I wanted to offer congratulations to the youngster wearing New York Yankees t-shirt and baseball cap, the man wearing a light blue shirt and baseball cap, the man in uniform and the young woman standing in front of him. Congratulations too for the other true baseball fans in John Iacono’s photo of Yankees’ Derek Jeter making his 3,000 hit.

Boos and hisses the illiterate few who chose that moment to use their phones and point-shoot cameras to record what is a remarkable feat for a ball player.

Imagine for a moment you’re sitting in a front-row box seat at Yankee Stadium to watch the first ever Yankee go into the record books making 3,000 career hits. What it must have taken to get those seats. Even sitting in the first ten rows at that moment would have pleased even a Mets fan.

Now imagine, as a curveball approaches the bat you choose to turn away, to take your eyes from the plate, away from the stride and stroke, away from the power and performance, away from the record and reaction.

You narrow your eyes to an approximately 3×4-inch low resolution recorded version as Jeter, his feet planted into home plate dirt and his eyes focused on a 78-mile-per-hour orb, begins his stroke with a quick step, a turn of the hips and dip of the shoulder, to slam his bat against an opposing force, reversing its direction by adding the power of his body, the years of at bats and an accumulated strength of knowledge of the physics of baseball.

Your view of the field obscured by a LCD screen that may never resolve enough information to even mimic human eyesight. Blocked by a piece of electronics technology with limited ability to capture the essence of that historic moment.

Even Iacono’s photo is not bat on ball, the iconic moment for baseball photographers. And, the bat blurred, even at what must have been a very fast shutter speed. It’s not John’s fault. Bat on ball is an extremely difficult photo to shoot and who’s to say this photo was an editorial choice and he does have bat on ball only to lose it to an editor’s decision?

You use your camera phone or a point and shoot for a visual record of Jeter’s entrance into baseball record books. A camera with extreme shutter delay, slow shutter speed, limited zoom capability, and poor dynamic range.

Of what use are these photos? So the photographer can brag about being at Yankee Stadium for Jeter’s record breaking stroke? So the photo, if it is ever printed, stuck in a dresser drawer, file cabinet, or attic photo collection?

What disappointment there would be as the photographer bragged about being there to a friend and showed the photo on their phone or camera as proof?

“Nice photo. But, did you see him hit the ball or were you watching the back of your camera?” would be the question I’d ask.

“Did you actually see the hit or were you looking somewhere else? Is your photo the best memory of the moment?

There are times when it is not necessary to raise your camera in front of your face for a personal visual record. Especially when so many professional photographers are shooting the same moment with a greater ability to properly record history.

I would be embarrassed seen staring at the back of a camera while history is made. Just like these people missing Jeter’s 3,000th hit.

[ See larger photo ]

Several years ago I was issued a trespassing warning by Gahanna police after attempting to find a good spot to shoot a news assignment about business construction for a New York-based news agency. Several days before the assignment came I’d shot surveyors near the adjacent highway plotting lines along the edge of the property. I knew the building in the background was a Limited construction project and would make a fine spot for a business photo.

The surveyors were not longer working nearby and the distance from the roadway and the angle from that vantage point angle didn’t lend itself to a good photo.

My first stop was the construction trailer. I always carry a hard hat, safety vest and wear safety toe shoes offering little excuse to be refused access.

The construction manager told me I would not be allowed to shoot on the property because Limited’s policy did not allow photographers on-site. I’d anticipated that possibility, thanked him for his assistance and left the property. I parked on the nearby street and looked for an angle to show workers and equipment along the exterior of the building.

Ohio has a 14-foot easement along any roadway that is considered public property. That distance provides for sidewalks and walkway space just so people aren’t forced to walk in the street to keep from trespassing. It also allows for public works projects inside that easement space.

Evidently I violated the 14-foot distance. I’d stepped onto a hill of construction dirt for a higher angle that was beyond the public space.

An SUV with darkened windows and two men parked just down the street from me, the passenger talking on a hand-held radio.

Approaching the other way was a police car. I was trapped, nowhere to go, nowhere to run! I awaited my fate.

