Wow.
I started blogging on April 18, 2008. For the first few months I hosted my blog on my own website.
I really liked doing it. Sure, there was a lot of HTML coding - but I had total control over my posts and their formatting and everything. Eventually, I came to realize that if I had to keep doing my own coding, I wasn't going to be blogging as much. Plus, I had no idea how to integrate an RSS feed into my existing site.
So, I started here on Blogger. 499 posts ago.
Since I can't think of anything profound to expound on - I'm going to continue a regular series.
Get in my way: Football
Football games are long. Like, excruciatingly long. The play clock is a total of one hour, yet I've never photographed a game in less than four hours.
Anyway, while NAU was destroying Montana State yesterday, there were a bunch of photographers in the Skydome. Usually there are four of us. Yesterday there were probably ten. I know. Ten is nothing compared to NFL etc. Understand that NAU is not a very good team and we're in the middle of nowhere, AZ. Nobody comes up here.
Generally we all get along fairly well and most of us are fairly courteous. Down in front, stay behind the media lines, etc.
There was one photographer yesterday who just didn't quite get it.
One offense, or even two is OK - people make mistakes. I understand that. I'm sure I get in somebody's way once or twice in a game. This guy was out in front, blocking other people's shots at least five times.
If he was getting great photos for Sports Illustrated, I could understand. But he was using a friggin' speedlight for crying out loud! I guarantee you his shots all look like crap in color! Guarantee, because there is absolutely no way to balance between the sodium vapor lights on the ceiling and his (non-gelled) speedlight.
I asked him how it was working out - he said he was getting pretty good stuff. He showed me one. If he pushed his photos black and white, they'll probably look good. If he keeps them in color, I doubt it.
I never got his name, but I had never seen him before and I don't expect to see him again.
Until this dude shows up and wanders (with his POP-UP firing madly) into all of our shots. COME ON!
Don't just take my word for it - see for yourself.
I love being able to shoot video :-)
Anyway. Enough of my bitching. The moral of the story: be courteous to your fellow photographers. If you don't, you might end up the subject of a long-winded blog post about how rude it is to get in other people's shots.
I'm off to photograph soccer today. Hopefully we'll get some rain!
