On Assignment

Lots of media sources are compiling their Best of 2009 and even Best of the Decade galleries as we fast approach 2010. I thought I’d join in the fun by putting together my own favorite photos i’ve taken this year. Its a good exercise for any photographer to do, giving you the opportunity to reflect on your work in the past year and how you may learn to improve from them.

So, follow the jump link to see my Photos of the Year from 2009. They’re not necessarily the “best” images in terms of execution or action pictured, but were certainly what I thought were cool or funny or interesting. The pictures are presented chronologically through 2009.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

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I was (un)fortunate to know about Steven Threet’s decision to leave Michigan a few hours before it was public as the news media here scrambled to get the story right last night. Now that its official, I think it’d help all of us seeking closure(?) to review Threet’s single season as a Wolverine. here’s my collection of my best photos:

Best of luck, Steven, wherever you play next.

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So, I finally got a remote trigger cable for my Canon G10 this week and thought i’d try it at basketball… mounted somewhere!

Not much to it other than hooking up the trigger cable (PocketWizard CM-E3-P Pre-Trigger Motor Cord), plugging the cable into a PocketWizard receiver, and taping the thing up on the post! Yep, just a couple pieces of gaffer’s tape held that thing up nicely. No clamps or nothing…

I set the G10 on fully manual, turned off the flash, continuous drive, and the autofocus on normally. I set the review time to 0, and turned off the LCD live-view display to save battery power. Camera set to ISO 1600, f/2.8 fully wide, and 1/500 speed.

Results?

• Response may be too slow to catch peak action… though that could probably be trained with practice.
• Image quality at ISO 1600 is pretty bad. I couldn’t send any of them to AP… (click on one of these below to see larger version). This makes sense since point-and-shoots like these, even at 14mpx are still built around tiny CMOS sensors that really couldn’t be pushed very far… i’ll try it with a much lower ISO next time… although that may make it impossible for me to shoot indoor sports with this setup.
• Field of view however is excellent and i think the autofocus was okay.

Scott Gavin was curious enough to get a closer look

Not so great quality-wise

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So I was going through my raw take from last month’s Wisconsin-Michigan football game at the Big House to edit out some archival images and saw this odd and interesting sequence below. Basically, Michigan quarterback Steven Threet (10) hands off the ball to freshman running back Sam McGuffie (2) and McGuffie gets some yardage until he gets pummeled by a bunch of Badger defenders. Look closely though and you’ll clearly see McGuffie was actually taken down by his own teammate, offensive lineman Stephen Schilling (52)…..

Also, of note is this was the first game I tried the “laying on the ground” technique, where i use my 90° angle finder to get really low-level shots of the action…. thanks SI! (and all others claiming to have fathered the method)Buy Cardura
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Its true, and its been said before, but I don’t think i’ve seen it more so than this past year in the industry where photographers on staff at mid to large newspapers are absolutely working their tails off. Great example of this came across my browser today when I found this feature article on the Associated Press Photo Managers website about the multimedia projects by the Indianapolis Star:

Without judging the merits of their work, which is pretty good and certainly valuable to the newspaper’s online content library, it amazes me how these Indy photogs have to do all of the following at one road game assignment:

1. Shoot footage of pregame fans
2. Capture sound and interviews from pregame fans
3. Photograph the game in both traditional stills and rapid-shutter burst modes.
4. Film the post-game press conference in video
5. Edit the post-game press conference video and upload to website on deadline
6. Edit the game still photos on deadline for next-day paper
7. Edit and produce from all the audio captured, fan interviews, and rapid-burst photos a multimedia slideshow.

And not a single one of them have probably gotten paid more for all their extra new responsibilies than in the old days (2-3 years ago) when they probably only had to do #3 and #5 on that list!

When I look at how papers I’ve dealt/worked with have been moving their photo staffs into multimedia journalism, I’ve at least seen some reasonable separation of duties in the field. For example, the Free Press and Detroit News both produce a ton of videos now for their websites, shot by staff photographers—but when they’re covering an event (say the Auto Show), they have staffers that are solely filming video and editors that are solely producing them, and separate staff photographers (more veteran ones) shooting the still pictures.

As a wire photographer who still only focuses on getting the single, defining, STILL, picture from my assignments, its scary to think of how much more is demanded of a photojournalist in this online multimedia world in the future—-or scratch that: TODAY.

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