Islander forward Brian Miller drives to the basket over Sammamish Totem’s John Steinberg during a game at Mercer Island on January 18, 2011.

This week presented a photographic first  for me, as I had the opportunity to mount a remote camera to the backboard for a basketball game. I know this is old hat for some, and the technique  has been around for a while, but it’s like buying a used car — it’s new to me. Continue reading after the jump…

I’ve used remote cameras from the floor many times, but was excited to get a fresh perspective on a couple of our Eastside teams. I pitched the idea to Mercer Island High School officials and very much  appreciate their willingness to work with me on this project. I’m not going to drop a how-to manual here, because  as I poked around the web looking to improve on my first attempt I found a solid piece on mounting a remote camera to the backboard over on Sportsshooter.com. It is a nice, accurate read that is very close to the approach I used.

Islander forward Jeff Lindquist (44) takes a short range jump shot against Sammamish at Mercer Island on Tuesday, January 18, 2011. The Totems rallied late to beat Mercer Island 52-47.

Remote cameras are always the gravy of a photo assignment, and not to be relied on to make THE shot, so shoot well with your cameras in hand. That disclaimer aside, below are two frames of the same moment — the first is my remote camera, the second is the camera I was shooting from the floor. Obviously the focus of my camera in hand had not caught up to the play.

Islander forward Brian Miller, center, drives to the basket against Sammamish at Mercer Island on Tuesday, January 18, 2011.

My personal take away for the next time I use the remote on a backboard is to compose my frame with a more downward angle, adjust my focus to a little further from the basket and minimize reflections.

And for those who like details it was shot using a Nikon D300 body, a Nikkor AF-S 17-35mm wide-angle lens (set at 17mm) and fired by a Pocket Wizard Plus II’s. The images were shot at ISO 3200, 1/400th sec, f/3.2 then cropped and toned in Photoshop as needed. Below are back and front views of the camera mounted to the backboard.