’s mostly sharp. Certainly sharp enough for publication in our newspaper and on our Web site. Or, as YH-R photographer Andy Sawyer calls it – “web sharp.”

Biologist Joan St. Hilaire takes notes during her survey of hibernating bats in Boulder Cave Feb. 3, 2010. Seventy-five bats were counted this year, a slight decline from the number of bats counted two years ago.

The stats here: 1/6th of a second at f2.8, 1600 ASA. This one’s sharper than the first one so something worked better. Maybe my morning caffeine had worn off or the prayer worked. Hard to say.

Lastly, I was finally able to get  a photo of a hibernating bat, a vital image for this story.

A hibernating Townsend Big-Eared Bat hangs from a wall in Boulder Cave Feb. 3, 2010. The bats are often difficult to spot as they blend in with the surrounding rock. A survey that day counted 75 bats, a slight decline from the last survey two years ago.

The light was provided by the biologist’s headlamp as she counted the two bats. Not much light, but enough light.

Shooting in these conditions was a little nerve-wracking because there was no “do-over” but it’s always fun to produce photos under challenging conditions. And it was really fun to hang out for a couple of hours in a cave counting bats.

–Gordon King

Go to Colin’s blog and scroll down several entries to find the list.

–Gordon King

I love these matches because the single overhead light provides very dramatic lighting that turns an ordinary photo into a compelling image simply because the lighting is so cool.

Selah High School v. Toppenish High School wrestling

Wrestling-wise, there’s not much going on here. You can’t see faces and the body language is pretty boring. But the single overhead light has transformed this otherwise ho-hum photo into an pretty interesting photo that’s more graphic than journalistic.

Taking a wider view, the overhead light can give you this:

Selah High School v. Toppenish High School wrestling Jan. 19, 2010.

As a bonus, the single bright light yields a near-black background, free of any distracting elements.

But there’s truth to that old saying “there’s no free lunch.” While the light is dramatic, there’s not much of it. So, you got to shoot at a high ASA and slow shutter speed. You get a lot of blurred, unuseable photos.

Besides being blurred, the faces are often too dark to be useable, even though I am shooting in RAW format.

This is the photo we ended up running in today’s paper. Sort of a “thrill of victory and agony of defeat” all in one photo.

Selah's Ryan Depaz, left, celebrates after pinning Toppenish's David Chavez in the 215-pound match Jan. 19, 2010.

So while the single overhead light presents technical problems, the dramatic nature of the light more than makes up for those problems. Like I said, a love-hate relationship.

–Gordon King

I’m starting on a story about the players of the Yakima Bears and the life of a minor-league ball player. During the team’s second practice, the hitting coach was warming up his players and evaluating their hitting skills by having them hit ground balls. When everyone had had a turn he pointed to me and told me I was up. I set my gear down and picked up a bat.

Sad to say, I hit one of maybe six tries. Enlightening, yes. A surprise? Nope. Just another confirmation that my hand-eye coordination is best used in the service of photography! And gave me even more appreciation of the skills of the young men I’ll be documenting this summer as they play baseball and reach for the major leagues.

Earlier in the day I’d gone out to the Yakima Training Center, a huge U.S. Army training base near Yakima, to photograph troops training on air defense systems. Their mission was to shoot down remote-controlled aerial drones using either Stinger missiles or .50 cal. machine guns. Besides me there was a photographer from the Tacoma newspaper (Joe Barrentine) and a photographer from one of the local television stations.

The challenge was daunting – we were kept several hundred yards away forcing me to use a 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter. The missile could be launched from any one of several Avenger defense systems on the range. Also, we would have no warning when a missile would be fired. So it was one big guessing game about when and where the missile would be launched. We were all trying to get the missile launch photo. Four hours and three missile later, the exercise was temporarily suspended and we all had to leave. I had a lot of frames of just the Avenger as I motored off frames thinking the missile was about to be launched.

This is as close as I came to getting a photo of the missile launch. You can see the smoke trail from the just-launched missile.

And none of us had The Shot.  The missile coming out of the launcher. But we all had to bring something back for publication. So each of us went to plan B. For us (the Herald-Republic reporter and myself), plan B was the crews taking part in the exercise as well as the drones being used in the exercise.

