I’ve waited for this photo for several weeks. The scene has happened a number of times but usually too cluttered in the background or lacking the touch of a hand on the shoulder. As luck would have it, this was the last father-son duo to leave the fields. They stayed for throwing practice past the end of four coach pitch games on four fields.

Although this was my original idea, father and son leaving after a game, it wasn’t what might have happened.

About half the parent-child groups were mothers and sons. From a sociological view, it appears to reflect the number of changes in the dynamics of modern families.

Next on the list is to get that photo, mother and son leaving at the end of a game.

From a technical standpoint this was a difficult photo. The EXIF data shows high ISO with a relatively slow shutter speed dictated by heavy cloud cover a few minutes before sunset.

The best angle on their path was as they just stepped out of the shadows of several small trees that lined the path near the fields. This photo is as they just stepped into the open area near the outfield where I had enough light to shoot at 1/200th. I underexposed by 1/3rd stop move the shutter speed higher. Wasn’t too worried about the shadows going too dark in this situation. They already were dark and I needed a higher shutter speed.

Preferred to have shot it with the D300 and the 70-200 2.8 instead of the D5000 and a kit lens but I was traveling on my bike with the lightweight camera kit so I could quickly and easily switch fields and locations.

Still needs a little work to make it a better photo. There are two paths leading from the fields. This path has the restrooms building in the background that is difficult to keep out of the frame. The other path is clear at the end which would clean up the background.

I’m going back for that photo, with mother and son.

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 ]

I’ve spent many a Saturday at Ohio Stadium shooting football as an Associated Press staffer. That ended when I left the company in 2004, during the football season. Missed only one season during that time while I was temporarily assigned to the team installing and training newspapers with the new Leaf picture Desk.

The Leaf was the first electronic darkroom used by almost every paper in the country. Our team traveled to every one of them to train them on its use and how it was going to affect their daily operation. (Access My Library has an article about its introduction.)

That’s the year I got to sit in the stands during a game instead of managing as many as seven photographers shooting nearly 100 rolls of film for a darkroom staff to process, edit and print for transmission during and after the game. Took my son to the game, a once in a lifetime event for him as he wasn’t allowed to  accompany  me when I worked the sidelines.

That doesn’t mean I don’t get excited on football Saturday. There’s just a different objective and it doesn’t take the entire day and kneeling on the sidelines for three hours to make it happen.

This day I walked into most of the stores and restaurants just north of Schrock Road at State Street to see who was working during the game and who had a television to watch it.  My favorite photo is of my barber shop, closed for the day. This is a man’s shop. There is always talk of politics, sports, hunting, Pamela Anderson, cars, and a few dirty jokes best told in public. It’s cash only, with tips allowed. Up-to-date magazines on the seats and in the rack. A small television set in the corner never set to CNN.

Today, they were closed. Wisely. It is doubtful they would have made payroll for the day. The game began at noon and was followed by celebration with an extended recovery period lasting into Sunday. The few customers who sat in the chairs during the game might have suffered from a less than perfect cut or perhaps a much different cut than expected if during a scissor’s slice when OSU unexpectedly scored. A trim and taper could become a high and tight.

Technical details: Nikon D300 with 14-24mm f2.8 lens. ISO set to 400 for better shadow noise of the darkened interior. The white sign on the door was lit with overhead lights extending the luminosity of the scene. I focused on the chair with the newspaper crossword puzzle and positioned my self so my reflection was at the sign. The lighter color of the sign caused  my reflection to be absorbed instead of reflected.

The exposure was iffy at 1/10th of a second at f5. I could have upped the shutter speed by adjusting the f-stop to a wider opening. I kept it at f5 so the sign would be blurred but still easily readable. The shutter speed was slow but easily hand held for this type of photo. The only thing that could move was me. I eliminated most of the problems with measured breathing, holding my arms tight to my sides to keep them from moving, standing with my legs shoulder width and shooting several frames in quick succession.

Several more of the photos are at WestervilleLife and My Final Photo.

The photos from my Saturday travels are available in the WestervilleLife – November 2010 gallery at SmallTown Stock.

The day was cloudy, cold and windy. My spirits suffered under the poor conditions and I knew shooting track, even middle school age kids, was going to be difficult.

