Photographing the 49er v Cardinal game - The real winners are off the field!

For all of you football fans, you will likely appreciate this blog for the photos. But even more important than the photos themselves, is the story of why I was at the San Francisco 49er game in the first place. So I encourage all of you, even those not into football or sports, to read this blog post to be inspired by some really good people.

So now you are wondering what the heck I am referring to, right? Well...I have volunteered to photograph numerous charity events for Zane Beadles, who is a player for the San Francisco 49ers.  He has a great charity called Zanes Beadles Parade Foundation which helps kids with major medical issues. He had 13 kids (mostly fighting cancer) coming to the 49er game to watch the game from a luxury suite and then were invited to meet the players after the game. They asked me if I could photograph this for the kids and the organization. One of my clients was nice enough to move their family portrait session and I was clear for the day.

I wanted to get photos of the kids in the suite, but we all agreed that the kids should relax and have fun watching the game and not be bothered with photos. So, I went to the game figuring that I would get a couple of shots of the kids in the suite, but nothing more until after the game. This gave me lots of time during the game, so I asked my friends at the 49ers for a field pass to shoot the game. This is always a fun experience and a good challenge.

Since my primary reason for being at the game was for the kids, I decided to go to the game with only a Canon 100-400mm II lens and a Canon 24-70mm II lens. I also thought that this would be a great test of the 100-400 lens when most photographers were using the bigger 400mm f/2.8 or Canon 200-400mm lens with the built in tele converter.

I was using the Canon 1D X Mark II camera for all my sports shooting, and I used the Canon 5D Mark IV camera with the wider lens for all the kid's photos. And, as you can see from this photo, I ditched my Gitzo monopod about 30 minutes into the game and decided to go handheld for the remainder of the match (for more mobility).

I will start with my photos of the game.

The big story for the San Francisco 49ers this week was the recent addition of Jimmy Garoppolo. Even though the quarterback would not play this week, all the photographers were anxious to get photos of him in his new 49er uniform. I took this photo of Jimmy during warmups, which started about an hour before the game commenced.

At Levis Stadium, the photographers work room is right by the visiting team's locker room and entrance. Since I happened to be by the Arizona Cardinals' tunnel, I thought I would grab some shots of them entering the field.

Then I hightailed it over to where the 49ers entered the field. I wanted to get shots of Zane (#68) coming onto the field.

Then it was game time.

I made sure to get some photos of Zane in action.

A lot of the time, I was keying in on the quarterback. And C.J. Beathard (the 49er quarterback) was taking a beating all game.

He could run, but he couldn't hide.

He did throw a long ball downfield to Marquis Goodwin, who made a really nice grab.

Trailing 14 to 0, the 49ers were able to get 3 points on the board in the 2nd quarter.

I moved all around the field shooting action from different angles.

It was towards the end of the first half, when I took this photo of yet another sack of the quarterback. It was a long day for him. I decided that this would be my best time to head up to the suite to photograph the kids.

I made my way up to the suite (graciously donated by Jazz Pharmaceuticals) and introduced myself to the kids and asked to them if they were ready for some photos. They were excited for the opportunity to capture this big day.

There were supposed to be 13 kids, but some of them were too sick to make the game. The poor kids!! It made me sad thinking about how those kids were missing out on something so special, and how difficult their lives must be on a day-to-day basis.

After photographing the kids, I went back down to the field level to photograph the second half of the game.

Since the 49ers were driving down the field, I decided to position myself at the end zone. I was in a reasonably good position to get this photo of C.J. Beathard crossing the goal line for a rare 49er touchdown.

The 49ers may have scored a touchdown, but they could not slow down Adrian Peterson, who racked up 159 yards against the 49er defense.

There were a couple of times in the game when it looked like the winless 49ers may be able to get back in the game. This is one of those times, as the Cardinals fumbled the ball and the 49ers recovered it.

This photo made me laugh, because it looks like C.J. Beathard is throwing the ball right to me.

One of the last action shots I took was of Kendrick Bourne catching this pass right along the sideline where I was standing.

Towards the end of the game, I went over to the player's bench and got some photos of Zane. I also talked to him and determined where we would meet the kids after he was done in the locker room.

The game was over and most of the people had left the stadium when I saw some of the athletes exchanging jerseys. Here is a shot of Reuben Foster trading jerseys with Patrick Peterson.

I was walking back to the photographer's room through the visitor's tunnel when I heard a commotion behind me. I turned and saw Peterson coming off the field and grabbed this shot.

I then went into the photo workroom to switch from my Canon 1D X Mark II and 100-400mm lens to my Canon 5D Mark IV camera with the Canon 24-70mm II lens. I also grabbed my Canon 600 EX-RT flash with the MagMod MagSphere to use as fill flash.

But as I said at the beginning of this blog post, the real story is not about the players on the field, it is about them off the field. The real reason for me being at the game, was to photograph the kids meeting the players after the game, and I was happy to be able to capture this for Zane's charity and the kids.

