I’ve been somewhat tardy in getting things posted this past month, so I won’t let my plans for future 2007 Singles posts delay me from getting the gallery link posted.
Due to some time restrictions, I arrived in Houston on Friday night. I started shooting the Casino Night, and then semifinal matches on Saturday (no quarterfinal pics this year!).
I plan to follow this post with some match re-caps, and also some behind-the-scenes type photos.
While I wasn’t able to attend this year’s IRT Pro National Racquetball Championships, veteran US OPEN photographer Mike Boatman was on the scene. Not only is Mike one of the most accomplished photographers of racquetball, he also runs a very successful photography business in Memphis, TN. Mike does some AMAZING work, and I highly recommend you check out his website - www.mikeboatman.com.
Mike submitted some of his best shots from the event, which included action from the beginning rounds through the finals.
As luck would have it, I had a few free hours to spare the weekend of 2007 regional qualifiers for USA Racquetball. On Saturday evening of the 2007 Northwest Regional Racquetball Championships, I was able to catch one of the Men’s Open semis, as well as both of the semis for the Men’s Open Doubles.
MS1 - Stark def. Pratt (6, (4), - This was a GREAT match between veteran Jeff Stark, and up-and-comer Charlie Pratt. Stark finished second at National Doubles in 2006, and is a member of the USA Racquetball National Team. Pratt is veteran of the Junior tour, and is a long time USA Racquetball Junior Team member. He has started to make his presence felt on the pro tour, where he had a nice win over top ranked IRT player, Jason Thoerner.
MDS1 - Westwood Rutledge def. Baida Solomon (14, 9) - These guys are all long time players in Oregon; Westwood known for winning the Men’s Open singles division in Oregon for the past three years running.
MDS2 - Pratt Knoth def. Darling Rasmussen ((7), 12, 10) - Charlie Pratt teams up with junior champion Taylor Knoth against long time veterans Dan Darling (3rd 2006 National Doubles Men’s Open), and Kelley Rasmussen. Rasmussen would injure his knee part way through game two, which forced Darling to cover the entire court for the rest of the match. While this sounded like an instant victory for Knoth and Pratt, they had to fight hard to *barely* take the tie-breaker.
Here’s a cool new photo publishing site called “BritePic”. I just might have to start using this! The “menu” button on each shot allows you to zoom, share, etc.
Moving 6,200 photos from an online photo sharing service to Doubledonut.com was not easy, but it’s finally complete! The official link to the Double Donut Studios Gallery is now located at the top of the page, under the banner (”gallery”). This is the new home for all Double Donut photos - past, present, and future. Please update any old bookmarks you might have to the new site!
A quick thank you to Adam Katz for this heads up - John Foust has posted his pictures from the 2007 Racquet for the Cure WPRO stop in Denver. Most of the shots are “portraits” of players and fans (you just may see a few familiar faces ), but there are some shot on the last few pages of the gallery of the match between Rhonda and Christie.
Of all the sports I have photographed, I would have to say that racquetball is probably the most challenging from both the technical and artistic standpoint. To capture the action, a photographer usually has to deal with very dim lighting, thick (and always dirty / scuffed) glass between himself and the subjects, and a limited number of shooting locations. Combine these factors with one of the fastest sports on the planet, and you quickly realize why good racquetball photos are a rarity!
Gear
Camera
With current state of digital camera technology, it doesn’t cost an arm and leg to break into racquetball photography. The first essential item is a Digital-SLR camera (I’ve never shot film, so I’m not even going to attempt that discussion). If you want a solid technical background of exactly what an “SLR” camera is, you can read the Wiki. A simplistic explanation is a digital camera that you detach / attach different lenses to, and that has a mechanical shutter. Examples would include: Canon Digital Rebel, Canon Digital Rebel XT, Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Canon 10D, Canon 20D, Canon 30D, Nikon D50, Nikon D70, Nikon D80, Nikon D200, etc., etc. This is by far an incomplete list, but you probably get the point. When spending more money, you get more and more features in the camera, but rest assured, the cheapest SLR from any of the manufacturers can provide EXCELLENT results once you get a little practice, and of course read this tutorial ;).
