One Game at a Time

All week I've been looking for a game to use my 400mm, and tonight I got that game.

Earlier in the week I shot the Maryland Terrapins during Media Day, and that was a lot of fun. I covered it using my 70-200mm and my D2H. The shots came out very well. I've really sped up my post-processing speed by using Aperture and adding a second screen to my laptop.

I hate the Windows so I use the Linux and the Mac OSX for work and pleasure. I encourage everyone to take a look at Linux and OSX for their development, professional, and personal workflows. Recently I added a 22" Acer LCD that I purchased from NewEgg for a cool $220. Going up to a 24" more than doubles the cost, so a 22" is a nice sweet little price point.

The screen has a DVI interface and a 400:1 contrast ratio. The brightness is like 3000:1 and it looks great. It's brighter than the glossy LCD on my MacBook Pro, and I do most of my photo editing (post processing) on the LCD and use my MacBook's display for shells, emacs, and other non-graphical applications. I highly encourage anyone doing photo editing to add a second screen because it greatly increases your productivity in post processing.

When posting images up to this blog I used to have go go back and forth between Preview (the picture viewer in OSX) and Firefox using Expose's "All Windows" magic. It was better than Window's solution, but it was still slow. Adding the second LCD I can land my browser on my MacBook Pro's screen and my photos on my LCD. It's then extremely easy to go back and forth between the two. I personally can't think of any photographic equipment these days that costs less than $220, so this LCD is a great deal in my opinion.

The only problem I've had with the LCD is the white balance. I've noticed that the whites on the LCD are definitely more neon-like brighter. That's made me think about the accuracy of displays, and I intend to look into calibration software that I can use to get my MacBook Pro and Acer LCD in sync with respect to white balance. My photos on the MacBook Pro look dark but they look great on my LCD. Likewise, if I adjust brightness when I'm viewing my photos on my LCD they look really bright (kind of washed out) when I look at them on the LCD (and on other LCDs).

I've also been spending a lot of time going back through old photo albums and pruning the "bad" photos. One of the nice things about being technically savy is that it allows me to feed my in born pack-rat tendencies. I hate physical clutter, and digital clutter gets to me too. But organized digital content is the sweet spot. In the past I've dumped ALL of my photos into a directory, even tho most of them are not properly framed, are kind of off with respect to lighting, or maybe a tad out of focus.

I've been shooting a lot of events, and with DSLRs you can create a lot of content pretty quickly. So I've learned about the whole post-processing aspect of digital photography and I now apply post processing to each event I cover. But my post processing in the past simply consisted of me rotating images by hand and deleting the completely out-of-focus. I've quickly chewed up disk space on my fileserver with this strategy and I'm now working on correcting that.

Over on www.bluncksports.com I'm posting my albums for all my games. As I cover a new event I post it over on the bluncksports.com gallery. During off days I'm going back through my photos I shot this spring of Maryland events and posting them. That's occupying a lot of time!

Moving 1.5GB of photos from my fileserver to my laptop takes a bit, and then the disk IO to pull those images into memory takes awhile as well. Sifting through them, cropping, and resaving them takes time too. Fortunately I've gotten through all of the basketball and I'm almost through lacrosse. Then I'll have baseball and softball and I'll hopefully be finished.

A few weeks ago I ordered a ThinkTank Airport International from my local Penn Camera office. I debated the International vs Security but in the end I went with the International. I gave up a little space, but I saved about 10% on the bag because I didn't feel like I needed the extra "security" that the security model provided.

I bought the bag because my current bag was just a small over-the-shoulder style Nikon bag that barely fit my 70-200mm lens. I bought a 400mm/f2.8 lens as well as a D2H body and there's no way I could fit 2 bodies in the original bag. Additionally, the 400mm/f2.8 lens costs several thousands of dollars and I don't want to break it because I'm carrying it around unprotected. I was happy that my bag arrived this week from overseas and I moved all of my gear into the bag.

I still have a little room to grow, but not a whole lot. I'm not very concerned though because I feel like I have 90% of all the gear I'll need for a long time. I currently own a D200, D2H, 70-200mm/f2.8, 400mm/f2.8, 50mm/f1.8, and 2X TC. The only lens I plan on purchasing in the near future is an 18-55mm/f2.8 DX and there's room in the bag for that lens. I also am considering selling my 2X TC now that I own the 400mm/f2.8 and that will free up some space.

With my new bag, new lens, and new D2H body in hand I was looking forward to my shoot tonight. I had my season credential in hand and with the photo bag I walked right past security without any problem at all. It was so nice having that bag. When I wore the bag over my shoulder I was always afraid I'd bend over to the side and the strap would slide off my shoulder. Or I was afraid that when I walked past a door frame I would catch the bag on the frame somehow and screw up a lens inside. With the bag rolling behind me and my lenses between 1" of solid insulation I felt so safe and protected. That bag was so worth the purchase!

I headed to the media room and pulled out the D2H and the 400mm lens and assembled it onto my monopod. I debated pairing my D200 with the 70-200mm lens and carrying that on a strap on my shoulder but decided against it. The 400mm lens is remarkably heavy and large even though it is AF-S. Since it was my first time out with it I decided not to press my luck. I left the D200 and 70-200mm lens up in the media room and headed down to the seats to take some pictures.

