I walked into Alaska Airlines Stadium  way too early. People were still
setting up the audio for the night’s game against Albany. It was great
to enjoy the almost silent stadium before the sounds of dribbling
balls and cheering fans took over.

I ended up using Hipstamatic John S Lens and film Kodot XGrizzled . One
of the reasons why was for the border that defines the image as one that
was shot with an application.

Looking at the photo data, it’s ranging in shutter speeds of 1/20-
1/60th. Would I ever shoot a basketball game with those shutter
speeds? No, I would use those speeds if I wanted to have motion blur.
The lens that the iPhone uses is a 4.3mm which is equivalent to a 35mm
lens on a DSRL.

There are two general areas that media are put during basketball
games, on the court opposite the cheerleaders or up
in the media seating areas in the stands. The ushers kept
trying to lead me back into these areas as I roamed about the
stadium. With mobile photography the only zoom you have is your feet,
you don’t have large focal length lens and can’t zoom so you have to
be physically close to your subject. I found that this problem was
more pronounced while shooting basketball with an iPhone. So I headed
down to the baseline.

During my last experience shooting with Hipstamatic at the UW Huskies
football game I focused on the crowds and ignored the game completely
as there was no real way of shooting a football game on an
iPhone. With basketball, the action is easier to predict and thus
easier to photograph. Now it became a waiting game hoping the action
would come close and the shutter would be fast enough to stop the
action on the court.

Sitting next to other photographers with their real cameras was an
interesting experience. Normally, I would be decked out with my gear
too, but this time I had only my press pass and my iPhone. I felt like
a goon. I wasn’t getting dirty looks, but there were a lot of puzzled
expressions.

A lot of photojournalist flat out hate mobile photography. Some
incorporate it into their work while others use it purely for personal
images. Sitting on that baseline I felt there is a lot of potential
for the medium to reach new audience.

I almost found it refreshing sitting next to other photographers with
their cameras shooting 14 framers per second. When using the Hipstamastic application, there
is a delay between the time you take the photo and how long it takes
to process. There is a special moment between waiting for the photo and
finding out if you captured what you hoped. One of those moments
happen when a UW player was knocked to the ground, making the ball
fly towards the other photographers. I had my phone flat against
the ground taking photos when the ball hit the AP staff photographer
next to me. I hoped that the photo would be in focus, and was very happy when I saw thatvery happy when I saw that
the photo in fact did come out.

As the clock ran down the Husky and Albany battled it out for the
game-winning basket. I was rushing around looking to find the best
moment I could as the buzzer sounded. Albany upset the University of
Washington 63-62.