Lens
Once you get your shiny new camera all picked out, the next item you will NEED for racquetball photography is a new lens. I’ll get into a detailed explanation of this a little later, but for now you’re going to have to trust me. The stock lens that came with your camera will absolutely NOT provide good results for racquetball. The reason for this is referred to as the “speed” of the lens. A faster lens is one that can provide higher shutter speeds, which means it is capable of higher apertures. A trade off for these “faster” lenses is that they typically do not zoom (lenses that do not zoom are called “primes”). You have to choose a lens with a focal length that will work for the location you are shooting from. The table below gives a summary of the prime lenses I use for different shooting locations.
Focal Length –> Shooting Location
14mm, 28mm, 35mm –> Back Wall or Side Wall
50mm –> Side Wall or Front Wall
85mm (or higher) –> Front Wall
One thing you can use your “stock” or “kit” lens for, is determining how pictures will look for different focal lengths. Even though the pictures are going to look bad from a “sports action” perspective, just take your stock lens and try shooting with different focal lengths (zoom settings). See how much of the frame the players take up. Are they too small (you’ve got two small players and A LOT of empty court)? Are they too big (you can’t fit even a single player in the frame)? Once you have the “right” focal length for your shooting desires, it’s time to decide on a prime to buy. Unless you’re a professional photographer, I’m going to assume that a $1000 lens might be a bit of overkill. The table below includes some good recommendations below that price point (although there are some sweet sweet lenses in the $1000 - $2000 range ;)) Examples include:
Canon
Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye ~$575
Canon EF 35mm f/2 ~$225
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 ~ $80
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM ~ $300
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM ~ $330
Nikon
Nikon 16mm f/2.8D AF Fisheye-Nikkor ~$440
Nikon 35mm f/2D AF Nikkor ~$240
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor ~$100
Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor ~$275
Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor ~$335
Sigma
Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical RF ~$330
Sigma 15mm f2.8 EX Diagonal Fisheye ~$360
Sigma 28mm f1.8 EX DG Aspherical Macro ~$230
Technical Shooting Info
Exposure Settings
Ok, so you’ve got the camera, and a “fast” lens. Now what? Head to the club! The amount of light at different facilities varies greatly. Luckily, finding a good setting for your court is quick and easy. The first thing you want to do is find out how to turn on the “review” mode on your camera so that you can look at the pictures on the screen after you take them. It will also be a BIG help if you can turn on the “shooting info” with the picture. The shooting info will tell you what shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and other settings that were used when taking the picture. Once you have this figured out, you’re ready to start shooting. Generally speaking, a lower ISO is preferred so that you don’t have excess digital noise in your pictures, but this isn’t really an option for racquetball. Set your ISO on the highest value, which is usually ISO 1600. Then, follow this procedure:
Set your camera to “Manual” exposure mode (usually the big M on the dial).
Set your aperture to the highest possible value – which is the LOWEST number (confusing, I know ) With your new lens, this should be F/1.8, F/2.0, etc.
Set your shutter speed to 1/500
Take a picture (this can even be of someone just standing on the court at this point)
Hit the playback button on your camera
If you are shooting on a WELL lit court, the picture looks nice and bright!
If you are shooting on a TYPICAL court, the picture will be too dark
If the shot is too dark, you need to lower your shutter speed (bump it down one notch from 1/500 to 1/400 or 1/320).
Go to step #4.
Simply repeat this procedure until you are getting well exposed photos. But what if I’ve gone through the list, and at ISO1600, F/1.8 and a shutter of 1/200, my shots are still dark? Well, tough beans, but it looks like you need to find a new court to shoot at. As you lower the shutter speed more and more, you’ll significantly increase the amount of motion blur in the photos. This will start as a blurry racquet, and then include blurry arms, legs, etc. For racquetball, I usually give up on the courts when my shutter speed drops below 1/320. There are, of course, times when having ANY picture is better than no picture, in which case you just have to live with some blurry shots.
