Billie Weiss, the Senior Manager of Photography for the Major League Baseball team the Boston Red Sox, had to get creative for this year’s team portraits due to lock-down restrictions. So, as many photographers have, he resorted to FaceTime to capture team portraits of eight players from afar.
‘I was with the team in Florida covering the tail end of Spring Training when the initial Coronavirus outbreak hit in the United States,’ Weiss told DPReview. ‘Games and all other activity at the training facility pretty much shut down immediately, so I flew back home to Boston. Days later, we learned the start of the MLB season would be delayed, and since basically everything in Massachusetts besides the essentials were shut down, I ended up not really leaving the house or shooting much of anything for about 3 weeks.’
It was during this time, in calls with other members of the Red Sox content team, the idea of doing virtual portraits was brought up and agreed upon. Weiss said of the concept (emphasis his):
‘I think the idea came mostly out of a desire to shoot something after sitting at home for nearly a month and missing being able to do what I love — interact with people through photography. I felt like this was a way we could still do something creative involving photography that worked within the limits of social distancing, quarantine, and lack of sporting events.’
For his setup, Weiss gathered up as many Red Six items as he could from around his home and built a mini studio to use as the backdrop. With a basic backdrop ready to go, he arranged the various pieces of equipment and memorabilia, switching it up with each player he photographed. Weiss told us the following about the gear he used:
‘I shot these on a Nikon D5 with the Nikon AF-s Nikkor 105mm f/1.4E lens. For lighting, I used a combination of both a Dracast LED 1000 Pro Daylight continuous light panel with a Profoto B1 Air 500 watt strobe light covered with colored gels. I switched the props and used different color gels from player to player to give the series a bit more variety. Overall, it was a pretty modest setup, but without access to the rest of my gear stuck at the Spring Training facility in Florida, I worked with what I had!’
Weiss photographed eight players, which thankfully ‘thought the concept was strange but cool!’ He attributes the willingness of the players to participate with the relationships he’s built over the years with them. ‘Our relationship is at the point where they trust me with most of our shoots, even something as weird as this,’ he told us. Even better, the players were happy with the results and some even shared the images across their social media profiles.
As for his final takeaways, Weiss told us the following:
‘Overall, I wanted to shoot something with our players that was representative of this crazy time we’re living in, and hopefully this achieves that goal. I think it’ll be interesting to look back on these photos years from now and be reminded of what a strange time this was.’
You can keep up with Weiss and his work on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and his website. You can also subscribe to his Youtube channel for more behind-the-scenes videos.
People are getting creative during these challenging times. As a result, a few top camera companies and creators are acknowledging homebound ingenuity. Freelance photographer Jeremy Cohen already won the ultimate reward, the cover shot on a recent edition of the New Yorker after his ‘quarantine cutie’ TikTok clip went viral.
It isn’t just about sharing, or winning. It’s also about community. This is why major companies, from GoPro to Leica, are launching challenges and offering free educational resources as well. The key is to stay inspired and even learn a few new skills. The opportunity to gain exposure, without being exposed, is going to be an ongoing theme these next few months. Here are 5 photography and videography challenges worth checking out.
GoPro #HomePro Challenge
GoPro recently launched the #HomePro challenge to reward photographers and videographers confined to their abodes with prizes. From now until April 30th, creators are encouraged to upload their most imaginative homebound content to Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Youtube, or Facebook with the #HomePro and #GoPro hashtags. 5 submissions will be selected every day and the winners will receive their choice of a HERO8 Black or MAX camera plus 5 years of GoPro PLUS.
‘The GoPro community captures the most amazing videos that wow billions of viewers around the world. Now, we want to tap into their creativity to inspire others to find magic in their home-bound experience,’ said GoPro founder and CEO, Nick Woodman. ‘We launched this challenge to see what creative radness, inventiveness or weirdness people are getting up to at home. And so far, we’ve been stoked with what we have seen.’
Turn up volume on for #HomePro awardee Philipp Klein’s stop-motion freeride.
“What inspired me was to try to put all the negative news on pause and put a smile onto peoples’ faces. If I wasn’t home, I’d be skiing, my biggest passion, so I found a way to ski at home.” pic.twitter.com/N0eFXoPP6w
— GoPro (@GoPro) April 4, 2020
Download the FREE GoPro App to get started. You don’t need to capture footage with a GoPro device to qualify. Entries taken with any type of camera, including a phone, will be considered. If you’re looking for a soundtrack to accompany your footage, GoPro offers up free music on their contest page.
