Don’t let the eyes fool you. Pete Plotchev may not be able to walk, but he works his arms hard in the gym. This was one of my last shoots in U.S. (possibly forever) and the goal was to highlight his interest in hitting the workstations while also showing that even people in wheelchairs can do some muscle-building for their upper bodies.

There were two machines in particular that I had to shoot — a all-purpose weight-lifting station and a NuStep T5 cross trainer — both adapted for people who don’t have the use of their legs. Because the machines were fixed and immovable, it really limited the kind of angles I could shoot from. Because of that I played with colored lighting, while shifting from traditional, long, portrait lenses to some wider shots.

Pete is an extremely easy-going guy and always packing a smile. He never once complained about my directing (sometimes I feel I might be too commanding) and he always tried to make his weightlifting look as natural as possible (which I had told him to do too). Below are the selected best shots. Comment if you like!

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Brock Mealer on the field of The Michigan Stadium!

All my time as a student at the University of Michigan, I never once got to step on the lush green field of the Michigan Stadium. I attended plenty of home football games, but always as one of the over 100,000 fans and none of the victories sparked a rush onslaught onto the field. Ironic that only after leaving the school do I get to skip around the field, doing what I love — photographing!

All that was possible because of this man — Brock Mealer, who is an uncontested mega-fan of the Michigan Wolverines, and also personal friend of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. But not only did Brock get us access to the field after the game against Indiana, he was also an absolute joy to shoot. We threw footballs to each other, every time a cheeky smile etched on Brock’s face.

There seemed to be limitless possibilities and poses and scenes to shoot! Granted, The Big House is an impressive sight any way you look at it. We went from end zone to end zone, and loitered around the 50-yard line a bit. I loved capturing the bright green of the field, the colossal stands where fans sit, and even the press and luxury boxes just were too sweet to miss out.

This was also the first time that I made use of my recently-acquired Lastolite TriFlip reflector. Those things aren’t cheap, but they certainly quite effective. For once I didn’t make creative use of flashes but sometimes truly less is more. We didn’t spend a great deal of time on the field, but we made the most of it. This was certainly one of my most enjoyable shoots to date, as everything went like clockwork. If this will be the only time I got to step on the field of the Michigan Stadium, there are no regrets.

Check out the rest of the images!

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Backstory: I got accepted to be photographer for Access, a magazine published by the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living, which caters to the welfare, education and awareness of people with disabilities. It’s only a temporary position, but it gives me free reign to shoot various styles, from events to studio shots, and the point of this post — sports.

Sports photography has always been for the royalty. The most expensive telephoto primes and fast-acquiring, quick-shooting bodies are required. To get all that gear means you are backed by wealthy employers, limitless endowments or high-paying gigs in the Annie Leibovitz range. I don’t belong to any of these categories.

To shoot this water sporting event, customized for disabled individual, I had to do a little customization myself. I had never shot water skiing before, much less this modified version. Not that it’s much different; a boat pulls someone on a surf/ski board via a rope. It sounds straightforward, but there were unimaginable difficulties that didn’t surface till I put my eye to the viewfinder.

Firstly the speedboat rocked like a raging bull. Looking through a long zoom lens only made the vibrations worse. To round off the disaster, the skiier being towed was also bouncing violently on the waves. It was almost a “spray & pray” scenario, though I tried to refrain from that. But looking back at the images I got, I was somewhat disappointed with slight motion blur (or is it soft focus?) on some of the skiing shots. I had though 1/2000 or 1/2500 sec would be fast enough but apparently not.

If it’s not motion blur, then either my camera or len’s autofocus was out of whack. My telephoto lens had never let me down before and there was no reason to suspect the camera either. So I’m guessing user error on my part, failing to focus accurately on the person instead of the seawater that was splashing all over (especially at the front of the person). The next time I shoot this sport, I’ll make sure to have at least a 1/4000 shutter speed with perhaps more depth of field to make sure everything is sharp and crisp.

See selected photos from the day’s shooting:

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