Outdoor Classic

I haven't had the chance to shoot the NHL's Outdoor Classic - and considering my youngest daughter's birthday is January 1st it probably won't happen anytime soon. But I did the next best thing this past Saturday when I went down to Syracuse, NY to shoot the Mirabito Outdoor Classic between the American Hockey League's Syracuse Crunch and Binghamton Senators.



Shelley came with me to help lug some photo gear and edit photos as we went along to post to OHL Images.

There were a bunch of former OHL players in the game so it was a nice opportunity to work on some alumni profiles and get some photos out to our teams from this special event.



We weren't sure what to expect, but thanks to some tips from fellow photog Melissa Wade, and some new warm weather gear from Mark's Work Warehouse, it turned out to be a great shoot.



I posted a story, photo gallery and video interviews with former Belleville Bulls' goaltender Kevin Lalande and former Soo Greyhounds defenceman Drew Bannister on my site at QuinteHockey.ca.

Enjoy!

Carter relegated to spectator status

Talk about a roller coaster ride for Jeff Carter.

The Philadelphia Flyers star centre has been waiting in limbo to see if he will suit up in what may be the most anticipated hockey tournament ever in Canada. Unfortunately, he found out on Monday that his services would not be needed.

Cater was at the top of the list of replacement players for Canada’s men’s hockey entry at the 2010 Winter Olympics and was flown to Vancouver to possibly replace Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks. But Getzlaf has recovered from a high ankle sprain and will be ready to go when Canada opens their Olympic schedule against Norway on Tuesday.

The teams had to set their rosters on Monday and can’t make any

replacements during the tournament.

"Obviously, I wanted to make the team on the first go-round," Carter, a 25-year-old native of London, ON, told the Philadelphia Enquirer last week. "Just to get the call is pretty exciting."

Carter played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds from 2001 through 2005. He helped Canada win a pair of gold medals at the World Juniors.

Carter’s pain is obviously Getzlaf’s gain.

Getzlaf missed two games with the Ducks but returned to the lineup on Sunday and scored a goal and two assists against the Edmonton Oilers.

“We gave him every opportunity to show he was healthy and he delivered on that,” Team Canada Executive Director Steve Yzerman told ESPN.com on Monday.

“He flew in last night and our doctors examined him and did some thorough testing on him. They expected it to be a bigger issue but were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't nearly as severe as we first feared.”

Canada finished seventh at the Winter Olympics four years ago in Turin, Italy.

The Russians are coming! Well, actually they've already gone and I have the pictures to prove it.

It's November and in Junior Hockey circles, that means the SUBWAY Super Series - the annual pre-World Junior series between teams from the three leagues in the CHL and a touring team of Russians.

This series is used by Hockey Canada scouts and coaches to get a final read on which players they would like to invite to the final selection camp before the World Juniors next month in Saskatoon.

I'm not planning on shooting the World Juniors this year so this is as close as I am likely to get to international competition this season.


The SSS offers some unique challenges for me. I need to get the regular assortment of action shots from the game and profile shots of each player but I also have to keep an eye on what is happening with sponsor elements during the games and make sure I can get some interesting shots that will help tell the story of the vent to the people that help finance it.

I recently picked up the gear that I needed to run a remote camera so I was anxious to use that as well.


Game 3 of the SSS was in Barrie on Thursday Nov. 19. There isn't a catwalk at the Barrie Molson Centre so an overhead remote was a no-go. Terry Wilson, my other shooter for OHL Images, is the regular Colts photographer so I knew that I had lots of back-up for that game.

I shot the first period on the seating level and the second between the benches and then wondered around during the third period looking for other interesting angles.


Four days and three regular league games later I was in Windsor for Game 4 of the series. The new WFCU Centre is a marvelous place to shoot in and has a catwalk so I was able to put in an overhead remote. I ended up with a few good frames from that camera.



Most of my best images from that game came from shooting on the end of the Team OHL bench.


This is the first of the CHL/OHL special events for this year. We're back in Windsor in January for the Home Hardware Top Prospects Game and then a little closer to home for the OHL All-Star Classic in Kingston in February.

For this event, I used a Nikon D700 and D300s with a 200mm 2.0 and 24-70 2.8. For the overhead in Windsor, I used a D300 with a 70-200 2.8.

For more images from the SUBWAY Super Series, please visit www.ohlimages.ca