I shot some lit sportzraits today of the baseball player of the year. I'm feeling WAY more comfortable lighting subjects and talking them through portraits and all that jazz. Used to make me shudder. Today I had a plan, executed it, and covered all my bases. (GET IT YOU GUYS, LIKE SPORTS.) But at the end, as the light was fading, I asked if I could take just one photo without lights. I just wanted to take it. It won't run, and it doesn't have a place, so I'm giving it one here. I'll post the other portraits after they run. Here's a so-so portrait I want to survive on the internet somewhere for some reason.

It's been busy here at the herald. Been pretty much just two of us on staff for the past month or two. Just one more to go and we'll be back and fully staffed. There have been some rough days and some great ones. Working on snapping out of a bit of photo funk. It's easy as a daily shooter to get into the routine and shoot to get everything in and get out the door so you can come back and do it again tomorrow. You have to battle that. I want to work on getting closer to my subjects, in both a mental and filling the frame sort of way. I wonder if the mentality of getting in and getting out lends to not feeling connected to a particular assignment, making for distant pictures? Just a thought. Hopefully soon I can find something a bit deeper I can connect to and get close to, with my eyes and heart. 

I think baseball is hard. Especially hard. I don't really like shooting it. I don't know the game all that well, and it's just difficult. Yesterday though, I think I started to 'get it.' My hardest time with some assignments like this is to really, really focus and give it full attention. I know that sounds terrible, but the sooner I admit it, the sooner I can work on getting my head around that block and making better pictures. 

After a less than great week in and out of work, it felt really good to focus in on shooting and just do it. It's nice to always be able to fall back on your camera. Even if you're overwhelmed with taxes, things at home and all those little things that wear you down, you can always focus in and control how you shoot. It felt good to exercise that yesterday.

Now I have more action and stuff to fill out a gallery on my computer, but a friend of mine told me that a previous staffer here at the Herald shot every single prep baseball game like a portfolio, so I wanted to work on that. Try to see a bit different and not focus solely on covering my ass for web and print. 

Here are some features and an action shot or two from yesterday.

Thanks for looking,

Grant