Author Archives: bobshank

Using Flash

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As a wildlife and sports photographer I do not use flash all that much. Yes, there are times when fill flash is needed for a shot, but those times are relatively few and far between for me. In fact, until recently I didn’t even pay attention to the necessity of learning about flash photography.

All this is changing, especially since the new flash strobes do an incredible job of replicating the natural light look. It is amazing what these small strobes can do and they even work wirelessly! I love the Nikon system that incorporates built-in wireless flash. With just a simple set up I can use my pop-up flash to fire an off-camera flash and get a variety of different looks. It is amazing!

Now don’t get me wrong; y0u still won’t see a flash on my camera very often, but when needed I will know how to use it. And isn’t this what photography is all about; using the tools at our disposal to achieve what we are looking for in a photograph?

Getting Ready for the Craft Fair

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I will be displaying some of my photographs this Saturday at the Holiday Boutique. This is a craft fair held at Stroudsburg United Methodist Church and features a variety of craft vendors. It is a great place to see crafters displaying their beautiful work and do a little early Christmas shopping.

This week I am making last-minute preparations for my display. Just today I received a shipment of my Pennsylvania Elk Calendars and a Photo Flip Book. Last week I received a photo mug and holiday greeting cards. These items will be on display so orders can be placed with any of my photographs. I will have 4 elk calendars for sale and they turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.

I also have to print some price lists, frame some photographs, and refine my tri-fold plywood display so everything will be ready to be set up on Friday. It is an exciting time and I always enjoy seeing what the other crafters will be displaying.

If you are in the Poconos on Saturday, stop in to look around. I will be there and I’d love to see you!

Cowboys vs. Eagles

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Last night my friend John invited me at attend the Sunday night football game in Philadelphia. I’ve been going to Eagles games with John since 1993. The atmosphere is always electric and prime time games are absolutely full of energy. Last night was a perfect example. The Cowboys and Eagles both came into the game with 5-2 records so this game was to determine who the sole leader of the NFC East would be now. Can you feel the energy?

Now a professional football game is chock full of dazzling sights and sounds. Fireworks, energetic cheerleaders, crazy fans, and superhuman football players just to name a few. But as I took my seat in the stands and looked down onto the field my attention was drawn to something different right away–the photographers on the sideline.

Yeah, I know, not your usual sight of interest for most guys my age, but I can’t help it. I just couldn’t resist studying the sideline photographers to see how they captured the game with their cameras. The first thing I noticed is that they all were wearing red vests. Not photographer’s vests either. These vests must have served either as a red badge of courage that these men and women totally deserved to be where they were or to help make them more obvious so they couldn’t hide from their environment. No camouflage here!

I also noticed that the photographers stayed pretty much in the same location. If they were on the visitor’s side of the field at the beginning of the game, that is where they stayed. If they were to the right of the player’s bench, that seemed to be their assigned location.

I did notice that they all some big glass and I mean big. This was no place to carry a point and shoot camera. Many of them also carried one or two additional cameras on their shoulders in addition to the camera mounted on their monopod. I am sure this was so they could capture the sports action in a moment’s notice.

Some photographers stood behind their camera while others kneeled behind theirs. But each and every one of them had a much better location from which to photograph the action on the field! I was jealous, too. I know I am now too old to dream of making it into the NFL. Besides, my time in the 40-yard dash is not up to what it used to be just a few short years ago. However, I do dream of making it to the big leagues with my camera.

Does anyone know where to get one of those nifty red vests and press passes so I can have the opportunity to join my heroes on the sidelines?

Baseball Photo Products

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I enjoy working as the official photographer for the Lehigh Valley Baseball Academy. It keeps me involved in a game I love, allows me the challenge to capture the amazing plays that happen on the field, and introduces me to a lot of incredible players, parents, and coaches.

Besides the benefits I enjoy from this, I also like to share my work with others. Capturing a player putting a tag on a potential base stealer in the midst of his slide is but one example of the thrill of photographing baseball games. I photographed 19 baseball games this year–14 for LVBA and 5 for the high school team at Pleasant Valley. Each and every game is different and trying to reflect the flow and outcome of the game with my Nikon camera is an exciting challenge!

Sharing the photographs is the second part of my job. I do provide the LVBA with 7 framed action shots for them to hang on the wall of their facility. We are also in the design stage of creating unique calendars for each team. But here are a few more ways players and parents can enjoy my photographs.

Sticky Pix
These are similar to Fat Heads, if you know what they are. These photographs stick to the wall and can be moved over and over again without leaving a sticky residue on the wall. They can also be ordered as cut-outs and are available in three different sizes–11″ x 14″, 16″x 20″, or 20″ x 30″.

3-Photo Sports Collage
The collage features three different photos of the same player. The one in the middle of the collage is bigger and the other two are arranged in an attractive way around it.

Teamsakes
For goodness sakes, what in the world is a Teamsake? I’m glad you asked! A Teamsake is an 8″ x 10″ collage of 9 photos. The idea is to include a variety of photos from your team as a memory keeper of the season.

Buttons
Many parents are proud of their baseball players and mom’s especially like to wear a 3″ button featuring their favorite baseball star. The photo in the button can either be a portrait or an action shot.

