I Am A Moron

Hi, I'm Mike and I'm a moron. See the guy in the image below? That was how I felt last month when one of my hard drives began to act up and was making funny noises. No problem, thought I. I'll eject it, unplug it, plug it back in, and go from there.

Bad move. When I plugged it back in, all it would do was make clicking, whirring noises and my Mac would not recognize its existence.

I panicked. This was the 3TB hard drive that had all of my images from this past year. Everything. All the RAW images, processed JPG's, TIFF files for making large prints.  All the hours and hours of images from my telescope's CCD camera. Every Florida State football game with thousands and thousands of game images including the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, every men's basketball game, every women's basketball, the entire FSU baseball season, volleyball, soccer. All of my images from Madrid and Barcelona. Studio photo shoots.

Could this really be happening? Over an entire year of work gone from one minute to the next?

I called every local computer place in town. Nobody could help as none of them have a clean room in which to assess the situation and perform data recovery. Finally, I found a data recovery place with great reviews. I contacted them and shipped the drive off that morning. I felt better. They would surely be able to help me. I figured even if there was some damage to the drive they would be able to recover most of the images.

So I waited. They called back after a week. The drive needed new parts. They would install them so they could get it running and then perform a ghost image of the contents to see if any data was recoverable. Progress, I thought.

Time passed. I had heard nothing. Then I got a call - the drive was running and the ghost image was 85% finished. They still couldn't tell me if any data would be recovered but I was certain it would all turn out OK.

Until yesterday. That's when I got the email. No data was recoverable. They were very sorry and were returning the drive. It should make a nice desktop paperweight. And a vivid reminder of what a moron I am.

The reason I'm a moron is because I was lazy. As I was downloading cards to the hard drive and processing away I was not backing up the images on a second drive. The same goes for a couple of other hard drives that I had never gotten around to backing up. I told myself that I would eventually get around to backing all of them up but I just never got around to it. How stupid was that?

The lesson has been learned. Very painfully, but it has been learned. I've gone back and made sure every hard drive is backed up.

But, everything I've done for the last year or more is gone. Well, most of it. I will be able to retrieve all the Florida State sports images I turned in to a client that has them all in the cloud. That will get me all of the processed game JPG's for FSU football, basketball, etc. I can go to Facebook, Google+ and my website and copy/save all the photos I uploaded into galleries on those sites but those will all be 72dpi, 1600 pixel on the along end, watermarked images that will never make any kind of print. But at least it's something.

If you have never backed up your images, don't be a moron like me. Go out, pick up one or two drives and back everything up. When you least expect it, a hard drive failure can wipe out all of your work in one fell swoop.

Friday Was A Sad Day...

I'm sad... shocked...surprised. Last Friday, while seeing what was up on Facebook, I saw this:

I couldn't believe my eyes. I had just spent the past few weeks working with one of the Kelby guys on an article that was to be published in this month's Photoshop User Magazine. The week of Pete's post I was alerted that the issue was finalized and would be out. No sooner was the issue out - WHAM! I read that Pete, RC, and others at KelbyOne were being let go due to financial/business issues.

My first thought was to call Scott, knowing how difficult it must have been for him to do what was apparently necessary. I've known Scott for almost ten years having met him through his brother, Jeff, and then building a friendship that I value dearly. I can honestly say that I have met very few people like Scott. He is one of the warmest, kindest, most generous persons I know. I also know how much he loves what he built at KelbyOne and the people he was able to bring together under one roof. There was more talent and creativity in Scott's fold than in any other place I know, and Scott relished being with these people. The Kelby workplace was as close to nirvana as you could get. There was an atmosphere like no other, where everyone seemed to love being there and working with each other.

That's why it was sad to read about the changes that were announced last Friday. And I know how difficult it must have been for Scott to do what was done. I also know that if there was any way he could have avoided doing what was done he would never have decided to let so many of his work family go. I suspect that from a purely financial perspective, the decision to cut staff was probably needed long before Friday but Scott just couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. I have no doubt he tried desperately to come up with ways that would avoid doing what was ultimately necessary to save the business.

