Princeton vs. Penn, Georgetown, Yale

This past week, I yet again had the opportunity to photograph our home races on Lake Carnegie during another successful day for the tigers.

Sam Jordan '16 gets ready to race Georgetown and Penn

Unlike the last time I was on the launch, the weather was beautiful: this time I was more worried about sunscreen than keeping my camera dry. In some ways, shooting in direct sunlight is more challenging than when it's drizzly and overcast: it's easier to expose an image a little bit in post-production than it is to fix harsh shadows.

The lightweight men's 3V races to victory over Georgetown and Penn

Regardless, I was able to get some photos I was really pleased with; the upside of sunny days shooting fast-moving boats is the ability to use a lower ISO and faster shutter speed for sharper, less-grainy images.

Casey Ward '15 sitting ready at the start line during the lightweight men's 1V race

One of the biggest challenges of photographing crew, especially three years in, is the challenge of trying to capture moments in a way that you haven't done before; at least ideally, the rowing stroke should look exactly the same every time (and you won't make friends if you try to mix it up by showing a photo that's unusual because the blades are flying all over the place!) 

The lightweight men's 1V races to victory over Georgetown and Penn

That's why my two favorite times to shoot are at the start and finish lines; I love capturing the concentration on people's faces before the announcer says "Attention: Go!" and I love getting the reaction shots at the finish: the fist bumps, the tired smiles, people leaning back into each other's laps. 

Erin Reelick '16 and Margy Bertasi '14 recover after the openweight women's 1V's tight win over Yale

I don't know whether not having captured a rower vomiting over the side of the boat yet makes me grateful or feel like I'm missing out. Probably grateful.

The openweight women's 1V competes for the Eisenberg Cup

It was exciting to be able to capture such a successful day for the tigers; the lightweight men swept over Georgetown and Penn, the openweight women had strong wins in their first, second and third varsity boats, and most excitingly, my own team had a great first home race.

Eden Full '15 checks the time at the start line

Although I was disappointed that Georgetown scrapped their lightweight women's varsity four, which meant that I wasn't racing, it was exciting to be able to photograph my teammates in the first and second varsity boats race Georgetown's 1V and see our first varsity girls retain the class of 2006 cup.

The lightweight women's 1V poses with coaches Paul Rassam and Hank Zimmerman after winning the class of 2006 cup over Georgetown

Congratulations to all the tiger crews for a great weekend of racing. Here's to replicating that this weekend!

Thanks as usual go to Marty Crotty and Ed Hewitt for getting me on a launch to photograph

Adventures with Jasper

A few months ago, I was approached by my good friend Shubhro Saha about helping to film an introductory video about a project him and fellow Princeton 2015-er Charlie Marsh were working on.

That project was Jasper, an "open source platform for developing always-on, voice-controlled applications". Basically, it's JARVIS from Iron Man, and it's awesome- especially given that I remember Shu and I messing around with it when it was in its earliest stages, cracking up at the stock responses it would give to rude questions. In its current version, it can update you about your Facebook notifications, tell you what the weather's like, and play a specific artist's music. Pretty cool stuff! 

 I went and filmed them talking about the project, handed over the footage to Shu, posted the video on this site when it was finished, and didn't think too much about it until a couple of weeks ago, when Shu told me that they were being featured on Wired.com and asked if I'd take a picture of them with Jasper. We had a quick, fun photo shoot, and it was awesome to see both a great project and a photo of mine (!) featured on a major website.

Jasper as featured on Wired.com

Check out the article here, and if you feel like you need a voice-controlled personal assistant, make your own Jasper!

Puppies!

This past Sunday, my eating club (Cloister Inn) brought in some very adorable puppies from Gold Rush Goldens for some much needed "therapy". 

We all had a great time playing with the puppies, who quickly got so tuckered out so they had to go home early! 

It was an unusually hot and sunny day, and it quickly became clear that the puppies were more interested in us as potential providers of shade rather than playmates...

Whatever their intentions, they were still hopelessly cute, and saying goodbye was a struggle!

Princeton vs. Georgetown, Syracuse, MSU & Brown

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph Princeton's lightweight men, heavyweight men and openweight women race their season openers against schools from around the country. 

Heavyweight 1V races Georgetown, Syracuse

The weather started out cold and got colder and rainier as the morning wore on; most of my photographs of the later racing were shot through a Rainsleeve that barely kept my camera dry. 

The openweight women's B four races MSU & Brown.

My pants were less fortunate, and after over four hours shooting in the rain finding a spare set of dry clothes at the boathouse was a huge relief.

The openweight women's 1V races Brown and MSU

Overall, it was a successful day of racing for Princeton, with the lightweight men sweeping over Georgetown, the top two heavyweight boats besting Georgetown and Syracuse, and a close loss to Brown for the openweight first varsity after a great sprint, though their 2V and 3V posted solid wins.

The lightweight men's 2V races Georgetown

The weather didn't stop rowers and non-rowers alike from putting on a good face for the camera...

Julia Stoner '14 mans a stake boat.

Ed Northrop '16 in high spirits after a strong win over Georgetown

Thanks go to Ed Hewitt of Row2k for taking me along on the aligner's launch and to Marty Crotty for facilitating. 

Princeton Crash P's 2014

Every year, Princeton Crew runs its own version of "Crash B's", a 2-kilometer indoor rowing competition, in preparation for the spring season.  This year, I was unable to participate due to an injury, but was able to contribute to the video instead!

Working together with Paul Popescu, who also filmed and edited the whole thing, I was able to try out my new 50mm f/1.4 lens. The wide aperture was a godsend in such low light conditions, and both my video and photos were much higher quality than when I covered the event back in 2012 (prior to walking on to the lightweight women's team.) I was also able to get some footage with a Go-Pro camera, which made it into the final cut.

You can see the full video here.