Surrendering my drivers license and registration, I politely answered the officer’s questions explaining that I was a news photographer shooting a story about business construction.

He wrote down my information and walked over to the SUV where he stayed for several minutes.

When he returned he told me that Limited security wanted him to issue me a trespass warning. I wasn’t being cite for trespassing. Only warned that if I ever did trespass on Limited property again I would be arrested for criminal trespass, a minor felony. He then described the Limited boundaries just to make sure I was properly informed. It sounded as if Les Wexner owned half the county.

He agreed that I could shoot anything I could see from public property and the Limited had not authority to stop me. Ohio’s trespass law also stipulates that a “Not Trespassing” sign is not required to be cited for an offense. It is implied in the law that violating private property spaces is a trespassing violation.

He then gave me the best explanation I’ve ever heard to allow shooting private property from a public space.

There is not prohibition anywhere in the law that would prevent me from flying over the Limited buildings, no matter their location, and taking photos. The air is public space and an airplane has all the rights to use it. Taking pictures from an airplane is not illegal just as my episode the day before yesterday when I was shooting in the street.

The officer said it was no different shooting aerials of the construction than shooting from the street. The prohibition came from stepping onto private property. The space above private property is public property.

So, I’ve applied to David Blaine for private lessons in levitation. If I could find a way to not touch the ground and float above the Limited, I’d be  safe from trespassing laws.

I thanked the officer for his very accurate and brilliant description of trespassing laws and for understanding my situation as a news photographer.

The airplane analogy has served me well the last several years. I have a police officer and two anonymous men in a darkened windows SUV to thank for it.

I love David Hobby. For all the wrong reasons. Maybe they’re the right reasons. You can’t be sure with love.

I remember my first Strobist assignment for the Orlando Sentinel. A restaurant, well known in the community for not only its food but its decor, had redecorated with new wallpaper. That’s right. A restaurant story about wallpaper.

I don’t remember the significance of the wallpaper other than it must have been exceptionally unique and expensive for it to receive a visit by a Sentinel photographer and reporter. Or, maybe, it was the managing editor’s favorite restaurant and watering hole.

The reason isn’t important. The result of my shoot was.

The restaurant assignment was not only my first Strobist assignment for the paper, it was in the first week of my first newspaper job. A week of firsts.

My favorite strobe at that time was a Honeywell Strobonar nicknamed “potato masher” for the blunt hammer design. I’m not sure which model I used then but am guessing it was a Strobonar 600. I could be wrong about the model number. I still have a Strobonar Pressmaster 610 that used a 510-volt battery. The large battery provided quick recycle times. It also became the device for many practical jokes involving tongues.

I had not yet bought one of the newer Vivitar 283 strobes that were introduced just a few years earlier. I had yet to make my riches as a photojournalist an had settled on the Strobonar. It was brighter, better construction, could light a basketball gym or a football field.

Eager to please, I smooshed the restaurant owner to step into the photo. He expected me to shoot the wall. After all, the story was about his new wallpaper, not him.

It’s a matter of expectations. I expected to get a photo worthy of front page display. He expected to get a photo of the wall. I needed a person. He needed his wallpaper. I had a strobe. He didn’t. My strobe looked dangerous, like a potato masher. A heavy potato masher. He stepped into the frame.

My photo, shot on Ektachrome, wasn’t too well received by the photo chief. It was perfectly exposed. Slide film required that.

A single strobe connected with a two-foot cable to my Nikon F. Off camera by two feet in a dark room. Dark ceiling. No reflectors. No second light source. Little chance of success. Directional light that failed to help tell the story. Strong off camera flash that did little to add to the mood. All it did was throw light on a subject. It was a photo by definition only.

I’d learned my lesson and learned it well. I knew better than to shoot with a single strobe in this situation. My expectation is that the paper, having provided me with a camera and a single strobe, would approve of the image. It didn’t. I had know better and allowed my expectations of success to be changed by the performance of others. I’d changed my expectations when I was given a single flash.

