Best of Part One: The Top Photos So Far…
It seems like just yesterday since we were back here on Bird Watching, now doesn’t it? Anyways, I promised you a post containing my best (and favorite) photos from the season so far, so let’s get going!
17) For the first shot of the day (and seventeenth best shot so far) we’ll go all the way back to October 26 for a game against Tri-City and a shot of center Colin Jacobs on the bench during a shootout. I think this shot is typical of many photos of Jacobs I’ve taken; in most of them there’s either a big smile or intense expression on Jacobs’ face. That really adds to the emotion of the photograph and helps our understanding of what’s going on in it.
Center Colin Jacobs is all smiles after left wing Marcel Noebels (background) converts his shootout attempt against the Americans. Despite the successful conversion, the T-Birds fell in the shootout, 2-1.
Canon 7D, 70mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
16) Let’s stay in that same game against the Americans for shot number 16. In the first 33 games of the season, the T-Birds had three of their four home games against Tri-City, and each one was a hard-hitting matchup worthy of the rivalry. There were many notable hits between the two teams, and one of the better photos I’ve got of them happens to be this one, where two Thunderbirds combine to make an American sandwich…
Right wing Jacob Doty (left) and center Connor Sanvido (right) sandwich Tri-City defenseman left wing Marcus Messier in the first period of an Oct. 26 game against Tri-City.
Canon 7D, 200mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
15) With number 15, I decided to go with a shot from the KING 5 taping that occurred October 12 at ShoWare Center. KING 5 sent reporter Christie Johnson down to learn more about hockey and the Thunderbirds. The clips that were filmed went out live during the morning news broadcast, and the four players there (Luke Lockhart, Brenden Dillon, Burke Gallimore, and Michael Salmon) had to arrive early in order to meet with the KING 5 crew. I snapped this gem during a break in shooting…
Center Luke Lockhart (right) and right wing Burke Gallimore (top) rest on the ice during a break between takes.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/3.5, 1/800th, Manual
It’s not the best technical photo from the shoot, but I do find it quite humorous and there’s something charming about it so I decided to use it over the other photos from the tv shoot.
14) After each win, the team would always skate out to the goalie (normally Calvin Pickard, but Michael Salmon has taken over between the pipes on occasion) and celebrate the win. They did this a bit over the first half, as the T-Birds have accumulated 15 wins so far this year. Normally these shots aren’t that exciting as everyone is facing inwards, but I got lucky with this one when Jacob Doty looked backwards (with his helmet off! What luck!) during the celebration.
Jacob Doty joins the rest of the Thunderbirds in celebration of their Nov. 19 victory over the Spokane Chiefs.
Canon 7D, 50mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
13) I’m always looking for new angles to shoot from. Seeing something from a different vantage point can make the most typical of things seem new or exciting. I was allowed to shoot the Red Deer game on Nov. 2 from the catwalks above the ice. I was up there for the pregame events, including the introduction of the Thunderbirds starters.
The Thunderbirds starters are introduced before the Nov. 2 game against Red Deer.
Canon 7D, 70mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/320th, Manual
12) What would a look back on the Thunderbirds’ season be without talking about Calvin Pickard? He’s been the T-Birds’ brick wall in goal for most of the season, saving an astounding 1169 shots so far. His save percentage of .927 is good for second in the WHL, just a thousandth behind Darcy Kuemper of Red Deer. Needless to say, Pickard’s been a major part of the team, and I had to include a photo of him in this countdown. Here’s one of his 1169 saves, this one against Red Deer.
Goalie Calvin Pickard makes a stick save on a shot from the Red Deer Rebels on Nov. 2.
Canon 7D, 155mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1000th, Manual
11) As I’ve said before, I didn’t follow hockey before I started shooting for the Thunderbirds. All I really knew about the game was that it was really fast and players were allowed to fight (with a five minute penalty, though). Being one of the bigger teams in the league, the T-Birds have really thrown their weight around for the first part of the season, making sure to hit the opposing team and even fighting them if need be. One of the bigger fighters on the team is Jacob Doty, who is frequently making sure the opposing team leaves the game black and blue.
Jacob Doty lands a punch on Prince George center Greg Fraser during a game Oct. 29.
Canon 7D, 185mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
10) Once December rolled around, it was time to plan for the T-Bird’s Christmas Card. It was up to me to shoot the photo that would be on the card, something I’ve never done before. After scouting out the location and perfecting my exposure for the surroundings, the players arrived and we got down to business. I’ll tell you right now this photo isn’t the best team photo ever taken, but I’m quite proud of it and the way it looked on the card, so I decided to put it on this list.