Focus Settings
Anyone who has ever used a point-and-shoot type digital camera is probably aware of a “single shot” focusing system. You press and hold the shutter half way down, and the camera locks in a focus. When you’re ready to take the picture, you press the shutter all the way down, and viola! That’s all nice and well, but what if your subjects are constantly moving around? This is where “AI-Servo” or “constant focus” comes into play. As you press and hold the shutter half way down, the camera locks focus onto your subject BUT as the subject moves closer or further from you, the camera continuously changes the focus to keep them locked in. This is VERY useful (dare I say mandatory) for racquetball. With AI-Servo (continuous) focus mode active, you can constantly track the players, and then snap a shot off EXACLTY when you want, without have to wait for the camera to focus.
Shutter Settings
As you spend larger amounts of money on your digital camera, one feature you’ll notice improving is the ‘burst” speed of the camera. On the Canon Digital Rebel, it is 3FPS (frames per second). On the Canon 20D, it’s 5FPS. When shooting racquetball, I think there is a big misconception that the best method is to enable the burst mode, and then just hold the shutter down for every swing of the racquet. This will result in bad pictures almost ALWAYS (not to mention a memory card filling up after the first 10 rallies). The swing of the racquet is simply too fast to accurately capture “peak action” at these frame rates (more about peak action below). I seem to always have WORSE results when using burst mode than I do just practicing my timing and taking single shots. This is even true with my Canon 1D that can do an amazing 8FPS (or 10 FPS on the version soon to be released).
Artsy Fartsy Stuff
So you’ve got the new gear and figured out how to get properly exposed, well focused shots. You are now on your way to getting some keepers on the racquetball court. Normally when I am sorting through all my shots to find these “keepers”, I’m looking for some key elements. Ideally, you want to have both players in the shot, the ball in the shot, and PEAK action (bonus if you can see the player’s faces). There are many instances where the shot doesn’t lend itself to having both players in frame, but I would say this occurs a minority of the time.
The main goal here regardless of the positions of the players, is to capture the PEAK action. For someone swinging their racquet at a ball, I would classify this as one of the three scenarios: the racquet “prep” (where the player winds up for the shot, at the highest point of wind-up); the ball contacting the strings of the racquet; and the follow through of the swing (the end of the swing where the racquet has been fully extended). For a dive, this would be the point where NO part of the player is touching the floor, including one little toe or hand. For a jumping shot, this would include the player fully in the air, with the ball passing underneath. Piece of cake, right? WRONG! It is very difficult to capture these exact moments! I’d say that it took me ~30,000 shots before I started to figure this all out (of course I had to learn everything above by trial and error, as there was no handy guide on a website )
Obviously the guidelines above do NOT apply to all situations. I’ve taken some shots I considered “keepers” that didn’t adhere to the rules. However, I would say that 90% (or more) of the shots that make it to my website do fall into one of the categories above.
Tips
When taking shots, stay LOW to the ground! Sit or kneel by the glass. Standing while taking the shots is a no-no!
To avoid glare, hold the camera as close as possible to the glass (if you have a lens hood, you can even rest it against the glass). If you’re still getting reflections, you can drape a dark colored towel or sheet over yourself and the camera
Clean the glass in front of your shooting location (inside and out).
Once you’ve tried all this out, share your photos! Set up a free account at Flickr, and then post your photos to the Racquetball Group – www.flickr.com/groups/racquetball .
Happy Shooting! Questions? Comments? Leave a message below .. All Content (c) 2007 Geoff Thomsen - No Reproductions without written consent
The post I wrote about resources for racquetball videos seemed to be pretty popular, so I though I’d follow up with some info about racquetball photography as well. Of course the Double Donut Studios Racquetball Blog is *the* premiere source for racquetball photos ;), but there are some other good links available as well.
