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| Marnexson Knepa of Team Den Haag |
This year, I photographed 3x3 basketball games in Amsterdam (Casco), Amsterdam (Zuidpark), Amersfoort, Breda, Amsterdam (Olympisch Stadion), Den Haag, Amersfoort (Juliana park), Den Helder, Utrecht, and Amsterdam (RAI). In addition, I shot portraits of the 3x3 Pro League's team captains in Amsterdam's Pirates station. In total, I shot about 15,000 raw images at these events. Half were discarded right away due to missed focus. After that cut, another half were discarded for weak composition, uninteresting action, or exposure problems. This left between 200-400 shots for each of these games. All of those images were sent to the Nederlands Basketball Bond (NBB) for use on social media. For my social media posts, I selected between 20-40 images per game for Facebook and 4-15 images per game for Instagram, or about 100 photos. For this post, I am posting my ten favorite images for the season.
Editing decisions can be straightforward if looked at as a series of yes/no questions. Is it in focus? If no, discard. Is it properly exposed? If not, discard. And so on. However, what if an image is slightly out of focus, but the composition is dynamic and the action is exciting? What if the exposure isn't perfect, but it can be improved by editing the levels or other parameters in your image editing software? For the images in this group, most or all have very good focus and exposure. Once these are good, my primary interest is composition, color, and action, but not always in that order. A less easily defined quality is personality. Some photos have it, some don't.
I will make two top ten lists. The first will be comprised of one image per shoot, the other will be my favorite ten images, regardless which shoot they are from.
This year, I used a Phase One XF or DF+ camera paired with an IQ3-100 101 megapixel (MP) back for almost every game. At the Amsterdam Olympic Stadion, I also used a Nikon D800. For games in Breda and Amsterdam (RAI) I used one or two ProFoto B1 flash units. I used a Schneider/Kreuznach 28 mm and 55 mm lens for most of the games, but have also used an 80 mm and a 120 mm. With the Nikon, I used an 80 mm Nikkor 1.4 G. Part of the point behind this exercise is to determine if any one of these lenses is over-represented in the results.
Top ten: one per game
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Dusan Bulut of the Serbian Novi Sad team, with the ball. Jesper Jobse (L) and Dimeo van der Horst (R) of the Dutch national team on either side, at the 3x3 Pro League Showcase at Casco in Amsterdam. (55 mm)
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| Aron Roye of Team Amsterdam (in white) at Amsterdam Zuiderpark (55 mm) |
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| Under 18 players in Amersfoort, Concrete Lions in gray (55 mm) |
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| Low angle in Breda (28 mm) |
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Jeffrey Schelvis of Team Leiden in green at Amsterdam's Olympisch Stadion
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Aron Roye with the ball, teammate Sjoerd van Vlisteren on left, at the Den Haag Challenger (80 mm)
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| Red Bull Reign, Marnexson Knepa with the ball in Amersfoort (28 mm) |
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| Marnexson Knepa of Team Den Haag, against Czech Republic in Den Helder (28 mm) |
Open Run vs. Concrete Lions in Utrecht (55 mm)
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| Josy Helena with the ball, at the first 3x3 Pro League game at Amsterdam RAI (55 mm) |
Selecting my favorites from each game wasn't as difficult as expected because I have gone through these shots many times before. That said, I could tell that it wouldn't be easy to pick my ten favorites overall. This is because there were games that had many successful images. In the next section, certain games will be more heavily represented, and others will be eliminated. The primary reason is location lighting. Secondarily, some locations, like Den Helder, were more visually interesting than others, like the Juliana park in Amersfoort.
Top ten: overall
1) Den Helder
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| My favorite shot of the season, from Den Helder. Several others from the same shoot come close, and are represented in this top ten list. |
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Josy Helena of Team Den Haag against Czech Republic, Den Helder (28 mm), Note the man jumping off a platform in the upper left.
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