I’d already decided to shoot at f4, the widest opening on my Nikon 300mm lens. I wanted to maintain emphasis on the runners without a distracting background. I knew that would make focus more critical, especially when using single-point focusing. There would be not time during focus tracking to adjust the focus point in the viewfinder.

I settled on top center focus for horizontal images and near top center for vertical shots.

Knowing that I’d need a fast shutter speed to stop the action and that I was staying with f4, I chose to use aperture priority auto exposure with exposure compensation depending upon the subjects.

The clouds weren’t consistently the same density so exposure would changed as thicker clouds with sprinkles of rain passed over the field. Thinner clouds brought just a little more light, sometimes in the middle of a race. I could have shot manual exposure setting both f-stop and shutter speed but the varying light levels would have made it more difficult to adjust during a race. Letting the camera determine the shutter speed was my best plan.

That meant that I’d have to increase my ISO higher than normal to at least ISO 800. Most newer digital cameras have much less noise at the higher ISO settings. I could have easily increase the ISO past 1600 without any significant increase in noise. The light was flat enough that the shadows didn’t get too noisy and the highlights weren’t blown out.

Shooting at a shutter speed of 1/1000th or higher will stop most track action depending upon the runner’s movement in relationship the the shutter plane. Running at me, this runner and his two followers were easily stopped with 1/1250th setting.

Auto-focus followed him nearly perfect as he hit the finish line. The narrow depth of field from the f4 setting kept him in the place of focus and blurred the trailing runners enough to remove them as sharp distractions.

My settings, both shutter speed and f-stop, might have been different if I’d been shooting on a normal sunlit day.

My ISO would have been lower. It was raised to 800 because it was cloudy and I needed a high shutter speed.

The f-stop might have been f5.6 to allow a greater plane of focus on the main subject.

The shutter speed, being the most significant of my setting choices, would have remained at or greater than 1/1000th. Stopping the action was the greatest objective for this photo. All the other choices were determined by the shutter speed.

Finding the spot was easy. I knew that when I laid down on the wet sidewalk I’d have a great low angle to frame a bike racer against the skyline as he made a turn into Uptown Westerville. The low view would place the rider in an exaggerated angle with the city’s small town building facades helping define the location and nature of the event.

The camera was positioned on a table top tripod where I adjusted the angle from the sidewalk. Placing the camera on a tripod allowed me to watch the riders approaching on the side street and return to the camera as they rounded the corner.

My timing had to be precise. Even with a motor drive at six frames a second, making sure the rider was in the open space at the right time was difficult.

A counselor once told me I should change my life by trying to stop anticipating everything. I need to go with the flow more often. She obviously didn’t understand that anticipation is primary to my work as a photographer. I told her to think of something else to change my life. She suggested modifying how I reacted to failed expectations. She didn’t understand photographers. I gave up on counselors and bought a new camera.

I upped my ISO to 800 knowing I’d need a high shutter speed to stop the lateral movement of the rider. Stopping lateral movement is difficult as the direction of travel for the subject is more easily blurred and a perpendicular movement.

I also had to watch the depth of field to make sure the rider was in the primary plane of focus with enough depth to keep the background sharp. Shooting with the wide angle Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 gave me enough depth for the ISO 800 to work.

Shooting on Aperture Exposure I shot a few test frames to make sure the shutter speed was high enough to stop the racers. It dialed itself in at 1/1600th of a second, more than enough to stop the motion, especially when other objects in the frame are already sharp and contributing to the composition and content.

After looking at the test frames and checking their histograms on the D300 LCD screen I didn’t dial in any exposure compensation. The cloudy sky and wet street made a great gray card.

Stopping the action wasn’t difficult at 1/1600th of a second.

I’ll write later about stopping lateral movement with adequate shutter speed settings.

“Your pizza will be ready in 25 minutes.”

Just enough time to find a feature.

My daily hunt for another photo to add to the My Final Photo collection is the most challenging aspect of my daily life.

Some days the photos are obvious. They come from commercial and portrait assignments. And from editorial assignments when editorial was more popular. The loss of newspaper readership and the subsequent decline in news editorial photos reduced that number significantly.

Still, each day I make the decision to add to the collection. Yesterday was no different, except in one manner.

