The 3X3 PRO Business Showcase

The dressing room, with each players' kit ready to go

On February 7th, I saw a post on Facebook from Dutch 3X3 player Jesper Jobse that got my attention. There would be a game between the top-ranked 3X3 basketball team in the world, Serbia, and the number four team, the Netherlands, on the sixteenth. The problem: it was a special invitation-only game. Luckily I got an invitation, with the condition that I shoot the game. No problem with that! That's why I wanted to be there in the first place.

The game would start at 16:00, end at 16:30, and the space would remain open until 18:00 for drinks and conversation. This left very little room for mistakes. On every other occasion I've shot 3X3 basketball, there have been dozens of games. If there is any kind of problem with the light, camera settings, my position, the game itself, or anything else, there is always another game to set things right. In this case, there would be only one chance, and there was no guarantee the game would last a full half hour. They have a ten minute clock for game time, which usually translates to 30 minutes, but it could be much less, depending on how they played. With luck, it would go into overtime.

The game was set to take place indoors, meaning it would have low light. International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules don't allow flash photography during games, but it is allowed in non-FIBA games. Jesper confirmed that would be the case for this game, which made me feel much better about shooting inside. The problem with shooting indoor basketball is that the lighting usually isn't suitable for catching fast action, such as in basketball games. In the NBA, there is plenty of high-powered lighting all over the court, but in the smaller gyms 3X3 is sometimes played within, they usually don't have the best lighting.

My initial impression was that the game would be played at Apollohal, in Amsterdam. I'd shot there in 2015, on a day when rain forced the game indoors. Both sides of the building are covered with large windows. The hall is still dim when shooting at high speeds, but the amount of natural light would be welcome. With a little flash assist, it could result in some very interesting images. However, the game wasn't at Apollohal, but at Casco, Amsterdam. It was a nice space, but from what could be gleaned from the Internet, it had no windows and all the walls and ceiling were painted black. Jesper said they would bring some lights for the game, but I was a bit worried, because lighting for human eyes is different from lighting for cameras.

Christiaan "Batman" Grives, at Apollohal, Amsterdam, in 2015

There was another location that posed a similar lighting problem in Utrecht. Called "The Sportbox", it is a general use sports facility. They have indoor beach volleyball, basketball, and other sports. The main room at the Sportbox is quite interesting. The size of an aircraft hangar, it has large skylights along half of the ceiling. In combination with ornate girders in the ceiling, it is quite interesting visually, as long as supplementary illumination is available. It also has a couple of rooms that are painted black and have no windows. Shooting in those rooms is very difficult, even with flash. The reason is that the players tend to move fast enough that anything less than a 1/1250 shutter speed will have motion blur. Shot at that speed, the players are likely to be totally black silhouettes with a white highlight around their body. To avoid this, they have to be shot at a very high film speed, like 6400 ISO or even 12800. Both of those yield grainy pictures that are difficult to use. To make it even more difficult, the maximum aperture has to be used to get as much light as possible. The bigger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field, and the more difficult it is to focus. Auto focus is all but useless in these conditions, because by the time the camera is in focus, the player has moved. 

The Sportbox in Utrecht, and the largest photo I've ever made. Composed of 16 stitched 100 MP images, the original to this file is over 33,000 pixels wide.

So, the lighting would be an issue. My goal was to shoot no higher than 800 ISO, and to use the flash to freeze the motion at lower shutter speeds, like 1/500th of a second. That was risky, because 1/500s is slow for basketball, particularly elite players. It was even more risky because if it didn't work, I wouldn't know until after the game was over and had a chance to look at the images in high detail at home. I hoped that the combination of overhead lighting provided by the venue and one flash unit would be enough. A magnum reflector on the flash would increase its intensity, but it would have definitely affected the players, so I used a softbox, as always, to prevent the light from blinding the players. Unfortunately, this also meant cutting the light a bit.

