#usaracquetball

[50andactive]

Day #2 at March Madness IRT Stop #alienracquetball #prokennexracquetball #sanantoniofitness #ymca #internationalmenstour #irt #usaracquetball (at Thousand Oaks Family YMCA)

[50andactive]

Rain Delay #alienracquetball #prokennexracquetball #prokennex #texasoutdoorracquetball #texasracquetball #usaracquetball (at Hollywood Beach Garfield Paddleball Courts)

[kenfife]

Last year I wrote an article for RACQUETBALL, a publication for USA Racquetball. The young woman is Lexi York who was recently in the news. http://www.gazettetimes.com/sports/beavers-sports/osu-freshman-lexi-york-gears-up-for-national-intercollegiate-racquetball/article_40dfb2bf-4579-5343-ad4c-e952e8276a60.html This is a reprint of that article: In a recent shoot for USA Racquetball at the National Junior Olympic Championships I was asked to take headshots of the Members of the 2015 U.S. Junior National Racquetball Team at the awards and banquet ceremony. It seemed like a reasonable request from the Executive Director Steve Czarnecki, and I wanted to do a good job, but it wasn’t going to be easy. You see, one of my specialties as a photographer is headshots. My normal routine is to meet the client to talk about wardrobe, schedule the makeup artist with shoot date, prepare my studio, take 100 or more shots with the client, then pick the best 4 to be polished up in Photoshop. I had 15 minutes to prepare in Stockton. Background was the first hurdle. These were not going to be selfies so eliminating clutter like trees, posters, and photo bombers with a smooth surface was a big deal. The wall to the side of the venue worked, and it had a lamp at about 10 feet above the ground. The lamp became a studio hair light. I had my studio picked out, and the setting sun was the main light. Actually there was no direct sun because it was blocked by buildings, but it did light up the sky providing a softer light that is always good for headshots. My subjects were fabulous. Each one put on their best looks as I popped off a series of shots. My only problem was that the sun was going down and time was running out. Not much time to chitchat. All in all this was the best part of the shoot. The hard part was sitting at the computer picking out shots and editing in Photoshop. Color was a challenge because it was changing with the setting sun. Yes, color was a moving target albeit not as fast as racquetball. For those of you that love photography as I do, you can catch me on Facebook if you would like to chat about how we did this in more detail.