Feb 05 2011
Backboard Remote
I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, particularly last year and the year before, but never had the chance until last night at the Woodberry game. The VHSL doesn’t allow anything to be attached to the backboard or support structure that isn’t normally supposed to be there (I asked a ref way back and there was the time a Daily Progress photographer was made to take his down a couple years ago). So with this being a “benefit” game, no one had a problem with it. You can see the setup below
The camera is attached to the support structure with two magic arms. The light colored wires you see running everywhere are safety cables that tie everything to the backboard support structure in case anything came loose. I made sure to run plenty of them….all those basketballs heaved at the basket from half court during the “half court shootout” cause some pretty massive vibrations up there!!
The camera is fired with pocket wizards, which are wireless remote triggers that I use not only to fire remote cameras but they also work for firing strobes. (Pocket wizards are like THE coolest thing ever invented!) The little black box you see hanging down below the camera is the connection between the camera and pocket wizard, and also has a switch on it that keeps the camera “on” and prevents it from going to sleep. The black triangular thing below the lens is a flag to help cut down on the reflections/glare from the backboard. I did end up with a little glare so I think I’d make it bigger next time.
Here’s one of the first setup pictures (geek that I am, I have a wireless transmitter on the camera that send a low res photo to my iPad using the ShutterSnitch app, which was a BIG help during setup especially for setting focus). You can see some of the glare of shooting through the glass down near the iPad in the photo. At this point I didn’t have the little black triangular thingy on there.
And one more after adding the little black triangular thingy. I have a few more photos of myself with an even stupider look on my face, but you don’t get to see those….maybe on Facebook one day….
And here are a couple favorites (click either picture below to see a little gallery of remote photos from the game), best probably being the one of Nick dunking during warmups, I like the way his eyes are framed by the net:
and like this one too, again during warmups…