The first thing that struck me was how powerful 400mm is on a DX sensor. DX sensors have a built in 1.5X crop, and that turns my 400mm lens into a 600mm lens (albeit through cropping). Standing up in the stands my subjects at home plate completely filled my frame. It was really odd not being able to zoom out.

It was also the first time I felt "too close" to the action. Most of the time that I'm feeling too-something it's "too-far". But tonight I was "too close" for a few shots. My shots from 3rd base of the batter didn't allow me to see the catcher at all. That's ok but it took a little bit of adjustment.

One comment Al made earlier this week really resonated with me tonight: shoot from far up. He showed me a few photos he took of the Nationals earlier last week from in the 400 sections using his 400mm and they look really good. At that range he's far enough way that he gets the batter in the frame as well as some space around the batter. It's truly remarkable how powerful a 400mm lens is.

I shot the entire game using the D2H and 400mm lens. I started out at ISO 200 and aperture priority mode with group weighted continuous autofocus. The shots looked decent on the LCD, but since it's an old camera it's a little difficult to tell sometimes. I trust my equipment and myself so I'm sure the photos will come out alright.

I also saw Bob again at the game. Bob sits down in the front row and takes notes during the game. He's a true baseball fan and attends almost every game. During the last game he and I chatted while I shot next to his position. He owns an 18-200mm/f4-f5.6 VR lens and a D70 and we compared a lot of notes and techniques. It was good to see him again.

I also met another gentleman named Mark. Mark's a Canon shooter but he's considering switching to Nikon. He rented a D200 and a 70-200mm lens from lensrentals.com and was giving it a shot tonight. I told him about my experience on that body and lens and he was excited about it. If he switches he'll be the first person I know to go from Canon to Nikon. He currently has an EOS-1D and an 80-200mm/f2.8 IS lens.

Towards the end of the game I was up at 1600 ISO and my meter was telling me that 1/250th of a second was needed to properly expose the image. Since the D2H taps out at 1600 I decided to pack it in and head home. It was a great day, and I wanted to go home to catch up with my wife (she got some good medical news today!)

From the first time I started shooting sports a goal of mine has been to cover University of Maryland sports.

Collegiate sports is extremely exciting. There aren't multi-million dollar trade deals, nor is there corporate sponsorship of individual players. There is strict drug testing at the collegiate level, and in this day and age I'm not convinced that the pros have any drug testing at all! Collegiate sports is strictly about competition, pride, and winning. I don't get that sense from professional sports.

I'm not trying to be down on professional sports. But in my opinion they take a back seat to the NCAA from a competition standpoint. It's great to shoot a professional sporting event. All the athletes are ... well ... professionals. But it lacks the same excitement that comes from seeing a freshman whiteout break away from a senior defender and score a touchdown and begin his college athletic career. When you're a professional there's an expectation that you're going to come out every night and score 30 points, a touchdown, or kick the winning goal. When you're at the college level you could end up losing your scholarship.

When athletes come to college they're children. Most have never lived on their own, and for many of these kids the coach becomes the parental influence for (hopefully) the next 4 years. A coach that looks at a recruit and judges their character on and off the playing court builds a strong program. Ralph Friedgen of the Maryland Terrapins embodies that characteristic.

Ralph takes a "personal interest" (note: this is not always positive!) in his players, inviting them over to the Friendgen household for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners when they cannot make it home to be with Family. Seeing the Maryland Football program come back together in August after a 7 month hiatus is like watching a family reunion.

Today the Maryland Gridiron assembled at Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium and suited up for Media Day. I'm new to this event, and I arrived at the field not expecting the players to be present. It was my understanding from Al that this was a meeting between the media and the media relations personnel in the Football program.

We were attending because we'd like to cover Maryland Football this Fall and wanted to put our best foot forward and meet the media relations people during the summer when things are relatively calm and quiet. When the Fall comes and we start submitting credential requests we'd like for them to be able to associate a name with a face along with a set of photos and articles.

I was very excited to see the team down on the field in the Maryland Red and Black uniforms. Several photographers (probably 10 of them) were snapping up photos of the various players for their file vaults. The coaches had the teams divided into groups based on a system that used states. Maryland, DC, and Virginia were in one location, while New Jersey and New York were in another location. These divisions fueled some playful rivalries between the players, with taunts being lobbed between groups followed by laughter, smiles, and additional taunts.

I believe the purpose of this event was to let Greg Fiume (the official Maryland photographer) shoot each player individually as well as take photos of the various offensive and defensive teams. Each year Maryland puts out several publications that are packed with photos from Greg, and I'm sure that many of them will mostly come from today's shoot. It was good to see Greg down on the field, and he said hello to me when I arrived.

When I arrived on the field I was without camera and was in jeans and a polo shirt. Since I wasn't aware that this would be a photo opportunity I left my camera at home (I'm going to stop doing that!). It took me about 3 minutes to realize that I needed toleave the stadium immediately to head home and grab my camera. I raced to my car, out the garage, and was home in under 5 minutes.

