I’ve been kicking an idea around in my brain for the last couple of days and wanted to get some feedback.
Quick background – I shot a basketball game at Loudon High School Tuesday night. Due to events at the house with the kids I was late getting to the gym and only had a few minutes to setup. I have shot at the school several times so I know the general layout. However, I had never used strobes – just battery powered flashes - so I never needed external power. I looked upstairs, downstairs, under the bleachers, on the side wall, back wall, everywhere - nothing!! Finally, someone pointed out an outlet – 10’ up the wall and 3’ from the balcony railing – not great but reachable. I got setup and shot but really never got the strobes exactly the way I wanted. After the game I searched the gym again for future reference – still no luck. Finally, I saw the coach cleaning up after the game and asked him about power outlets in the gym. Turns out the Fire Marshal made them cover all the outlets for safety reasons. However, they have 4 special outlets along the back of the bleachers under the top row of seats, that they use for retracting the side goals. If you don’t know exactly where to look - you aren’t going to find them.
With that in mind, here is my idea. I would like to start a gymnasium database to track this type of information. I am assuming that everyone makes mental notes about gyms when they shoot there. That way you will know what to expect the next time you visit. Some of you may even write the info down for future reference. My idea would is to have one central place that we could upload info about the places we have shot. That way if you need to shoot in a gym that you have never shot at, you can look up the school and find out all the general info. For instance I have to shoot at William Blount on Friday night and I don’t have a clue what the gym looks like. Do they have balconies one both sides, one side, or none? Can I get to a power outlet or do I need to shoot with battery powered flashes? Do they have really good ambient light and I don’t need any strobes? Can I bounce off the ceiling/walls etc. or are they painted some funky color that is going to cause me problems?
Being the geek that I am - I am looking into a couple of different options for making this work. One methodology would be an online database that could be easily searched. The other could possibly be a WIKI type page for each gym. I’m not sure which would work best but I could host either on my website. Surely as a group we have shot in almost every gym in the area so if we pool our resources we could come up with something rather easily. Plus knowing what you are headed into before a game sure makes life easier.
I’m open for comments and suggestions!!
email me at: photos@LCActionPhotos.com