Double Donut Studios is the official Racquetball Blog of photographer, Geoff Thomsen. Geoff covers many events for USA Racquetball / Racquetball Magazine, including: National Singles, National Doubles, and the US OPEN Racquetball Championships. Geoff also covers several local events such as the NW Regionals. The Blog portion of the website features ongoing coverage of the Men’s and Women’s Pro tours, national events such as the USA Racquetball National Singles and Doubles championships, the International Racquetball Federation, and any other national / world event news. Automatic updates for news items on this site can be retrieved by adding the RSS feed address into your favorite feed reader. The racquetball photo galleries for Double Donut are:
This is the upgraded photo gallery for Double Donut Studios. All new event coverage will be posted here, and eventually, all of the old events will be migrated. Unfortunately, it is going to take a significant amount of time to move the thousands of photos, but it will eventually happen.
Archive Racquetball Photo Gallery (archive)
This is the original hosting spot for the photos on Double Donut. There are photos from MANY events on this site, which date back to May of 2004. Included are USA Racquetball National Events, US OPEN, Pro Exhibitions, and events local to Portland, OR.
Once upon a time, I had enough free time on my hands to slice and dice some of photos on my site into some cool graphic designs. This type of work is alot of fun, and one of these days when I have some free time again, I’ll post more. When will that be? Who knows.
A while back I made a post regarding a racquetball photo group which I created on Flickr. So far, there hasn’t been alot of new posts from other people taking photos of racquetball - which I guess is understandable due to the challenges in taking good pictures. I have a goal to post a short how-to guide in near future, and I’m hoping it will motivate some enthusiasts to start bringing their shiny new DSLRs to the club with them. It’s nice to have something to do while waiting for your turn on the challenge court
Ken Fife has done a great job covering local events around the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has professional gear, and has some excellent shots from several recent events. Ken is in the process of posted a lengthy tutorial, which seems to be geared toward currently seasoned photographers wanting to hone their skills for the racquetball court (link coming when available).
Feel free to leave any other good racquetball photo / racquetball photography links in the comments!!
The men’s finals of the 2006 US OPEN Racquetball Championships had everyone guessing. Would the “rested” Rocky Carson who had not dropped a single game all tournament steamroll Jason Mannino who was injured and also off a huge five game battle royal? Would Jason’s drive and confidence propel him to his second US OPEN title? I think most people expected four or five games, but Jason Mannino won his second US OPEN title in three straight.
The Men’s semifinal rounds of the 2006 US OPEN Racquetball Championships truly set the tone for the finals on Sunday. Rocky started out with a quick finish over Shane Vanderson, and many noticed that he seemed rested and ready for the match on Sunday. On the other half of the draw, there was a blood bath that will not soon be forgotten in Memphis. Jack Huczek and Jason Mannino played an INCREDIBLE five game battle royal that even had Shawn Royster dancing on the announcer’s desk near the end of game five. Jason’s torn calf muscle seemed to be having little impact on his play, and his mental game seemed unshakable.
MS1 - Jason Mannino def. Jack Huczek (5,6,(6),(9),10) MS2 - Rocky Carson def. Shane Vanderson (5,8,3)
Things really started to kick up a notch with the Men’s Quarterfinal rounds of the 2006 US OPEN Racquetball Championships. Each match seemed to have its own little point of interest ..
MQ1 - Jack Huczek def. Mitch Williams ((7), 4, 1, 4) This was the first quarterfinal appearance for Mitch Williams at the US OPEN. He had been playing very well all week so far, and seemed ready to step up to the number one player in the world. Along with the quarterfinals appearance came some limelight - Mitch got his first Tennis Channel interview, and seemed right at home. Things kicked off with a bang, and Mitch took game one before Jack knew what happened. Huczek quickly re-grouped during the between game break, and had Williams forcing bad shots and chasing balls for the next three games.
MQ2 - Jason Mannino def. Cliff Swain (8, 11, 2) Both players had heavy minds during this match - Cliff Swain had announced retirement earlier this year, and this was possibly his last match on the stadium court, ever. Mannino had torn a calf muscle in the early rounds, but was able to use smart game play to nurse his wounds. Cliff would clearly take advantage of any possible weakness, so this would undoubtabley be Jason’s first hardcore match with the injury. It was to my great surprise, that Jason stepped on the court and dominated from beginning to end, taking the match in three straight games. Does this guy have a chance at the title?!
