Bay Cup Photo Tournament photos posted

[bernard c]

Originally Posted by edew

the flashes may distract fencers.

Also, the flashes used by photographers at basketball courtside are hardly in league with the ones you used at the Photo tournament. Yours are hefty chunks of equipment compared to their camera mounted units. The amount of light yours put out is quite a bit more, and that's reflected in the fact that you're taking 1/5000 of a second (or whatever the shutter speed is).

DID they distract fencers? Let us not wring our hands about the possiblities. Let the fencers decide: They can have photos of themselves, or you can have no flash. Either way, it suits me fine. We've done the experiment, so now we can draw our own conclusions. Which would you have chosen for yourself? Did the flash hurt YOUR eyes?

In big time basketball, "courtside" flashes (i.e. on-camera flashes) are not allowed, period. Instead, they use the same type of hefty chunks that I use, and those are even bigger and put out even more light, just slower. They're mounted on the overhead catwalks. Take a look at any Leading Off basketball photo in Sports Illustrated. That's how they get those shots.

At some events there are even "fake" flashes that are staged by PR people to create excitement. Some people have told me that the flash at the touch gives a punctuating effect that is desirable.

[veeco]

I don't think you can compare fencing with basketball though.

Basketball is a professional sport, in which having your picture taken is your bread and butter.

Fencing is an amateur sport, where most competitors are fencing to make a good result, not good money.

Also, the action in basketball is somewhat slower than the action in fencing, and it's a team event, that takes place over a larger area.

I think that saying: "Basketball players are not distracted by the flash, so fencers shouldn't" is a little reductive, first because I am not sure that basketball players aren't distracted, rather than putting up with it, and second because I don't think that a parallel can be drawn between the 2 sports regarding this matter.

If you ask me, I have fenced with your strobes, during the pre-Olympic fencing camp, and they didn't bother me, when they were happening after the touch had been scored. However, they did bother me when taken during the action. They didn't bother me as much as someone with a mounted flash on their camera would, but they did bother me, and did make me lose my concentration, sometimes at critical points of the bout.

With that being said, I think that the pictures are important and some of them could be good publicity shots, but as edew said, I don't think a NAC is the right place to "experiment" with this.

[Rolls]

Yea, but consider that these pics are only taken AFTER the box has registered. The touch has already been made. It may interfere with a counterattack that's trying to get away or stop the attack, but it seems doubtful.

I for one love to have my picture taken when I'm "in action" (whatever the sport or event). I definitely wouldn't mind having a flash going off.

Rolls.

[edew]

Rolls, it bothers those who are on adjacent strips. I was on the adjacent strip and it did irritate me. I thought the overhanging blinds would do the trick, but when I'm in a lunge position or whatever, the flash snuck by.

I wasn't blinded, and I didn't lose focus because of that. But, it was a bit unsettling (partly because it told me that someone scored or, in the long absence of a flash, why aren't they scoring?)

[mfp]

Originally Posted by edew

You might want to consider the Duel In The Desert. The gala event in the evening is held separately from the competition (the meat market portion). There, the event is held in one room and the two fencers probably won't mind, as long as both are equally subjected to the flash.

I'd also recommend the Sierra Nevada Open. There the gala event in the evening already has a screen behind the fencers so the images captured could be projected after each touch for the audience to see ... and Eric Ricketts would have more material for his jokes and commentary.

[Rolls]

Originally Posted by edew

Rolls, it bothers those who are on adjacent strips. I was on the adjacent strip and it did irritate me. I thought the overhanging blinds would do the trick, but when I'm in a lunge position or whatever, the flash snuck by.

I wasn't blinded, and I didn't lose focus because of that. But, it was a bit unsettling (partly because it told me that someone scored or, in the long absence of a flash, why aren't they scoring?)

True, but I thought we were talking about in a separate room (i.e. only one bout going on). I guess the moral of the story is that it has to be pretty much an exhibition match. I don't see a problem using it for local tournaments either.

Rolls.

[bernard c]

Originally Posted by veeco

I don't think you can compare them in terms of the amount of light they output. I think the camera mounted ones actually are more detrimental to the fencing because they most of the time flash straight into your eyes, therefore the potential for being blinded with those is much higher.

Also, basketball courts are equiped with strobes in the ceiling of the arena. Any decent sports photographer who shoots basketball will use those. Most of the time, the units you see on top of the photographer's cameras are remote devices that trigger the strobes. They don't emit any light on their own.

Absolutely correct.