Happy Holidays from the Seattle Thunderbirds!
Canon 7D, 50mm, 1000 ISO, f/10, 1/25th, Manual
9) I’m always looking for non-action photos to shoot. Not only does it give me something to focus on while the game’s not being played, but it showcases particular events that might not have been seen by everyone. One of my favorite detail shots from the half-year is this photo taken during a particularly chippy game against Medicine Hat.
Jacob Doty leans over and tries to intimidate the Medicine Hat player across from him before a faceoff at center ice during a Nov. 30 game.
Canon 7D, 200mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
8) It’s not common to see a goalie get checked hard on a play, but it does happen on occasion. When it does, it can make a cool photo to see the two players all sprawled out. That happened in the Medicine Hat game; an action I thought was sure to lead to an all-out brawl between the teams. It didn’t but it did lead to a cool photo…
Calvin Pickard is run into by Medicine Hat center Wacey Hamilton during a Nov. 30 game.
Canon 7D, 160mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
7) One thing I have noticed through the first 33 games is that the Thunderbirds fans are pretty good at making noise. When I went over to Kennewick for the Tri-City away game on Dec. 10, I was surprised at how quiet those fans were during part of the game. To commemorate them, I’m always looking for photos of T-Birds fans to put in the blog. Normally I have a requirement that they need to be in T-Birds gear, but I waived that Dec. 14 when the group in Calvin’s Corner kept yelling at Spokane goalie James Reid whenever he ventured to that side of the ice.
Fans in Calvin’s Corner try to get Spokane goalie James Reid to lose focus during a Dec. 14 game.
Canon 7D, 160mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
6) This fan, however, showed his T-Birds colors well during the Medicine Hat game. The more I look at this photo, the more I like it. Not only is it taken at a cool angle (from the catwalks), but the look on his face—particularly that smirk—adds some nice emotion to it. He looks proud to display that Thunderbirds scarf, and in turn I’m proud to call this photo one of the six best shots I took during the first half.
A fan displays a Thunderbirds scarf during a timeout in a Nov. 30 game against Medicine Hat.
Canon 7D, 150mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/400th, Manual
5) Here’s my favorite photo of Calvin Pickard I’ve taken so far. This might be ranked higher on this list—and would definitely be the best shot of a Calvin Pickard save—if this was in fact a save; this is actually a shot of a Tri-City goal. I took this early enough in the play, however, for it to look like a decent photo Pickard doing well. No matter what the result of the play, however, it’s a nice looking photo and nice enough to be number five.
Tri-City center Mason Wilgosh sneaks a shot past goalie Calvin Pickard during an Oct. 26 game.
Canon 7D, 130mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
4) You may have noticed that so far all of the action photos on the list were either taken from above (the photos with a background that consists of ice) or from the box in between the benches (where the background is the goal or the boards around the rink). Well, coming in at number four is my first action shot taken from behind the glass at one end of the rink (#7—the photo of the group in Calvin’s Corner—was taken from the side, but I don’t consider that an action photo). It was taken fairly recently, at the game where I finally realized how to shoot from behind the glass ((Home) Game 12: Thunderbirds Unlucky Against Americans). You’ll also notice that three of the top four photos were taken in December, further suggestion I’ve finally realized how to shoot hockey. It took long enough, now didn’t it… 😛 Anyway, here’s number four!
Left wing Marcel Noebels evades an attempt to dislodge the puck by from Tri-City center Brooks Macek during a Dec. 11 game.
Canon 7D, 70mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
3) When I saw number three happen I immediately became excited. I immediately knew I had this really cool play when it happened; once the puck was cleared from the Seattle end and there wasn’t a danger of missing a play, I chimped the photo (photographer jargon for looking at the LCD screen) to see if I really had got it. A wide smile crept along my face once I had; I think that was the most excited I’ve ever been over a photograph. It really is a cool photograph, and important, too. Check out this goal-saving grab Dave Sutter made on the puck.
Defenseman Dave Sutter saves a goal by grabbing the puck out of the air just before it crosses the red line during a game against Medicine Hat Nov. 30.