I still couldn’t afford to buy a set of Vivitar 283s. The paper did give me a second strobe, a well-used, less powerful strobe that required tape to hold the batter cover on. The peanut optical slave that came with it was heavily scarred. The connector was loose and needed to be glued.

I never looked back at that failed Strobist image. I saved enough money to buy two Vivitar 283s. I bought a 285 when it first appeared. I made bounce reflectors from cardboard and heavy duty aluminum foil. I scored the cardboard so it would fold to a size that would fit in my gadget bag. I carried mirrors in my company car. Bought extra light stands.

The second person at a shoot or the one who said they didn’t want to be in the photo became my HLS or HRH (human reflector holder.)

Not much has changed since then. Except for David Hobby and digital cameras. David embraced for the masses what newspaper photographers had been doing even before Vivitar 283s and Wein peanut slaves.

His latest post is brief and to the point. Not like this one.

I quote David: “Don’t try to please everyone. The more worried you are about pleasing everyone else, the less likely you are to ever please yourself. Nor are you likely produce anything truly interesting or develop any kind of a personal style worth having.”

I knew that when I walked into the restaurant. I forgot it when I picked up my single strobe. I’ve not forgotten since then.

Today’s post is number 100. Hopefully they’ve been enjoyable for you.

It’s been an experience for me as I return to a part of what began my career many years ago. It’s been quite some time since I wrote a weekly newspaper column about photography. One day I’ll have to go into the fading print archives and see how relevant those articles are to today’s more rapidly moving news and information age.

I’m suspicious that if you substitute Microdol-X and Dektol for Lightroom and Photoshop, ASA for ISO, grain for noise and pneumatic tube for FTP, things haven’t changed all that much.

The techniques and processes may have changed. Yet, still, a good photo from 50 years ago is still a good photo today.

The quality and direction of light hasn’t changed. Pleasing composition is still an absolute. Precise timing is still required.

What continues to be most important is to choose your photos so they teach us a little bit about today, about ourselves and about who we are as observers.

I once was chastised, and punished, for including people in some of the photos I shot during a year long project at InnisWood Metro Gardens park. The self-assigned project [ rockatinniswood.com ]  was to document the activity within line-of-sight of the rock in toad pond. Toad pond is one corner of a triangle of spaces just off the main walkway leading into the park. It is near the center of the shortest boardwalk and at the edge of the grassy meadow leading to the small prairie that flanks its waters.

Near the conclusion of the project I had become friendly with the rangers who now welcomed me inquiring about what I had recently photographed and wondering how the project was going. Many of the park’s repeat visitors discovered me near the pond waiting for the light to change or watching a subject move into the best compositional arrangement. They too asked about the project’s progress often wanting to know where to see the completed work.

Although the gallery space in the park’s offices would be too small for the more than 600 photos that make up the completed project, I scheduled an exhibit of the completed work for the next open date, almost a year away.

As the date approached I realized I had not received the exhibition packet with details for displaying my photos. I contacted the person in charge of scheduling the gallery space only to be told me that my showing had been canceled by the park manager because I had been photographing people in the park. Including people in photos was considered out of bounds for Inniswood photography. My show was canceled.

My first reaction was anger that I had not been informed of the cancellation. Even though I hadn’t yet completed matting and framing the photos, I had spent a great deal of time editing and preparing prints. I also had prepared a mailing, postcards and a press release describing the project and the exhibit. I quickly got past the loss time and effort and was more disturbed by the park manager’s lack of manners for not contacting me directly about the cancellation.

I would have been more than happy to discuss photography in public places, especially unique parks like Inniswood. I would have been happy to explain that my photos helped document how people react to the multiple layers of nature preserved in a public space not much larger than a football field. I would have explained that the land was donated to the county by the Innis sisters who lived until their deaths in the park in their home which was the administration building where photos would be displayed. I would have been eager to have talked to anyone at the park about the project, its intent, the process, my reception, their needs, or about the images selected for the show. None of that happened. The show was rudely canceled.

