Mom’s Weekend Prep

Max Bahle, left, secures a piece of art with the help of Joseph Lee, both seniors in ACES, in preparation for the 55th annual Horticulture Club Mom's Day Flower Show on Thursday, April 15, 2010. The show opened on April 17 and will showcase over 1,900 plants for sale, most of which were grown by members of the club.

As a teaser for the Friday paper of Mom’s weekend I went to shoot the setup of the Horticulture Club’s annual flower show. I have never been to the show and had no idea how much preparation is needed for the show. The theme this year (maybe every year) was something to do with international locations and they had several gardens showcasing plants from around the world. There were only a few people at the setup but there was plenty to be shot.

Max Bahle, left, secures a piece of art with the help of Joseph Lee, both seniors in ACES, in preparation for the 55th annual Horticulture Club Mom’s Day Flower Show on Thursday, April 15, 2010.

Max Bahle, senior in ACES and president of Horticulture Club, secures a piece of art in preparation for the 55th annual Horticulture Club Mom’s Day Flower Show on Thursday, April 15, 2010.

David Hornbaker, right, and Mike Howlett, both seniors in ACES, work to create a water feature in the Stock Pavilion in preparation for the 55th annual Horticulture Club Mom’s Day Flower Show on Thursday, April 15, 2010. Hornbaker installs the features during his summer breaks and is contributing over 12 hours per day to have the show ready for Saturday.

Sophie Romey, freshman in business, waters plants in the Stock Pavilion in preparation for the 55th annual Horticulture Club Mom’s Day Flower Show on Thursday, April 15, 2010.

-XO Mike

Skyline Plunge

Sarah Herberger, senior in ACES, lowers herself over the edge during the Skyline Plunge event at Illini Tower on Sunday, April 11, 2010. The event was held to raise awareness and money for the Respiratory Health Association.

Last Sunday I had the privilege of participating in the Skyline Plunge event. When I first heard of the event I immediately wanted to do a photo story about the experience and set about going to preliminary meetings and making contacts at the Respiratory Health Association (RHA). The event allowed participants to sign up to rappel down the side of an 18 story building in Champaign in exchange for their pledge to raise $500 for the RHA. Nearly 30 participants signed up and they offered to allow media to rappel as a way to get more columns and reports about the event.

After a short one story practice rappel, I was at the top of the tower at 9am, first in line and ready to cover the entire event. I stayed at the event from 8am (registration) until the last participant at 2pm before heading off to edit the photos for the paper the next day. The day was a lot of fun and despite the awesome experience of flying down 18 stories, my favorite part was covering the participants and workers at the event. Take a peek at the gallery to see some of my other favorite shots.

Sarah Herberger, senior in ACES, lowers herself over the edge during the Skyline Plunge event at Illini Tower on Sunday, April 11, 2010. The event was held to raise awareness and money for the Respiratory Health Association.

Jen Wheeler, junior in Media and Illini Media Employee, looks up from the fifteenth floor as she descends Illini Tower.

Amanda Linderman cringes as she goes over the edge of Illini Tower.

Dan Marcus, president of STAR the student organization partner for the event, smiles with excitement after landing safely back on the ground. Marcus was a driving force beind the event coming to Champaign.

Katie Connelly, center, senior in LAS, and Terese Adamiec, senior in ACES, hold a sign for their friend rappelling down Illini Tower. Connelly and Adamiec made the sign, “so she knows where to land.”

Rosemary Marcus, mother of the event coordinator and participant, Dan Marcus, and Sara Turk, girlfriend of Dan, watch participants as they rappell down Illini Tower. Rosemary said of Dan, “I’ve never seen him so involved” and that he was, “extremely worried about the insurance.”

Jason Burgos, junior in LAS, rappels dressed as The Joker from Batman. Burgos said, “if you’re doing something crazy, you have to go all out.” Burgos raised funds in memory of his grandfather who died of lung cancer.

-XO Mike

Welcome to the Big Leagues

I am late with this posting and I apologize. Last week I went to St. Louis with three other Daily Illini reporters for the match-up of Illinois and Missouri at Busch Stadium. Welcome to the big leagues boys. It was a real treat for me to go along and use the professional facilities of a new stadium for the shoot. There were practically fewer restrictions on where we could shoot than at Illinois Stadium (Illinois’ home field). We were allowed in the dugouts to shoot on either the near or far end, both offered different perspectives of the bases, we could roam throughout the stadium or my personal favorite, front row behind home plate. 😀 Even though the team lost in a 7-4 ending, the experience was great and I was pleased with the results of using a 7D.

The 7D was much better at auto-focusing than I had imagined and I already had high hopes. When this AF system gets ported to the 5Dmk3, it will be game over. 8fps blew me away every time I touched the shutter but it still is a crop sensor with more noise that I like to deal with. This would be a great second body to pair with the 5D to do outdoor daytime sports, or indoor/nighttime with a bit of noise. I am pleased.

Check out the Gallery! I figured out how to add this in.

-XO Mike

Illini of the Week – Angela Bizzari

This girl is taking over the sports front of the DI. Two weeks ago she was the Illini of the Week for winning something, last week she was the #4 Illini of the Decade and this week she is again the Illini of the Week for winning the NCAA Women’s Indoor 3000m Championship. The photos were not all that creative because a) we shot her two weeks ago running, b) her sport has no props to work with, c) the location was changed from outdoor to indoor with less than 30 minutes until the shoot, d) she’s too cute to pull off the tough girl look and e) I was kicked out of a spot on the track because of practice. Anyway, I’m not unhappy with the result but wished it could have been more visually stimulating.

I worked with three flashes to pull off these shots; two on shoot through umbrellas and one on the ground without a diffuser. This was my first time using shoot through and I think I have converted because they allow my flashes to be closer to the subject which uses less power and a fuller flash. I also took to heart another trick and used my 70-200mm lens because I have heard (and noticed) there is less distortion on longer lenses. Technically I was pleased with the result but creatively I was underwhelmed.

-XO Mike

Illini of the Week – Dan Ribeiro

On Monday I grabbed the assignment to shoot the Illini of the Week. Each week the Daily Illini Sports editor selects an athlete who they deem to be the best of the week. Sports writes a feature article and photo gets to do a portrait of the athlete. I headed to Kenny Gym with my mini studio to get some shots and Wesley offered to help with the shoot. I thought it turned out really well despite Ribeiro loving himself too much and doing the shoot shirtless.

One of the DI photographers donated some old flash triggers to the staff recently and this was the first test run. I used wireless triggers and two 580exIIs to blow out the background and while I wish I had done a multi strobe to capture his motion around the pommel horse, I think it turned out alright. Thanks to Wesley for helping me out.

-XO Mike