On Assignment

Last weekend I shot the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at the Palace of Auburn Hills (where the Detroit Pistons play). Can’t say I’ve shot too much wrestling in the past, although I do enjoy it because you can get some really nice shots, good emotions, and raw athletic imagery from this sport.

After two days of preliminary rounds, which I shot for New York Newsday, it was time for the final title “bouts” of the tournament.

I was at the Palace earlier in the day for the consolation matches, so during the afternoon break I watched work crews put together the center stage where the NCAA mat was placed. This gave me the idea to put a remote camera up as high as possible so I can get a bird’s eye view shot of the big center competition mat. Ideally I’d have liked to get a directly overhead shot, but the NCAA didn’t let us go up into the rafters. So this was a compromise. I put my mount as high as possible, right in the press box booth for TV cameras at the very top of the arena’s nose-bleed section.

Everything worked out great, as I was able to shoot the action from below with the rest of the photo pool against the side of the stage, but also got wide atmospheric shots of the arena with my mount, at the same time.

Share This

So Rod went paparazzi on me putting up two remote cameras before the championship game of this year’s Big Ten Tournament in Chicago. They actually do a good job of showing my process.

Basically, the cameras are prepped first in the media work room. Then I clamp them to the basketball hoop arm, and another under the tables of press row. The hardest part of it all is figuring out where to focus the lens.

The last couple of shots show the end result of my two mounts. One from the basket angle, and the other, wide, from below press row.

Mini-gallery:

Share This