U.S. Army Spec. Tony Anders climbs out of the turret of an Avenger Air Defense System on April 15, 2009 at the Yakima Training Center. Anders, a gunner for the Avenger, was part of a crew that fired a Stinger missle and .50 cal. guns at an aerial drone as part of his unit's training. Ander is a member of the 5th Battallion, 5th Air Defense Artillery that is training for possible deployment to Iraq in 2010.

Mike Grimm, left, and Roger Fessler carry an aerial drone that had just landed after flying in a training exercise April 15, 2009 at the Yakima Training Center. The remote-controlled drones were targeted by Avenger Defence Systems being fired by members of the 5th Battallion, 5th Air Defense Artillery. This drone was not hit by any of the .50 cal. machine gun fired at it.

I did get flames. Not of the missile launch but of a just-hit drone crashing to the ground in flames.

An aerial drone bursts into flame and plummets to the ground after being hit by a Stinger missile April 15, 2009 at the Yakima Training Center. Stingers and .50 cal. guns were fired at drones as part of a training exercise being conducted by the 5th Battallion, 5th Air Defense Artillery at the training center this week.

I tried to explain to Bob the editor how hard it was to predict the missile launch, how fast the launch occurs, how no one else got The Shot, blah, blah, blah. I knew he wasn’t satisfied and neither was I but I did the best I could. And when that isn’t good enough you’ve got have a plan B.

As a side note, the image quality of a picture taken with a 400 f2.8 Canon lens with a 2x Canon teleconverter is not good.

–Gordon King

Top-quality digital cameras, the RAW format and really good press work here at the Herald-Republic has allowed me to cast off the lighting shackles imposed by shooting ‘chrome for many years (which should tell you how long I’ve been in the newspaper photography business).

I think photographs using natural light more accurately capture the mood of the scene than those lit by strobes. Of course, to use natural light  I may have to shoot at a higher ASA and have a more noise in the photograph or perhaps have a bit of motion blur but that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make in order to use natural light. One example is this photo of a horse that was given up by its owner when he could no longer afford to keep the animal.

Kerrie Regimbal moves Beanie to finish removing the horse's blanket at Regimbal's Selah-area home. Regimbal took in Beanie when the owner's home was foreclosed upon and was unable to care for the horse. When Kerrie and her husband Bob took in the horse three weeks ago it was emaciated but has since regained some, but not all, of its weight.

I love the light here – dawn light lights the front of the horse while the tungsten bulbs in the barn illuminate the rest of the scene, including the protruding ribs of the horse. The woman is a bit blurry but not enough to matter.

Sometimes, though, natural light is, well, boring. Then it’s time to think of how adding light to the photo can make it more interesting.

For example, here’s a heavy equipment operator running a D9 Caterpillar. He’s working inside a tinted cab.

Without a flash the photo doesn't have as much impact. Plus, you've got to wait until the light shines in the cab to take the photo. And when the light is right, the dozer may not be in the right place.

Sure, the photo works but with a flash, a pair of Pocket Wizards, a small tripod and lots of duct tape you can make it better.

I mounted a Lumedyne flash on a cheap tripod and used gaffer's tape to hold it in place. It was triggered with a Pocket Wizard. And dozer operator Larry Ross supplied the beard and cowboy hat.

This was the finished product.

Larry Ross pushes garbage around at Yakima County's Terrace Heights landfill on March 12, 2009. He's been doing it for 18 years and plans on doing it a couple more before retiring.

The ‘dozer operator really pops in this photo with the strobe added.

Conditions sometimes force me to use a strobe (like dealing with the really midday shadows we get here in the central Washington summers) but it’s only reluctantly that I pull the strobe out of my fanny pack.

–Gordon King

That’s why I think picture taking should be banned between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Warm morning and afternoon and evening light can make a routine photo at least more interesting and in some cases, dramatic.

Children walking down a dirt road isn’t such an exciting photograph (the story was on the poor condition of the road). But shot at 7:30 a.m. the long shadows of the early morning light frame the youngsters and add character and shape to the potholes.

The same photo, shot at noon, would be dull as dishwater.
Another example of light transforming the routine into the dramatic is this photo of a horse:

The problem is, news and news photography doesn’t always happen between 3 p.m. and 9 a.m. so we often have to deal with harsh lighting (especially here in central Washington where the sun always seem to shine). We don’t like it but we deal with it.

–Gordon King