Gersh Photo Post | Max Gersh | Multimedia Photojournalist

The sports department has kept me busy recently. On top of regular feature stories here and there, the paper is running articles on the players of the year from each sport. I’ve shot so many sports portraits that I tried to coin the phrase “sportrait.” (Don’t forget my underwater portrait of the two swimmers or the group shot of wrestlers.)

Unfortunately, it only takes a quick Google search to see that I was not the first to be so clever.

I’m fortunate that I get to do all of my sportraits as environmental portraits. I have a tremendous amount of leeway in how I shoot it.

There are a few things I look for when doing an environmental portrait.

1. Dynamic lighting
2. Clean or purposely integrated background
3. Something that ties the subject to their sport or profession
4. Probably some other stuff that I notice subconsciously

That being said, sometimes that isn’t so easy to do.

Many of the locations I’ve been shooting at are indoors in a cluttered room. I have a few options. I can either overpower the ambient light with my own lighting or alter my shooting angle to fill the background with a clean area of wall, floor or ceiling. Or in some cases, both techniques used in tandem work best.

In a recent portrait of a swimmer, I stood on a bench and shot at a slight downward angle with my 70-200mm lens to compress the subject, William Kelsik, against the pool in the background.

William Kelsik - Swimmer at New Castle Chrysler High School. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

The free space to the left provided a nice balance of negative space and gave the ambiance of a pool because it is a pool. When it went to print, we used that area to run the beginning of the story.

B1 of The Courier-Times on March 11, 2010. ©2010

On another outing, I was sent to photograph former Tri High coach Don Schwarzkopf.  The school school board had voted to rename the gym after him. Great. I’ll get a shot of him in the gym.

It’s never that easy.

Of course, there were multiple activities on the court. Instead, I went to the upper deck of the seating which was halfway compressed (collapsible bleachers compressed for storage) and left maybe two feet of room to work side to side.

I tried to frame him the best I could with his sectional championship banners in the background.

Former Tri coach Don Schwarzkopf looks out at the high school basketball court with three sectional championship banners hanging in the background. Schwarzkopf won all three of the titles. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

No matter how much I want to be in control of every portrait I shoot in terms of lighting, apparel and location, I can’t always have it my way.

For almost a week, I had a scheduled portrait set up with Shenandoah High School’s star diver, Kate Hillman. I showed up on time with all of my equipment. I went to the school’s office and had them page her.

When she came in and saw me with my gear, she said “Oh my gosh. It’s Tuesday, isn’t it!”

Yes it was. And she had locked her keys and swim apparel in her car. Oh well.

The original idea for the portrait was to have her in her swim gear in the halls of the school. Shenandoah doesn’t have a pool for her to practice in so she drives to a pool nearly half an hour away. We wanted to illustrate a swimmer without a pool.

Instead, I just posed her in the halls of the school as she was.

Shenandoah's Kate Hillman will dive for Indiana University next season. Hillman finished second in the state this season in diving. She also set an Indiana High School record in the sport this season. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

I wanted a backup option for this shoot. Since I couldn’t have any swim gear or a pool, I wanted something that had the schools name on it. We headed to the gym. At center court, the name Shenandoah wraps around in an arc.

An alternative portrait option of Shenandoah's Kate Hillman (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

This image clearly wasn’t as strong of a portrait as the first but I always like to have multiple options to present.

My latest shoot has definitely been my most difficult. A portrait of a gymnast. The problem is that I know very little about gymnastics and I am not sure how to best make an image that represents the sport and the subject.

I spent quite a bit of time with the subject, Ashlan Millikan, to ensure I made satisfactory images.

At first, I had her practice parts of her floor routine while I had my light aimed at her. As she interacted with it, I fired.

Ashlan Millikan poses parts of her floor routine in the path of my light. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

I knew an image like this was usable but I was not satisfied. I wanted something more dynamic. We headed over to the beam.

She began to practice parts of her routine. When I saw something that I thought might work, I had her do it a few times to insure I had a sharp image.

New Castle's Ashlan Millikan practices a move on the beam Wednesday afternoon. Millikan will be competing in the all-around competition in the state tournament this weekend. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

This ended up being the lead art for the sports page.

I wanted to have a backup image so I took a photograph that was more portrait-esque. That image ended up running as secondary art.

Ashlan Millikan poses for a portrait on the beam in New Castle's gymnastics room. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

Like I said, I’ve been busy.

Most of these images were lit with my DIY Beauty Dish. The light was set up on a stand and fired by Pocket Wizard.

Let’s just say I was bored the other night. I decided to shoot a self portrait.

The idea was to capture an image of myself off the ground glass in my Hasselblad 500 C/M. I had done something similar when I was testing the Hasselblad.

