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Warren Howell Expert PageANNOUNCER : This VTalk Radio spotlight is brought to you by www.morephotos.com the online photo sales solution for professional photographers world wide. Welcome to the VTalk Radio Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight we have Golden, Colorado, photographer, Warren Howell, of Vast Productions via telephone in the studio today. Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Warren.
WARREN: Great, glad to be here.
JOHN: Now tell us a little bit about what you got going on there in Golden, Colorado with Vast Productions.
WARREN: Basically at Vast Productions we shoot extreme photography which is extreme sports anywhere from snowboard competitions, mountain bike competitions, racing, downhill. We do a little bit of Lacrosse. We get into the hockey arenas and shoot all the youth tournaments in the area as well as some amateur into the professionals.
JOHN: Excellent. Extreme sports, this is a really big thing that's been going on, I'd say over the last 15 years here in America. Let's talk about...let's take hockey for a minute. What are you doing when you go to shoot a hockey game or an event?
WARREN: Well, we kind of concentrate on the tournaments and so you've got a youth tournament ranging from 72 games in a weekend. It can be 8-year-old all the way up to 16 to 18 year olds. So we get the little guys all the way up through the hard-hitting, checking guys. And we basically set up right on site. We have viewing stations. We are Apple-based, so we have iMax as our viewing stations which is very showy. People like to see that. It draws in attention. They can view their images right after the game. So by the time they are out of the locker room they can come up and view their images.
JOHN: That's great, that's a great turnover time. I guess, you know, a question I would have being an amateur photographer myself is that, do you have an open area on the actual ice rink itself that you can take these shots? You know, how do you deal with the plex-glass?
WARREN: Well, there is a couple of ways. We actually use ladders we shoot over it. In the event that 16-18 year olds are playing it's very likely you can hit by a puck.
JOHN: Yes.
WARREN: We do shoot to the glass, and it's just a special technique. You can't go to a certain angle, otherwise, it will filter it so you got to shoot basically straight through it. And a lot of it is afterwards we do a lot of Photoshop work to enhance the images. Obviously when they come right out the camera you've got a lot of yellow cast, blue cast different lighting indoors that we can color correct in Photoshop.
JOHN: Oh yeah, good. Now after the games are over, do you do individual shots or is it strictly live action photography?
WARREN: Live action photography...we're looking for the big hit, you know, just the action, the break-aways into the goalies. We've dealt with and do a little bit of team photography where you do the team individual, and it's just a marketing for us to get into the tournaments and shoot the games.
JOHN: Right, right. Let's talk about some of the other sports that you cover. You do mountain bike racing. What kind of problems does that create differently than kind of like in the hockey rink?
WARREN: Mountain bike racing is probably one of the best sports that we shoot. One of the reasons is that my office becomes a mountain. I basically get on a downhill bike myself with a 40 pound pack, all my camera gear, and I'm coming down the same trail that they're coming down. In some instances there are drop off cliffs, racks, and we have to encounter and go through that to get to our spot. Once we're at our spot, we're at places that parents, spectators don't see on the course because it's such a long course. We're talking a 2-mile course.
JOHN: Okay.
WARREN: They're not able to hike up on the mountain. So we get in there, you know, we mount a little bit of strobes on the trees to help with the lighting. But a lot of times, the crowds roll over, sun is in and out. So you're constantly changing the settings on your camera. It's really, you know, it's a lot of knowledge you got to know on your camera, but at the same time it's just so much fun. I mean you see a lot of carnage a lot of wrecks. These guys going down hard. We're talking $4000-$5000 bikes with 8 inch of travel, disc brakes as your coming down.
JOHN: Wow, definitely extreme. Extreme photography. Okay, what about you also do being in Golden Colorado, I would imagine you're doing some skiing and snow boarding also?
WARREN: Yes, we just began this weekend with the the first event of the Copper Series which is up on Copper Mountain. We cover that whole series which includes half-pipe, slope style, boardercross, and giant slalom as well as the end of the series throughout the nation they take the top riders and go the nationals. Copper Mountain is hosting the nationals for the next three years and we've got a contract to shoot. We're shooting 1500 competitors over 5 days, and just to give you an idea, in the past last year, we shot nearly 90,000 images in 5 days.
JOHN: Wow! That is a lot of shooting.
WARREN: It's a lot of organization is what it is. Now to make it even crazier, we actually go through every single image and we rename them by their Bib Number. So when they get online they can go to our site, they can punch in their Bib Number and it'll pop up with just those images.
JOHN: Oh that's great. Yeah, organization is definitely a big key to what you guys are doing I'm sure.
WARAREN: Yep.
JOHN: Now you also do a couple other sports Lacrosse being one. That's kind of an east coast based sport.
WARREN: Yeah.
JOHN: Do you have a lot of that in Colorado?