Stay Home with Leica Photo Challenge
Leica recently announced a series of free Akademie educational talks to help the photography community stay active and inspired while safely social distancing. To coincide with the courses, they’re also offering weekly Instagram challenges to reward community members who are making the most of their time indoors. Courses with Ruddy Roye and award-winning documentary photographer Doug Menuez are starting this week.
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Some more Color captured from my balcony. . . . #stayhomewithleica #leicas #leica #leicastorela #leicagallery #socialdistancing #crps #spicollective #streetphotography #street #streetphotographyinternational #color_captures #capturestreets #lensculture #lifeframer #streetphotographer #walking #store #fromhome #stayhome #streetlife #digitalmediumformat #mediumformat #city #losangeles #leica_fotografie_international #spi_colour #capturelandscapes
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Any camera can be used to capture submissions to the contest. Simply tag your posts with the hashtag #StayHomeWithLeica to be considered for a prize that includes a Leica Akademie bespoke class (a $ 150 value) and a feature on their social profiles including Instagram. The winner of the current challenge will be announced on Saturday, April 11th. Here are the rules:
#StayHomeWithLeica Photo Challenge Rules
Follow us on Instagram
Post an image that shows a daily ritual performed or a moment with your family
Tag #StayHomeWithLeica & @LeicaCameraUSA in the caption
Starting April 6th through June 26th, Sigma is encouraging participants to submit their best photos and videos depicting life in quarantine. A $ 500 American Express gift card will be awarded weekly. At the end of each month, weekly winners will be pooled and the overall best submission will be awarded with a $ 1,000 American Express gift card. At the conclusion of the contest, the grand prize winner will receive a Sigma fp camera plus a 45mm F2.8 DG DN contemporary lens. A second-place contest winner will be awarded with any Sigma lens valued at $ 1000 or less.
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After nap snuggles. We were standing by our front door and I noticed our reflection in the window. This girl has always been a snuggle bug, it’s my favorite thing. #sigmashotathome ?? • • • #nikond750 #sigma35mmart #candidchildhood #pixel_kids #cameramama #clickinmoms #getin52 #my_magical_moments #follow_this_light #galleryoflightfeature #jj_its_kids #exploringcreativephotography #clickthrough52 #oureverydaymoments #loveourbigkids #theartofchildhood #momhub #cm_homesweethome #sigmashotathome #sigmaphoto
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‘We are in the midst of an unprecedented moment in history that has dramatically impacted the heart of the creative imaging community,’ says Mark Amir-Hamzeh, President, Sigma Corporation of America. ‘#sigmashotathome is our humble attempt to bring inspiration and creativity to a difficult situation and to remind creators, regardless of stylistic choices, field or gear preferences, that we are in this together.’
Entries can be captured with any type of camera though Sigma encourages entrants to let them know if their brand was used. Up to 10 photos or videos are permitted per week and can be submitted here. The contest is currently open to U.S. residents only.
Files uploaded must:
Have the file naming convention: DATE_LAST NAME_DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Be under 25MB and .jpg format with 3000×2000 maximum resolution
If any discernible person is in your film, you must be able to provide an image release form
Must be original work in which you own all creative rights
Entrants can also:
Like and Follow Sigma Corporation of America on Facebook and Instagram
Upload the photo submission to Facebook and Instagram, tag Sigma Corporation of America and include the hashtag #sigmashotathome
Getty Museum Recreations of Famous Artwork
While there aren’t any prizes awarded, the opportunity to be featured on the Getty Museum’s Twitter feed, which currently boasts 1.3 million followers, makes it worth the effort to enter their current stay-at-home challenge. To qualify, the Los Angeles-based museum has invited people to recreate famous works of art using three objects found in the home with these simple requirements:
Choose your favorite artwork
Find three things lying around your house
Recreate the artwork with those items
And share with us (by replying to their Twitter posts)
We stan.https://t.co/K3JVGpFPAJ pic.twitter.com/rIqXzr5hIK
— Getty (@GettyMuseum) March 25, 2020
The contest looks to be ongoing. The Getty staff has shared the following resource for inspiration.
Bathroom tile Mondrian pic.twitter.com/zKB6hmyavP
— Dan Martini (@dmontherocks) March 29, 2020
The Art of Photography Challenges
Ted Forbes, who runs the popular instructional YouTube channel The Art of Photography, has returned with much-anticipated new challenges for 2020. Free bi-weekly classes are designed to change how photographers see things while enhancing their skills.
In the spirit of staying home, and mostly indoors, Forbes is encouraging people to make the most of the light that is available. The lessons for his first assignment can be found below:
