R.I.P. Bob Feller

A while back I had the opportunity to photograph hall of fame pitcher Bob Feller. Today, he passed away. When I met him, he was in his late eighties, and was conducting a pitching workshop for middle schoolers in Westport, CT.

Here's a few images; click on the image if you'd like to use them in your publication:

Bob Feller Hall of Fame Pitcher - Images by Shelley Cryan

First Base Collision

Baseball Highlights - Images by Shelley Cryan


On a recent baseball assignment for the Stamford Advocate, I caught these two players in a collision at first base. The batter had laid down a bunt, bringing both the pitcher and the first baseman in. The second baseman (dark blue) ran over to cover first, took the throw, and tagged the bag for the force. A micro-second, later, the runner collided with him and they both went airborne.


For a minute it looked more like lacrosse than baseball....

Thanksgiving Football -- Greenwich at Staples High School

An annual tradition -- wake up early, make side dishes, then shoot a football game. Come home, put the turkey in the oven, and send the pictures to a newspaper client. Works for me.

This year's matchup was Greenwich High School vs. Staples High School in Westport, CT.

Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller

Baseball? In November?

I'm not sure why I'm thinking baseball today. Maybe because it's gray and cold, and I'm sending my thoughts to a warm summer day....

Anyway, when I think of baseball I sometimes remember the afternoon I spent taking photos Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller. He was giving a baseball clinic to middle-school-age kids in Westport, CT. I was on a freelance assignment for a local newspaper.

Feller came dressed in his full Cleveland Indians baseball uniform. Feller showed the kids his secret (or not-so-secret, I guess) grip, shared some tips about the mental aspects of being a successful pitcher, and stayed as long as he needed to, to sign autographs.

Here are some images from that day, available for editorial license if you click through to the gallery:


Bob Feller Hall of Fame Pitcher - Images by Shelley Cryan

Vlad the Wrestler

I've been lucky to have photographed many performers during my career, but a recent Friday night was a first -- I was assigned to cover professional wrestling.

The men on this circuit are looking to break into the big time, the WWE, and barnstorm local halls to gain a following.

One of the wrestlers is Vlad Joseph, aka Vicious. Wrestling "is really hard to do," says Vicious, who trains extensively. He cultivates a reputation in the ring as a tough guy. "Being disliked isn't enough," he says, "you have to be hated."


He told me he feels destined for wrestling somehow -- he said his mom liked to watch wrestling when she was pregnant with him, and he grew up in a family that enjoys tuning in to WWE.

Preparations backstage are serious:



This night, Vicious was happily wrestling Snyper when Jalil Patel surprised them by jumping into the ring. Patel dispatched Snyper quickly, then turned his attention to Vicious, launching him airborne:


When the dust settled, Patel's surprise entry forced the refs to nullify the match. Later, Vicious signed autographs for some loyal fans.


All in a night's work.

Slow Motion Photography

Here's an eye-popping video showcasing some amazing technology -- images shot at 1000 frames per second. Compare that to a digital SLR's roughly 8 frames per second, or standard video's 24 or 30 frames per second, and you'll see why this looks familiar, but different.

The movie was created by David Coiffier, mostly at a rugby match, and Coiffier identifies the camera as a SprintCam v3


I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

Sunset Runner

Recently I photographed some high school athletes during pre-season practices. I had finished up all my assignments, thinking how happy I was that I got everything done before dark, and before the predicted rains came.

As night began to fall, I was walking east toward my car with my gear. I turned around and enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in a while. I hurried back to the high school track, pulled out a small flash, and snapped a few frames. The red sky lasted maybe 3 or 4 minutes. As the sun dropped behind the horizon, the sky turned black and the clouds opened up. Everyone scurried for cover, and it was over.

High School Basketball Portrait

I took a photo of the Norwalk High School girls varsity basketball team to run full-page on the cover of a local paper's winter ports preview section. The team had posted an impressive record last season, and the sports editor figured they'd be a good team to highlight. Turns out the captains are also good sports, too.