The weeks leading up to last Friday had to be intolerable for Scott, knowing how the ultimate decision would affect not only his workplace but the people and families involved. So I didn't call Scott. I figured he had enough on his plate without being bothered by a call from me. I'm going to give it some time and maybe reach out to him after the dust settles a bit.

For now, I'll reminisce a bit about some of the folks with whom I developed friendships and who will be looking for greener pastures elsewhere.  

Pete Collins

I got to know Pete over the past few years after he came on board as Scott's Photoshop Guy. I remember meeting Pete shortly thereafter while I was visiting Scott's digs in Tampa. I instantly liked Pete - he didn't know me from a hole in the ground and within a matter of seconds we were busting each other's chops as if we had known each other for years.

I got to know Pete a lot better the following spring when I invited him to come over to Orlando and join me in shooting the Tavistock Cup golf match using one of my two assistant credentials. He met me at my hotel the morning of the first day's matches and we spent eight hours tromping around on the Isleworth golf course chasing after Tiger and the boys. 

Spending time with Pete at the various Photoshop Worlds was always a treat as was meeting his two sons when the Collins boys ran in a cross country meet in Tallahassee. Pete called to let me know he and the boys would be in town and we all met for dinner the day before the race. 

As I began dabbling with composites, Pete was never shy about critiquing my efforts. He would always let me know where they fell short and how to make them better. His insights were never provided in a condescending or negative manner; it was always in a constructive manner and right on point.

RC Concepcion

My brother from another mother, RC introduced me to HDR photography and taught me how to resist my inner Cuban gaudiness and overcome my innate need to oversaturate and over tone my HDR imagery. I learned more about HDR processing in one RC Photoshop World HDR class than I could have learned in years of fumbling, stumbling, and bumbling on my own.

For a long time, I tried to get RC to come visit me during new moon weekends at my observatory in Chiefland, Florida as I knew he would appreciate what me and my friends were doing in the world of astrophotography. RC and a friend of his finally came up to visit this past November. 

While he was there, RC had me pose inside my dome with my telescope and sent me the shot he got. I was glad that he enjoyed his visit so much that the following month he came back to Chiefland with his family in tow and camped out at a nearby state park.

Brad Moore 

What can I say about Brad, aka the Honey Badger. On four occasions, I've been a Guest Blogger on Scott's Photoshop Insider blog and Brad has patiently worked with me to get my posts up on the site.

Brad has been Scott's right hand, pack mule, set up guy, and invaluable assistant for a long, long time.

Brad came over to Orlando with Scott twice for some Tavistock Cup shooting with me. Just as with Pete, you really get to know someone when you spend hours and hours tromping around a golf course lugging forty pounds of photo equipment. Brad was no exception, never at a loss for the perfect comeback to anything thrown his way. I will miss Brad's wit, unflappable demeanor, and patience. 

Going forward...

All of the individuals mentioned above, and no doubt the others with whom my interactions were limited, are talented beyond words. I feel terrible for them and their families as they try to land on their feet somewhere without too much disruption in their lives. It will not be easy given the diminishing avenues in the world of photography but with what they bring to the table, doors will open for them.

In the meantime, my thoughts are also with Scott, his family, and KelbyOne. I am hopeful that the business difficulties currently being experienced are just a bump in the road. What Scott has done through NAPP, Kelby Media, and now KelbyOne has been a Godsend. Scott's has singlehandedly made photo processing, using Photoshop, and working with Lightroom, understandable to millions who would have otherwise been lost without his courses and videos. His ability to convey tips, tricks and methods for improving one's photography skills has been invaluable to many, many people. And the genius of bringing a lot of that together at his Photoshop Worlds is the perfect compliment of dispensing knowledge with fun.

Fingers crossed that with some time, all will be well for all concerned.

