Author Archives: bobshank

Respect for Other Photographers

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During the two days I attended the LPGA U.S. Women’s Open this week, I saw many photographers and videographers on the course at Saucon Valley Country Club. I readily admit that I was envious of many of them for two reasons. First, they had credentials to be on the course, and second, they were carrying some big glass!

I am a wildlife and sports photographer so I do long for big glass. Just seeing those 600mm lenses gets me salivating and coveting my colleague’s glass.

As I watched these photographers and videographers, I began to gain much more respect for each of them. They walked the course carrying all their equipment with them and it was hot. Most had a monopod to help keep them steady when taking a shot. They kept moving along, hole after hole, to quietly capture the action with their camera.

I still dream of getting bigger glass for my wildlife and sports photography, but I have more respect for what photographers go through to make photographs. They certainly have my respect!20090707_274

More LPGA US Women’s Open

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I just cannot get over how impressed I was with watching the practice rounds of the LPGA Women’s US Open this week.

The women showed amazing skill around the course and quickly warmed up the crowd by their friendliness and good humor. They were very willing to sign autographs and talk with the fans even though they are getting ready for a major event. It was so amazing how approachable and friendly they all were to us. I was definitely impressed.

Their amazing skill on the difficult course was equally impressive. Even bunker shots were made with seemingly effortless ease. Meg Mahlon hit a ball into a fairway bunker that seemed to have doom and gloom written all over it. But she calmly approached this hazard lie and with one swing landed the ball within several feet of the pin. Absolutely amazing!

These women deserve more attention. I hope you have some time this week to watch the LPGA US Women’s Open. Even better would be for you to witness this event firsthand. It is going to be an exciting and amazing weekend!

Memories

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The old saying is definitely true: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

I also remember a song with these lyrics: “If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can’t I paint you?”

Memories–we all have them. Some are remembered much better than others and some are even crystal clear, while others fade into the dark recesses of our minds never to be heard from again. One thing can help keep memories alive–a photograph!

Many families have lots of photographs. Have you ever sat down with your family to identify the people in some old photos? This exercise is an important one. A photograph is a great memory-keeper but only if we can identify the people in the photograph 5o years later. Some families choose to write the names on the back of the photograph. Now, digital photographs can be marked in a similar way on the front of the photograph.

I have suggested before on this blog that there is nothing quite like a physical photograph. Placing family photos in an album is a great way to keep memories alive for a long, long time. Digital frames are nice, too, but they require electricity or battery power. Albums only require human energy to turn each page as the photographs jog precious memories.

Do you have some photographs that bring back special memories for you?

U.S. Women’s Open

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A good friend of mine invited me to attend today’s practice round of the 2009 Women’s Open at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, PA. It was a wonderful opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up. We even had access to his company’s air conditioned tent, which provided cool relief throughout the day as well as refreshments.

The players were all very friendly and more than willing to sign autographs. Of course, I took my camera and took lots of photos. It was so fun to meet the women golfers and watch them practice for the upcoming tournament.

The two things I noticed were 1) the distance and accuracy of their drives and second shots. This was nothing short of impressive. Long, accurate drives were the order of the day. 2) the consistency of their swings. Consistency is a hard thing to accomplish in any sport and almost any endeavor. Are you consistent, for example, with your photography? These women golfers are extremely consistent, which I guess is why they are on the pro tour, but witnessing this consistency was incredible. And I am going to try now to be more consistent with my photography!

Action Shots

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One of the absolute most exciting challenges in photography is to try to capture action shots.

I like to photograph sports, which requires fast shutter speeds and a healthy number of frames per second. FPS, frames per second, refers to how many shutter releases can be snapped in one second. While this isn’t important for landscape or portrait photography, it is critical for action photography.

My Nikon D70 featured 3 frames per second. This was okay, but earlier this year when I upgraded to the Nikon D300, one of the first things I noticed was the increased FPS. The D300 sports 6 FPS and this is noticeable. For example, when I am photographing a runner caught stealing second base, I now can count on my camera freezing the baseball before it gets to the fielders glove as the base runner is sliding into second base. It is absolutely amazing to witness and hear the speed of the D300!

Baseball action shots, in my humble opinion, should feature the baseball in the photograph whenever possible. I also like to capture the flying dirt as a player is sliding into a base or a catcher putting a tag on a player who attempts a squeeze play.

Action shots require patience and persistence. The challenge this style of photography presents is worth it and I will keep putting myself in places where I can capture the exciting action!

Team & Player Photos

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Today I had the opportunity to photograph the Lehigh Valley Baseball Academy 13u baseball team. We gathered early in the morning before their first game of the day. I photographed the individual player portraits first. This is always fun for me. Some players smile just fine and make their mothers happy when the photos are delivered. Others are much more difficult and prefer not to smile at all. One of my favorite tactics is to say something that will get the teammates joking around with the player in front of the camera. This works many times and I have to be sure to always have my finger on the shutter release to capture the candid moment.