The photos were later shown at the Westerville Public Library. Some of the images have been included in other shows and sold to publishers for textbooks. They’ve never been seen at Inniswood Metro Park. Where there are people. With cameras. Photographing the park. With people.

Maybe I’ll arrange a PhotoWalk at Inniswood Metro Park.

If you’ve ever heard me speak you know about my insistence that you must create images that tell stories. It doesn’t matter if it’s a commercial food photo, a senior portrait, sports action, a news feature, or a landscape panorama, it must tell a story.

Your images must be evocative. They must evoke a emotional response from the people who see them. What would be the purpose in showing photos that don’t?

In my newspaper days I always disliked page editors who only worried about making sure that the selected photo fit the news hole without concern about whether or not it contributed to completing the story told in words in an adjacent column or stood alone, a complete visual exposition of what happened at that fraction of a second.

The major tenet of news gathering and reporting is WWWWW&H. Who. What. When. Where. Why. How.

All six can be inquiries or descriptions. For photographers, they need to be both.

You begin every photo asking the six questions of yourself. The answers determine everything.

Run through my process for the above photo.

Who is the woman standing in front of the window of young dancers? Who are the dancers and why are they looking out the window?

What are they watching?

Why is the older woman here? Why is she looking a different direction than the girls? Why am I standing here? Why would anyone care?

Why did they come together at this moment at this place for what time?

How are they related? Are they related?

When and where did they come together?

The answers, or lack of clear answers, push you to explore deeper the same questions searching for an alignment of visual and emotional elements to create the photo that will force the viewer to ask the same questions.

Reporters, writing about an event, provide the answers for their readers. After reading a properly written news story, the reader should have all the questions answered. Perhaps in the first two paragraphs for the most necessary details. Additional paragraphs expand on the earlier narrow explanations, expanding the answers.

Photos don’t, and shouldn’t, answer these questions. They need to force the viewer to ask them, to inquire and analyze what they’re shown. Force them to an emotional point of inquiry. Compel the viewer to not only ask about the content, require them to engage their brains in an inquiry of WWWWW&H.

Not every portrait should happen just after a trip to the barber or just after you’ve put on fresh clothes.

These two portraits are from a series I did of family and kids in the neighborhood. After watching the kids play on a warm summer day I gathered them in front of a white background erected in my north-facing garage.

The light was soft and just starting to lose its warmth late in the afternoon. I didn’t add any other lights or reflectors.

Each kid, too tired to complain, stopped on the mark for no more than a minute. The most difficult part of the shoot was getting them to not smile. They are so used to having people tell them to “smile for the camera” that they almost don’t any other way to sit for a photo.

Fortunately, smiling requires more energy than not and these kids were tired, thirsty and hungry. Getting them to stand still and to wear the exhausted expression was easy.

I kept the cold color in processing and dialed down the saturation to help emphasize their weary status.

This is the way we most often see kids. With scratches on their faces, hair flying in disarray and tired after a long day playing with friends.

It’s a natural way to shoot a lasting portrait.

One of the challenges for news photographers shooting portraits is finding in a very brief period of time enough information about the subject to create an evocative image that draws the reader into the story and does more than just show what the subject looks like or how he looks in his environment.

A great news portrait should require the viewer to want to read the accompanying story to get more details about the subject or explain the questions the photo asks. Some photographers insist the photo should be as complete a story as possible, that it should make reading the text redundant.

I agree the photo should perhaps meet that requirement.

It also needs say something about the subject that you won’t see in the story. In a perfect symbiotic relationship, the story and photo needs should overlap, each helping the other complete the telling.

Seeing Wally Carl, owner of OldSkool Skate Shop in Uptown Westerville, standing on a skateboard on the counter of the shop does more to show his personality than the story describing his work and the small, intimate space of his shop.

The magazine article for which this photo was shot described Wally’s path to owning the store in Uptown Westerville beginning with the discovery of a discarded, broken skateboard when he was 12. The story includes his latest efforts, a skateboard competition at the Arnold Sports Festival in March.

What the story doesn’t tell you is Wally is crazy enough to stand on a skateboard in the counter of his shop.

