Remember you can see more Street Fighter/eSports photos at my Smugmug!

Daigo Umehara Documentary on NHK Part 1

Daigo Umehara Documentary on NHK Part 2

Added photos to my portfolio, photos I shot for a band in Santa Barbara awhile back. I did not have the time to upload and organize to my site until recently. Definitely much more structured and scripted photography from what I usually do but nevertheless really fun to shoot.

A blog post without a photo is a sad post, so here is a photo I took from my iPhone when stopped at a traffic light. It was a spur of the moment shot, I thought the scene looked interesting and I shot the photo with the camera I had on me. Cellphone photography has seemed to catch on fire as of late, especially given the fact the iPhone is the 2nd most popular camera on flickr now. Chase Jarvis has a phrase (and a book) which states, “The best camera is the one that’s with you”. This simple mantra has inspired me to shoot more often not just with my DSLR or film camera, but also with my iPhone. A simple camera should not limit a photographer but rather free the photographer from meticulous metering and depth of field, because sometimes the greatest pictures are those which are taken a particular spontaneous and serendipitous moment. Simple snapshots are sometimes the photos that we cherish most. Oh, and if you’re wondering this photo was taken with an iPhone and “The Best Camera” app.

I was able to photograph EVO 2009 thanks to the help from the organization who asked me to be their official photographer. They were nice enough to provide a hotel room for me at the Gold Coast, right across from the Rio. Not exactly the most magnificent room, but given the amount of time I spent inside it really did not matter. Most of the time I was at the venue, when I was at my room it was just to pass out and sleep to rest up for the next day.

A typical day for EVO consisted of waking up around 6AM, showering, getting dressed and meeting with the staff at 7AM for breakfast. Breakfast was a time to discuss about the event and what needed to be done that day, it was also important for me to attend so I would know which events to focus on and to know an overview of how the day would be run. By 8AM, we would be at the convention hall to setup for the day. For me it would mean charging my backup batteries, uploading any remaining photos from the last day on my laptop and checking out the lighting conditions. Then from 9AM till the end of the day, it was taking photos or uploading photos with breaks to get lunch and dinner to keep documenting the event without passing out.

The event itself was a smashing success. Never had I been to an event that ran as smoothly as EVO 2009 or the energy of the crowd all of Championship Sunday. The hype was so tangible during the Street Fighter IV finals between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong, at time I caught myself staring at the match and missing some photo opportunities. The tension of the match at times was so thick it could of been cut through with a knife, especially when Justin had to win rounds to extend the match. In the end Daigo pulled off the close victory to be named the first Street Fighter IV champion of 2009.

All in all, I loved my time at EVO 2009 and am already looking forward to shooting EVO 2010. Perhaps I will be able to shoot another big fighting game event before the close of 2009? One can only hope so!

Evolution 2009 photos can be found here.

Whereas “Believe” showed the atmosphere with the excitement and jubilation of the crowd, the Ed Ma picture captures a more intimate photo of him after 15 hours at Denjin Arcade, coming so close to winning the USA spot to Tokyo only to see it slip away. To be honest, it was a secret favorite of mine out of the entire set from the qualifiers. Though both photos capture the raw emotion that eSports can bring out of competitors and spectators, Ed Ma’s solitary figure slammed into the arcade screen with despair reminds me of just how lonely it can be for the losers of any competition. With nary an eye passing to glance at him, the crowd is too busy reacting to the elation of the victors.

Being nominated for the eSports Photo of the Year means a lot to me, especially given the fact that I only started doing eSports specific photography since May 31st, just about a month and a half. Perhaps what humbles me most with the nomination is that both photos were just taken at my 2nd eSports event, only a week’s experience into the genre. For the fighting game community to embrace my photos in such a short period of time, my hope is that my nominated photo can bring the due exposure the scene truly deserves. Furthermore, being the sole photographer nominated from North America shows the deteriorating state of eSports in our region. My hope is in future iteration of the awards, not only is the more of the fighting game community represented but that of American eSports is as well.

Click for all the photos nominated for the 2009 eSports Photo of the Year.

This is the gear I carry with me when photographing an event:

Think Tank Photo Airport Ultralight v2.0 – I got this photo backpack mainly for the reason that it is legal international carry-on for all planes. Additionally, the Think Tank brand is known in the photo community as a name with quality and well built bags and pouches. The Airport Ultralight is no exception. It allows me to carry all my gear in a single compact backpack.