Moosing Around As The Weekend Approaches

It's Thursday and the work week is coming to an end. Here's a few things that come to mind as the weekend draws near....

Photography FUNdamentals - A Free Book By Moose Peterson

+Moose Peterson is one of the most gifted photographers I've run across as I've stumbled my way through photography over the years. I had a chance to finally meet the Big Guy in Orlando this spring at Photoshop World and attended a couple of his seminars. What a huge treat. On top of being a monster in the field of photography, he's one of the nicest, most affable people, you'd ever want to meet.

Moose specializes in wildlife, conservation and aviation photography but has an incredible grasp for all types of image creation. Always seeking to share his knowledge with others, Moose has come out with a free, downloadable iPad book called Photography FUNdamentals, intended for beginners and experienced photographers alike, that covers all the basics of photography. The idea behind the book is to walk you through the minefield of photography so stuff like depth of field, exposure, composition, and other key elements to creating a Moose-like image becomes second nature. Once you no longer have to think about these things, image creation becomes much easier as you can concentrate on bringing your imagination to life instead of techie stuff.

Here's a short YouTube video that contains the details on how to take advantage of this wonderful tutorial for photography. 

Prints For FSU Head Basketball Coach Leonard Hamilton's Home

Yesterday morning, the phone rang and I picked up. It was FSU basketball coach Leonard Hamilton's administrative assistant wondering if I had a moment to speak with Coach Hamilton. Uhhhhh, yeah. The call was to inquire as to whether I could put together 4-5 thumbnail images of each returning FSU basketball player from which he would select one for each player. Coach Hamilton then wanted to know if I could make 24" X 30" prints of each one so they could be framed and hung in his home.

No problem, said I. It would be an honor to have my images gracing the walls of the Hamilton household. I've scoured through the hard drives and picked out 53 images of the ten  returning players. They have been reduced to thumbnails and e-mailed to Coach Hamilton's staff. As soon as I am notified of the selected file numbers, I will be re-processing the images,  enlarging them to 24" X30", and making the prints.

Photoshop World in Las Vegas??? Dare I go?

I've been invited to attend Photoshop World at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas this coming September as a guest of Messr. Scott Kelby. The shootin' would start on Tuesday, September 3 as Scott has set me up with Moose Peterson's Pre-con workshop, a 7-hour Photo Safari with Moose. Seminars then run all day Wednesday, Thursday and part of Friday with the always-much-anticipated after party on Wednesday night  and lots of other activities during non-seminar hours. I had a blast at PSW in Orlando this past spring and would love to make the trek out to Vegas for this one. Hoping I can figure out some way to make it.

Hoping To Get The Green Light For A Warbird Shoot This Weekend

Heading down to East Central Florida this weekend to visit two of my favorite ladies (the Moms - Mama O and Mom-in-Law) and am hoping to nail down access to some aircraft I would love to shoot. The site has a bunch of historic and just mega-cool planes and I am drooling at the thought of being able to set up some lighting gear and shoot the daylights out of some planes.

I've gone through the list of aircraft and after a lot of hand wringing, I've decided that if given access, the three planes I will concentrate on (for now) are the C-47 Skytrain (above, L), the B-25J Mitchell (above, R) and the ME208 Messerschmidt (below).

The C-47 was instrumental in the Normandy invasion during WWII and about as iconic an aircraft as you get. The B-25J Mitchell was used to bomb Japan shortly after Pearl Harbor to serve notice that the U.S. would not go down without a fight. The ME208 (actually a Nord Noralpha painted to represent an ME208) is just a a very cool mid 1930's to 1940's aircraft that set all kinds of endurance records in its day.

It would be a sweet birthday present to have a chance to go crazy on these planes and I'm hoping everything will work out.

Ciao.