MQ3 - Shane Vanderson def. Alvaro Beltran ((8), 7, 6, 1) This was a quarterfinal that many thought could go either direction. Alvaro Beltran has been playing some great ball lately, and just picked up a new sponsor - Pro Kennex. Shane Vanderson had also been playing some great ball, and was poised to take it to the next level here in Memphis. After losing a tight first game, Shane was able to hit a stride, and finish the match in four games.
MQ4 - Rocky Carson def. Andy Hawthorne (2, 8, 6) Andy Hawthorne has been making some huge waves this season, and continued his run by taking out top 10 seed Jason Thoerner in the round of 16 during a 3+ hour (so goes the rumor) five game showdown. The cheers from this match were heard all the way from the back courts to spectators of the stadium court. This match seemed to take the wind out of Andy sails, and this combined with Rocky’s make-no-mistakes offense, resulted in a three game victory for Rocky.
Ruben Gonzalez continued to impress his long time fans at the 2006 US OPEN Racquetball Championships. Besides making it to round of 16 YET AGAIN (does this guy ever give up?!), he debuted his new Ektelon Signature racquet, the Ektelon 03 RG both on the court and in a “press conference” in the Ektelon booth. Big congrats to Ruben!
Super Saturday lived up to its name at the 2006 US OPEN Racquetball Championships with some incredible matches from the WPRO. Brenda Kyzer made her semifinal debut on the stadium court, but Christie Van Hees was successful at keeping her in the back court and rolling everything in sight. The bottom half semifinal was a tense five gamer between Cheryl Gudinas and Kerri Wachtel. Kerri has been charging up the ranks of the WPRO this year, and won the pro stop right before the US OPEN. She jumped to early leads in all the games against Cheryl, but Gudinas was able to dig deep and finish the games she needed for a spot in the finals.
The finals was all Christie Van Hees, as she rolled to a quick victory over Cheryl. Christie only lost a single game on her way to the title, which was to Rhonda in the quarterfinals.
WF - Christie Van Hees def. Cheryl Gudinas (3,2,2) WS1 - Christie Van Hees def. Brenda Kyzer (3, 3, 9) WS2 - Cheryl Gudinas def. Kerri Wachtel (0,(5),10,(2),9)
This match will set the stage for the entire 2008-2009 season! Kane will be a brutal opponent coming up through the qualifiers! 2008-06-22
Sunday at 12:30PM EST is a HUGE match in S. Carolina featuring #1 Rocky Carson and tour come-back Kane Waselenchuk. Who is more nervous? :-) 2008-06-22
This match against Rocky will be a HUGE gauge for Kane's current game level. Defeating the number 1 player n his 1st event back? HUGE. 2008-06-21
Kane continues to roll through SC .. Kane Waselenchuk def. Alvaro Beltran (3, 10, 0). Up next, Rock Carson (assuming Rocky wins semis). !!! 2008-06-21
Kane takes out Shane Vanderson in three games (2, 2, 11) in the quarters of the SC Tier 2 IRT stop! 2008-06-20
All photos from the 2008 USA Racquetball National Singles Championships have been posted!! 2008-06-16
Photos for the 2008 USA Racquetball National Singles Champs are now uploaded through the quarters .. just a few 16's left to post .. 2008-06-15
Photo uploads for the 2008 USA Racquetball National Singles are complete through the semifinals .. now starting quarters .. 2008-06-14
- This was a GREAT match between veteran Jeff Stark, and up-and-comer Charlie Pratt. Stark finished second at National Doubles in 2006, and is a member of the USA Racquetball National Team. Pratt is veteran of the Junior tour, and is a long time USA Racquetball Junior Team member. He has started to make his presence felt on the pro tour, where he had a nice win over top ranked IRT player, Jason Thoerner.
), but there are some shot on the last few pages of the gallery of the match between Rhonda and Christie.
WRONG! It is very difficult to capture these exact moments! I’d say that it took me ~30,000 shots before I started to figure this all out (of course I had to learn everything above by trial and error, as there was no handy guide on a website 
