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SPORTS SHOOTER NEWSLETTER #111
28 May 2008
The entire issue is linked here:
http://www.sportsshooter.com/current.html
Direct links to the individual stories are at the bottom of each preview.
LEADING OFF: Pop Quiz
By Robert Hanashiro, Sports Shooter
I have been reading the SportsShooter.com Message
Board and have received a lot of mail recently
from photographers, which has made me think about
... what is a "Sports Shooter"?
It's been a while, but here is another Sports Shooter Quiz.
Answer these fun questions, add up your score
(the number corresponding with the answer to each
question) and check out where you stand in Sports
Shooter-Land!
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1988
* * *
SPORTS SHOOTER ACADEMY BOOT CAMP SEPT. 5 & 6
The Sports Shooter Academy Boot Camp is returning
this September to Southern California with a
little bit of a twist. This year we decided to
break this workshop into two separate programs,
each with a specific topic.
The Boot Camp will be held September 5 & 6, with
Day 1 focusing on shooting futball and football
and Day 2 concentrating on portraits and location
lighting.
Friday September 5, the workshop will start off
with classroom sessions and in the afternoon
participants will cover a college soccer
tournament at Cal State Fullerton and in the
evening will move over to a junior college
football game. An extensive remote class will be
held on the field before the start of the soccer
tournament, with the faculty helping workshop
participants install remotely triggered cameras
behind and around the goals.
Saturday September 6, the Boot Camp will start
off in the morning with a classroom demo, but
most of the day, participants will be shooting
portraits of various athletes under the guidance
of the faculty. A wide variety of lighting
techniques will be taught and an assortment of
lighting equipment will be used in these shooting
sessions.
Each evening of the Boot Camp participants will
edit their work and receive one-on-one critiques
from the faculty. The best work by participants
will be displayed in a slideshow and prizes will
be awarded to the top work.
Nikon will be sponsoring the Sports Shooter
Academy Boot Camp and will have their latest
digital cameras, lenses, speedlites and other
accessories for workshop participants to check
out and use. Nikon will also have personnel on
site to help participants with the equipment and
answer any questions.
Other supporters of the Boot Camp are: Dyna-Lite,
Think Tank Photo and Samy's Camera.
For more details about the Sports Shooter Academy
Boot Camp, go to this link to a story on the
website: http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1987
These workshops intended to be instructional,
inspirational, educational and most of all a lot
of FUN! If you want to sharpen up your sports
shooting skills, learn and try out new lighting
techniques, have your work edited and evaluated
by some of the top working photojournalists in
Southern California, meet students and
photographers from around the country ... join me
for a fun weekend in So Cal September 5 & 6!
* * *
Issue #111 leads off with a topic that is
discussed (or rather argued) by many people at
many different levels of photography. Southern
California freelance photographer Matt Brown
writes about ... no, RANTS is a better
word...about the proliferation of free
photographs.
The newspaper industry is struggling, journalists
are losing their jobs or simply taking buyouts
and walking away. Arizona photographer Jared Dort
writes about leaving newspapers and his journey
back to working on a newspaper staff.
Robert Scheer of the Indianapolis Star gives us a
behind-the-scenes look at his 6-week assignment
in Iraq with a local National Guard unit.
This is election year and we have two articles
about politics by photographers with new books
coming out. Pete Souza writes about chronicling
Barack Obama's career and Bill Eppridge gives us
a look at the difference between covering
politics in 1968 and 2008.
Paul Myers writes a deeply personal column about
life, photography and the "Five W's ... this is
must-read folks!
We have several cool tech pieces, one by Greg
Cooper on the importance of building and
maintaining a personal archive of your work and
John Todd writes about his good but simple
digital workflow. George Bridges writes this
issue's "Ask Sports Shooter" column and answers a
question on Levels and Curves.
Frequent contributor Dan Powers writes about a
new feature at his newspaper that has introduced
new storytelling methods and acknowledges that
newspaper photographers' jobs are changing.
And Sports Shooter Equipment Notes checks out the
latest in Strobist lighting techniques: Grids for
your speedlites.
* * *
Two books on Asian culture and Chinese food are
on my nightstand this month: Shark's Fin and
Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in
China by Fuchsia Dunlop and Jennifer 8 Lee's The
Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the
World of Chinese Food.
What's on high rotation on iTunes this month
includes: Live From Austin by Neko Case; KT
Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic and a wonderful,
highly recommended box set collection, Wanda
Jackson's Right Or Wrong.
I hope you enjoy Sports Shooter #111!
* * *
Free is Killing Me!
Too many people are giving away photographs for free or dirt-cheap.