I forced myself to shoot only the amount of time it would take Rofini’s Pizza to make the sausage-pepperoni and onion-green pepper-mushroom pies required to quiet the appetites of my wife and teenage granddaughters.

After paying cash, no credit or debit cards allowed, I was off to find my photo.

The closet, most likely spot to look with the high school athletic fields. They are usually busy on every afternoon with teams in training and individuals trying to make themselves more healthy with personal workout routines. The late afternoon sun would provide cross lighting.

The walk to the field was about 100 yards, a distance easy to gauge because the walk paralleled the adjacent football field and track. The infield was recently scraped and provided a rough surface for that low angle sunlight. The players cast long shadows across the clay during infield practice. As one coach hit grounders, several others worked with the players adjusting their stance and positioning and praising their good fielding.

In some respects, this was an easy choice for a subject. I’d not been to the fields at the school for some time because the subject matter was often routine and easily duplicated on any afternoon. The challenge today was create photos in a limited time.

I began with a telephoto shot with the 70-200mm f2.8 from behind the coach hitting fungo to the fielders. The first images were wide taking in the coach, bat and background. I shot only a couple of shot before zooming the lens tighter and going vertical to pull the background closer. The depth-of-field was set deep enough to give me a fair amount o focus where the bat hit the ball but narrow enough to keep the background blurred.

I pre-focused using a spot on the ground approximately over the spot where it appeared the bat was meeting the ball.

My timing came from keeping both eyes open to watch the bat. With one eye closed all I would see was the bat and ball entering the frame with not enough time to fire the shutter to get bat on ball. My left eye saw enough out of the camera frame that I could anticipate the shot.

Knowing I only had a few minutes, I quickly switched to the 14-24mm f2.8 lens for a wider view. I started with  an eye=-level shot of the coach hitting the ball, the followed with a “Hail Mary” angle with the camera held high over my head. The next series of frames were from a lower angle as I squatted as low  as I could.

A quick chimp showed me the photos, although  good, were ordinary. I wanted more.

As I stepped back from my squatting position the coaches repositioned themselves closer to home plate dropping bats and ball behind them. Two balls fell together and immediately became my foreground objects.

I checked my focus, the f-stop for greater depth-of-field, the shutter speed to stop the swing and lowered my camera to the clay angled up enough to place the balls lower in the frame and give me enough sky for the coach to be framed against it.

I couldn’t see exactly what I was shooting so I chimped between each swing to check my timing and angle. With a couple of the pitches I backed off with the zoom for another frame of bat on ball but returned to the lower position until I knew my time had expired and the pizzas would be ready when I returned to Rofini’s.

They were and my pieces of sausage-per were great.

And, the photos didn’t turn out too bad either. From the first photo until the last was 9 minutes and 40 seconds.

An annual assignment for me is the Arnold Sports Festival where as many as 17,000 athletes compete in about 40 sports. This will be my 16th year shooting the weekend having made the transition from processing color film in a utility closet to a staff of six photographers all shooting digital and delivering photos in near real time during the now four-day event.

Although the weekend takes its name from what is arguably the world’s most famous bodybuilder and features collectively more muscles per pound of body weight than any other event I can think of, the most interesting parts of the weekend are where the amateurs compete. Especially the youth in martial arts, gymnastics, fencing, wrestling, weightlifting and cheerleading.

Despite the different muscle groups and techniques required for each of these sports, each athlete has a common element that photographers can concentrate on to help make telling photos.

I’ve a great collection of photos from the gymnastics events. Everything from rings and uneven bars to pummel horse and floor exercises. Of course there are the moments when great flying leaps and pauses at the end of a strength move can show an athlete’s prowess. I’ve many photos like that

I’d rather watch the athlete’s eyes such as this young girl’s intensity as she begins her horizontal bar routine.

Sure, an athlete’s movements are spectacular to watch and even more wonderful for a great photographer to capture in a still image than can be studied by fans. For most sports photographers nothing satisfies more than peak action photos where the athlete’s movement are at their zenith and victory is captured at that moment.

That intensity, focusing on an objective, preparing for movement, calculating the result, and executing the necessary steps for victory can always be captured in the eyes. It’s rare to see because of the difficulties of shooting tight enough to see an athlete’s eyes. When we do, the story is better revealed.

