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:

[Show as slideshow]

Many times when I walk into a mega-bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Nobles, I get intimidated by the number of photography publications out there. There’s a sliver of glee at the wealth of information and creativity available to flip through, but often we just don’t have enough time to read every page.

Here’s my attempt to cateogorize the good and bad, to filter out the ‘must-haves’ from the ‘look-goods.’ For now it’ll just be books and magazines, though more emphasis will be placed on the glossies because, well, they’re cheaper to try for the first time.

My first ever review is of Digital Photo Pro. The issue I have (and shown above) is July/August 2009. Running at 114 pages, it’s cramps in significant content, with not as many ad pages at the back as other photo mags that I’ve seen.

Within the issue, I was looking for articles of substance, with information, insight and tutorials that aren’t so easily found online or in mags aimed at a more amature audience. What I discovered was a pleasant mix of both. The Greg Ludwig feature, which accounts his experiences photographing Moscow for a National Geographic, stood out the most. Access to such qualified photographers is what I’m looking for.

Another big draw were the trend topics — the onslaught of video for digital photojournalists, and the importance of insurance for professional photographers. Both topics are highly relevant for my work, and the information put out taught me a few things I never knew. One more thumbs up for the magazine.

This issue had a theme on ground-breaking lenses, led by a couple of technical features on the latest crop of lenses and low-light capabilities of new cameras. Although they were considerably meaty in photo jargon, they did try to explain it in a succinct manner for readers of all levels to follow.

On the downsides, a couple of profile features felt thin and made me wonder why I had to read about this particular photographer. Since my desire is for sophistication and depth, these articles fail the magazine in this regard.

But here’s the biggest boo-boo against buying this mag off the newsstand. The articles can be found free on their website. Yes, even the latest ones from this issue. Reminds me of Popular Photography, where you can also find their articles online. To be fair, many American publications are suffering for this disease of offering their content online for free while they charge for a print version.

Final verdict: A magazine worth reading, but do it online.

What you see above is the final wrap-around cover for Columbia University‘s MagNet, a magazine on digital trends, and produced throughout the spring semester by one of the classes in the journalism school. Although the images were shot and digitally altered by me, the idea wasn’t wholly original. We had come across a sketch on the web that also used selected coloring to focus the eye on the important subject.

Since the mag’s emphasis is on fast-growing digital takeover, we essentially wanted a souped-up digital goddess (and god) flouting all the digital devices that one could carry. For contrast, that person would be surrounded by the drab, black and white stalwarts of yesteryear institutions, who would read the dying format of print newspapers.

We tested the idea with a bare-bones mockup:

The simple mockup. From left: Donald, Kim and Catherine.

Everyone in the class backed the concept, and despite the mockup’s simplistic makeup, all could see that there was potential to be an amazing cover.

Few days later, when it came down to the final execution, I directed the first three to sit on the steps, with Mina (the cover girl) in the middle, flanked by Graham and Ben. It was close to midday, so I used a white poster to reflect back some of the light to soften the shadows. Using my telephoto lens, my aim was to compress the background with the cast. Unfortunately there was a limit to how far I could step back so I didn’t get to use the efect to its fullest. Nevertheless we worked with what we had.

Several shots later, I directed the remaining three (Adam as the cover man) to shoot the back cover. Same motions, and in total we took only about 20 minutes. Notice that the props for both front and back are the same. You can even see the same images in the newspapers!

Back in the lab, to my horror I realized that the background of Lowe Library’s columns did not line up (as it shouldn’t, and I should have thought of that). By that time I had applied significant touching up for the individual front and back images to perfect them. The problem could be rectified; it simply required more Photoshop work. Trick here was to shoot a fresh background image without the cast, and blend it with the original image.

As you can see, it worked beautifully and when the boxes shipped, the class and many other friends called it a remarkable piece of work. Needless to say, it’s a wonderful confidence booster to have your shooting and editing skills validated by peers and professionals alike. This magazine contains subliminal joy and pride for being my first designed-and-published cover. With it, I hope it opens new doors into commercial photography.