Magnets
I don’t know about you, but our refrigerator is filled with all kinds of magnets. My favorite section is the rows of photo magnets depicting our kids in the various sports they have played. Each one brings back some special memories of that season and you can see your little man growing up right before your eyes!

Mugs
Do you drink coffee, tea, or hot cocoa in the morning? Well why not drink out of a mug that shows your favorite athlete on the side? While you’re at it, take it work to show all your co-workers. Action shots showing dust and dirt flying are guaranteed to stay on the outside of your mug and not ruin the taste of your favorite hot drink.

Large Prints
Prints have become a bit more rare with the advent of computers and digital frames. Still, there is nothing quite like a large print hanging on the wall. The details of a photograph are much easier to see and enjoy in the larger sizes.

This is just a sampling of the ways to enjoy your favorite photographs. For more information on these and more please see my website or go directly to this page or this page.

2010 Pennsylvania Elk Calendars Now Available

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How would you like to see the majestic Pennsylvania elk every month of the year?

Many of us enjoy getting to see the elk firsthand, but we just do not have the time to make trips to the elk range often enough. The mountains beckon but we cannot always heed their call.

Enter the 2010 PA Elk Calendar. This calendar features photographs I took of the elk and there is one for every month of the year plus another photo on the cover. You can see the photographs I included by going to my website. You can also order a calendar if you so desire.

I enjoyed the process of selecting the photographs for this calendar, but it was not easy narrowing down the final selections. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think of this elk calendar.

The Value of a Spreadsheet

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Do you know how much a spreadsheet can help your photography?

Most people assume that spreadsheets are only for working with numbers, but nothing could be farther from the truth. I use spreadsheets for all sorts of things. For example, I have one spreadsheet with my photo equipment dream list. One one sheet I prioritize the items I hope to buy in the future. On another sheet I track my savings for the next piece of gear. I can even compare features of several lenses side-by-side.

I use spreadsheets for upcoming photo events, too. I can list shots I don’t want to miss, create to do lists to make sure I am ready for the event, and even track my progress by using little check marks and highlighting what still needs to be accomplished.

Spreadsheets can be a great tool for the photography. Give it a try!

Taking Care of Business

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I have a lot of photo editing to do tonight, so this will be a brief blog entry. Editing photos can be a time consuming process but today’s software makes it a breeze. Adobe Lightroom is my all-time favorite photo software right now. It not only excels at managing my collection of photos, but I can also change the White Balance, adjust the exposure, and even touch up part of a photo with the adjustment brush. It is some sweet software!

I still have to use Photoshop every now and then. It is very powerful and useful. The resulting images are so much more clear than back in the old film days. Just compare a scanned slide image next to one taken with a digital camera. It is amazing!

Ok, I really have to get back to my photo editing job. Good night!

Up to My Eyeballs in Elk Photos

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I am up to my eyeballs in elk photos and I love it!

I am currently working on a project that I am hoping to unveil later this month. I have been looking back over my elk photographs and this exercise alone has been a wonderful experience. Sure, I see some old photographs that I hope will never see the light of day, but I also see a progression of my photography technique and how it has improved over the years.

Looking back through these photographs took my mind back to many times spent up on the elk range. It really is a beautiful place, like none other. And as I am known to repeat, “There is no place like the mountains!”

I don’t just say it, I believe it. We live on Effort Mountain in the beautiful Poconos of northeast Pennsylvania. Our elevation here is actually a bit higher than Winslow Hill. We do get a decent amount of snow each year, but nowhere near the amount Elk County receives. And there are no elk here in the Poconos.

So, short of driving the 3-hour trip to my favorite spot in the world, I am left looking through photographs taken while I was there in the past. I see the photos and can almost re-live many of the moments I snapped those photos. It is amazing how my mind can go back and recall specific details just from these photographs!

I will keep sifting through these photos, two of which I posted here for you see.

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Laptops & Desktops

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I’ve been using a laptop for a very long time now. Its portability and compact profile make it perfect for me to carry back and forth from the office to home. I can travel with it, check my email just about anywhere with its wireless connection, and I can even sit out on the back deck and surf the web!

Yep, I like laptops. So much so that I never imagined I would ever want to own a desktop again.

Well this is all beginning to change. You see, I am not very faithful at backing up my data and this is troublesome. I have been fortunate in the past to never have a hard drive fail. Well, correction, I had a 20mb hard drive fail on my very first IBM PS2 desktop, but back then my files were saved onto 3.5″ floppy drives. We’ve come a long way from those days!

With all the photographs that I have been capturing over the years, much hard drive space is required. One problem I’ve encountered with the laptop is that my external drives sometimes change their drive assignments. For example, sometimes one is drive g: but then sometime later becomes drive h: I also have to keep disconnecting the external hard drives from my laptop every time I want to take the laptop with me.

Enter the desktop solution. Tonight I reassembled a desktop. My initial goal was attach a LaserJet print to this desktop so I could print from it on my network. But then I got to thinking, “Hey, this could make a pretty handy backup scheme if I attach my external hard drives.

Eventually I want to get a Drobo for my backups and I can simply attach this to the desktop.

My laptop is not being replaced and I will use it for my email and much of my day-to-day work, but I am beginning to see that having a desktop on my desk will be a very nice addition to my work flow. I am a little slow, but now I have some work to do to get this thing fully functional on my network!