By Matt Brown
Next time you're in the local hardware store, ask
the salesman to give you free tools and tell him
in return you will tell all your friends you got
your tools from his hardware store.
Or try it at the grocery store. I can see it now,
standing at the check at line:
"That we be $102.85, sir."
"You don't know me but I will tell everyone I
know to shop at Ralph's if I can just get my
groceries for free".
"Sure Mr. Brown nobody knows about us yet, here's
your food and have a nice day!"
Sweet!
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1989
* * *
Semis Passing Semis
A Journey Back To A Newspaper Job
By Jared Dort, The Sun
Do you have any bodies in the trunk?
I've answered that question a few times during
this month and still get a kick out of it. It's
far better than the standard "Are you a US
citizen"?
Since April, I've driven through the Border
Patrol checkpoint at mile-marker 78 on I-8 six
times while leaving Yuma, AZ, the place where I
now work. My wife and two daughters have been in
Cottonwood while I get settled in and find a
home. Cruise control is a great invention.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1990
* * *
Journalist's Journey To Iraq
Crab, Ice Cream and the Occasional Roadside Bomb
By Robert Scheer, Indianapolis Star Visuals Dept.
I went to Iraq for six weeks. In mid-March,
Indianapolis Star colleague Will Higgins and I
were embedded with National Guard soldiers from
Indiana. Sounds pretty cool huh? Much of it was.
The food was tasty --- lobster or king crab once
a week --- and as much Baskin Robbins as you can
jam down your pie hole.
In general, a lot of the images we're used to
seeing from the Middle East involve crying Muslim
women and stressed-out soldiers pinned down
behind concrete walls. I didn't see any of that.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1991
* * *
Documenting Obama's Journey Becomes Photographer's Journey
Realizing a dream by publishing a book about Barack Obama.
By Pete Souza
For the past couple of months, I've been consumed
with the process of publishing a photography book
on the rise of Barack Obama's political career.
My mantra has always been "do it the right way."
So I naturally wanted to keep as much control as
possible in the production of this book. As I
watched the first signature of the book come off
the press last week, I panicked when the first
photograph of Obama was reproducing on the page
like an overexposed white guy.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1992
* * *
Campaign 2008 Different From Campaign 1968
Comparing photographing Barack Obama to photographing Bobby Kennedy.
Photo by Bill Eppridge
Robert F. Kennedy campaigning for the Democratic
Presidential nomination, Spring of 1968.
There is a world of difference between today's
political coverage and the type of access that
photographers had in 1968 when I covered Bobby
Kennedy's presidential campaign.
First off, I could go wherever I wanted, and
there was virtually no security. Bobby Kennedy
had only one bodyguard. His campaign was far less
orchestrated than what is seen in today's
made-for-television rallies with all their
carefully printed candidate signs. And the
calculated positioning of supporters in the
background behind the candidate is not always
apparent to television viewers.
nla_internal_2928015.jpg TO THE CHOIR: Sound Memory
By Paul Myers, Brooks Institute
Clickity clack,
Clickity clack.
Blindfolded, she would lead me, giggling, down
the streets I had known as a child. The salty air
filling my lungs, her hand in mine, I could feel
the burn of her smile in the darkness. Soft.
I only died a thousand times in the first five
seconds with that blindfold on before letting go
and dying with her, no matter what. Then the
world came alive. Cypress trees like alien
elephant legsŠ sea lions like foghornsŠ toes in
the cool sand like, like we believed.
Clickity clack,
Clickity clack
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1994
* * *
ASK SPORTS SHOOTER: Levels and Layers
By George Bridges, McClatchy Tribune Photo Service
(Editor's Note: Each month Sports Shooter will
take a question sent in or a topic from the
SportsShooter.com message board and get an
answer.)
In a recent post on the SportsShooter.com message
boards a question was asked about adjusting
levels in many images by automation. The catch
being that all the images needed an individual
adjustment.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1995
* * *
From boxes to hard drives: the importance of archiving your work
By Greg Cooper, Brooks Institute of Photography
Early on in my career I was working as an
assistant for Horace Bristol (one of the original
Life magazine staff photographers). Bristol and I
hit it off right away and built a relationship
that transcended more than just
employer/employee. He became my friend and my
mentor, a relationship that lasted until he died,
about 10 years later.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1996
* * *
Changing Jobs Of Newspaper Photographer: The ViewFinder is Born
By Dan Powers, Appleton Post-Crescent
For me, the summer of 2007 will be remembered for
much more than the time spent enjoying the new
convertible my wife and I purchased; much more
than vacation time or grilling out on the patio.
