Speed Graphic in the Olympics!

[nathantw]

Did anyone watch the Olympic mens basketball game yesterday (USA vs. China)? Anyone see that photographer in the background using a Speed Graphic reporter? I couldn't believe my eyes. Was he really shooting 4x5 film at the basketball game? Wow!

[Frank Petronio]

It's a persistent trend with sports photographers these days, it started with photo-journalist David Burnett who used a fast Aero-Ektar lens on a Speed Graphic and sold a lot of his unique looking (compared to most digital PJ shots) photos to the new magazines 4-6 years ago. But now everybody has to get into the act and it is no longer unique -- it's rather lame and sad. Go to sportshooter.com and I bet you'll see a Speed/Aero outfit for sale there, they come up all the time because the photographers get bored or can't manage the workflow.

[Daniel_Buck]

But now everybody has to get into the act and it is no longer unique -- it's rather lame and sad.
I brought my 8x10 and 4x5 speed to an auto race a month ago or so (and plan on doing it more often!) just about everyone that saw me there shooting got a kick out of it, they had never seen anyone out there shooting with big film cameras. I don't think it's as popular as you make it out to be. I wasn't using an Aero lens, but just because one person decides to do something different and others follow him, why is that lame and sad?

I didn't bring the cameras out there because of the journalist you mentioned (I don't know much about him, though I remember he did some presidential shots with the speedgraphic, using lots of tilt/swing?), I bought them out there cause I wanted to shoot the vintage cars with vintage camera equipment. But I ended up enjoying it, and will be doing it more often now :-)

[Glenn Thoreson]

Speed Graphics forever! So sayeth the photographer. Not lame or sad. Actually the mark of a good photographer that's willing to put some work into getting the images he wants. There are much better lenses than those Aero Ektars for Sports photography. A properly operating Speed Graphic focal plane shutter and a 4.5 lens will capture anything you can throw at it. 1/1000 and a couple of Grafmatics full of Tri-X, you can compete with anything out there.

[Jim Graves]

The correct link is is sportsshooter.com (two esses in the middle) ... interesting site ... hadn't seen that one before.

[robert fallis]

I took my crown graphic to an open day, at a pumping station in the lincolnshire fens, there was as much intrest in my camera, as in some of the machinery.

"old cameras for old works"

bob

[Walter Calahan]

Dave's not shooting with his Aero-Ektar all the time.

Here's his e-mail to me, yesterday, when I asked him if he covered the basketball game. (APUG has this same thread started yesterday):

"SG/5" xenon lens guess focus, no strobes, rear shutter tri x 250/2.3 and probably nothing will turn out.. but it was fun trying (hand held) and there were 45 photogs courtside, another 30 or so in the stands"

http://www.sportsshooter.com/

http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=432

[Colin Corneau]

Not sure if it was David Burnett, but a big trend a while back was using Polaroid Type 55 in an old Speed or Crown -- mostly for environmental portraiture.

I'm always happy to see people doing something creative, regardless of the tools they use. Frankly, anything to help analog get noticed as a valid and viable option is a good thing IMO.

[Frank Petronio]

I'm not knocking any of you guys at all, it is more the pack mentality of most (not all) sports photographers. It's an odd genre. You see an awful lot of very good photographers -- Sports Illustrated, NFL type guys -- doing the same shot over and over... the star player jumping in the area and getting blasted with 5000 watts of strobes against a sunny sky... haven't we all seen that shot over and over?

One of the local photographers who shoots the Buffalo Bills games bought a Speed/Aero outfit and didn't have a clue how to use it -- he didn't care about film or large format -- he was simply trying to catch the wave and make some "arty stuff" he could sell.

More power to him - I showed him how to load film, etc. - but then he only used it once before giving up.

Burnett is the man of course. He's been consistent through out.

[J D Clark]

Well, for what it's worth, I'll be at the Reno Air Races next month (September 2008) with my 4x5. Not quite the same situation, of course, but if anyone sees me there, say hello...

John Clark
www.johndclark.com

[Daniel_Buck]

More power to him - I showed him how to load film, etc. - but then he only used it once before giving up.
at least speeds are cheap :D

[bbjorkum]

It could very well be David Burnett. At least he has covered a tennis match in the Olympics using the Speed/Aero combo. I've seen the image.

[IanG]

If you read the thread again you'll find that Walter has actually posted a link on APUG to a photograph of David Burnett at the opening ceremony holding his Speed Graphic.

He'll obviously crop up gain quite frequently at other events.

Ian

[Allen in Montreal]

...... it is more the pack mentality of most (not all) sports photographers. It's an odd genre........doing the same shot over and over........ haven't we all seen that shot over and over?......he was simply trying to catch the wave and make some "arty stuff" he could sell........


Burnett is the man of course. He's been consistent through out.

Frank, you are very right about the pack mentality that runs in news and sports.
Watch the fotogs when reuters gets there first, and then AP and everyone else starts to show up, and they all end up in a huddle!

But the reality of that pack is also part of what makes Burnett brilliant.

Burnett produces many great images there is no doubt, but even more so, he gets editors to take chances. And almost all editors say junk like, get arty! be creative! have fun! blah blah blah, and then when you do not file the same image as Reuters did, they flip out!
Most, never take chances, how does Burnett get them to take so many chances so often? (rhetorical). So, they guys do the huddle thing to avoid getting dumped on, you just can't do "your own thing" and shoot everything all the wires guys shoot too!

I covered women's tennis for a week, moving 30 to 50 pictures a day for web galleries and all the different papers, I would get calls, "do have any more where she is actually hitting the ball??"

I tried to get them to use a little more of this:
I dragged a 400 2.8 to center court for this, and not to shoot cross court, to shoot same side, court side.

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7689/tennis19cnj7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The sports editor loved and used this piece of JUNK!! We have never seen this before...with the TV cameras in the background, I sent it poking fun at him and he used it big!

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/7195/tennis17id8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


He saw no value in these, you need variety for the web galleries, how many hitting the ball images can we run without boring the reader to tears?

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3091/tennis40ds7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

When she started to loose the final round:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6606/tennis23nf7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[bbjorkum]

I know it's not sport, but it's the good ol' aero tilt:

http://www.bjartebjorkum.com/gallery_144063.html
;-)