Howlings: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND TAKING PICTURES

The saying goes that a picture says a thousand words...if that's the case then Chris Rutsch has written the Encyclopedia Britannica several times over.

"Okay," you say, "but who's Chris Rutsch?"

Chris Rutsch is a phenomenal photographer who shoots among other things, "YOUR HARTFORD WOLF PACK." Howlings caught up with Chris to talk about a variety of issues.
Chris Rutsch is originally from Alliston, Ontario. His early years were gypsy-esque as his family bounced around every couple of years. He lived in a variety of areas throughout Ontario, then into the US moving into Connecticut, then out to Chicago and finally settling into Avon, Connecticut.

“I spent most of my youth in Avon but headed back to the ‘Great White North’ to attend Queen’s University in pursuit of a Geological Engineering degree – not related to photography in the slightest.” Chris said.

He began taking pictures when he bought his first camera, an SLR in 1997 and being a hockey fan used it during the Wolf Pack’s inaugural season and wasn’t quite happy with the results. “I look at those pictures now and cringe. Ninety percent of them were blurry and dark.”

Those early pictures started a passion that grew over time. “I always sat in Section 118 just a few seats down from longtime Hartford Whaler photographer and later Wolf Pack photographer (for the first 3 seasons) Diane Sobolewski and, while I never actually asked her any questions, I would always kept a pretty keen eye on where she kept her lens pointed and when she fired off a few shots.” Chris continued, “Still sitting in 118, a few seasons later, I got the chance to sit next to (then) Wolf Pack photographer Rich Zacher. He started making the transition from film to digital and, for a few months, we actually had the same model digital camera. At the time, all of the Wolf Pack programs, team posters, cards, and so on were shots off his film camera, while all of the shots on the website were mine from a digital camera.”

Not being satisfied with his result, Chris continued to snap pictures for another couple of seasons and longed to improve his skills. “It was during the 2003 playoffs that I sat next to Chris Fuller, the defunct ECHL Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies’ photographer. He was shooting the AHL playoffs for the Hockey News or something and had heard of me and seen my pictures (or so he said) on the (Wolf Pack) website. He was shocked (and appalled) by my camera set-up, but impressed at the results I was able to achieve. He handed me his back-up camera, a Canon D-60, and let me shoot warm-ups. Later that night, he emailed me over the images I had taken and that was it – I couldn’t look at my old camera the same way. A week later, and thousands of dollars poorer, I had the same set-up that sports photographers use in the Olympics and Super Bowl.”

Chris’ connection to the Wolf Pack actually started online. “After the inaugural game against Portland, I went home and put together a website with some photos from that game (I had terrible seats), and a few from their exhibition pre-season games and it picked up some steam through that first season. One thing lead to another and before I knew it, then Wolf Pack PR Director Kevin Kavanagh was introducing me to then-MSG Vice President of Business Ops John Pettit and things kind of took off from there.”

The Coaches and players are not the only ones with a game plan they review before the game. “The first thing I usually do is look at the visiting team’s website to see who their “go-to guys are.” Then, at the arena, I pick up the roster sheets to see if there are any new players on either team. As part of my plan, I do my best to get at least one action shot of every player that’s suited up for Hartford – though a few have escaped me (by making their only appearances on the road like Dave Scatchard, for instance…) Then once the game begins you’re basically trying to follow the play (not necessarily the puck) waiting for action to happen within the viewfinder while trying to keep things in focus by tapping the shutter the entire time.

There are great debates it seems in all walks of life…Coke vs. Pepsi, domestic or foreign and photography is no different. “Just like the Mac and PC debates, photographers argue about their cameras. “Here the ongoing battle is between Canon vs. Nikon. I’m a Canon guy. For hockey, my camera bodies are 1D Mark II’s and the big white lens I’m usually seen using up in the stands is a fixed 300mm f/2.8 L lens and when down on the glass, it’s a 70-200mm F/2.8 L IS lens.”

Every artist, and saying that Chris is an artist is not a stretch by any standard, has favorites and some that are not. “Hmmm… Oddly enough, none of them are really action shots – those come a dime a dozen. My favorites are the ones that show some facial expression – the kind you don’t see in the newspaper or magazines very often. One that immediately comes to mind was from the day I took headshots at the start of the ’05–‘06 season. It was the day before Joe Balej was traded to Vancouver, so we never had to use the head shot. In the end, had he not been traded, it would have been cropped to a head-and-shoulders photo…

There was another was one where Colby Genoway had just scored a goal. The look on his face is awesome.

Martin Sonnenberg was also great for that sort of thing in the 2006 playoffs series against Manchester.

And the only photo I’ve ever had both Moms come looking for copies was one of Jeff Heil and Boyd Kane
during the Pack’s second season. I don’t know what they were giggling about, but the look on Kane’s face indicates they were up to no good. It’s a great shot.”

The creative process for a sports photographer is unlike that of any artistic person because there’s no time to plan anything out. But there are exceptions. “If it’s a team request for a specific player, I’m usually looking for that player isolated without anyone in the background behind him and with the puck on his stick. Those are the type of shots you often see on trading cards. Any other time, I’m just following the action taking note when say; Trevor Gillies and Frank Lessard are on the ice at the same time.” Then there’s the speed of hockey, “I mean, it’s what makes the game itself so much better to watch (or photograph) than any other game out there. I mean baseball is just too damn boring – most of the time nothing happens. Then football is too far away most of the time because the field is so big – so again, there’s a lot of standing around and basketball isn’t so bad.”

Having been in the business now for over ten years Chris is in a position now where he can make recommendations to the rest of us who just like taking pictures at sporting events. “The first thing I tell everyone (especially when it comes to digital) is that mega-pixels are meaningless. Cell phones have 8 MP cameras built in to them, but to this day, I haven’t seen an image from a cell phone that rivals a 4 MP SLR body.

That said, the lens is actually more important than the body. Throwing an $80 zoom lens on the best camera on the market will never get you on the cover of Sports Illustrated but throwing a high end lens on an entry level SLR just might. As with many things though, buy the best equipment you can afford.

The next tip is I’d recommend for the point-and-shoot crowd is to NOT hold the camera an arms length away when taking a picture. You see it all the time, and the companies almost encourage it by making the display on the back larger and larger, but it’s near impossible to get a shot sharply in focus that way – your arm's move more than you think they do and then the other thing I’d recommend to anyone taking pictures, anywhere is to get a handle on how the ISO settings, the f/stop, and the shutter speed relate to one another. I know it’s really confusing at first, but once it clicks for you, you can take great pictures under any condition with any camera set-up.”

Coming from Chris, any advice is advice worth following.

(All photos courtesy of Chris Rutsch)

Comments

Is there a place where Chris' photos might be available for further viewing? His work sounds terrific and it would be interesting to learn more. Happy New Year by the way.

tdr

Posted by: The Dark Ranger | December 27, 2007 at 01:24 PM