It's Friday, And Life Is Good

I received an unexpected contact from one of the Orange Bowl's Vice Presidents inquiring as to an image I took during the trophy presentation at the 2013 Orange Bowl. The image (above) depicts FSU's Coach Jimbo Fisher's son Ethan holding up one of the oranges from the OB trophy while on the podium.The Orange Bowl's President was hoping to present an 11X14 framed print of the image to Coach Jimbo Fisher as a memento of the game. I re-processed the image last night to make sure it was worthy of such a print and it is now on its way to Miami.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Indiana rolls into town for a three game series against Florida State in an NCAA Baseball Super Regional contest to determine which team advances to the College World Series. Tropical Storm Andrea has passed but the weekend forecast includes good chances of afternoon and evening showers, which would translate to probable rain delays during the games. Yuck. Rain delays make for loooooong days at the Stadium. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates.

I will be the team photographer for the Hoosiers which will give me a great opportunity to put the new/used 600mm f4 to the test. Since all games are slated to be day games (noon start tomorrow, 1:00 pm on Sunday, and 1;00 pm Monday if a third game is necessary), I'm thinking of putting the 600mm on a D3S and the 200-400mm f4 on the other D3S which would give me the focal ranges that should cover the action. For art shots, I'll either slap my 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 on the D300 or use my new...

The New Addition - Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR

I am replacing my trusty 80-200mm f2.8 with a used 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR lens after years of slinging the 80-200mm around my neck. It was time to put the old girl out to pasture with a newer version that should focus faster while giving me the same (or better) sharpness that the 80-200mm has always given me. I should have the new addition in my hot little hands this evening.

From Really Cool Cars To .... Really Cool Aircraft?

All aircraft photos courtesy of Valiant Air Command

I'm in the process of making arrangements to have access to an incredible collection of amazing aircraft for photo shoots. I'm supposed to hear back soon but if things work out, I will be able to photograph some drool-inducing stuff, including Migs, a B-25 Mitchell, a C-47 Skytrain, a Messerschmidt, Sabre, Tomcat, A-6, etc etc. This would be a personal project similar to the one I've recently undertaken involving cars, shooting as the opportunities come along. The location is out of town, near my mom's home, so I would shoot on trips down to visit her. Yet another reason to have my fingers crossed as I wait for the facility's board to approve my request.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

NCAA Tabs My Image As The Background For Its Baseball Regional Marketing Campaign

The last thing I expected to see this morning when surfing the web was one of my images gracing the background of the NCAA's marketing literature of the baseball Regional about to start this weekend in Tallahassee. This was an HDR image I created a couple of years ago during a Florida v FSU game, shooting several images at different exposures from up high in the stands behind first base. I took the shots and created the image for Unconquered Magazine as part of my duties as Featured Photographer for the publication. As an afterthought, I transmitted the image to FSU's Sports Information Department, another entity for which I shoot, as I know they can always use art shots of the stadium. I always though tit was a cool image, and it's nice to see that the NCAA thought enough of it to use it in marketing the event.

Busy Weekend Ahead

As the weekend arrives, it looks like my plate is going to potentially be full with baseball. I was hired by Troy University to shoot the team's opening game today at noon in the NCAA Regional and I'm shooting for Florida State tomorrow. If Troy is still alive after Saturday, looks like I'll be shooting for them on Sunday and then on Monday (if a Monday game is necessary) unless their opponent is FSU. In that case, I will be shooting for FSU. Any way you cut it, I have a lot of baseball to shoot this weekend.

NCAA Regional Coaches' Press Conference

Yesterday, I photographed the pre-tournament press conference for FSU's Sports Information Department. A last minute, hastily arranged shot-list assignments was an image of the four coaches together in front of the podium. FSU's SI Department wanted to make a print of the image for each of the coaches as a memento of their participation in the Regional Tournament and I was asked if I could pull off something that would be worthy of a print. Thankfully, I had thought to bring my new, trusty Oli-Bounce flash bounce card that I made a few days ago from a piece of foam core. I devoted a recent Blog Post to this thing, singing its praises as a great , inexpensive way to light subjects on the go when using a camera mounted strobe. In a matter of seconds, the Oli-Bounce was attached to my SB-900 strobe, badda boom, badda bing, hello printable image of the coaches.

