Interning with the University of Arizona Athletic Department

I had the opportunity to be one of the first photography interns for the University of Arizona Athletic Department last semester. The experience was great, I got to work with a well organized team of photographers and use a plethora of Nikon gear that I’d never had a chance to shoot with before. I was almost like real world..The deadlines were real, and so were the rewards (…I use that term loosely. All I’m gonna say is the internship was UNPAID.) If I got a good enough shot, my photo ran front  page on the Athletic Department’s website, not to mention give me a solid clip to add to my portfolio..so I was motivated to say the least, even though I was a willing participant of slave labor.

At the beginning of each month I’d sit down with my supervisor and pick out which sporting events I’d like to photograph. Assignments were divvied up between each of the interns, but there was always more than one available slot to chose from for each sport.

I was only required to spend eight hours a week in the office since I enrolled as a part time intern.  Outside of shooting, I spent about half my time editing my work load and tagging the names of players  and key words like “coach,” “fans” and “Wilbur” etc.

The unbeatable access to football, basketball, soccer, volleyball and softball, was great, but the equipment I got to use really  just wasn’t up to par. The D2x I got to use is more or less the Nikon equivalent of my Canon EOS-1D Mark IIn…which is cool (especially because my Canon sucks at life when it’s shooting in low light conditions) BUT the shutter button was sticky, as if someone spilt soda on it…so it sucked to use.. As if shooting sprinting athletes isn’t hard enough to anticipate, using that camera made me shoot .05 seconds BEFORE the decisive moment even happened . Utterly RIDICULOUS.

Don’t get me wrong, having access to this gear was great because I haven’t had much time on the Nikon system and I’ve been told that shooters for mags like Sports Illustrated and the AP will often times will only be allowed to shoot Nikon depending on the event…so becoming proficient with the “dark arts” of Nikon is a must…it’s just a shame that they didn’t have better bodies for us to use.

So, needless to say, I avoided using that Nikon like the plague. Instead, I opted to toss on their big 300mm 2.8 white boy on my Canon and just go about my business with out ‘em. On most shoots I’d carry the 300mm on the Mark and a few of my spare lenses in my bag: a 15mm f2.8 and a 17-40mm f4…sometimes I’d even snag my buddies 50mm f1.4 since the AD didn’t have a 70-200mm for me to use.  (I finally bhad to buy my own 50mm… that shallow depth of field..Something about it makes photos so raw it’s incredible.

I also got to use Pocket Wizards that wirelessly controlled the strobe lights hooked up in the rafters of McKale during basketball and volleyball games, which was a pretty interesting experience. I’ve shot in McKale before for the Daily Wildcat without using the strobes and the difference they make is amazing. The only thing you need to keep in mind while shooting is that there’s a recycle time of a little over a second, so you have to pick your shots wisely.

The workload that came along with shooting a sporting event was pretty intense. During the halftime of basketball games we would rush back into the office and  select our best five-fifteen photos, edit them for web and upload them to the server all before the second half began.

During football games I’d keep track of key photos that I took on a piece of athletic tape that I put on our lenses. About ten minutes before the second quarter ended someone would come around to collect my card and tape so my photos could be reviewed, edited and posted online.

There was always a lot of material I would have to stay on top of. I’d have a shoot list of key players that I’d need to focus, along with graduating seniors and individual coached. Keeping track of which photos where on which memory card was always crucial (as always.)

Overall I feel I gained a lot of useful experience from this internship. Learning about how to handle and edit a large workloads and using a Nikon will most definitely help me out in the future.  It also showed me that I most certainly do not want to limit my sports photography experiences solely to collegiate sports.  If anything, I’d like to avoid them at all costs. My desire to shoot extreme sports really became apparent to me after this internship finished. I used to think that shooting NFL games or the NBA would be fun, but after seeing how limited the creative aspect of the genre is compared to that of say extreme sports (relatively speaking, of course) I know now for sure that my heart is set on the that culture..not only in the sports photography aspect, but also journalistically. 

I'll be posting some of the work I did with them over the next few posts. As of right now, the only photos I have on my laptop are from a swim meet I shot..the rest are backed up on my 1TB drive. I'll grab 'em soon.