That intensity is not confined to athletes. Watch most anyone attempting to complete a goal and their eyes will tell the tale. Even when they are shopping for discounts at a closeout sale.

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.

Being a good photographer means more than having technical skills. It means more than understanding light. It means more than understanding composition. It’s easy to learn these things.

What is important is arrive early and stay late. Not matter the job, no matter the subject, no matter the need. Get there before everyone else and stay after they’ve all gone.

Arriving early lets you know more about the subject than the folks who will arrive just in time. You’ll be able to watch them as they prepare, as the ready themselves for the game, as they begin to place themsleves in their moment. A good photographer will learn their subject’s patterns, their movements and their peculiarities.

You’ll know how they turn their head a certain way before loosing the pitch. You’ll know where their eyes go just before they start their opening move. You’ll know when the explosive burst of energy that means winning is about to happen. You’ll know more about the athlete than the photographer who arrives just in time for the first pitch.

Watch your athlete. Observe their preparation. Anticipate their next move. Wait for it like a hunter stalking its prey.

This process gives you control. You’re now in charge of the event. It moves to your time and in your space. You know how it will happen and you’re ready when it does.

This young shot putter had a very brief moment where she paused as she settled her feet inside the ring and placed the shot in the crook of her neck. She paused long enough for the breeze to blow hair across her face. She paused long enough her mind to put her movements in slow motion as she studied the arc and distance of her next throw. This study of an athlete measuring and imaging success was this moment.

On another day I’ll tell you about staying late.

Shooting indoor hockey is, at best, very difficult. It’s almost impossible with a point and shoot camera although there are a few tips that can help make it easier for you to get good photos.

A psychologist one told me that I needed to quit anticipating. She wanted me to pro-active but not always be looking ahead, to concentrate on the moment and find ways to work through its content.

I appreciated what she was telling me but I told her that would be exceptionally difficult in my line of work. Anticipation is a core technique element for all photographers.

For some, like sports photographers, it’s an understanding of the game and how it flows. Knowing that your team usually passes on third and three yards makes it easy anticipate a pass and to which player it might go. Close to the end zone and you know it’s going to be lofted into the corner. Short yardage means it will be across the middle if it’s a conservative coach and down the field for the more adventuresome.

Similar moments happen in all sports. Plays at the plate and the net, picks, baton passes, and struggles over possession of a soccer ball.

My afternoon at indoor hockey was one of those moments when anticipating was required.

My Canon G9, although a very sophisticated camera, has drawbacks similar to most point and shoot cameras. The focus can be slow, especially in the telephoto setting which is what I used for much of the hockey match. It’s grainy (noisy) at higher ISO setting. It’s best shooting one frame at a time instead of rapid sequencing. I had to work around these problems to get any good photos.

I knew I’d be grainy. I accepted it as part of the results knowing I wouldn’t be making large prints where the noise would show.

I set the camera for aperture priority. If you’ve read any of the other posts you know it’s my favorite priority.

I pre-focused where I knew the action would happen. Not difficult to do if you know a few tricks.

Shooting the goalie was simple. Put the goalie at the focus point and gently press the shutter button. The camera will focus on the goalie. Do not release the button. The camera will hold focus and exposure setting if you hold down the shutter button after focusing. Don’t push it any further or it will fire the shutter and you’ll have to start over.

Now you can take the camera down and watch the action as it moves toward you. When the action is at its peak, push the shutter. You’ve a great action photo that would have been near impossible without pre-focusing.

If your action is going to happen somewhere else on the ice, pre-focus to that position. Aim at an object in the same distance arc as your anticipated photo. Don’t aim at the ice. The ice is bright and your exposure will be off. Shoot a similarly lit object at the same distance.

When the action moves into your focus zone, press the shutter. The tight photo of the player above was shot that way. I pre-focused on another player who stood in that position. I then waited until my player traveled through the same place.

Don’t forget that an off the field photo can also be an effective way of telling the story about your young athlete, such as the hockey helmet hair at top.

Anticipation can be a good thing. Just don’t tell my psychologist friend. She’ll want you to stop such bad behavior.