No shadows, no glare, just a nice, decently lit shot of the coaches taken with a Nikon D3s, 35-70mm f2.8 lens @ f8, ISO 400 and 1/60th second shutter speed.

By the way, the Oli-Bounce also worked wonders when used with an 80-200mm f2.8 lens as well. Both images above were shot at 200mm, and the same camera settings as the first image. The glare you see in the second photo above (just above the NCAA logo) was not caused by my flash. It was a reflection of the lights used by local TV stations who were shooting video of the press conference.

The Oli-Bounce - putting the bounce in bounce flash.

Have a great weekend, all.

Blog Refresh

With the website redesign done, finis, kaput, I thought it was time to give the ol' Blog a little revamp as well. Unfortunately, my Blog has suffered for years from the same affliction as my website - a bad case of Cuban gaudiness. I've changed the look as time has passed, toning it down little by little, but the one thing that remained constant (and the epitome of dingle balls around the headliner) was the Blog heading. You'd think that someone with a reasonable amount of artistic creativity could come up with a tasteful, appropriate Blog heading but for years this was a hurdle I just couldn't overcome.

Well, I've taken another stab at it. Yesterday, I replaced the old Blog heading with a new version. I used the same camera sketch that I used in the website logo to have some kind of continuity from the website to the Blog. I've changed the name of the Blog from BaselineShots Photography Blog to something that I thought incorporated a sports theme into the title. "In the Huddle" also connotes that we're all in it together, with information being passed along to the group, which is what I try to do with my Blog posts/ramblings.

Since I was going with a huddle theme, I searched through the drives to find an image of a huddle. After finding several of various teams huddling up, I noticed the one I ended up using. It has been one of my favorite Bobby Bowden images for a long time and it kind of fit the theme so I opted to go with it instead of the conventional huddle versions.

I'm happy with the new heading and time will tell if it is a keeper or just another step in the evolution of the header.

Double Duty This Weekend

Looks like I will be a Troy Trojan, at least part of the time this coming weekend. Troy's SID called back yesterday and hired me to shoot the Trojans first NCAA Baseball Regional game at noon on Friday. Since I will be shooting for Florida State on Saturday, he was afraid to hire me to shoot their Saturday game because FSU and Troy could end up playing each other Saturday depending on the outcome of the two teams' opening day games. But, he would like for me to be available to shoot any games in which Troy does not play against FSU so it's going to be a busy weekend of shooting and processing at the stadium. The extra cash from the Troy gig will hopefully get me a couple more used SB-800 strobes to add to the hot shoe flash gear.

In the OOPS Department....

The two 13"X56" strip softboxes from ePhoto in California finally arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to rip the box open and assemble them. These will be going into the studio since they have grids and the two I currently have don't have grids. The new gridded ones are more versatile for studio use, giving me the option of tightening up the light given off by attaching the egg crate grid.

Once I ordered the new ones, the two that I've had in the studio (which had Photogenic speed rings) were earmarked for the portable lighting kit. Actually, one of them has already been in use with the hot shoe strobes - during the shoot of Bill Elliott's NASCAR stock cars this past weekend - since I had an extra Bogen speed ring on hand. I simply replaced the Photogenic ring with the Bogen ring and wham, bam, ready for use with my hot shoe strobes. As you can see from the image above, the flash brackets that are used to mount a strobe and light modifier require a Bogen style speed ring but because I didn't have another  Bogen speed ring on hand, the second box wasn't ready for prime time yet.