There would be a little time before and after the game to get some extra shots of the players and the location, but those would all be taken in the lobby, where there was more natural light to augment the flash. Like always, I shot the event with a Phase One XF and a Phase One IQ3-100 digital back. There wouldn't be time to change lenses, so I brought a general use 55 mm lens. On a medium format camera, that is equivalent to a 35 mm lens on a DSLR. It would be a bit wide for some shots, but the 100 megapixel resolution of the back would allow me to simply crop the shots with no noticeable loss of resolution. I tossed an 80 mm lens in my bag just in case, but ended up not using it. For lighting, I brought a Profoto B1 unit. If I'd had another assistant, I would have brought two B1 units, but that wasn't possible on the day, so I just had one.

The Shoot:

My assistant, Ivo van Roij, and I arrived at 15:00. That gave us an hour to drop our jackets, get out the gear, and test the lighting. The lobby downstairs had beautiful light streaming in the windows, but as Ivo pointed out, it would be gone before long. Some of the players were hanging around the bar, greeting each other, while all around them workmen walked in and out of doors carrying large pieces of equipment into the main room.

Jesper Jobse, event organizer and captain of the Dutch team, on phone. Serbian player Nebojsa Boskovic on left, looking at teammate Dusan Bulut's phone, prior to the game.

Two of the Serbian players occupied a couple of couches in the lobby. Dejan Majstorovic, the world's number one ranked 3X3 player, was resting with his eyes closed. Dejan has accumulated 1,194,900 ranking points to date in his 3X3 career, a pretty impressive total. His teammate, Marko Zdero sat opposite him, getting some physio for his foot before the game.

Serbian player Dejan Majstorovic gets some rest before the game

Jesper Jobse, the Dutch team captain, ranked as the best player in the Netherlands and the 39th best player in the world, organized the event. Helping him was his partner, Sharon Beld, who plays on the Dutch women's team. I managed to get a quick shot of her as she dashed through the lobby on her way in to the venue.

Sharon Beld, of the Netherlands women's 3X3 team

The first thing needed for a 3X3 game is an official court. The games are played indoors and outdoors, most often on a portable court composed of hundreds of linked tiles. The tiles are about 30 cm square, and fit together like puzzle pieces. When I walked in, Gerge Emmen, the project leader for the Nederlands Basketball Bond (NBB), was helping the crew assemble the court.

Gerge Emmen (L) of the NBB, helping set up the court

In the middle of the court, there was a huge cherry picker. Every time I see one of these things, I want to buy one for my living room. I felt the same way about a big machine I'd seen a few weeks earlier. It had two huge scoops that could pull a full-grown tree out of the ground and then move it elsewhere to be replanted. Who wouldn't want one of those things? 

The cherry picker, used to set up the lighting grid

Referees Maxi Sellering and Edith Oudshoorn waited at the referees table, until pressed into service to help raise the lights. After that, they had a chance to play a little informal basketball before the teams arrived. They had to be careful not to bump into the cherry picker, but otherwise played with some energy!

On the sidelines, referees Maxi Sellering (L) and Edith Oudshoorn (R) help raise the light grid by pulling on some chains

Inside, it was every bit as dark as I had worried it might be. Black walls, black ceiling, and no windows. Workmen assembled a large support structure for lights and some small video cameras. It held three large rectangular LED lights on each of the four sides of the rig. They looked okay to my eyes, but how would that hold up for the camera? I did a couple of test shots of people standing around to get a feel for the place. That said, the grid lights were only sometimes on during the tests.

Workman install lighting rig

Dutch player Sjoerd van Vlisteren stood by the sidelines. His arm was in a blue cast. "I broke my thumb" he said, so he wouldn't be playing. In his place was a player I hadn't met before, Dimeo van den Horst. I hadn't had a chance to get any shots of Sjoerd outside of a game before, so I was glad when he let me take a quick shot of him.

Dutch player Sjoerd van Vlisteren

 I found Serbian player Dejan Majstorovic warming up by doing some leg lifts on the court. All the other players were tossing baskets, but Dejan probably knows what he's doing or he wouldn't be the world's top ranked player. Dejan stretched for around twenty minutes before he grabbed a ball and started tossing it into the basket as well.

