Author Archives: bobshank

Pleasant Valley vs. Stroudsburg

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Today’s baseball game between PV and Stroudsburg was an exciting, back and forth game that went into extra innings!

Both teams battled back and forth all afternoon putting hits together and advancing base runners to score runs. 2-0, 3-5, 5-5, 7-5, 7-7, back and forth it went. You gotta love a game that features both hitting and scoring. The game went into the eighth inning and was decided by an RBI single in the bottom half of the inning as Stroudsburg pulled out the victory. What a game!

I could also see the light conditions changing as the game progressed. The fall season has days getting shorter and this brings the golden hour into the tail end of these games. As the sun begins to make its way down toward the horizon, the light becomes stunning.

Here are just some of the photos I was able to capture at this exciting game.

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There’s Nothing Quite Like Friday Night Football

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Honesdale Hornets vs. Pleasant Valley Bears. Sounds like a typical Friday night high school football game. But this game was anything but typical!

PV up by 13, then a tie score 20-20 at halftime. Interesting. Hornets up by 3 early in the second half, then up by 10. PV bounces back and goes up by 3. Then Honesdale scores again. Then PV scores again. Final Hornets 37, Bears 40, with the winning touchdown coming with 41 seconds remaining in the game. Wow, what a great game and a great way to spend a Friday night!

Here are some of the photos I captured at tonight’s game. The repeated theme was Rob Getz taking a handoff up the field, twisting and turning, weaving through defenders, and gaining yard and after yard. Getz is elusive to would-be tacklers and knows how to run the ball. He is a special running back to be sure!

Photographing football is great on a number of levels. Being on the sidelines is a special privilege and trying to capture the story of the game with a camera is an honor. Working and talking with fellow photographers is an added bonus. I know I can get better at this and dream of some better equipment in the not-so-distant future, but the thrill I had last night was simply amazing!

Here are six photos from Friday night’s game. You can see the complete gallery here.

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Volleyball

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Yesterday afternoon I photographed a high school volleyball game between Parkland and Nazareth.

Lighting conditions in a gymnasium can be tricky. The color of light can be tough to deal with and oftentimes there is a serious lack of light. The gym for this game wasn’t too bad. The color was pretty much like fluorescent light and it was fairly bright. I did have to crank up the ISO pretty high, but it could have been much worse.

The action in a volleyball game is almost non-stop. It is much faster than baseball, which has more of a stop-and-go rhythm. When it goes, it is fast, but the recovery times are longer. In baseball you must be ready for the play before it happens and this is true for volleyball, too. The problem is the playing field (court) is much smaller so multiple players are often close to one another. This can create cluttered frames, making isolating the subject more difficult. Anticipation and  a little luck can really help!

I photographed the Junior Varsity game first. They played the best out of three games and Parkland won in two straight games.  They did play another exhibition game afterward. Then the Varsity teams played and Parkland won the best of five  in three straight games.

There was plenty of action in all of these games. At first I thought it would be easy to photograph the server in action. I did get some decent photos of the server with the ball in the frame, but it was more difficult than I first thought! Getting the exciting action at the net was even more difficult. Trying to photograph the digs was nearly impossible! At the very least, I have a list of things I desperately want to photograph at the next volleyball game I attend!

Here are a few samples of what I captured yesterday.

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Celebration Photographs

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Photographing a baseball game is one of my most favorite things to do. I enjoy spending time behind the viewfinder during a baseball game and figuring out where the peak action might next take place. The thrill of trying to capture the story as the game unfolds is an exciting challenge to me!

Trying to capture the peak action of the plays on the field is my most favorite subject during a game, but many other little things happen during a game as well. Coaches call time out to talk to a player or visit the mound to talk with the pitcher. Celebrations often occur throughout the game and are sprinkled in with all the exciting action. For example, a player gets safely to second base and claps his hands in enthusiasm or a player high-fives another player after a great inning or game.

Today I am posting four celebration images that serve as good samples of what I am talking about here. They all happened in one game and just serve to show that capturing these little celebrations can really help to tell the full story of the game. This is always my goal: capturing the story of the game as it unfolds to the best of my ability. They say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If this is true, then I wonder how many words a photo gallery of a baseball game is worth? When a photograph tells a story without having to say a word, then I know I’ve done my job.

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A Powerful Way to Remember 911

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I came across a photo website that you just have to see!

Faces of Ground Zero consists of photographs created by well-known photography, Joe McNally. He spent about five weeks at Ground Zero 10 years ago making photographs of the firemen and others involved in that horrific tragedy.

Interestingly, he used a giant Polaroid camera that was about the size of a single-car garage. Two people were actually inside the his huge camera making it work. The subject had to stand very still until the exposure was finished. The results were worth the efforts because the photographs were 4′ x 9′ images!

The images were put away after being initially displayed until now. They are again on display in New York City in the Time Warner Center. They are definitely worth seeing, but if you cannot get there in person, take a look at this website: Faces of Ground Zero.

Joe McNally has updated these original photographs by adding some new up-to-date photos of the same subjects and even included some video, too. They are amazing images and serve well in helping us to remember and never forget the tragedy of 911.

I cannot say this strongly enough: you have to see these photographs! Please, please, please take some time this week to browse through this website and see these amazing photographs. You will definitely be extremely glad you did!

If you have a little more time, here is a blog entry that Joe wrote and posted yesterday. It includes details and behind-the-scenes information that I found fascinating.

Faces of Ground Zero

Photo of the Month

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Each month I pick a “Photo of the Month” to display on my all-baseball website: Perfect Game Photos.