The Zane Beadles Parade Foundation (ZBPF) helps raise money for the families of these sick kids, many of who have a difficult time affording anything after dealing with massive medical expenses. ZBPF partnered with The Gabby Krause Foundation to provide gifts for the kids, like you see here. Some of the player's wives made those 49er blankets for the kids.

The kids made their way down to the player parking lot to meet the players. Here is a photo of the kids with Dekoda Watson and Zane Beadles. Both of these guys were awesome with the kids.

I made sure to get photos of each kid with the players (all of which were sent to them on Monday).

For every home game, Zane is playing in honor of a different child going through a life changing medical condition. Sunday's game was dedicated to Sage, this 9 year old who is battling cancer.

This was the first time that I met Dekoda Watson, and I was so impressed with this guy. Just like Zane, he was so good with these kids!

For those of you who do not know, I spent a lot of time with the 49ers back in the days with Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Brent Jones and so many other good guys. They were classy guys who I still call friends. But then there were the years when I dealt with some of NFL athletes and was not so impressed with them as people. It was for this reason that I started focusing on the NHL players, who seemed so much more grounded.

Well...after dealing with Zane, Dekoda and many of the other 49ers at the UCSF Hospital Prom, I am happy to say that they are reaffirming my faith in NFL athletes.

These kids were so happy to get the VIP treatment at the game and to meet the guys.

These guys are the the real deal. Yes, the San Francisco 49ers are winless right now (0-9), but these guys are true winners! They are using their status as NFL players to do great things for kids and their families who are dealing with much bigger issues than winning a football game.

After taking the photos of the kids, I walked back across the field to gather my gear and head home. I got to midfield and saw this as a rare opportunity to photograph the empty stadium, but still lit. I pulled out my new iPhone X and took this panorama shot of the stadium.

It wasn't until I got home that I realized that I could combine this image with a couple of the other photos as a great gift for the kids. I am printing them on my Canon Pro-1000 printer right now.

 __________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world.
__________________________________________________________________________

The 2018 Winter Olympics are now 100 days away - Time to start my final preparations

We are now 100 days from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea, which means that it will come up really fast! And I know that many of you follow the blog to see the behind the scenes of the Olympic Games and how I am photographing the events. This year will be no different, with lots of photos of the sports action as well as the stories that go along with them. And at the Olympics...there are ALWAYS stories.

For most of you, 100 days means that the Olympics are still 3 months away and not top of mind at this point. For me, this means that the last year and a half of work is about to come to fruition and I have to start my final preparations soon.

But, in the mean time, I thought you might be interested in knowing what activities have been going on in preparation for these Games.

Believe it or not, the process for these Winter Olympics actually started before I ever left for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Back in June of 2016, I received my first email from the USOC letting me know that it was time to submit for accreditation, and the last 18 months has been busy. Here is a quick overview what has occurred over the last year and a half:

June 2016:  Application for credentials
Sept 2016:   Credential applications closed and reviewed
Oct 2016:    Notice of credential approval
Nov 2016:   Notification of Extranet site and Login information (where I can get venue and schedule information as it becomes available)
Jan 2017:     Reviewing of all IOC documents
Feb 2017:    Ordering of Internet and other services is open
Feb 2017:    Tried to book flights but not available for purchase yet
Mar 2017:    Contacted by Olympic Accommodations for housing request
Apr 2017:    Booked flights to Korea on United Airlines (official carrier for Team USA)
Apr 2017:    Reviewed housing options and submitted for housing in my preferred location
May 2017:   First revision of photography contract sent
June 2017:   Approved for housing (but not given what I wanted)
July 2017:   Contacted the Olympic Accommodations group requesting a housing change
Aug 2017:   Received email confirming a housing change
Sept 2017:   Housing payment made in full
Oct 2017:    Final photography contract signed
Nov 2017:   Put in request for additional camera bodies and lenses from Canon Professional Services

I am still waiting for the PyeongChang Organizing Committee (POCOG) to post a schedule of events, so that I can start planning out my shooting schedule for the month. This schedule will determine my whereabouts for the month. I know that I will be photographing all the games for USA Hockey, but not sure if there will be any overlaps between the men's and women's games. The hockey schedule will also determine my free time to go and photograph other sports.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, but that is always the case for 100 days out. Now that I have done 5 Olympics, I am pretty familiar with the stress and the routine.

I do know this...I leave for Korea on February 5th and will be there until the 27th. It will be a crazy month full of long days of shooting, late nights of editing, and lots of blog posts. So stay tuned and get ready to join me on this next wild Olympic ride.

 __________________________________________________________________________
Remember that you and your friends can enter your email address at the top right of this blog to get an email any time I write a new blog post.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world.
__________________________________________________________________________

Do you have any old slides that you want to scan? Here is my cheap and easy way to do it at home.

A couple months ago, we had a family friend who got ahold of some really old family photos. She came over and asked me if there was any way that I could convert her old slides to digital images. Since I do not own a slide scanner, I was about to tell her that there was nothing I could do, that was until I came up with a plan B.

I was holding one of her slides up to a light to see the image, when I came up with an idea.

I knew that I needed to backlight the slide to see the image, and I also knew that if I could get in close enough, I could capture a digital image of the slide. In order to get a good solid backlight, Here is what I came up with:

I turned on my desktop computer and launched Microsoft Word. I then opened a blank document so that I would have a large white light behind my slides.