The new softboxes came with Bogen mount speed rings.  My plan was to wait for their arrival, take the Photogenic speed ring off the second strip softbox, use it and the one I had already removed with the new boxes so I could mount them on my Photogenic monolights, and then use the new Bogen speed ring on the second, old strip box. Make sense? But then came the fly in the ointment - the *^#!@*%$$#! (please choose your choice of derogatory description)  who shipped my new softboxes shipped me two softboxes with some kind of strange speed rings I've never seen before but which aren't Bogens.

After a call to ePhoto explaining what happened, a much embarrassed individual assured me that two Bogen speed rings would be shipped out immediately using overnight delivery. Hopefully he did what he promised and the Bogen rings will be here today.

On the good news front, the 16" beauty dish and the 40"X58" reflector panel/mount arrived yesterday as well. For now, that completes my portable lighting gear acquisition since (other than possibly adding a couple more SB-800's) I have just about everything I feel I need.

Well, almost.

My birthday is this month and I'm hoping that between spousal unit, my maternal unit, my maternal unit via marriage, and my offspring units, a few additions for the kit will be in the cards. I've subtly mentioned that some used Nikon SB-26 strobes ($75 - $100 at KEH) would make great birthday presents (the SB-26 has a Guide Number of 135, has a built in slave sensor, and makes a great, inexpensive strobe to use in Manual Mode), as would a couple of used light stands ($39 at KEH). Oh, and in case any family unit members are reading this, I sure could use a used Minolta VF flash meter ($150 at KEH) to have in the portable kit since I'm familiar with this meter - it's the one I use in the studio. Hint, hint.

Workin' For The Weekend

My potential first guinea pig - my Hummer H2

It's Friday and life is good. The new Star Trek flick opened this week and it's a definite on the weekend agenda. Now that the new website is almost finished, it's time to actually get back to shooting. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm a gnat's eyelash close to starting on a personal photo project I've been wanting to do for a while - detail shots of vintage, rare, Elvis-cool cars. I've been prepping for this by watching the videos on +KelbyTraining.com on shooting cars as I've never photographed cars (at least not the way I want to do it). I always find that when I've never done a certain kind of photography, +Scott Kelby's videos serve as a good platform from which to gain a basic understanding of what to do (and not do).

Capital Eurocars Porsche dealership

I've done a couple of commercial shoots for auto dealerships but the focus was on the facilities and not so much anything fancy-schmancy with the cars. Now it's time to take the leap into detail shots of these babies - emblems, grills, tail lights, wheels, anything that is distinctive about the vehicle.

My other potential guinea pig - my 911 Carerra Cabriolet

In addition to watching the videos, I've accumulated and organized portable lighting equipment so I can get the shots that I'm seeing in my head. I'll walk you through the lighting equipment and actual setups in a different post, but for now, I've pretty much got everything I need to tackle the job. Primarily, I will be using strip softboxes, hot shoe flashes and a commander unit to trigger the flashes. For most of the shots, one small strip softbox will be all need but for some shots I may use two small strip boxes or maybe two larger ones that I have in the studio. Another light modifier that may get some use for full shots of the rear end or front end is my new Westcott 7' shoot through parabolic umbrella.

Photos courtesy of Tallahassee Antique Car Museum

Before I finalize the details of when I can shoot a collection of some 100 rare, vintage cars (a Tucker, a couple of Batmobiles, and all manner of drop dead gorgeous, perfectly restored cars from early classics to muscle cars to sports cars), I figured I'd better get my feet a little wet and get some hands-on experience with the lighting and setup for the shots I want to get. It's one thing to watch videos but an entirely different thing to actually shoot something yourself. If and when I head to the location to do the shoot, I don't want to waste time inventing the wheel.

So, this weekend I'm going to take a few practice swings with a couple of my own cars which are somewhat cool in their own respect. I haven't decided which of the two I am going to use as my guinea pig (and I may shoot both, what the heck) but I will hopefully work out all the kinks and gain a lot of valuable knowledge from the exercise.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Saturday afternoon I'll be at Dick Howser Stadium for Florida State's final home game of the season. It's Senior Day and I've just gotten the assignment to shoot the game. Senior Day means not only getting the usual array of action shots during the game, but photos of the Seniors as they're recognized for their time at FSU. Lots of pageantry shots, players with parents pre-game, and trying to capture the emotion of the Seniors as they wrap up their careers s Seminloles.