The idea is to feature my favorite peak action photograph in a given month. Sometimes this is easy because a cool photograph sticks in my mind. Oftentimes, however, I have a difficult time narrowing down the choices to just one. There can be a lot of good photos taken at one game let alone in one month!

Sports photography is a challenge I enjoy. The object is simple: tell the story of the game and capture peak action. Peak action is defined as the exact moment when a play is being determined. This can be a line drive caught by a diving infielder, a hitter just making contact with the pitch, or a base runner sliding safely into a base, as is the case with this month’s photograph

I am getting better in my sports photography skills and I am becoming more consistent in getting the peak action.

New Photography Podcast Being Launched!

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If you follow this blog even a little bit, then you know that I have a strong passion for all things photography. There is nothing better than being out on a photo shoot, but I also enjoy editing the photographs, creating slide shows, making prints, posting galleries to my website, and just about anything that keeps me involved with the wonderful world of photography!

I had the idea about two years to create my own photography podcast. I waited, however, for several reasons. First, I wanted to examine the lay of the land, so to speak, and see what others were producing in terms of photo podcasts. I found some podcasts that just rocked and were very good. I also found some that had a great start but fizzled out fairly quickly. There are many podcasts that I enjoyed and I kept taking mental notes on things I might want to do when I created my own photo podcast.

Several weeks ago Martin Bailey made a connection with me. I’ve been listening to his podcast, the Martin Bailey Podcast, for the past several years and Martin does an excellent job with his podcast. He sent me an invite to join Google+, the new social medium that many of us photographers are just raving about! I appreciated Martin’s kind, and generous act and started some conversations with him. He is always willing to listen, lend some suggestions and advice, and is always very encouraging! So, this past week I picked Martin’s brain about starting up a photography podcast. I cannot thank Martin enough for the help and encouragement he offered me!

So I am excited to announce the startup of a new weekly photography podcast entitled, the “Photography Horizons Podcast.”

I share the meaning behind this podcast title in my preview, which you can hear on the Show Notes page. The conception of this idea is basically that photographers enjoy shooting horizons. This might be to capture a sunrise or a sunset, or it might be to create a silhouette. Watching the horizon is important for photographers in terms of capturing good photographs, but we also benefit from being aware what is on the horizon in the photography world, too. Knowing about cameras, lenses, and other equipment on the photography horizon can be tremendously helpful, but it all starts with knowing what is on the horizon!

Each week I will follow a very basic outline. First, “On the Horizon this Week” will discuss news and announcements in the wonderful world of photography. Then, I will share a “Working Horizon.” This might be a tried and true technique to help create a better photograph or it might be a new skill or idea that will help us accomplish our photographic dreams.

My hope is that I will be able to share what’s on the horizon in photography and help the listener stay motivated and be better equipped to advance in the craft.

You can find more information about this new podcast, including a list of upcoming episode titles, on the Show Notes page.

What’s next on the horizon of your photography?

Fall Baseball

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The changing weather and upcoming fall season turns thinking to football. Baseball, however, is in full swing, too!

Today Pleasant Valley High School faced Wilson. It was a beautiful day for baseball. The sunlight only got better as the game progressed, which made photographing this game a lot of fun. The light was completely different than it was on Monday afternoon. The last few photos you see here were taken when the sun was low on the horizon and golden. There is nothing better than sweet light for a photographer!

Shooting baseball games is a passion of mine and I always seem to learn something new. Recently I heard a podcast where a sports photographer was interviewed and he talked about some of the extraordinary photos that can be captured after a play. The first photo you see here on this blog post is Justin Raad after he was walked. He flipped his bat toward his dugout before running down to first base and you can see his eyes focused on the bat, which is still in the air. Another lesson learned is to capture the “peak action.” This is the highlight of a particular play when the action is at it’s peak. I think a few of these photos are good examples of capturing peak action during a baseball game.

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More Hurricane Irene Photos – Stroudsburg, PA 2011

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I was blown away! No, not by Hurricane Irene, but by the number of visits to my blog yesterday. Over 1,000 people visited my blog to see the photos I captured during Hurricane Irene’s visit through northeast Pennsylvania. It was certainly not the worst storm in our state’s history, but the schools in Monroe County were closed the last two days and many people are still without power. This Hurricane caused some definite destruction.

So I went back through my photographs from yesterday and decided to post a few more today. These photographs are from the same areas I mentioned yesterday–all in the town of Stroudsburg. The effects of a hurricane are far-reaching and lasting in many ways.

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Hurricane Irene – Stroudsburg, PA 2011

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Hurricane Irene tore up the east coast this weekend. While it was not nearly as violent a storm as was predicted, it did cause some damage. Power was out much of the day for many in Stroudsburg and the region caused by downed trees, and moderate flooding was prevalent throughout the area. I got my real first taste of photographing the damage caused by a hurricane and it was thrilling to record the action with my camera. The reaction of the people was fascinating and capturing the damage caused by this storm was by far the most thrilling. The wind blew hard at times, nearly taking my baseball cap with it! Rain occasionally fell, but the brunt of the storm had passed by the time I was out with my camera.

I took a lot of photographs of Hurricane Irene, but here are a few of my favorites. As you browse through this collection of photos you will first see the McMichaels Creek violently overflowing and whipping under the Broad Street Bridge. Then you will see a tree that fell right onto a house on Clermont Street in South Stroudsburg. The next series of photographs are from a downed tree on Park Avenue, which took power lines and a utility pole with it, shattering the pole like a toothpick. Finally, you will see a few of the road closures in Cherry Valley.

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