Portrait of a woman who likes the raw power of earth moving equipment

Sophomore Courtney Stone is one of only three women to go through the Owens Caterpillar Dealer Service Technician program.  She's standing in front of a transmission which is her favorite part of the big earth moving machines. "Earth moving equipment is so much cooler.  All that raw power," she says. (Photos: Diane Larson)

  My first experience with serious portrait photography was for my high school senior picture. It was a 90 degree day in August.  My hair was styled in a feeble attempt to look like the Farrah Fawcett flip, which was all the rage back in the day.

  The photographer contorted me in all variety of unnatural positions. Shoulders turned one way.  Head and neck in the other direction.  I felt like one of the velociraptors in "Jurassic Park."  

  When the proofs came back, I looked like Farrah's sweaty, awkward and bloated younger sister.  Gratefully, mom let me go back for retakes.   Better, sort of, the second time around.

  So that notion of portrait photography was in my head when I approached this new assignment for class.  Find a portrait subject within my beat, which is STEM (Science, Technology,  Engineering and Math).

  I'd met with all the chairs of the various departments within STEM early in the semester and was intrigued by the Caterpillar Dealer Service Technician class.

  I called the chair and made an appointment to visit the class and shoot some pictures.  I wasn't sure what kind of portrait subject I'd find when I got there, but I figured one of the students would stand out.

  Sure enough, among all the men in the class, was a petite woman with curly red hair.

  Sophomore Courtney Stone is one of only three women ever to go through the Caterpillar program at Owens.

  It's a unique program.  Students are handpicked from their high school vocational programs by Caterpillar dealers in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

  Courtney stood out in her automotive classes at the Penta County Vocational School.   She grew up in Luckey, Ohio and still lives there with her family.

  She spends part of the semester doing classwork at Owens and the other part doing shop work at the Metro South Caterpillar dealership in Brownston, Michigan just outside of Detroit. 

 So I zeroed in on Courtney for my portrait assignment.  She was bubbly and approachable and completely comfortable in her skin.

  She also knew what she liked to do.  "I LOVE transmissions," she exclaimed. "I know people say 'Oh, I love engines! Engines are amazing!'" she says mimicking a surfer dude voice.  But she's a transmission kind of girl.

  "The engine gives everything its power, but the transmission makes everything go.  Transmission directs the power to everywhere.  I think that's cooler."

   So we decided for her portrait, we'd take her picture in front of the row of transmissions in the back of the garage.  And that's the picture you see at the top.

Courtney Stone's "mug shot" or head shot.  I liked taking it in

her work/class environment rather than a studio.

  This assignment also required what newspapers call a "mug shot" which is just a head and shoulders picture.

  I know some of my classmates have studied the right way to take a portrait picture in the studio, but I have not.  
  So I opted to just get a tighter shot of her in her work/school environment.  It's just a tighter version of the main picture I used above.
  I used a bigger aperture for the tighter mug shot to blur the background.  The picture to the left is f/3.5, 1/180 with an ISO of 1600.  We were dealing with some daylight from the open garage door and shop lights overhead.

  For the first photo, I used a smaller aperture because I wanted to include more of the background.  That picture was taken at f/9.5, 1/15, ISO 1600. I wanted to see the transmissions because that is her favorite piece of equipment.  I think the first picture works well even though the background is busy because she really stands out in her black "CAT" sweatshirt against the yellow machine parts.

  Finally, I've included a picture of Courtney in action.  If I was given this assignment for a newspaper, I would have included this final shot because it shows her actually working on a piece of Caterpillar equipment.  In this case, it's the brakes for a motor grader.  So my photo editor would have three solid portraits to choose from to go with the story about Courtney, which I intend to actually write for the Outlook. 

Courtney Stone working on brakes for a Caterpillar motor grader. Shot at f/3.5, 1/180, ISO 1600, 20 mm.

I'm learning how to be a good sport ... photographer

Erika Hartings goes up for a block against Columbus State. Camera settings: f/3.3, ISO 3200, 1/750, 70 mm.

Owens women's volleyball players celebrate after winning a big point. From left: Amara Hemenway, Ciarra Wirick, Deanna Smith (13), Erika Hartings, Stephanie Kipp (6) and Ally Mikesell.  Camera settings: f/3.3, 1/750, ISO 3200, manual white balance.  (Photos: Diane Larson)

  Sometimes you get lucky.  Or sometimes, you work hard and put yourself in a position to receive something good and unexpected.
  A little of both happened to me on this sports photography assignment.
  One of the reasons I'm taking this photojournalism class, is to learn how to take better pictures of indoor sports action.  My daughter plays college tennis.  Half the season is outdoors (which is way easier to shoot) and the other half is indoors (which has been a nightmare for me photographically).
  My indoor shots are never clean, crisp or in focus.  So I was excited and nervous about this assignment.
  Lucky for me, the Owens women's volleyball team was in the NJCAA Region XII District Championship, one of the few teams in action before this assignment was due. 
  I got there shortly before the match started at 10 a.m. on a Saturday to check out the lighting. Ugh. Gym lighting.  What's my white balance? Sodium-vapor lamps? Day-white fluorescent? Warm-white? I settled on Auto.
  Now, what about my ISO? As we've learned about me, camera controls tend to confuse me.

   Libero Cierra Wirick goes down for the dig as Aricka LaVoy (left) Ally   
   Mikesell (7) and Erika Hartings (8) look on.  Camera settings: f/4.8, 1/750,
   ISO 3200, 56mm.