We did the photoshoot moments before their first scrimmage of the season. It worked out great, since the players were all suited up already. I had scouted the location earlier, and had come up with this courtyard in the school. It had three things going for it: I liked the warm lights in the background, it was close to the gym so we'd maximize the short time we had together, and since it was freezing outside, no one else was around. I used a couple battery-powered strobes in umbrellas to light 'em.

We did a couple of traditional poses first. The toughest part was getting them all to be serious, since we all had a hard time not laughing. The photo above gives you an idea. It works OK. We had a couple of minutes before the game started, so we figured we'd try something different. Sometimes the best -- and most fun -- shots come when I know I have a "safe" shot in the camera already.

The players climbed up on a rock in the courtyard, figuring we'd get a "we're tall and tough" pose, with the added benefit of getting that nice blue sky in the background. While they were getting ready, I snapped this unposed frame for kicks:



But we weren't quite done. We were having such a good time together, that I asked them if they might be willing to jump off the rock. I was a bit nervous, because I sure didn't want anyone hurting themselves. But they insisted they could do it. We talked through how everyone should position themselves. We only had time for two shots.

The first shot we got a hand out of the frame. Below is the second shot -- my favorite and the girls' favorite from the whole session. It's the one that ran full page.

Bridgeport Sound Tigers -- Back at the Arena

I was back at the Arena at Harbor Yard last night, this time on assignment for the Connecticut Post for professional hockey. Same place as last post, only this time it was on ice. That's Pascal Morency of the Sound Tigers blowing by Lowell's Benoit Mondou.

It got me thinking that I'm on a theme here, since the second-to-last post was about a guy who was helping to put an ice rink into a theater.

Below, Sound Tiger Kurtis McLean gets horizontal for a shot on goal against Lowell goalie Jeff Frazee.

Fairfield University Basketball

Shot a men's college basketball game at the Arena at Harbor Yard recently -- Fairfield University squeaked by Iona. It was a treat to shoot in a place with good light.


Fairfield #44 Greg Nero reacts after having his shot blocked by #23 Iona Devon Clarke late in the first half. Neo reclaimed the ball and took another shot.


Fairfield #32 Anthony Johnson blocks Iona #21 Alejo Rodriguez.


Fairfield #3 Jonathan Han chases down a loose ball in the second half.

Old School Football

Artificial turf fields seem to be practical. The maintenance is easier, so they say, and the field can be used day in and day out, without worries that the grass will give out.

But they do have an unreal quality to them, a too-pristine quality, especially in the rain. As a photographer, I miss the days of muddy, sloppy plays in the rain (easy for me to say, when I'm on the sidelines). So I was happy when one of the few remaining local teams with a grass field played through a steady rain on Saturday.

The guy above dove through heavy traffic at the end zone, and made it in a single leap. Something about the frame reminded me of a simpler time.

See the full take from the game, as well as some of my other sports photos here.

Football Slideshow

Now that it's football season, it brings to mind this slideshow I did of a state championship game last season.

Boxer Tarvis Simms

It's got to be tough to make a living as a boxer. They pummel each other with great force, over and over again. It was hard to watch. But my close-up perspective shed a surprising light on the sport. More than once in the match, when one boxer hit another with a particularly swift jab or well-placed cross, the other would recover from the blow, then give an almost imperceptible nod to his opponent, as if to say, "good shot." Maybe it was my imagination.

For the photographers out there, the shot above was taken with a 17-55mm lens -- the short focal length gives you an idea of how close I was. You need to be close to be able to shoot around the ring ropes.

This top-of-the-card matchup started past the paper's deadline, but I stayed to the end anyway and the story and pictures ended up getting good play in the following edition.

That's a lot of kayaks

Some 300 or so kayakers decided to paddle from Norwalk, Connecticut across Long Island Sound recently. They figured it would take a few hours. It did. They raised money for local charities, and had some fun in the process.

