The Spring Rains • 11 March 2011

An Orange County Highway Department worker closes the bridge at East Villege Rd which connects the East Village of Tuxedo to Rt. 17 as the Ramapo River starts to rise after the overnight rain in the town of Tuxedo on March 11, 2011.
JOHN MEORE/for the Times Herald-Record

An over head view of the Ramapo River from Arden House Rd. which sits between the New York State Thruway on the left after and the Metro-North railroad tracks on the right, as the overnight rain let up in the Town of Tuxedo on March 11, 2011.
JOHN MEORE/for the Times Herald-Record

A view of the flooded Arden Flats which sits inbetween Rt. 17 and the  Metro-North Train Tracks (background) with the New York State Thruway in the far background, after the overnight rain let up in the Town of Tuxedo on March 11, 2011.  The Ramapo River is on the far side of the railroad tracks.
JOHN MEORE/for the Times Herald-Record

A view of the Ramapo River visitor parking lot just off County Rt. 106 (Lake Kanewauke Rd.) on the northern end of the Town of Tuxedo, after the overnight rain let up in the town of Tuxedo on March 11, 2011.
JOHN MEORE/for the Times Herald-Record

A view of the Ramapo River visitor parking lot just off County Rt. 106 (Lake Kanewauke Rd.) on the northern end of the Town of Tuxedo, after the overnight rain let up in the town of Tuxedo on March 11, 2011.
JOHN MEORE/for the Times Herald-Record

The spring rains fall and the Ramapo river rises.  After a couple days of hard rain, the water travels down from all the mountain creeks, floods the roads and forces the school to close.  With rain in the forecast, I got the call last night to head out in the morning and shoot the flooding in Tuxedo and the possible closing of Rt 17.  It happens so often that it is now news...
The first thing to happen is the closing of the East Village Rd. bridge.  This bridge is the only way to get to the section of Tuxedo, the East Village, that is located on the east side of the NYS Thruway.  This bridge has been washed out many times, once leaving people stranded for 4 days.

Regional Semi-Finals • Burke Catholic v Albertus Magnus • 8 Mar 2011

Regional Semi-Finals • Burke Catholic v Albertus Magnus • 8 Mar 2011 a photo by John Meore on Flickr.

Westchester County Center, White Plains, NY:
Burke Catholic of Section 9 takes on Albertus Magnus of Section 1 in the Regional Semi-finals for Class B division.
Once again I need to thank Chet Gorgon, who shot the first 2 games and left the strobes up for me. This time he set them in the rafters of the County Center. 4 Canon Speedlights, mounted in the catwalk on the railing fired with Pocket Wizards. Although the ambient light was high and the strobes not so powerful, it worked OK.
I was able to pull off some good shots. Not too much motion blur due to shooting at 1/250-1/320th, the strobes were able to freeze most of the action.
Timing and proper lighting make shooting basketball all than much better. You want to shoot images that will make the paper, not necessarily shots that will sell on a website.
For this game, it was an 8:00PM game and the paper's deadline is around 9:45pm... this doesn't leave much time. So, I showed up early, said hello to all the other newspaper guys, talked to the reporters, got a roster of the teams for captioning, set up my laptop, made sure the internet was working. So when game time arrived, I was ready to go. At half time, I loaded the images I had, and was able to select about 8 really good image. Second half, wait for the jubilation or rejection shot, this time the team we were covering won. I was able to grab a shot of two players doing a chest bump. Back to the laptop to up-load, select, edit, caption, transmit by 9:45, pack-up the gear and out the door at 10:15.

Gym Lighting for basketball

Section 9, Class D Boys Basketball • 7 Mar 2011 a photo by John Meore on Flickr.

Section 9, Class D Boys Basketball • 7 Mar 2011
The Statesman of John A. Coleman Catholic v the Wildcats of Livingston Manor • SUNY New Paltz

You can't say enough about proper lighting in a gymnasium. I shot a double header last night for the Class D (Small School) Section 9 championship at the State University of New York' s New Paltz campus.

I have to give lighting credit and thanks to Chet Gordon, Staff Photographer at the Times Herald-Record for setting up, and leaving the strobes set-up all week end. I just showed up, plugged in the lights, fired a few test shots and was ready to go! I believe 4 photographers took part in covering the games this weekend and all the images looked great, why... the lighting.

Being able to shoot at 400 ISO and get peak action shots that are crisp and sharp is a great feeling as a sports photographer. This 'task' of setting up the lights for HS basketball might seem like overkill, but it makes a world of difference. Even if they only use one shot in the paper. I know that shot is going to be sharp as a tack and perfectly exposed.

The gym was lit with 4 Dyna-Lite strobes, one in each corner of the gym, mounted high pointing at the baskets, set at about 3/4 power fired with PocketWizards. For this to work, the strobes have to be 3, or more, stops above ambient, but the strobes should not be at full power.

Tonight, one more game in the Section 1 - 9 Boys Regional Semi-Final match-up at the Westchester County Center in White Plains. John S. Burke Catholic v. Albertus Magnus, should be a good one!

John