My First Gig

Well I covered my first shoot yesterday afternoon. It was a first round game of the Sectional Playoffs for boys soccer. What a great experience. I left work and traveled about 40 min to an area of that I had never visited before. I passed a couple of BEAUTIFUL waterfalls. I wanted to stop and shoot them but being my first trip to this school I wanted to make sure that I got there on time. I will definitely go back and shoot these falls. The trees are in peak Autumn foliage and I was in awe of the beauty of the scenery that God blessed me with.

I finally arrived. However I was about five minutes late so I missed opening kickoff. The action of the game was great, a bit lop sided though. This made for easy shooting. I shot close to 400 frames. I was told by some big time pros (Sports Illustrated) that I communicate with via email to make sure that I "take too many" shots. You can't go back and capture a shot that you missed but you can delete the shots that you don't want.

After the game I went back to the office to upload some images. I let the veterans show me what was expected and they were impressed with my shots. We went through my data card and eliminated the obvious (Out of focus, redundant, ball not in shot, etc) bad shots. This left me with about 200 shots to post. I was a bit surprised at the "kill rate" but they insisted that that wasn't a bad rate. What do I know I'm the rookie.

After all the shots are loaded they are submitted to the editor. He chooses the "lead shot". The lead shot is the shot that they post on the main page with the story or caption. I was not happy with the shot that the editor chose as my lead shot. But again what do I know? I'm the rookie.It definitely isn't one of the better pictures of the bunch in my opinion. All the other shots are then loaded into the gallery for moms,dads,grandmothers, or girlfriends to order. I'm not too happy with how they post those either (Am I starting to whine?). They don't edit them at all.No cropping. No brightness/contrast adjustments. Nothing. That is only done when an order is places. So if mom wants a shot of little Johnie, the picture is cropped in on little Johnie after the order is placed. One of the photogs (that's photographerese for photographer) works on the production team and does edit his photos. So his shots are tightly cropped.He however doesn't have a family to tend to and so he can stay up until 3AM editing 300 shots.( I am definitely whining now)

Anyway, I had a great time shooting, a wonderful time driving through the beautiful Adirondacks, and an educating time seeing the behind the scenes of production. I have already been assigned to the semifinal tomorrow night. I am also covering Kristian's 1st round playoff game on Saturday.

If you are interested in viewing my shots go to NorthCountrySports.net

Here is an unrelated photo to share with you...