All were memorable moments, but not exactly life
changing. Nope, 2007 was a year of big change and
I have to admit I was less than enthusiastic to
embrace it. It was the year of the ViewFinder.
So what do I mean? Well, back in the early part
of last year, we started toying with a Marantz
audio recorder and matching sound with
photographs. We dabbled in SoundSlides for the
occasional story here and there. As summer
approached, our assistant photo
editor/photojournalist Sharon Cekada came up with
an idea and presented it during a staff meeting.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1997
* * *
A Simple Digital Workflow That Works
By John Todd
Workflow. The most hated words in a
photographer's vocabulary, except for maybe the
grip and grin.
Shooting for our two main clients, the US Soccer
Federation and the University of California
Berkeley, we need to shoot both news value
images, and long-term stock images.
My goal is to get my clients the best quality and
most important images to them as fast as
possible. To do so, I shoot RAW, I edit off my
card, and I use as many canned captions as
possible.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1998
* * *
Photographer's Toy Box: Going small with speedlites
By Robert Hanashiro, Sports Shooter
Everyone knows I'm a "Dyna-Lite Kind Of Guy"
Šmeaning I generally use portable studio lighting
equipment for my location portrait work.
Maybe it's old age or maybe it's reverting back
to my childhood that I have really taken to this
whole strobist movement that has become so
popular with Dave Hobby's very informative and
very entertaining website:
http://strobist.blogspot.com.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1999
* * *
Spring Specials From Robert Distributors
By Jody Grober
Greetings from Indy. I was great to some of you in Indy last week for the raceŠ
The Nikon D3 train is still in full steam, so
call me for special Sports Shooter pricing on it,
the D300 and the complete line of Nikkor glassŠ
Canon's new rebate program has started and the
new firmware is getting good reviews.
http://tinyurl.com/3wgqad
Click here to see rebate: http://tinyurl.com/yl5cxd
There is currently a $3000.00 mail-in rebate on
Epson 11880 printer and lesser rebates on all the
other Epson wide format printers.
http://tinyurl.com/25qnsa
Give us a call for your last minute needs for
your trip to China for the Summer Olympic Games.
We have the complete line of Think Tank Photo,
including the Airport International, all of
Pocket Wizard is in stock and all the other
gizmos one needs at the Olympics.
Don't forget that Roberts is your place for
special Sports Shooter pricing on Apple's MacBook
Pro and MacPro computers. We currently have
special pricing on last years models while
supplies last.
This month memory specials are from Sandisk:
SD1gb Ext III- buy 3 for $35 and get a $35 mail-in rebate-FREE
SD4gb DUCATI Plus-$59.97 and $30 mail-in rebate- $29.97
SD8gb Ext III w/reader $69.97 and $40 mail-in rebate-$29.97
Click here for rebate form: http://www.robertsimaging.com/sandiskrebates.html
Short and sweet this month, so be safe where ever
you travel and make sure to have some funŠ
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=2000
(Roberts Distributors is located in Indianapolis,
IN. Jonathan "Jody" Grober can be emailed at:
jgrober@robertsimaging.com. To place an order,
call: 1-800-726-5544. You can check out Roberts'
online product catalog at:
http://www.robertsimaging.com.)
* * *
Gettin' Ready For Summer at Samy's Camera
By Louis Feldman
Think Tank Photo's Urban Disguise line of gear is
designed for photographers operating in urban or
dangerous environments, carrying thousands of
dollars worth of photo equipment can be an
invitation to have their gear stolen. Urban
Disguise bags are intentionally designed not to
look like camera bags, thus allowing
photographers to carry even their larger lenses
and laptops into potentially perilous settings:
* Urban Disguise 10 - Designed to hold a small
SLR with the lens attached and one to two lenses
with the hood.
* Urban Disguise 20 - Designed to hold a SLR with
lens attached and one to two lenses with the hood.
* Urban Disguise 30 - Designed to a SLR body and
multiple lenses, including up to a 70 - 200 2.8
with the hood reversed.
* Urban Disguise 40 - Designed to hold two SLR
bodies and multiple lenses, including up to a 70
- 200 2.8 with the hood reversed.
* Urban Disguise 50 - In addition to holding
multiple SLRs and lenses (including up to a 70 -
200 2.8 with the hood reversed), it will hold
some 15-inch laptops.
* Urban Disguise 60 - In addition to holding
multiple SLRs and lenses (including up to a 70 -
200 2.8 with the hood reversed), it will hold 15-
to 17-inch laptops.