The event is called Kayak for a Cause. Like all good causes, this one had its genesis in a bar bet. Someone dared a couple of buddies to paddle from Connecticut to Long Island, across the Sound, for fifty bucks. They did it, but never got their money. It stuck in their craw enough that they kept thinking about it, and decided to repeat the stunt the following year with a few more friends as witnesses/participants. They collected a few pledges -- less risky than a bet, I guess -- and gave the money away. Every year more people join them, and now it's quite an official thing, complete with pre-trip training and post-trip mega-party. So that's how they inadvertently started this charity. I'm not sure if they still hang out with the person who welched on the bet.

Night for Day Photo

Walking up to the soccer field, I figured this was gonna be a tricky portrait. I was supposed to make a frame of the team captains, who were busy onfield running drills. So I knew this would be a quick one. The sun was shining bright overhead, so I looked around for some shade nearby where I could bring these guys, but no dice. I knew there was no way they'd have time to walk the five minutes to the nearest shady area.

Lucky for me, though, some storm clouds hovered in one edge of the sky. I asked the guys to stand on the edge of the field, with some trees and the storm clouds behind them. I closed down the aperture and raised the shutter to its highest sync speed to darken the frame. Popped a few frames and adjusted the settings until those clouds looked nice and ominous. Of course, that made the guys silhouetted against the sky, so I held a single flash in my left hand to pop some light onto them.

The image ended up running full page as a sports section cover.

Field Hockey in the Rain

Yup, even if it's pouring, they'll still play field hockey. For an assignment from last week.

Football Captain Portrait

Last week a newspaper hired me to take a portrait of the captains and coaches of the town's two public school football teams. They're often billed as crosstown rivals, yet during the photo shoot, they sure seemed like good friends.

The sports editor had thought about an on-the-field portrait, but our scheduled time slot was near high noon, when the light wasn't conducive to a direct-sun photo. Of course there are ways of making that work -- and making it work well -- but that would take more time and money than we had for this job. I suggested the above setting, under the bleachers, and the editor agreed.

I asked the strong athletes to help me move the tires into place -- why the tires were there I have no idea -- and we got it done. I think I used three speedlights on this: Two on camera left in front, and one clamped to the underside of the bleachers behind, to give a little separation light. It ran as a vertical on the cover of the fall sports preview section -- for the blog I've cropped off the top where the mast ran.

Underwater Portrait

When I got the assignment to shoot images of a few high school swim teams, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted something different than the usual "half head above water in the middle of a swim stroke" images that usually run. Instead, I figured I'd do an underwater portrait of the team captains. I thought it'd be an interesting challenge. I had no idea how fun it would be, too.

For safety's sake, I'd use battery-powered strobes to light the portrait. Turns out that the water acts as a super diffuser, so I got some nice soft light without using any modifiers on the speedlights. I got the lights all set up and tested exposure before I called the athletes out of practice.

I also did some test shots before I called the athletes over, and got a good idea of the area of coverage I'd have with my wide angle lens. I showed the test shots to the swimmers, so they knew where they'd need to be. Just out of the frame above, the lane line comes to a "T," so they knew as long as they stayed just behind that "T" painted on the ground, they'd be good to go. It's a bit of a bummer that the one girl's fingers found their way out of the frame above, but I still like the frame.

I gave the swimmers some pretty specific instructions: I wanted their feet off the ground and knees bent. I figured floating feet would be a definite visual cue that the athletes were indeed underwater, in case the image ran in B&W and/or was cropped tightly. I also reminded them to smile, look toward the camera at the same time, and not exhale, since the bubbles might block their faces.

What I didn't say -- and didn't think of at all -- was that they needed to exhale completely before they went under. One of the swimmers would get in position, then start floating upwards, still holding her "pose," while valiantly trying to will herself to sink. Once her teammate reminded her that air makes you float -- after a lot of giggling -- things worked out fine.

Anyway, I ended up doing several underwater portraits for different teams, and the images reproduced well in print. I'm hoping I get to expand on the technique in future assignments.