What? I think I misunderstood something....team? what?

 

Sorry, didn't mean to hi-jack your thread.

I'm just looking for a sport or journalistic photographer.

 

I have been a "sports" photographer at The Baltimore Sun for the last 25 years and before that the same position at a newspaper in Jacksonville, Fl.I have "covered" evrything from the Olympics to F1 racing, from World Series to Super Bowls and even had a year as Bobby Rahal's team photographer during the ill-fated year he switched to Honda in the latter stages of his Indy car driving career. Also did a two year stint as a photojournalism teacher at The University of Maryland. Not trying to blow my horn here, just giving a bit of a background so you know where I come from.

With the digital cameras now in popular use, the most expensive part of photography has been solved, which was film and processing costs, so one of the best pieces of advice I can give is take a lot of pictures and have fun! One of the most common mistakes is not paying attention to the background, which ruins more pictures then I can tell you. You are usually so focused (hee, hee) on the subject that the background goes unnoticed until you look at the result and say oh s..t! what's that. Also, if you have a camera that you can adjust the F-stops and shutter speeds, most certainly play with those. Slow shuuter speeds for blurred action, high ones for frozen actions. "Wide open" apetures (f2.8) for limited depth of field and higher ones (f22) more more depth of field (areas in focus),

Move your position when taking the photos (as I believe was mentioned). Try standing, shooting from a ladder, get in a croutched position, even lay down on your front side and shoot from ground level. Look how light plays off the reflections of the car and maybe expose just for that which could give you a very nice outline of the Mini. Certainly light is the key, early morning and late afternoon are the best times for natural light, but don't be afraid during midday light, just expose the image creatively and look for fun angles.

Night light certainly offers many fun chances to make interesting pictures, however, this many times takes extra stobes to pull off the desired effect, but those aren't to expensive anymore either.

Hope this helps a bit and if you have some questions I may be able to help. Just remember, photographey is VERY subjective so you may like the image and others may not, but don't let that ruin your fun

Gene Sweeney Jr.

P.S. You can go to our website www.baltimoresun.com and look up some of my Ripken HOF induction photos and now the Ravens and form your own thoughts on my work. Who knows you might think I suck, but it's been a lot of fun over the years.