I tried shooting some images of an old slide and quickly realized that I needed a better way to keep everything in focus.

I set up one of my Joby Gorilla Pods and a Manfrotto clamp to hold the slides.

I then mounted my Canon 5D Mark IV camera with the Canon 100mm macro lens on my Gitzo tripod. I moved the camera so that it was right up to the slide and then manually focused the lens to get a good sharp image. I set the camera to a 2 second timer mode (so that I would not shake the camera at all), and fired a shot of each slide. (Note: you do not need an expensive tripod or camera to do this, but a decent macro lens sure helps.)

One by one, I would take a photo and then replace the slide with another one. This worked so well that I ended up going deep into my closet and finding old slides that my father had taken back in the 1950s and 1960s. I wanted to convert all these too!

Here are a couple of things I learned in the process.

* Do not put the slide too close to your monitor, as the pixels will show up behind the slide image.
* It is best to have a clip or something to hold the slides in exactly the same position. this saves you having to reposition the lens before capturing each photo.
* It is set up the camera to capture all the slide in the sideways position. If the image was in portrait mode, it was easier to capture it sideways (instead of rotating the camera each time) and then rotate it later in Photo Mechanic or Photoshop.

So...what did slides did I convert? See for yourself. And yes, that is little ole me in the photos below.

(Notice that even then I must have been into photography, as I am holding a box from a roll of Kodak film.)

Oh - and don't forget the other advantage to scanning old slides. You can clean them up and correct them.

For instance, here is a slide that I found of my father and brother when Dave was a newborn.

As you can see, the white balance is way off and there are lots of scratches and dirt on the slide. I adjusted the white balance in Adobe Camera Raw to warm it up. I know for sure that my dad did not have blue skin.

Then I straightened the image and cropped the border out.

But I still had a really dirty image to clean up.

I used the healing brush to remove all the larger marks on my father face and background. I then created a separate layer and ran the "Dust & Scratches" filter in Photoshop to remove a lot of the dirt from his shirt and the wall paper in the background. Ta da! I have a nice image for myself and my family to remember my father by.

And just for the fun of it, I decided to do a little more retouching. I removed the harsh shadow to the left of my father, fixed his tie, and removed the chimney sticking out of the top of his head. I know, I know...I just changed history, but even though this is not what I would share with others, it was fun to do anyways.

I hope that this inspires all of you to get that old box of slides out of the closet and start converting them to digital images for you and your family.

__________________________________________________________________________
Remember that you and your friends can enter your email address at the top right of this blog to get an email any time I write a new blog post.
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world.
__________________________________________________________________________

A visit to Las Vegas - A tribute to those we lost last week

This week I am in Las Vegas with my good friend, Glenn. The trip was planned months ago, and we had no idea that we would be visiting here at a time of such grief. Since we had some free time this morning, Glenn and I decided to visit the makeshift memorial that is near the Mandalay Bay Hotel, the concert site and the old Las Vegas welcome sign.

This blog post is dedicated to all those who lost their lives, and their friends and family.

Many people who come to Las Vegas like to take their photo in front of this sign on Las Vegas Boulevard. This would be the normal view.

Now this site is covered by flowers and many other tributes to the victims of this senseless crime. I framed this photo to include the flowers, the sign, the #Vegasstrong poster and the Mandalay Bay Hotel, all part of the story.

I saw this hat from the Manila on top of this large flower arrangement, and liked the many positive messages. I focused on the hat, changed my aperture to f/2.8, and got down low to include the sign in the background.

There are so many candles, cowboy boots, hats, CDs and other items. It is heartbreaking.

The signs for the concert are still up, and the police have cordoned off the area.

Looking up at the hotel, you can see where they have boarded up the two windows used by the mass murder.

There are hundreds of people lined up to walk through the memorial, with 58 crosses identifying all the people killed by this one horrible person.

As I read the names and messages, two things struck me. First, It seemed that their were an inordinate amount of females killed in this tragic event. (I just looked it up and it looks like 2/3 of the deceased were woman.) And secondly, I kept thinking to myself, "How could one person be so evil to do this cowardly act to all these innocent people?"

Even though it has been a week since the killings, people are still coming to drop off flowers, candles and more. There is even a group or people handing out free water to anyone who comes to the memorial. That alone made me happy, that people are showing the positive side of human nature at a time and place where there is not much positive to reflect on. (I was surprised that so many people were visiting the sign and doing jumps and other "fun" selfies in front of it, with all this remembrance surrounding the area. That seemed disrespectful to me.)

One cross after another...

I got down low to shoot this photo of the flags blowing, with the Mandalay Bay Hotel in the background, when I saw something poignant in the background.

Through the flags, I saw this woman praying. I quickly refocused on her and shot numerous photos to get her surrounded by the waving flags.

Last night was extremely windy here in Las Vegas and the desert sand was obviously blown everywhere, even here at the memorial. I saw this poster with photos of the deceased and thought that it said so much. I guess, like the band Kansas said, we are just dust in the wind.