A Trip To The Tacoma Dome

Tonight was an awesome night! I covered the Skyview Storm football team on their first trip to the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, WA. The Storm are reigning Greater Saint Helens League (GSHL) 4A football champions for the 4th year in a row and 5 of the last 6 years. Ranked 9th in the state, tonight they played the #8 Lake Stevens Vikings and won handily by a score of 38-14 earning them a return trip to the Dome next week to compete for the state title. Last week they knocked off #1 Bellarmine Prep 42-17. Here are a couple images that we posted live from the game. Amazing work by my son (and photo assistant) Jordan. He did the photo editing and uploading! Thanks Jordan!! For the record, both of my sons are Skyview Storm alumni.

For more images from the game, please visit here.

Sports photography in Portland, OR.

 

Kody Watts

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to shoot Kody many times. I’ve covered him on the basketball court, the football field, on the baseball diamond, shot the sports portrait below and also shot his senior portraits. Here are a few baseball images of Kody. He’s a great guy both on and off the field. He was drafted by the Pittsburg Pirates but he chose to attend the University of Portland and get his education. I am sure we will see him in the pros after college.

Profile Portrait

Senior Year Team/Individual Photo

Senior Year Team/Individual Photo

Scouts with radar guns on Kody during his last high school game. He reached 98 MPH!

 

Scout with video and radar.

 

 

Scouts with radar guns on Kody during his last high school game.

 

Watts, after hitting a home run.

 

Watts playing 3rd base.

 

Kody at 3rd base.

 

Pick off attempt.

 

Baseball Player – Alex Nevue

When we arrived at the field the skies were hazy overcast. Not good at all for making portraits that include the sky. However, this is springtime in the pacific northwest and in the evening when the temperature drops, the clouds come out to play. Within 30 minutes the haze changed to full blown clouds. For Alex, I wanted to capture the unique way he holds the ball before going into his windup.

For this shoot I used only speedlights. 2 Nikon SB800s and one LumoPro LP 1600 (which I was trying out for the first time). Because of how dark it was getting, I was able to use the speedlights at 1/2 and 1/4 power. Camera/lens: Nikon D7000 and Nikon 12-24/f4.0. Also Pocket Wizard Plus II units and Quantum Battery packs.

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Sports photography, sports portraits and sportraits in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR.

The Business Portrait – Yes, It Is Important

OK, so today I was handed a business card from someone who “would love to have me as a client.” We met in line while waiting for coffee, which is cool because I meet a lot of business people that way. The problem was with her business card. It included a photo of her that was shot in the parking lot of Costco. It was horrible! Not the kind of horrible like the $50 business portrait. This was even worse. Upon visiting her website, Twitter, and Facebook accounts I found that she is using the same image.

The business portraits above are being used by successful small business owners. While your accountant will call a business portrait an expense, in reality a great business portrait is an investment. A bad business portrait is going to cost you sales. For example, I won’t be giving the woman mentioned above a call. An investment on her part of $200 – $400 would have gained her a client worth well more than that. Professionalism is not an option.

One of the most important qualities of a top notch business portrait is that the lighting will be top quality and will be appropriate for the subject. No there is no one size fits all! All of a person’s features and characteristics need taken into consideration.

Next is camera angle. A business portrait is much more than a picture of a person dressed in business attire. For example, a man should never be photographed from what is considered a submissive, feminine angle. Additionally, camera angle is extremely important to take into consideration with women as the photo should match their position and level within the organization.

Finally, the photographer needs to be able to bring out the real person in the business portrait. Not an easy task but the best business and executive portrait photographers pull it off with ease.

Don’t skimp on your business or executive portrait. You work hard at many aspects of your business and a poor quality portrait should not be allowed to negate all of that hard work.

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Dave Scott Photographic, based in the Portland OR area, provides business portrait and executive portrait services nationwide.

Baseball Player – Kody Watts

Kody Watts just completed his senior year baseball season at Skyview High School in Vancouver, WA. He is an amazing pitcher who routinely throws at over 90 MPH (96 MPH tops so far)!! Every time I cover one of his games I thoroughly enjoy every pitch. Below is a sports portrait I shot of him. I wanted to capture the look on his face when he is getting signs from his catcher. I’ve worked with Kody before. He’s a great guy to work with and I know that he is going to make it easy for photographers that shoot him in the big leagues! Many thanks Kody!

The portrait below was shot using 3 lights. The sun was the 1st (behind Kody, camera left). The 2nd was an 800 WS strobe (behind Kody, camera right). The 3rd was and 800 WS strobe above me and slightly to camera right.

About 2 dozen pro scouts turned out for Kody’s final high school game.

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Sports photography, sports portraits and sportraits in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA.

Rap Artist – Bryan West (again)

I just delivered images to Bryan that they will be using in his promotional material and website. Here are a couple that we delivered. To see a couple that were my favorite Click Here.

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Musician, vocalist photography in Portland OR, Seattle WA and Nationwide.