WARREN: It's getting more popular here, I know, the last couple of years or so, it's really getting popular, and we've got a Lacrosse Jamboree that we shoot. It's one of the fourth largest tournament in the nation held right here in Arvata, Colorado. And it's about 220 teams. There are 17 fields going on at the same time, and we basically shoot all of those. I would say, we get about probably 80% of the game shot.
JOHN: Sure, now briefly before we take a break here. What other sports activities are use shooting?
WARREN: That's about it, I mean, we do just shoot some of the youth sports. We shoot football in the fall which is not a big moneymaker, but we have a concept to do trophy posters, and I can talk about that a little bit which is something that I'm actually starting up.
JOHN: Okay, we'll talk about that the next segment. We do need to take a break here, but before we take the break, Warren, would you kindly give your website address and contact information.
WARREN: Certainly the name was Warren Howell with Vast Production and the website is www.vastaction.com.
JOHN: And what about a phone number?
WARREN: (303) 437-2166.
JOHN: We are in the studio with Golden Colorado sports photographer Warren Howell of that Vast Productions, and you're listening to V Talk Radio's Photography Satellite. Stay tuned we'll be right back after these important messages.
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JOHN: We are back in the studio with Warren Howell of Vast Production of Golden, Colorado, and you're listening to VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight. Welcome back to the program Warren.
WARREN: Great.
JOHN: Now, we have been talking about your extreme sports photography business out there in Colorado. You mentioned something before we went off to break to the custom work that you do and you have something called Trophy Posters. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
WARREN: Sure, one of the things we offer are Trophy Posters, and this basically we go out and shoot a couple of games, either hockey, football, and at the end of the year each team has their own banquet. So at the end of the year instead of giving out your typical plastic trophies we actually do a 12 x 8 framed trophy poster with each individual has their own action shot on it with customization, logos; they're just really great posters, and now the coach gets one poster with every single kid on it, and they're a huge hit and the kids love them and the parents, just they can't throw them away it's like a ...they can't throw away like a plastic trophy where as they're going to keep it year after year.
JOHN: Well let's get off the beaten track here a little bit, Warren. Let's talk about you personally why did you decide to become a photographer in the first place?
WARREN: You know, my background is graphic design, meeting deadlines every day sitting behind the computer, I wanted to look for another avenue to use my same expertise only get out of the office. So we basically, I shoot what I do. I mountain bike, I race mountain bikes, I play hockey, I snowboard, and so I thought why not get out and shoots those events, and take my graphic design and put it into those customization into the posters giving these competitors something to really use.
JOHN: And how long have you been doing this? How long has Vast Productions been around, Warren?
Warren: Vast productions is in its 5th year right now. Before that we did, I've got a lot of web development experience as well, but Vast is very much taking over and that's basically what we do on a day to day basis is shoot and fulfill orders.
JOHN: Now I would imagine you would be doing a lot of traveling with this kind of business. What are some of the cities and communities around Golden, Colorado, that you'd be covering?
WARREN: That's the nice thing about mountain biking. We get to go to some of these resorts here in Colorado including Telluride, Crested Butes, Snow Mass up in Aspen. We traveled down as far as Angel Fire, New Mexico, and we actually had the chance in 2005... we actually shot the World Cup 2005 World Cup Mountain Bike Championships.
JOHN: Great. Great. What about...are there any specific facilities or tracks or anything like that that you like to use or haven't used yet that maybe you would love to get an opportunity to shoot at?
WARREN: You know, maybe boy I don't know, we're everywhere it seems like.
JOHN: That's good. That's good, you know, that you get the opportunity to travel and go all over here and do this kind of work. Then, let's move on. Let's talk about what exactly are you looking for when you're shooting an event like this. What are you trying to capture as a photographer?
WARREN: You know, instead of just capturing just the single action shot, we really try and capture the essence of it. What goes on, the...one of the products we have is a multiposter. So in that poster, you know, we may have an action shot where the guy is coming down on his run, but at the same time at the end, you're getting some jubilation where he's, you know, maybe like at the end of a cross country race, you know, those guys are dead tired, they're laying on the ground, and you just capture the essence of the whole race. You know, right in the heat of the moment.
JOHN: What do you think makes yours service unique and separates you from other sports photographers?
WARREN: I think my background. The background being graphic design we offer custom posters. If they have an idea to put on a poster, I will do it. I will put whatever they want together. So we're not limited to just your prints or just putting a logo on a print, but just hard core, really sweet designed posters with graphic design and just it really puts us above the rest, because others like I said they kind of rely on another third party to do their printing for them so they can basically only do so much and they use templates whereas we are just basically custom.
JOHN: And that definitely makes a difference. Now I want to thank you for joining us today on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Warren.
WARREN: Thank you.
JOHN: Before we let you go though, why don't you give your website address and contact information one more time for our listening audience.
WARREN: Again it's Vast Production and the website is www.vastaction.com and the number you can reach us at (303) 437-2166.
JOHN: We have been in the studio with Golden, Colorado, sports photographer, Warren Howell, of Vast Productions, and you've been listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Thanks for tuning in today. Have a great afternoon everyone.
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