 Dejan Majstorovic does leg lifts, while teammate Marko Zdero (R) smiles in the background

Behind the basket and to the right was the DJ booth. You can't have a basketball game without a DJ! While everyone else went about their business, the DJ calmly tested his equipment while listening to the result on his headphones.

The DJ booth

I've seen videographer Nick Noortman at almost every game I've ever shot, and he's probably been to a few I haven't been at. I found him in the main hall setting up his Sony to capture video of the game. I didn't see it with him, but suspect he may have also had another camera with a stabilizer to get moving shots in addition to the tripod.

Videographer Nick Noortman prepares for the game.

Finally, it was game time! They started about a half hour late due to some issues with the lighting rig, but they got it going and that's the important thing. At first, the lights all switched to a deep blue, then the announcer, Vin Rock, came out and introduced the players one by one. Each came out from behind a curtain at the back of the room, followed by gusts of smoke and flashing blue and red lights.

Marko Zdero on the Serbian team with the ball, Dutch player Jesper Jobse on the right

From here on, it was game time. The game was very close all the way. The Dutch team scored a point, then the Serbian team did the same. The entire game went like this. Every time it seemed like one team had the advantage, the other team caught up and they were tied again. This happened all the way to the last second of the game, when they were tied 14 to 14. It looked certain they would go into overtime. According to the rules, you can't win with a one point advantage after a tie.

Nebojsa Boskovic (Serbia) with the ball, guarded by Joey Schelvis (NL)

Bas "the Mountain" Rozendaal (NL) on left, and Nebosja Boskovic (Serbia) go for the ball as Jesper Jobse looks on

Jesper Jobse (NL) tries to make a shot as Dusan "the Bullet" Bulut (Serbia) tries to block

 Jesper Jobse (NL) attempts an intercept as Marko Zdero (Serbia) flies past him with the ball

Dimeo van den Horst (NL) makes a basket while Serbia's Marko Zdero (L) and Nebosja Boskovic (R) look on

 Nebosja Boskovic (Serbia) loses control of the ball, and Jesper Jobse (NL) goes for it

Jesper Jobse (NL) blocks as Dusan Bulut (Serbia) goes for the basket

Dusan and Jesper trade places here, now Jesper Jobse (NL) goes for the basket as Dusan Bulut (Serbia) blocks

Dusan Bulut (Serbia) gets the ball, Joey Schelvis (NL) guards Marko Zdero (Serbia), and Jesper Jobse (NL) rushes in

Dusan Bulut (Serbia) doesn't need to touch the floor as he flies across the court, ball in hand

Both teams in suspense, will either team score on this play? Marko Zdero (Serbia) center, Jesper Jobse on left (NL), Nebosja Boskovic (Serbia) on right and Joey Schelvis (NL) on far right

The last shot tied up the game, 14-14, with only 2.8 seconds left to play.A second and a half later, with 1.3 seconds to play, the score was still unchanged. At that moment, Dejan Majstorovic made a three point shot and won the game for Serbia. I guess the nap and the stretching paid off in the end!

The winners, left to right: Nebosja Boskovic, Marko Zdero, and Dejan Majstorovic

After the game, the players came out to the cafe for a quick shot of the group. Meanwhile most of the audience remained near the court, where they had enough drinks to keep them occupied. I had to get the shot quickly, because the players wanted to hit the showers after that tough game.

Nederlands players in black, Serbians in white. Front row, left to right: Neosja Boskovic, Marko Zdero, Dusan Bulut, Joey Schelvis. Back row: Dejan Majstorovic, Dimeo van den Horst, Bas Rozendaal, Jesper Jobse

In the end, the game took less than thirty minutes, but it was an excellent nail-biter of a contest regardless. It's hard to beat a game that is all tied up for every point and then is won with a three point basket in the last second of play! Thanks again to Jesper for inviting me, to all the players and crew who let me take their photos, and the crew for putting the event together. It was great fun, and I hope a successful endeavor for Dutch 3X3 basketball.

My last shot of the evening was of Vin Rock, the announcer for this game and many others. Always cheerful, fun, and interesting to listen to, Vin is as much a part of the game as the basket itself. 

Cheers to Vin Rock, and another announcing gig done

--AP