FujiFilm FinePix S2 Pro – This camera is old (it came out in 2002), and it shows its age with less than stellar high ISO noise control, slow writing speeds and inability to accept CompactFlash cards more than 4GB. However, it does possess one great feature that all FujiFilm DSLR share: beautiful color rendition of skin tones. Many of the photos I take have little to no post-processing, some even come straight out of the camera.

Nikon Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR AF-S DX Lens – I got this lens only a couple of weeks ago, in fact the famed “Believe” photo of Mike Ross’s improbable victory over Haunts was shot on a different lens (Nikon Nikkor 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 AF). I got this lens because I felt that 28mm (52mm equivalent on FX) was not wide enough to include everything I wanted in my frame. Additionally, the 16-85mm had Vibration Reduction (VR) something that the 28-85mm lacked. I first started shooting this lens at Devastation in Phoenix, Arizona and realized how valuable a true digital wide-angle and VR lens was. Not only could I include more of the crowd and atmosphere in a single frame, I was able to handhold the camera without using an external flash at shutter speeds as low as 1/15 sec. I am currently looking to buy a telephoto lens for the times that I am unable to have close access to the players.

Nikon Speedlight SB-28DX – This flash unit is obsolete for most modern Nikon and Fuji DSLR for TTL purposes, as it uses the old d-TTL technology which has now been replaced by i-TTL. The reason I use this flash is because the Fuji S2 only supports d-TTL and not i-TTL. I try to bounce the flash so that the light does not blind the players and to prevent the ugly straightforward flash look. Ideally, If I had a camera bracket to mount the flash off the hot shoe I would but as of now I do not have one. Just got to make the best of what gear you have. Its my mantra, not having gear should never prevent you from getting your photo, additional gear gives a photographer additional flexibility to be creative.

External battery pack for SB-28DX – Really just self-explanatory, more batteries means more juice and faster recycle times. Less time spending fiddling around with changing batteries means less chances of missing a crucial shot.

Sekonic L-508 Lightmeter – A lightmeter is very useful for event and documentary photography, especially as crowds forming and dispersing may fool your camera’s own meter. I find that the L-508’s incident meter reading much more accurate in shooting at events especially when not shooting with an external flash.

Lumiquest Light Modifiers – I rarely use these, I prefer to bounce my flash. I have them in my bag just in case.

PowerEx MH-C800S Battery Charger – Perhaps one of the best battery chargers for rechargeable batteries. Its microchip prevents overcharging of batteries, one of the main ways shorten the battery life cycle. It charges up to 8 batteries at one time, 2 hours for a “fast” cycle, 4 hours “soft” charging and a “conditioning” mode for refreshing batteries that have not been used for a while or starting to show signs of deterioration.

Additional gear: External hard drive, Tiffen lens cleaner, CompactFlash cards, CompactFlash reader, USB drive, microfiber cloth, fingerless gloves, business cards, hand lotion, rechargeable batteries, self-made bounce card, and my mother’s laptop sometimes (I do not have my own laptop yet unfortunately).

Photo of my gear packed into the Think Tank Photo Airport Ultralight v2.0:

Yes, I am reading a book on Photojournalism!

All in all, the tournament went off great. Atmosphere was great, people enjoyed the matches and felt better prepared afterwards. I took a number of photos of the tournament and I would honestly say that last night’s event was probably the best looking photos I have taken thus far. I’m still learning to shoot better shots at eSports events and adapting to any situation handed to me. EVO is around the corner and that’s going to be a big display stage for my photos around the world.

Photos from last night:

That being said, yesterday’s Ladies of Street Fighter tournament was really fun to photograph. Everyone had fun at the event and stayed to watch the matches from beginning to end. Additionally, I conducted a photo shoot with some of the participants of the tournament before it started. Not all of the ladies wanted to have their pictures taken, but those who did braved the sweltering heat of the day to pose and have some fun in front of the camera.

The next big event that is coming up on the schedule is EVO 2009 held in Las Vegas from July 19-21. EVO is most likely the biggest fighting game tournament in all of North America, so there will definitely be lots of photos from the 3-day event. Until then, I’m going to be taking pictures whenever I can to make sure I’m at the top of my game when I arrive at Vegas.

Photos from Ladies of Street Fighter:

Photo shoot before the tournament

Tournament photos