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.
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.
Unusual Venue
I followed the Skyview Storm basketball team to the Rose Garden to photograph their game against the Prairie Falcons. This was quite a venue to play a regular season high school game at. Many thanks to the Portland Trailblazers for giving the players a taste of what it is like to play in the Rose Garden. I’m sure they will always remember it!
Steve Kizer – Skyview Head Football Coach
The Seattle Seahawks needed a head shot of Skyview High School head football coach Steve Kizer. Shooting Steve’s portrait was a special assignment for me because in addition to being an excellent football coach, Steve is a great guy and a great role model to the young men that he coaches. To top it off, my son Ryan benefited by being on the Skyview football team and coached by Steve.
The time slot that I was able to shoot Steve was during one of his weight training classes which included 60 athletes. I set up my white background and two lights as the students were gathering for class. Steve sent them out for a warm-up run while we finished up his shoot.
The Storm football team just became the Greater St Helen’s League champions for the 3rd year in a row and are currently in the WA state playoffs looking for their first state championship.
Best of luck to Steve and the Skyview Storm!
Another Track Shoot With Kevin
I just transfered the images from my shoot with Kevin from my SD card to my hard drive. I took a look at four of them and I just had to process one right away. The set-up image includes Jordan, my son and photo assistant, who makes these images possible. We had very limited time, we arrived on location late, and he still saw to it that our lighting was perfect.
Matt Spears
I’ve known Matt for a couple years and followed him through 2 football and 2 baseball seasons. In fact, over the years our family and his family have become very good friends. Below are a few of the images that I’ve shot of Matt over the years. Good luck to Matt as he moves on to his college studies and college baseball.
Outdoor Track Shoot With Kevin
This was an awesome shoot. It was a hot day, just before sundown. Jordan and I set up our studio lights on the track. We used a battery system which is easily capable of powering four of our strobes. When Kevin arrived, all he needed to do was what he does so well, run. He stretched, warmed up, and made two test passes so that I could adjust my position as Jordan made final adjustments to the strobes. Kevin made around 15 full speed passes. We shot one frame per pass. We nailed the shot!
March 2010 Mailer
Above is our March 2010 mailer. It features a Sports Portrait (or Sportrait) of Austin Dodge. Austin was Skyview high school’s starting quarterback for the 2009 season. He will be playing at Central Washington University next year. I will be shooting another portrait of Austin along with the Skyview Football head coach Steve Kizer next week.
More Skyview Sports Portraits
This post contains more sports portraits (or sportraits as many now call them) from a shoot mentioned in this previous post. While so many think that this is a new style of lighting and several photographers are willing to claim it as their discovery, I was actually using this three point lighting back in the mid ’80s. Who invented it? I don’t know but my inspiration came from the illustrations in the comic books that I read as a kid.
