Re: Camera Flashes

[Todd <tdh@vbref.org>]

msmith6128@aol.com (MSmith6128) writes:
> 
> Hi all
> 
>    I had a play a game were a photographer from a local paper came
> to cover the game, which is great for a high school team don't get
> me wrong.  But a few times I was going to to spike and block and the
> guy would take a picture with his lovely BRIGHT flash going off
> right in my eye and I would lose sight of the ball for a moment
> there.  It was such a pain and what made it even worst was the fact
> that my team was lossing and I really needed to focus on the game
> and not worry about some guy taking pictures.  Ok I guess thats the
> end of my rant.
>  Thank you for you time.  So long keep smiling!
> 
> Meredith


I worked extensively covering sports as a yearbook photo editor in
college...and you'd be kindly escorted out of the press area of any
NCAA basketball game for using on-camera flash from the floor.  As Joe
pointed out, the local papers, the national photographers had their
strobes in the rafters, where they weren't overly distracting for
basketball.  Common courtesy among the experienced sports
photographers extended this policy to all indoor sports, though in the
smaller schools, there aren't any media event folks to shoo them away.

Semi-pro grunt photographers like me had to resort to big f/2.8 lenses
and high speed film for indoor sports assignments.  Any pro should be
ready with such tools, so there's no need to feel remorse for a local
newspaper photographer not getting his shot.

As a volleyball referee, I have stopped matches to instruct USAV
juniors spectator parents from using on-camera flashes.  It's just not
worth the safety risk, it's unecessarily distracting to the players.

Next time this happens, just have your captain ask the referee to
address the problem, highlighting the safety and liability concern.
That should get the referees attention enough to address the situation
for you.

Best Regards,
--
                  Todd H.   tdh@vbref.org
USAV Regional Referee, Great Lakes Region, Palatine, IL
Todd's Volleyball Referee Page http://www.io.com/~tdh/vball/
"So you're a Ref and an engineer? Oh that explains it...."