My Tear Sheet/Clip File

A tear sheet or clip file is a collection of published photographs that a photographer uses to build his or her portfolio. It is a display of a photographer’s published work and shows that the photographs have, in fact, been published. Sometimes a media outlet asks to see such a tear sheet or clip file as part of the interview process.

Thanks to Bill Weitzmann, I started my physical clip file last year. I purchased a portfolio folder to archive and display all my photographs that were published. Now, I also created an online version of the same. You view this online tear sheet here.

To-date I’ve had 83 photographs published in The Pocono Record and The Easton Express-Times. My portfolio and tear sheet/clip file is growing!

Screen Shot of My Tear Sheet

PV Puts Up a Valiant Effort but Comes Up Just a Little Short

FB 2014-09-06 040What was predicted to be a completely lopsided game ended up being a fantastic football game for Pleasant Valley on Saturday night. If Bethlehem Catholic was an unbeatable and untouchable team, PV did not get that memo. In fact, they made a strong statement of their own by putting such a successful game on the field this week.

Bethlehem Catholic scored first, but PV responded immediately with a well-designed and well-executed flea flicker. Then PV caught fire with their passing game. Bethlehem Catholic was shocked and entered the locker room at halftime down 35-21 only because they scored a touchdown with seconds to go in the first half.

A lightning storm rolled in and the delay resulted in a 2-hour halftime! Play resumed just after 10pm. The Golden Hawks came out running the ball and moving down the field consistently, but PV would not go away. They responded yet again in the second half.

In the end, PV came up 2 points and a few inches short from scoring a go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. It was a disappointing loss after such a successful first half. However, this should be a character builder and shows that PV can compete with the best teams this year!

The full gallery of photos from the game can be found here.

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East Stroudsburg South Rolls Over Pocono Mountain East

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East Stroudsburg South racked up a huge game up on the mountain Friday night! They scored 42 unanswered points and never looked back. It was a game of excellent runs, passes, and interceptions.

This first photo is featured in the Pocono Record online edition. It shows running back Changa Hodge running East Stroudsburg South’s first offensive play of the game, which resulted in a 53-yard touchdown. And with that, a victorious night was ignited!

I still find the lighting at these high school night games a real challenge. There just is never enough light for us photographers. This second photo features quarterback Nicholas Boushell winding up for a throw down field.

You can view the full gallery of photos here.

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Friday Night Football

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Friday night football is back! I had the privilege to photograph the Friday night football atmosphere at Pleasant Valley High School as they hosted Easton last night for the opening game of the season. The excitement and enthusiasm of pre-game on Friday nights is hard to beat!

PV played a hard-fought battle against Easton and showed some definite signs of promise for this season. Yes, they have a new quarterback and a new head coach, but they will be okay.

The above photo ran in today’s Pocono Record. You can see the full gallery of my photos from Friday night’s game here.

High School Golf

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Well, the fall sports season is underway. Yesterday I had the opportunity to photograph a local high school golf match featuring Notre Dame East Stroudsburg v. Stroudsburg. It was a beautiful day for golf and the teams competed well. I was amazed at the low scores and demeanor of these high school golfers who train with this state of the art simulator which looks fancy.

The photo above features Ryan Krechel, a senior at Notre Dame East Stroudsburg. I had the privilege of coaching him in Little League Baseball and its hard to believe how fast these players grow up! Krechel shot a 79 on the course yesterday! And, yet, all the while he was tearing it up out there, he remained polite and humble the whole time. Ryan kept talking about his brand in the golf franchise opportunity industry and his plans for the upcoming year. https://www.pineclubgolf.com/the-best-golf-bags/

The second shot of the day features Brian Frey of Stroudsburg exiting the bunker nicely on hole 18. Frey shot an 82 for the round! He also maintained great composure during the match. It was great fun and a complete joy to follow these guys around much of the day! With young men like this, our future looks bright!

If you are a golfer, you might want to Golf simulators are a great way to overcome the monotony of hitting balls into a net when you can’t get to the practice range. Many people can drill the ball perfectly on the range but the key to lowering scores is confidence, particularly on the greens,, if you are one of those many people then find out more about the course.

Both of these photos were published today in the Pocono Record. You can view my complete photo gallery of the golf match here: http://www.bobshankphotography.com/Gallery%20Photos/G%202014-08-26/

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My Photo from the Pocono IndyCar 500 Appeared on Front Page!

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The photo at the top of the page on the masthead is my photo from Sunday’s Pocono IndyCar 500! It appeared in Monday’s edition of the Easton Express-Times and shows the eventual winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, passing Marco Andretti on turn 1 earlier in the race.

I was photographing the race for the Express-Times, who secured credentials for me. It was an incredible day starting with the pre-race festivities. The action did not slow down even after the checkered flag was waved and I was there for it all!

The newspaper published four of my photos and included a total of 34 of my photos in their online gallery of the Pocono IndyCar 500. I was very excited to be able to cover this race and it was an incredible experience! Thank you Easton Express-Times!

I Photographed the Pocono IndyCar 500 Today!