  I knew enough to know I needed a fast shutter speed to freeze the action and the available light was marginal at best.
  So, I bumped my ISO to 1600, set the aperture as big as I could make it, which in my case was whatever my variable f/3.5 - f/5.6 lens would allow.  I put it on aperture priority and let the camera decide the shutter speed.
  I was shooting away like crazy.  Low angle. Up in the bleachers. From the back.  From the side. The images looked a bit dark in the camera's monitor, but I understood a little underexposed was better than overexposed.
 But when I got home to look at the pictures on my computer, they weren't that great.  I was too far away.  My shutter speed wasn't fast enough to freeze the action.  I didn't have good shots of the fans or the coach. 
  Bummer.  Now what?
  Turns out the team won three more matches after I left which put them in the loser's bracket final on Sunday morning.
  Done and done.  I'm going back.  How lucky for me.
  Before that, I looked over everything I'd learned so far in this class and what I could improve upon. My ISO wasn't high enough.   The Auto white balance wasn't cutting it either.
  So I bumped up the ISO and manually set the white balance. I took a few sample shots.  Much better.
  More luck too.  The team was playing on a different court on Sunday, next to the stage.  I got permission to go up there which gave me nice high angle shots.
While on the stage, I started talking to another photographer who was there to take pictures of a team from Michigan. I picked his brain and asked about settings and where to stand.  Then I noticed his lens.  "I've asked Santa for that lens," I told him.  It was the Nikkor f/2.8 70-200 mm beast, which I'm told is the best for shooting indoor sports.
  After shooting a bunch of shots with my tweaked settings thanks to the suggestions from my new photographer friend, I noticed him walking toward me.
  Then I notice that he's taken off his big, expensive lens and he's handing it to me.
  "Here," he said.  "Go ahead and play with it."
  I didn't think twice.  I didn't give him a chance to think twice either.  I gingerly took it, attached it to my camera, thanked him profusely and started shooting.
  The lens made such a difference.  I was able to get in so close and with the fixed f/2.8 aperture,  I was able to freeze the action wonderfully. My photographer friend let me use it long enough to get hundreds of shots.  It was an extraordinarily generous thing to do and gave me a taste of what it's like to have awesome camera equipment.

Freshman Standout Macy Reigelsperger was hurt in a match

the night before and could only watch the action while resting

her injured ankle. Camera settings: f/2.8, 1/750,ISO 3200

150mm, manual white balance.

  But the perfect camera and lens will only do so much if the person operating them misses the key shot.
 Picture after picture, that's what happened to me.  I kept missing that moment when the player's hand touched the ball.  The shot was always just before or just after.
 I'm not going to be too hard on myself because I sense that's an acquired skill as much as an innate one. Our instructor Lori once said you have to use your ears as much as your eyes when taking fast action shots.  Listening to the sounds that happen right before the point of contact.  Anticipation born of lots of experience no doubt will make that better for me.
   Part of this assignment was also making sure not to miss the action and the moments off the court.

Head coach Sonny Lewis takes a quiet moment to plot strategy.
Camera settings:  f/2.8, 1/1500, ISO 3200, 180mm.

  That meant training my lens on the fans, the other players and the coach.
  Freshman Macy Reigelsperger couldn't play after an ankle injury from a match the night before. I watched her hobble on her crutches when the team changed sides after a set. She was supportive, but looked bummed as any competitive soul would be.  I got a few shots of her because she was part of the story.
   The coach was also a key player. Head coach Sonny Lewis prowled the sidelines with a quiet intensity.   Occasionally, he'd shout out a call to his players.  Mostly, he blended in. I noticed that on changeovers, he'd go to his play book and plot strategy alone.
  So I got a couple of shots of him in pensive moments like you see in the photo to the left.  I like that shot because it's sort of opposite of the fast action and noise during the game.                        
  And you can't forget the super enthusiastic fans who never gave up hope or support for their team, despite an eventual loss that ended the season for the women.
  Gratefully, my deadline for these pictures was days instead of hours.  I cannot imagine the pressure to turn sports photographs quickly.  I did not know the players' names or positions until I got home and matched their numbers with the roster in the program.
  And I realized that even though I played volleyball in high school, the rules had changed somewhat since then.  So I had to give myself a crash course in volleyball rules to know what the players were doing in the shots I got:  attack, kill, set, dig.  That sort of thing.

Fans react the moment after realizing the point went against

Owens.  Camera settings: f/3.3, 1/250, ISO 3200, 110mm,

manual white balance.

  For me, this has been one of the most rewarding lessons so far this semester.  It's given me faith that I can figure this stuff out.
  I believe luck came my way for this assignment because I was willing to do the work. I was willing to go back and shoot more volleyball pictures to get them right.  It was lucky for me the team was so hard-working they won three straight matches Saturday to give me another opportunity to get better shots on Sunday.  And it was super lucky for me that a stranger named Mike became a trusted photographer friend to guide me and share his totally awesome lens with me.
  And I'll be really lucky if Santa reads this post. 


Stephanie Kipp goes up for the kill. Camera settings: f/2.8, 1/1500, ISO 3200, 70mm, manual white balance.

Amara Hemenway (9) and Deanna Smith (13) prepare to defend the block from Columbus State while libero Ciarra Wirick (1, in white) is poised to react.  Camera settings: f/2.8, 1/1500, ISO 3200, 70 mm, manual white balance.

The moment Owens lost the match to Columbus State.  Camera settings: f/4.8, 1/350, ISO 3200, 52mm, manual

white balance.