Father and son at end of baseball game

father and son leaving fields after final game of day 2011-9-14-00074

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 [...]

It’s a matter of performance

digital asset management software - photo mechanic

Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits I’m guessing but willing to bet a very large sum that the most common digital asset management software on a news photographer’s computer is Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits. I’ve used this almost perfect piece of DAM software since the day it first became available in 1996. Its evolution has [...]

Auto-focus in snow

Autofocus in snow is difficult at best

Digital photographers take auto-focus for granted. It’s standard equipment on all point and shoot cameras and usually not something that can be turned off or altered in any way. The exception being a few of the high-end cameras such as the Canon G-series and Nikon cameras. Auto-focus is the default setting on all digital single [...]

Five Exposures

Corn Dogs and the five exposure roll of film

When budgets would get tight, as they always did at the end of the year, the AP’s main office in New York would modify every film supply order changing requests for 36 exposure rolls into orders for 24 exposure rolls. The intended purpose was economy during shooting. Logic was supposed to show that a photographer, [...]

Christmas tree sales manager portrait with G11

Christmas trees sales lot manager portrait G11 auto aperture

It’s that time of  the year again when I begin regular visits to the Christmas tree lot at Glengary Square on Westerville Road. The sales lot always opens on the day after Thanksgiving and yesterday was no different than any others. Everyone who works there knows me and my cameras. When I showed up with [...]

6,000 My Final Photos and counting

My Final Photo number 6,000

I knew Sunday would be the day I’d shoot the 6,000th photo in the My Final Photo collection. The series of daily photos began on November 15, 2004, about two weeks after I left The AP for “retirement.” The collection would now number 6,000, more than one photo a day as some days I’d posted [...]

Not a prayer

Rosary prayer at sunset

I don’t always travel with a full complement of photo gear. Sometimes I carry just my Canon G9, which you read about yesterday. On this day, as we walked out of the house, I grabbed a Nikon D300 with the 14-24mm f2.8 lens.I love the wide-angle perspective both for its ability to emphasize foreground objects [...]

Beauty Dish Contrast

Mixed Marrtial Arts Fighters Lumodi Beauty Dish

First, the client bought me dinner so we could talk about our relationship and discuss his needs for the photo shoot to follow. It was my second free meal of the day with the first being fried catfish and green beans with sweet tea. The evening meal was chicken parmigiana with cheese ravioli and red [...]

EXIF, IPTC, and beyond

Woman with red hair, full lips, looking petulent

Last week’s Westerville Meetup centered on shooting two models wearing vintage clothing on the streets and sidewalk in the Uptown business district. The clothes were furnished by Cinda Lou’s as were the two women who modeled for our group of about 25 photographers for a little more than an hour as the sun dipped below [...]

Creating blur to frame the subject – Shutter Speed #5

Blurred photos foreground background emphasis

Choosing when to use a slow shutter speed to blur an image doesn’t always have to match the subject matter. On the fourth Friday of the month during the summer streets are closed in Uptown Westerville for vendors, groups and associations, performers, and politicians to set up spaces to display their wares and attitudes. At [...]