Jeff Cable's Blog

Friday, July 30, 2021

Photographing Beach Volleyball in Tokyo

Last night I made a visit to Shiokaze Park to photograph women's and men's beach volleyball. The event started at 8pm here, which made for a really pleasant photo experience. The sun was down and the temperature was a mild 80 degrees. I have not photographed beach volleyball since the Rio Olympics 5 years ago and needed to warm up to start getting any useable shots.

I started photographing from behind the court, but found that I was having trouble getting any decent photos. I tried both the Canon 200-400mm lens and even the shorter Canon RF70-200mm lens, but was not happy with the results.

I then moved to a side position and had better luck shooting with the shorter Canon RF70-200mm lens. I set my ISO to 1000, had an aperture of f/3.5, which gave me the desired shutter speed of 1/1000 sec.

Using the "Subject detection" mode of the camera really helped me to lock focus on their faces.

The hard part of photographing this sport, is that you almost have to predict the play and key on one athlete, as the action happens very fast.

Look at the TV cameraman in the background. They were sitting on inflatable balloons on the sand.

One of the great thing about volleyball players is that they are emotional after almost every play, win or lose.

After getting warmed up at the side position, I figured it was time to try again at the far end of the court again.

This time I was able to figure out the play and get some keepers. I even switched to the longer zoom lens at this point.

Even though there are no spectators, the non-verbal communications are important between the players. Here she is signaling her partner as to what serve she wants.

I found it easier to capture the action on the far side of the court with the Canon 200-400mm lens. I would key in on one woman and hope that action would happen there.

After shooting on the sand for a while, I decided to head up into the stands. Even though there are no spectators, they are enforcing the photo positions. This meant that I had to stay in two rows that were designated for us. Strange, but true.

Once again, I focused on the team at the far end of the court. I was really happy that the camera was able to lock in on the athletes, even through the net.

It was definitely easier to follow the action from a farther position.

I took hundreds of photos in the mid level photo position and then decided to climb to the very top of the stadium where they had another photo position.

I saw this Brazilian woman dive for the ball and fired off a bunch of shots. As I looked into the viewfinder (one of the things I love about shooting with the new mirrorless cameras) and saw this frame, I was really excited. Look how her outstretched body is perfectly framed by the net (with the Tokyo 2020 clearly visible). I could not have planned a better shot! This photo is one of my favorites from these Olympics.

I knew I was not going to top the outstretched shot, but stayed up there a little longer to see what else I could capture. This one turned out nice as well.

During the break between the second and third match, I went back down to the Field of Play position (FOP).

I had 15 minutes to shoot the men's match before running for my press bus.

I captured some more action, but I knew I was not going to get a better shot than I already had in the camera.

I took some photos of the Brazilian men serving and really liked this shot with the sand flying off the ball. And yes, this is a crop of a wider shot that I took.

All in all, it was a really fun night, with mild temperatures, fresh air and knowing that I got a money shot.

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Thursday, July 29, 2021

EXCLUSIVE Behind the Scenes: Here is a rare look into Canon's back room at the Olympics

I have been here at the Olympics in Tokyo for more than a week now and I have been to the Canon CPS booth numerous times for assistance.

Every time I am at the front, I have wondered how much loaner equipment was behind those walls. I have seen their stash at past Olympics (which was awesome), but wondered how much they brought to this Olympics. You may recall that I was told that their loaner pool would be scaled back due to Covid.

I have also been barraged by photographers asking me to find a way to get behind those walls to see what is back there. Well folks, after a week of asking, I was allowed into the inner sanctum of the CPS booth yesterday.

And now you all get to see this as well!

The first thing I saw when I entered the back area was the service area. They had a whole bunch of technicians servicing equipment.

This is the wall with photographer's equipment waiting to be serviced.

These technicians work around the clock to support all of us photographers here at the Olympics. I have yet to borrow any equipment this time around (well..except for a camera body), but it is so nice to know that these techs are here in case we need them. And yes, I have dropped a camera and lens at past Olympics.

I saw this Canon 70-200mm lens open and being serviced. This is my favorite lens of all time, but this is the first time I have seen one partially open.

This big zoom lens was getting some work done.

I am not sure if they were replacing the rubber or just putting it back on after servicing the lens.

I was walking around the service area when I spotted this machine. I asked the Canon people what the heck this machine was. They told me that this is the machine that cleans the sensor of the camera.

The machine has a lens mount on the surface.

They connect the camera to this mount and the machine cleans the sensor. I need one of these at home!!!

And then...I was escorted into "The Room".

For those of us photographers, this is better than any candy shop. This is the holy grail of camera equipment!

There were endless Canon 1DX Mark III bodies.

Even if you are not a professional photographer, this probably still makes you drool.

They had racks and racks of Canon 600mm L series lenses. These things cost $13,000 each. I can not even imagine what the equipment in these photos is worth!

It was hard to photograph the room while salivating.

They didn't just have the big glass, they had everything including a bunch of 1.4x tele adaptors...

As I mentioned earlier, the Canon 70-200mm 2.8IS lens is my all-time favorite lens of all time. I have used and abused mine for more than 14 years and it still rocks. I have the new Canon RF70-200mm lens but I refuse to sell my trusty original old friend. To see this many of these lenses is just awesome.

They were calling out to me.

They had plenty of shorter lenses as well, including 24-70mm, 16-35mm, and others. They may not be as impressive as their bigger brothers, but they are every bit as necessary to us here at the Olympics.

Well folks, there you go. Another chance for me to take you behind the scenes, to see how us photographers are supported (OK- spoiled) here at the Games.

And in case you are wondering, I was not allowed to take anything home with me. Darn it!

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The men of USA Water Polo lose their first game in the last 4 minutes

Today was the third game for the men of USA Water Polo as they took on the Italian team. Unlike all the other games, I decided to park myself in one position for the entire game, capturing two periods from the offensive side and two periods from the defensive side.

Each game starts with the National Anthem of both teams. It is really weird when they do this and there are no spectators to react to this. They even make announcements to the "crowd" in the stadium even though there really isn't one. The only people in the stands are some other athletes and Olympic workers.

I set the camera to ISO 2000 which gave me a fast shutter speed. I was using my go-to lens of these Olympics, the Canon 200-400mm lens.

I saw the coach reacting to a call, and was taking a handful of images when this splash happened in the pool. I liked the image this way and submitted it to the team.

Photographing sports is as much about capturing the reaction as the action.

Here is Max Irving taking a penalty shot. Look how high he came out of the water! This is AWESOME strength!

During a timeout, the coach met with the team to talk strategy.

The Americans had the lead for most of the game.

Here is a rare shot of Ben Hallock shooting with his cap off.

Coach still not happy!

This is Drew Holland getting the attention of his teammates.

Max celebrating a goal.

The men had the lead through the entire game until the last 4 minutes, when the Italian team scored 3 unanswered goals to win the game. Ughhh. It was a heartbreaking loss, but not catastrophic for the team. Just like the women's team, maybe one loss will be a motivator for the future.

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