Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

January 21, 2010: While traveling in the Westchester NY area, Anne asked me to stop by the Stone Barn Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills and check out the site for a possible school trip for her GardenWorks club. It is just out side Tarrytown, so after a visit to the Hatatchi office I took the drive through the lakes and over the hills and found the center.

As you wind your way up route 448 from the center of Tarrytown, the trees get a little larger, the houses get farther apart, then you hit a stretch with open land and what looks like horse farms.

There is a small sign at the gate, you head down a small road through pastures and wind your way through rolling hills and come to this amazing set of buildings surrounded by acres and acres of open farm land.

The land once owned by the Rockefellers is now used as an educational center for sustainable farms. The center houses livestock, Greenhouses of herb gardens, an educational center and a restaurant. The restaurant gets most of its supplies from the grounds, including their meats. They also host a Farmers Market... Year Round.

Covering HS Basketball

January 18, 2010: Today I covered a High School Basketball game in Bardonia, NY. Todays teams were the Falcons of Albertus Magnus and the Kennedy Catholic Gales of Somers, NY. In todays match up the Gale took the Falcons 64 - 39.

To properly cover a High School Basketball game, I like to show up 1 - 1.5 hours before the game to set up my lighting gear. I try and meet with the Coach or Athletic Director and let them know I am there to cover the game. There is usually a JV game is going on so I can shoot test shots of players on the court.

I set up my main lights in the corners of the gym that I will be shooting from. In each corner I put 2 lights, around 10' high, and aim them at the top of the key and under the basket. I like to move from side to side, so this way I get good coverage on each side of the court. Many times I will set up a "Down Court" light high up in the middle of the stands facing the opposite basket. This strobe helps give a little light down court so they don't look like they are playing in a cave. When shooting with strobes, I usually only get about 150 shots. When shooting available light, I turn on the High Speed Drive and shoot long runs of players, however the gym light is what dictates this.

After the game I hit the scorers table and get a shot of the book, just in case I have to caption the images for the media.

I recently started shooting RAW because one of the companies I shoot for is very critical of the background color balance and file size. RAW files can handle color corrections better than jpeg's. HS Gym lights are usually not so great when it comes to photographing under them, and that is why I add high powered studio lights. I like to be at least 4 stops above ambient light.

When I get home, I upload everything to an external hard drive which I have set up a folder system for all my sports work by type of sport. I launch lightroom, import the photos at their current location, add my keywords and start combing through the images picking out the best of the best. I will usually end up with 90 - 120 good images and 10 really good ones. The good images get FTP'd to the appropriate client... Done!

Current Gear:

Canon 1D MK III

Canon 5D

Canon 17 - 40 f/4L

Canon 24 - 105 f/4L

Canon 70 - 200 f/2.8L

Canon 35mm f/2.0

Canon 50mm f/1.2

Canon Tele Converters 1.4X and 2.0X

Canon Speedlights - 580 EX, 580 EXII, 420EX (2)

Pocket Wizards

DynaLite Studio Strobes

Bogen Lighting Stands

North v Suffern Girls Basketball

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Originally uploaded by John Meore

January 15, 2010, Suffern, NY: The Suffern Mounties welcomed the Rams from Clarkstown (New City) in a great match up. The Mounties were ahead until halfway through the 4th quarter when the Rams took the lead and kept applying pressure.
The Rams took the game in regulation 50 - 40.

January 11, 2010: Clarkstown South played their crosstown rival Clarkstown North. It was a good match up but South pulled off the victory 51 - 38 with a strong push in the 4th.

Being I am an alumni of South, it was nice going back to my old school. The gym looked a lot like I remembered, although it has been 28 years since I stepped foot in that gym. The fans were a little more vocal than I remember and the game is played much faster and more physical.

High School Hockey

I have not seen a High School Hockey game in a long time... I played Hockey for almost 25 years and gave it up when getting up to go to work the next day became difficult.

I had the opportunity to cover a High School game last night. It was my old High School, Clarkstown HS South and our crosstown rival Clarkstown HS North. I felt old seeing the kids in their gear, The Clarkstown North Assistant Coach was the son on my coach when I played varsity hockey for South... But it was good to watch the game from my vantage point, a small hole cut in to the glass right next to the home teams bench. I got to hear the coaches yelling at the players and the players giving encouragement to their teammates.

I showed up early and set up my strobes around the arena, fired off some test shots, and I was ready to go. It was a good game, it went back and forth and they ended regulation tied at 5-5. Halfway through the overtime, Clarkstown South snuck a shot in on the North Goalie, Zack Stockman to take the win. HS Hockey, Fun times...

...I think I still have my HS Jersey in my bag of 30 year old equipment...

Working the Slopes at Tuxedo Ridge

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Originally uploaded by John Meore

Winter is here and so is the new year. I started off this year by working the slopes. I will be shooting skiers on the weekends at the local ski area. I just have to not slip, fall and hurt myself or my gear.
I have worked out a deal with the management to sell the images on my website with their logo on the prints/images...
Let's see how it works...