Also hot from Think Tank Š The super-popular
Airport Security, the versatile International and
the NEW Airport AirStream for those that don't
have to lug around long glass. Check out the
specs on Think Tank's website:
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/ttp_product_RllrGrp.php)
and give Samy's a call to check on pricing for
Sports Shooter readers.
Go to this link to check out the full line of Think Tank Photo gear:
http://www.samys.com/browse.php?mfg=230
Over the past couple of months we have received a
lot of QUESTIONS about digital SRL camera
systems. And the ANSWER is Nikon! Specifically
the new Nikon D3 (feature highlights: 12.1
megapixel, full-frame, 9 fps, ISO 200 to 6400
with an additional two stop boost up to ISO
25600, new 51-point AF sensor and an amazing 3 -
inch LCD monitor with Live View) and the D300
(feature highlights: 12 mega-pixel CMOS sensor,
ISO up to 6400, EXPEED image processor and 3-inch
LCD screen with Live View).
Call us for currently availability and pricing for Sports Shooter readers.
If you're a dyed-in-wool Canon shooter, then you
know that the EOS 1D Mark III and the EOS 1Ds
Mark III are hallmarks for the "White Lens
Crowd". Check out the recent users report on the
"s": http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1914. Call
Samy's for the current pricing on Canon products,
plus information on their rebate program.
Another thing to consider with football season is
stock up on compact flash cards. Call us for
competitive pricing on all of the top brands of
memory cards ... SanDisk, Hoodman and Lexar.
Another item you might want to consider upgrading
for football season is your memory card reader.
We have IN STOCK the latest FireWire and USB card
readers from Lexar and SanDisk, designed and
built to reliably and quickly view your images
and download them onto your hard drive.
A cool way to cut down your time downloading
memory cards at a game or wherever you're on
assignment is to use a portable storage device
that automatically moves files from your cards to
its built in hard drive. Give us a call for
special Sports Shooter pricing on units from
Epson (P-3000 and P-5000), Jobo (GIGO Pro
Evolution) and Digital Foci (Picture Porter
Elite). In the field use one of these units to
download cards while you continue shooting,
saving time, helping you make deadlines and
streamlining your digital workflow and archiving!
With all of the talk about multimedia remember
Samy's is your one-stop store for all of your
digital video and audio needs. We carry video
cameras from Sony and Canon, whether you're
looking for the top of the line like the Canon
XH-A1 3CCD, HDV Camcorder or the Sony HDR-FX7
High Definition Handycam® Camcorder to the small
palm-corders that will fit easily in your camera
bag or backpack.
We have a full range of audio recording gear from
Sennheiser, Rode, Audio-Technica and Azden. Check
out this link for information on audio kits from
Samy's: http://www.samysproaudio.com.
Samy's is hosting a lighting seminar presented by
Canon, Photoflex and Nik software on Saturday
June 7 at the NoHo Studios in North Hollywood.
Cost of this lighting lecture and demo by fashion
and celebrity photographer Fernando Escovar is
$175. For more details and registration info:
http://www.samys.com/dsb_classes.php?ClassID=160.
Remember that Samy's Camera is the largest
photographic rental house in Southern California
and we have stores in Los Angeles (Fairfax main
store), Pasadena, Santa Barbara, West LA and
Orange County. http://www.samys.com/rentals.php
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=2001
(Contact Samy's Camera in Los Angeles by calling
323-964-0323 Ext 200 and ask for an industrial
sales representative. Also check out Samy's
Specials on SportsShooter.com or Samy's web site
at: http://www.samys.com.)
* * *
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, thanks to Special Advisors &
Contributors: Deanna & Emma Hanashiro, Brad
Mangin, Rod Mar, Trent Nelson, Jason Burfield,
Grover Sanschagrin, Joe Gosen, Paul Myers and Bob
Deutsch.
Thanks this month to: Matt Brown, Jared Dort,
Robert Scheer, Bill Eppridge, Pete Souza, George
Bridges, Greg Cooper, Dan Powers and John Todd.
I welcome any comments, corrections, suggestions
and contributions. Please e-mail me at
bert@sportsshooter.com.
The Sports Shooter Archives as well as tons of
cool resources and information can be accessed
through the Internet at
http://www.SportsShooter.com.
Use of the content of the Sports Shooter
Newsletter is prohibited without the expressed
written permission of The Big Kahuna and the
author of the article.
Opinions, rants, raves, insults and praise
whether intend or not, are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of Sports
Shooter and public sensibilities.
Copyright Sports Shooter, Inc.
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SPORTS SHOOTER ACADEMY BOOT CAMP
The NEXT COOLEST photography event of the year
September 5 & 6, 2008
http://www.sportsshooter.com/workshops.html
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