The team portrait was the next and last task of this photo op. I always try to arrange the players and coaches in a pleasing order making sure that everyone’s face is visible. The other difficulties are making sure all the players are looking at the camera and no one is blinking.

Once back home, I then upload the photos to my computer and then get busy preparing the photographs for the final output. Families typically order packages so I have to edit, crop, and assemble the appropriate package for each player. One of my favorite final outputs is the memory mate, which features a player photo and a team photo in an attractive border.

Take a look at the team and player photos and let me know what you think of them?

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Are Your Batteries Charged?

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Digital photography is great. It is relatively inexpensive since you don’t have to purchase and have film developed. Instant feedback is also possible. I made the switch to digital back in 2003. I confess that I still miss some of the film experience, but I am almost entirely digital now.

I have an assignment tomorrow so I have some preparation to do tonight. First, I have to be sure that my batteries are charged. I know I have one camera battery to charge and 4 flash batteries to charge as well. I just put them in their chargers now.

The second thing I try to remember to do is re-format my compact flash cards. The other day I was getting ready for a shoot and my main compact flash card had images on it. At first I wasn’t sure if I had uploaded the images to my computer. It didn’t take too long to realize that I had indeed accomplished this task, but I decided right then and there that I should reformat my compact flash cards before leaving for an event or, even better, right after I am finished up loading the images to my computer.

The main idea here is to always be prepared. Freshly charged batteries and empty flash cards are just some examples of this. Having everything with you is another example. Do you have your tripod or monopod? What about your flash?

Being ready is important. So, are your batteries charged?

Photography Goals

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What do you want to get out of photography? Are you interested in producing beautiful works of art? Is your goal to make money doing something y0u enjoy? Just what are you looking to accomplish with your photography?

Photographers are artists, it seems to me. We see what others overlook or don’t bother to notice. Our creative tendency could be a goal in and of itself. I imagine there are as many goals possible as there are photographers. We are unique and yet we share a unique commonality at the very same time.

Competition drives many in the field of photography. We view another photographer as a competitor and sometimes even as an enemy, rather than a colleague. When we hear about or meet a fellow photographer who is in our territory we look the other way and hope they will fail quickly.

What if we took the time to learn from each other? What if instead of behaving like rivaling siblings, we showed a little mutual respect and friendship toward one another. I am rather tired of this doggy dog world where everyone is out only for themselves. Some of my photography goals are to extend and experience some feelings of camaraderie and collegiality.

I readily recognize that I do not know everything about photography. My passions and interests have taught me a lot, but there is so much more for me to learn. And I know that I can learn a lot from fellow photographers. Isn’t there room in photography for genuine sharing and respect for each other? Can we not all learn a little bit from one another and have fun in the process? Isn’t it time we showed one another some mutual respect and even appreciation for each others work?

Fast Workflow

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Digital workflow is a common conversation these days. How do you take your digital photos in your camera and get them to some usable form? Workflow is the process you use to process and edit your digital photos. What software do you use? What process do you follow? Is it easy or complicated? Is it fast or cumbersome?

My workflow has improved with time and experience. I switched to using Adobe Lightroom and it is definitely better for me. I can now process, manage, edit, print, and create web galleries with great ease. I almost feel like a trapeze artist who “performs astonishing feats with great ease.”

My process is to upload the digital files from my camera into Lightroom. In the process I rename the files to reflect the date of the shoot and a unique sequence number. This way I will never have two files with the same name. If I do two shoots in a day, I simply start the file naming sequence where the first shoot left off. Once the files are in Lightroom I can pick the keepers very easily. Then I can edit the photographs as needed. The next step is either to create a web gallery or export photographs to be printed. Either way, Lightroom makes it easy to do.

My workflow is smooth these days and I have Lightroom to thank for much of this. You can give it a try yourself with a free 30-day trial. Try it and see if your workflow can become smoother and faster.

New Website Enhancements

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My website has been an ongoing project and a labor of love for a little over a year now. It has gone through one major change so far, which is still being worked out to my liking. It takes a little time, but I do enjoy keeping up with my website and adding new features to it.

Just today I added some basic design features to make the pages look a little more consistent. I also added an index to the bottom of the main page so visitors can more easily find exactly what they’re looking for on my site. One dilemma I debate over is how much to include on the main page. I’d like to put everything in easy view without the visitor having to scroll down at all, but this just isn’t possible. To include everything I want and to make it easy for visitors to find everything, I need more real estate on the main page. So when you view my website scroll down a little to see what I’m talking about. Do you think this is this okay and obvious enough for visitors to navigate?

I also added a new page called “Client Login” where clients who I am working up an order for can view and proof their images. As I’ve said, I do enjoy working with my website. I try to keep it simple and easy to navigate while attempting to display and feature some of my photographs.

What do you think of my website?