What would you rather know about Wally? That he found a skateboard when he was 12 or that he throws caution to the wind as any good skateboarder would and pose for this photo?

The ordinary thing to do would have been to shoot him standing in front of a wall of skateboards. It would have worked. But it wouldn’t tell you anything about Wally except what he looks like and how the boards are displayed in the shop. Push yourself to know your subject. I was lucky. I know Wally and I knew he would stand on the counter top.

Read the story at the Strobist site about my portrait of Gov. Ted Strickland. Little time, little help, great portrait.

Challenge yourself to challenge the subject. The great result complete a life’s story whether it be your child in sports, your patents in retirement, or how you spent your summer vacation.

New Digital Photogs wishes you the best for the New Year and hopes that all your burdens are light or at least seems that way.

Zoom lens, narrow depth of field.

Every year, as I ponder my new year’s resolutions, I always try to find the one photo that best describes how I met last year’s promises. The process keeps me grounded in success and helps me determine realistic goals for the new year for creating better photos.

This year’s best photo is of a young softball player after playing six games in a weekend tournament. She was very tired, very hungry, and not eager to pose for what she thought might be too long a time before she could rest and get some of the barbeque being prepared by her family.

I set up a single strobe, an SB-800 at camera left, on a light stand with a small shoot-through umbrella. The shoot-through umbrella softened the light in both direction and focus. The center of the umbrella is just above the line of the bat.

Once she was on the chair I had her turn away from the sun just enough to have the natural light fall across her cheek. The strobe was lined up so it cast a soft shadow across her face giving it depth. Aligning the light without shadows would have flattened her face. It is lined up low enough, almost directly into the girl’s face to fill under the cap’s brim. The close umbrella also added a nice catch light in her eyes.

The girl stood on a chair so I could shoot from a lower angle to eliminate the tree-lined horizon and include the sky. The lower angle is also a more flattering portrait technique.

I was using my Nikon D300 set to Commander mode with the SB-800 strobe set to Remote and utilized the Creative Lighting System to create the lighting ratios I needed to darken the sky and properly fill her face.

Aperture priority f-stop set to f6.3 to narrow the depth-of-field to the girl’s body and keep the sky out of focus. It also helped overpower the sunlight with a single SB-800. The strobe is just out of camera range at left.

The closer the strobe, the more powerful the light. A single SB-800 can overpower bright sunlight at this close distance.

The strobe was set to overexpose enough to compensate for the camera’s underexposure setting. Camera determined the shutter speed to be 1/600th of a second, well within the Nikon D300 ability to shoot CLS with the SB-800. (Full EXIF information)

This was a time for fresh batteries. The FP setting on the strobe and the need to overpower the sun required more power from the strobe. Weak batteries would have slowed the recycle time and kept the girl in an uncomfortable position much longer. It was difficult enough having asked her to stand in the seat of a lawn chair for the photo. To force her to stay longer than necessary would have resulted in a very displeased subject and probably made her more reluctant to pose.

I shot about ten frames having her turn slightly on several to see how the sunlight fell across her face. I alsochange my angle to make sure there was clear sky behind her face. Didn’t want one of the clouds to be a bright spot at her cheek. It was serendipity that the clouds at right fell behind the bat giving it greater contrast against the background.

Also posed her for a vertical smiling portrait with a lighting change, although it is less effective communicating six games in two days, tired, hungry, and reluctant to stand in a chair.

Typical of this type of shoot, I spent more time setting up and tearing down the lights than I did shooting. Getting prepared, setting the lighting and subject position before pressing the shutter for the first frame makes the shoot go much easier, and faster.

Post processing included some Photoshop magic to dial down the saturation and add a slight faded color to more perfectly match the tired and hungry attitude of the subject. The original was bright and colorful, too colorful for the story.

My second best photo(s) of the year are below. It’s some personal shots after the official track team and individual photos.

Let me see yours. Leave a comment with the link.

Enjoy the New Year. Hope your resolutions are good ones and you can make a positive report to me next December 31.