Other than that, I'm ready for the weekend to begin. I was hoping that i would be able to retire from the practice of law after Wednesday's Power Ball lottery drawing ($390 Million and counting, enough to build me one boom-shacka-lacka photo studio and kick back) but the Force just wasn't with me and I didn't win. On the up side, neither did anyone else, so the jackpot is now over $550 Million and hopefully it will be mine tomorrow. If I don't post anything on Monday, it's because I'm off to Alaska, Australia, the Galapagos Islands, Machu Pichu, and who knows where else I'll go if I hit the big one.

Cheers.

Just Call Me Hemingway

So I'm sitting at the office yesterday, still laboring on the new website. The process of pouring through images, processing promising ones, uploading some, and deleting others is not complete yet but I am definitely seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Anyway, while at the computer, I'm alerted to an e-mail that, ironically enough, was sent through the contact page on the new website. So much for having second thoughts about launching the new website after terminating my account with Wix, even though it wasn't finished.

The e-mail was from the managing editor of Photoshop User magazine inquiring as to whether I would be interested in writing a 4-5 page article (with images) on the photography aspects of shooting youth sports for the magazine's September issue. The focus of the issue is going to be all the ins and outs of youth sports imagery with in depth, instructional articles on Photoshop techniques that will make these kinds of images sing. For the one and only "photography" article included in the issue, he needed someone to write about the actual photography aspects of shooting sports.

Little League, Pop Warner and youth soccer leagues are everywhere and there is quite the market out there for photographers who are industrious enough to set themselves up with local leagues and photograph all the budding A-Rods, Ronaldos and RG IIIs for trading cards and portrait packages. That doesn't begin to take into account all the high school programs out there which are ripe opportunities as well. This kind of sports photography might not be as hoity toity as shooting NFL games but it can sure pad the ol' wallet with buckeroos.

I called the editor to learn more about the assignment, stressing that I have only shot a couple of high school football games in my time, and only because it was my female offspring unit's school. I was supposed to help out a friend a few weeks ago, to help her shoot a number of Little League teams for portraits and trading cards but it never happened. However, shooting youth sports is really no different than shooting college or pro sports as the same things that make for a good action image on one level is the same for any other level. Moreover, since I have some studio photography experience, I felt I could walk readers through some basic portable lighting ideas that would generate good portraits for photo packages and trading cards.

No problem, he said. He had taken a look at the sports images on my website (reason #2 that makes me glad I launched the site Monday) and felt that my sports photography background would more than serve as a basis from which to write the article. He had not thought about the lighting aspects or portraiture as a part of the article and thought that would be a great addition. So, I've been hired to write the article and look forward to being published for the first time in something other than a Blog.

As The Website World Turns...

Still finding the occasional diamond in the rough by going through more hard drives, like the image above from a trip to Yellowstone. It's funny how easy it is to forget images that were taken and transferred to hard drives but never processed. I think this one will make a nice addition to my landscape portfolio, as will the image below which I found in the Yellowstone folder too.

I also completely forgot about several black & white processed images from Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Tetons and other Western U.S. National Parks that I may use, in conjunction with others that are already on the site, to create a separate Project gallery of images from the Western United States. Many of the images were part of a 6-week exhibit I  had at the local airport back in 2011 and I'm thinking that they should be back together again in one gallery. Here are a few of the ones that I am thinking about including.

Time permitting and if all goes well, I should be finished with the website this week and in between sports photo assignments, I can move on to something I've been itching to do for a long time...a photo project involving detail shots of classic, antique cars. I may have just gotten access to hundreds of vintage, rare cars to photograph and if things work out, I am going to be like a kid in a candy store. More on that to come.