Looking down at the ground glass of a 1976 Hasselblad 500 C/M at a stream in Potosi, MO. ©2009 Max Gersh

So, I began to setup.

I sat the Hasselblad on the table and aimed it at my recliner. It was important to have both the focus of the Hasselblad and the capturing camera, my Canon 1D Mark II, sharp. To pre-focus the Hasselblad, I laid a newspaper over the headrest on the recliner. The contrasty text made for a great focus chart.

Next was to position my 1D Mark II.

I knew I would need a unique positioning so I took out my Magic Arm, a multi-jointed camera mount. I carefully positioned it directly over the focusing screen of the Hasselblad.

I was shooting with the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L lens. This gave me a bit of versatility once I had the Magic Arm locked down.

I wanted the image to be spot lit. I put my Canon 550ex Speedlight on a stand and attached the Gary Fong PowerSnoot. To fire it, I used my Pocket Wizards.

I took a few test shots to fine tune the exposure.

The portrait itself looked okay but I wanted to see more of the Hasselblad. I took out a red LED flashlight and sat it on top of an old cheapo zoom lens to angle it at the lens of the Hasselblad.

Here is what the setup looked like.

The setup for the self-portrait. ©2010 Max Gersh

The flash is to the left and about eight feet up.

I was worried about the Magic Arm tipping over so I placed a somewhat heavy box on the back of its tripod base as a counter-weight.

When all was said and done, the portrait turned out kind of cool.

A self-portrait of Max Gersh seen through the ground glass of a Hasselblad 500 C/M. ©2010 Max Gersh

It was completely overkill and unnecessary.

But like I said, I was bored.

My week started off innocent enough. It was the first day that it really felt like Spring outside. I went to Baker Park to make a warm weather feature.

I hadn’t been there for 20 minutes when some kids showed with toy guns - or so I thought.

Kids show up at Baker Park in New Castle, IN with airsoft weapons. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

No. They weren’t real guns. But they were airsoft guns and probably didn’t belong on a playground.

Kids load their airsoft guns on the playground in Baker Park. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

A kid takes aim and fires his airsoft pistol in the Baker Park playground. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

Some parents called 911 and reported these kids. While the kids weren’t shooting at anyone, I think parents were concerned with ricochet.

A New Castle police officer gives a group of kids a warning after concerned parents called 911 to report the use of airsoft guns in the Baker Park playground. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

That was Monday.

Wednesday brought something much more exciting, journalisticly speaking.

I was headed back into New Castle after spending the morning grabbing some shots in Knightstown (which is in the southern part of Henry County). My phone rang. It was my news editor letting me know that an armed robbery had just taken place (but of course it was in the northern part of the county).

I arrived in time to watch officers from Henry and Randolph counties along with Indiana State Troopers  search the bright orange truck that was used as a getaway vehicle and the surrounding property.

Officers from Henry and Randolph counties and state troopers stand in front of the house where two men were arrested Wednesday after a robbery. The truck in the background was allegedly the getaway vehicle. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

After deciding jurisdiction, both of the suspects were transferred into the custody of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department.

John Michael Evans places his hands on his head as Henry County Sheriff's deputies and Indiana State Troopers transfer him into the custody of the Randolph County Sheriff's Department. Evans was caught at his residence after allegedly committing armed robbery in Losantville. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

The weapon wasn’t recovered until the next day.

While in a meeting with the newsroom earlier this week, I asked everyone if they had any upcoming stories that they would like me to try and add some multimedia to.

Our sports editor spoke up immediately with an idea. He was doing a feature story on a kid that shoots incredible basketball trick shots at the YMCA.

Yesterday, I met up with the sports editor and the trick shot champion, Michael Harsha.

Michael Harsha is a trickster on the court. He practices his shots at the YMCA in New Castle. He played for the Trojans and graduated from New Castle Chrysler High School in 2009. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

I have done backboard still shots like the one above but this was my first attempt at a backboard video.

I stayed on the ladder while he was shooting to keep the video camera from moving too much. I didn’t use a GOBO so you can see my head moving around a little in the reflection.

Aside from getting nailed with the basketball in the leg a few times while I was up on the ladder, I think the video came together pretty well.

This last weekend was busy for me. First I had the Republican candidate Senate debate on Saturday. On Sunday, I was sent to photograph a service at the St. Anne Catholic Church. I had a few pictures of the church in a post not too long ago.

This was special service. The church was burnt down by an arsonist nearly three years ago. It has taken all that time to raise funds and rebuild. This was the churches dedication ceremony and first service since the fire.

In the slideshow, you will hear from Father Joe Rautenberg, the church’s Sacramental Minister, and from Sister Shirley Gerth, the parish life coordinator.