Canon 7D, 90mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1600th, Manual
2) I remember telling you I had a portfolio-worthy shot during the blog post I first shared number two with you. It is also one of the few head-on offensive shots I’ve taken this year since I haven’t found much success shooting through glass yes. I’m really happy with the way this shot turned out, although I do wish the shot featured in the photo was just as successful.
Left wing Chance Lund takes a shot on the Tri-City goal during a Dec. 11 game.
Canon 7D, 70mm, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1600th, Manual
1) And now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for and the best shot I’ve taken so far this year… As I said before, three of the top four photos were taken in December, and we can expand that out to a whopping eight of the top ten. That means throughout the year I’ve really improved my hockey shooting, so it’s only natural to guess my top photo is from December, right? Well it’s not from December. Or November. Or even October for that matter. That’s right, the single best photo I’ve taken came from the one home game in September and the first regular season hockey game I’ve ever shot. Crazy, right? I’ll let you see the photo before I talk about why I picked this as number one…
Colin Jacobs celebrates a goal in front of the Portland bench during the home opener against the Winterhawks Sept. 25.
Canon 7D, 70mm, 1600 ISO, f2.8, 1/1250th, Manual
This photo shows just about everything you need to know about that opening night game: that the Thunderbirds were fired up and playing well enough to celebrate (visible in Jacobs’ face) and it shows some dejection in the Winterhawks’ player behind Jacobs. Furthermore, the spotlight on Jacobs makes him jump out at the viewer and the stick and shoulder in the foreground give a nice frame to Jacobs to really draw your eye to him. That is why I’m calling this the best photo I’ve taken this season, and a photo I’m proudly displaying in my portfolio.
Well there you have it: the top 17 photos of the Thunderbirds’ season so far! What plays will there be for me to capture during the second half? Find out tonight when the Thunderbirds take on the Spokane Chiefs at 7:05 at the ShoWare Center! I’ll be there, will you?
Do you agree with my selections? Did I miss something that deserves to be in this post? Let me know in the comments section below while you wait for 7:05 to come!
‘Til tonight, go T-Birds!
There’s Nothing Better than the Sound of Slapshots in the Morning…
Remember last post when I promised to find ways to get new content on the blog during road trips? If you don’t I’ll give you time to go find it…
…
Got it now? Good. And if you didn’t go check, trust me it’s there. Just a few hours of writing that post, I found out that King 5 would be taping some news segments about the Thunderbirds early Tuesday morning (October 12th). Having shot a live tv show before last February when College Gameday was at the University of Washington, I knew I could get some nice shots of the taping so I committed to wake up early and head down to the ShoWare Center for the morning’s events.
When I got to the ShoWare Center, the players were in the locker room getting their gear on while the King 5 crewpeople were finishing setting up the camera and discussing the day’s takes. Since all of the takes would take place on the ice, reporter Christie Johnson would be on ice skates to move around most easily. Since the players weren’t out of the locker room yet, I snapped a few frames.
King 5 reporter Christie Johnson laces up her skates before taking the ice to file reports from the ShoWare Center early Tuesday morning.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/3.2, 1/100th, Manual
I really like this shot. A lot. For one thing I have a thing for darker photos, and also the hallway between the rink and the main concourse (by section 108) had some very nice side-lighting (where the only light source for a photo comes from the subject’s side). Overall, I thought this photo was a decent starting image and a good omen leading into the rest of the morning.
Defenseman Brenden Dillon was the first of the participating T-Birds (right winger Burke Gallimore, defenseman Luke Lockhart, and goalie Michael Salmon were the other three players that showed up), so he got to do the first teaser with Christie. Little did he know that Christie had experience in figure skating and wanted to open up with one of those moves for the tease…
Defenseman Brenden Dillon, along with Christie Johnson, shows off his figure skating skills during a teaser for an upcoming segment on King 5.
Canon 7D, 70MM, 1600 ISO, f/5, 1/400th, Manual
Don’t worry, Johnson didn’t force anymore figure skating moves on the guys; they quickly moved on to half-speed plays, and even a mock face-off. Here, Johnson takes a shot after “winning” one of those face-offs.
Reporter Christie Johnson skated with a few T-Birds early Tuesday morning. Here, they include her in a mock play after a faceoff.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/3.5, 1/800th, Manual
Johnson and her photographer Jim had the segments planned out for the most part before the morning started, so there wasn’t a lot of time spent designing what would be on camera. After a few minutes of Christie and Jim explaining their visions, there’d be one or two run throughs of the shot to nail down the details of a shot and so that both the players and Christie knew their assignments and timings. Here’s a photo of Christie explaining the plan for a teaser that included a check into the boards.
