Tooting my own horn

I started shooting fall sports the last week in August. I was extremely nervous, as many of you know I am not a sports fan or player of anysort. So, I had no idea what to expect. In highschool I went to the football game, but never actually watched it. And volleyball...well let's just say I never played that either. Tennis, just "played" in phy ed, but never really understood or cared to understand it. Well it has now come back to bite me. Who would have thought that the most unathletic person on earth would be shooting sports pictures for the paper. Now seriously, I love my job. I like the challenge of getting the good shots, I think in part my lack of knowlege of these games helps because I have to always be alert. At least that is what I am telling myself:)

So, back to the first week of games. I was scheduled to shoot RHS volleyball on Tuesday and CF football on Friday. I walked into each of these totally clueless about the game, let alone knowing how or what to shoot. Volleyball went ok. I got some decent shots. It is really hard to follow that little ball with the viewfinder on my camera. But I managed to get decent shots. Then Friday...I called Andrea (Old photographer for the paper) and asked her for some pointers. Well, she came up (from plainview) and shot the game with me. Gave me pointers, showed me where to stand and so on.

Everyone knows that I procrastinate like no one else. I didn't look at the pictures until Sunday night. Here's my thought...Why look at them right away. There is nothing I can do to change what is in the camera. So, if there are bad pictures in there they will be there on Sunday night too. Right??? Why ruin my weekend dwelling on pictures that suck. There has been one time that I was nervous about handing in my pictures, so its not like a common occurance. Still every week I procrastinate until the last minute.

Anyway, Back to the Football game...Sunday night I went through them. They were good. I actually impressed myself! I am taking a workshop class at school this semester. Basically the student gets to choose what they want to study and their intended outcome at the end of the semester. So, my instructor and I decided that I should use my time for sports photography. Hey, why not work and do homework at the same time? Two birds one stone. So, I have to show him my work as well as type up a journal and such. I pulled up the pictures on the computer at school and showed him, he was impressed too. He is trying to help me work the sports thing into my photo business. Like offering to shoot the kid at their ballgame along with senior pictures. He has also suggested going on my own time to some of the ballgames then selling my shots on my own website to the kids or their parents. Good ideas I am working on implementing all of them.

The paper then came out that following Wednesday. I had 4 pictures in Color, 1 in Black and White. (very rarely is anything in color) The pictures took up one whole page. I was so excited.

Here are the shots that were in the paper...