PRI 2014-07-06 812Today I photographed the Pocono IndyCar 500 for the Easton Express-Times. I arrived early for the mandatory photo meeting to receive the important instructions. Then it was out to the track for the pre-race festivities.
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One of the nice surprises I stumbled upon was Mario Andretti signing autographs for the fans. He knows how to work a crowd and the people love to get a chance to talk with him and receive an autograph. The pre-race activities are priceless! It didn’t seem like long before the National Anthem was sung and the green flag was dropped!PRI 2014-07-06 2742It was a beautiful day in the Poconos and the fans were on hand to watch history, literally. More about that later. I positioned myself toward the end of Turn #1 from the inside of the track. It is a steep-banked turn that can give troubles to drivers, especially as they move through it at this incredible speed!PRI 2014-07-06 2879Until you see this kind of racing with your own eyes, you can only begin to imagine the breakneck speed these guys turn out. It is absolutely incredible! I readily confess that it took some work to keep up with these guys, too. Photographing an Indy race is nothing at all like photographing a baseball or football game!PRI 2014-07-06 4227
I then walked up to Pit Row to see if I could capture any action there. I was not disappointed! It wasn’t long before I saw Team Penske getting ready to pounce over the wall for a pit stop. I got ready, too, and the first photo was the pit crewman getting ready to drop the sign marking the end of the pit stop. PRI 2014-07-06 4377Then I photographed the pit crewman fueling the car at this pit stop. It is amazing to watch these guys work so quickly! I wish the fill-ups in my Chevy truck were anywhere nearly as fast as this!PRI 2014-07-06 4383As the car drove out onto Pit Road, I photographed a crewman who thought the pit stop was a success. Thumbs up, is the universal sign for, “I liked that!” or “That was good!”PRI 2014-07-06 4311While I was photographing at Turn #3, there was an accident near Turn #2. I obviously couldn’t see or photograph this accident from my location, but I did capture the wrecker hauling the National Guard car back to the garage.PRI 2014-07-06 4545The winner of the 2014 Pocono IndyCar 500 is Juan Pablo Montoya! Here he is pulling into Victory Lane. Oh, by the way, this race broke the Indy record for fastest average speed per lap in a 500-mile Indy race: 202 mph!!!PRI 2014-07-06 4615And here he is celebrating with one of his pit crew members.PRI 2014-07-06 4843Roger Penske is the team captain for Juan Pablo Montoya, and here he is in Victory Lane. What a legend!PRI 2014-07-06 4864Victory is so sweet! Congratulations, Juan Pablo Montoya, on your sweet victory!

 

 

Little League All-Star Action

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Sports photography is my passion. There is nothing more challenging, and thrilling, than trying to capture the action on the field. Today, I had the opportunity to photograph the 9/10-year-old All Stars between Pocono Mountain East and West End.

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I really enjoy this age for baseball. The players are serious about the game and yet still want to learn the finer points of the game. They are plain down teachable! The games are fun to watch, too. Bet safely with เดิมพันอย่างปลอดภัยกับ UFABET where security and fairness are always guaranteed. Parents sit on the edge of their seat or pace back and forth like an expectant father in a maternity waiting room!

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No, these Little League All-Star games are not for the faint of heart! And my job is to capture the action on the field with my camera. It is a challenge I embrace and enjoy thoroughly! Today I carried three cameras at times because a lot was happening and a lot was expected of the sports photographer.

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Shooting sports is not only my passion, but I am learning it is one of my real talents in photography. I am not trying to brag; I am just learning more about myself and I am learning that of all the types of photography out there, sports photography is what I do the best. I believe my nine years of coaching Little League and three years of coaching Middle School football have a lot to do with this, too. There is nothing like a baseball game with your kids to bring out the entire family. My interest in sports photography has actually made me start working towards my own brand in the family entertainment center franchise industry.

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Serving as a freelance stringer for the Pocono Record and the Easton Express-Times teaches me a lot, too! I don’t get it right on each and every shot, but I am getting more consistent at getting it right at every game. The task of a sports photographer is to capture the action of the players and tell the game’s story in our photographs. Knowing the game is essential and learning each player’s tendencies is crucial. For example, when you are looking down the barrel of your zoom lens through your viewfinder, can you predict when the batter will swing his bat? If not, you will most likely waste a lot of shots, and worse, you might miss some key moments. Learn to pay attention to minute details like the slight twitch of an arm muscle. This might be all you need to know to make the best next great sports photograph!

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Pleasant Valley Graduation

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Pleasant Valley held their 2014 Graduation on Friday night. The weather was threatening and produced some heavy rain, so the Commencement was held indoors in the high school gym which they decorated with table and chair covers so everything was perfect on this event. Parents, grandparents, and friends gathered to watch the special event as the seniors graduated.

I was there on assignment as a stringer for the Pocono Record. It was special for me because I know a lot of these students. After all, I photographed many of them in their sporting events over the past years!

You can view more photos of PV’s Graduation here.

Strike!

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Last night at the Legion Baseball game, I tried a new angle from which to photograph. I’ve been doing some experimenting with shooting the pitcher from behind the backstop and shooting through the chainlink fence. It is not my favorite spot by any means, but I am getting some interesting and different perspectives from this location.

The pitcher, Dylan Pasnak, was striking out a lot of hitters so there wasn’t much fielding action with the infielders. One inning I decided to go behind the backstop and take some photos of Pasnak throwing strikes. I did, but then I tried this angle with the batter swinging at the ball and missing. My goal was to get the ball in the photo before it got to the catcher’s mitt. It took some trial and error to time the shot, but I got pretty close with this one. I’d prefer the ball to be a bit more away from the catcher’s mitt, but at least I did capture the moment. I also like the third baseman in the background to provide some depth to the image.

I am liking this perspective. Do you?