Johnson plans out the next take with right winger Burke Gallimore (left), defenseman Brenden Dillon (center), and center Luke Lockhart (right). Goalie Michael Salmon was also part of the shoot, but is hidden behind Lockhart in this photo.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/3.5, 1/800th, Manual
Here is a continuous set of shots that show part of the teaser. That’s Burke Gallimore in grey and Brenden Dillon in blue who are smashing into the glass in front of Christie.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/4.5, 1/400th, Manual (all photos)
This next photo might just be my favorite from the day. Not only had the guys had been good sports for the camera, but they had to get up pretty early to do so (they arrived before 5:45 am). They were understandably tired and so during a break between live takes, Luke and Burke decided to take it easy right out there on the ice.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/3.5, 1/800th, Manual
During the time in between live takes (and while the T-Birds players were relaxing), Jim and Christie would consult with producers back at the King 5 production room. Instead of having to call someone in the studio, though, they merely had to talk through their microphones (the same ones used while taping) in order to be heard. In addition, Christie could look through the camera so as to “look at” the producers while talking to them. For whatever reason, I thought this to be somewhat interesting. So of course I snapped a photo. What else would I do?
Christie Johnson talks with producers back at King 5 studios through her hidden microphone and by looking at the camera.
Canon 7D, 75MM, 1600 ISO, f/4.5, 1/400th, Manual
After the 40 or so minutes after the first live segment, the second one aired. For this, Christie asked Thunderbirds head coach Rob Sumner a few questions about the T-Birds’ season so far. There was also a quick explanation about how to check a guy into the boards. Since you can scroll up and find plenty board-checking above, here’s a shot of Christie talking to the Coach.
Christie Johnson interviews head coach Rob Sumner during a segment that aired Tuesday morning.
Canon 7D, 70MM, 1600 ISO, f/4.5, 1/400th, Manual
I had been trying all morning to get a cool photo of Christie talking into the camera while still being able to see Jim (photographers always take pictures of other photographers; it’s just something we do), but I hadn’t seen anything good. Finally, during the segment with Coach Sumner, I got what I wanted. You can see the camera and everything. Hey, even photographers deserve to be recognized every now and then…
Christie Johnson opens a segment.
Canon 7D, 70MM, 1600 ISO, f/4.5, 1/400th, Manual
The last segment was all about slapshots. In it, Luke Lockhart explained how to hit one, Michael Salmon explained what it’s like to try and stop one, and Christie Johnson even attempted to take one.
Luke Lockhart goes through the basics of a slapshot.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/4.5, 1/640th, Manual
Christie Johnson asks Michael Salmon about facing slapshots coming at his head. “I try not to think about the speed [of the pucks,]” he said.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/4.5, 1/640th, Manual
The T-Birds players taught Johnson the basics of a slapshot, which she’s practicing here.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/4.5, 1/640th, Manual
Once Christie got her shot off, Burke, Luke, and Brenden unleashed a volley of slapshots at Michael. Despite the multiple pucks coming at him seemingly at once, he did well to block many of them.
Salmon got a leg pad in front of this slapshot.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/4, 1/500th, Manual
After the slapshots, there was just one more thing to film as a possible space-filler in the noon broadcast. For this, Christie met Luke in a face-off and once again “won” it. She seems to be pretty good at those…
Christie Johnson takes one final faceoff before signing off from the ShowWare Center.
Canon 7D, 70MM, 1600 ISO, f/4, 1/500th, Manual
After that segment was completed and the producers okayed it, all the taping was done. After cleaning up all the pucks shot at Michael, Christie got a picture with Coach Sumner and the guys.
Johnson wanted a photo of everyone involved for her own blog, http://www.christiejohnsonking5.blogspot.com.
Canon 7D, 50MM, 1600 ISO, f/2.8, 1/1000th, Manual
If you didn’t catch the segments live, here’s a link to them on King 5’s website.
http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/On-the-ice-with-the-Seattle-Thunderbirds-104794044.html
A special thanks to Christie, Jim, and everyone else at King 5 that helped with the broadcast from ShoWare Center. I had a blast shooting it, and I hope you guys have enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at how it was made.
And as they say in show business, that’s a wrap!
Til next time, go T-Birds!
seattlethunderbirdsphoto.wordpress.com 