By the time I came back Al had arrived and was shooting some photos with his Canon equipment. The field was an oven. Being so deep in the group relative to the rest of the landscape there was little to no wind. There was also an enormous amount of sun reflected off of the stands and the field. It was also abnormally humid today. The heat index this afternoon hit 106 degrees. Fortunately I changed into shorts while at home, but I still sweated away a good 5lbs of water while down on the field. The ice cold water the team provided was unbelievably refreshing!

I managed to capture over 80 great shots of the players in various poses and candid situations. It was a great atmosphere because the players were excited to be in uniform and were really getting up for the photographers. The athletes make the photos, and all the photographer does is make sure the settings on the camera are correct to capture the moment. If your subjects aren't offering any emotion or energy there's very little you can do to make a good photo out of the environment.

On the other hand, if your subjects are energized, excited, smiling, laughing, interacting with one another (as well as the photographers), and having a good time it's difficult to take a bad picture. Today the field at Byrd Stadium was a breeding ground for photographic opportunities, and it was so exciting to be a part of it.

My wife and I are benefactors to the Maryland Gridiron Network (a booster organization for the Maryland Football program), as well as pretty substantial contributors to the Terrapin Club (a scholarship program for student athletes). We've been donating since Julie graduated in 1999, and in 8 years I haven't felt as connected to the athletic program as I did on the field today at Byrd stadium. The players were interacting with the photographers, getting their names, and looking at their photos. Several asked me if I could email them copies of the photos.

I shot everything using the D2H and my 70-200/f2.8 lens. I could have used an 18-55 lens though because a lot of these players are large. One offensive lineman I met is 6' 9" and weighs in at a mind boggling 310lbs. I'm sure I could take him though...

It was strange being on the field today. For years I've been in the spectator role and have met the coaching staff as an MGN member. I've attended dozens of events before and after games, during the offseason, and have traveled to bowl games. I'm good friends with Ralph's wife Gloria, and it's fun being a spectator. But today I was on the field as a photographer and it was a very different sensation. I wanted to say hello to coach Sallazo and some other coaches I've talked with but I didn't know what boundaries I had to respect.

I'm still learning the ropes in terms of what's appropriate and what's inappropriate behavior from a photographer. As a result I'm playing it safe and avoiding making personal conversation with some of the staff until I hear from Al (or Greg) that these types of conversations are acceptable when you're covering an event. I did manage to see Fabian (a coordinator for the MGN), and he came up to me to say hello. That makes me think that it's ok to chit-chat with people you know personally during one of these events. I'm still going to play it safe and let the coaching staff approach me (rather than me approaching them) for the time being.

I decided to buy the D2H body off of Al today for $950. I now have a pretty decent set up for Fall sports, and the only component I'm really missing is an 18-55mm lens. I think that at this point it's more important to be long in the lens rather than short, and I can forego acquiring the 18-55mm lens until after my bonus in September. In the meantime I'll use the D2H or D200 with the 400mm lens and the 70-200mm on the other body. I'll no doubt do some experimenting with the set up to see which camera works better on which lens, and I'm sure I'll be posting about it.

Al also reported that his meeting with the media relations people for the football team went well. He didn't get a chance to meet with assistant AD Doug Dull but instead he spoke with another individual who handles a lot of the credential requests. Al presented the company profile document I prepared and focused on our credentialed experience at professional sports. The media relations rep sounded "interested" and would check things out with the other media people. In the meantime, Al and I are sending them 12 photos as well as a brief write-up I wrote about the day.

Football and Men's basketball at Maryland are very difficult events to receive credentials for, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to crack the shell and get access for the Fall. It would be a dream to cover Maryland Football this fall...

After cutting my teeth on the women's championship match Julie and I headed into the main stadium to witness the winner's celebration for the double's champions.

We scouted out our seats and they were located all the way at the top of the stadium. Although this seems unfortunate it turned into an opportunity. If our seats were down low and close to the action I wouldn't be able to use the 400mm due to the crowd density. Since we were up high the crowds were relatively sparse. I even located a spot where credentialed photographers were shooting with their 400mm lenses.

With Julie's permission I camped out at the 400mm spot for the single's championship match. It was located directly behind the baseline and all the way at the top of the stadium. Overall it was not a bad location to shoot from, but it definitely got tiring and repetitive after awhile.

I managed to get a few great shots looking down to the close side of the court while a player served. From my vantage point the player looked up at the sky with their racket poised backwards and their forward arm raised. These turned out to be some of the greatest shots of the match, and if I cover the Legg Mason classic next year I'll definitely return to this spot to shoot.

For the rest of the match I primarily focused my attention on the far end of the court. As crazy as it sounds, 400mm was actually really tight for this match even though I was standing at the top of the stadium and covering action on the far side of the court. I could literally read the letters on the player's shoes, and I could very clearly read the amount on the check that was handed over to Roddick at the end of the match.

It was very challenging shooting the entire game at 400mm. Isner is 6' 9" and Roddick is 6' 1". When they stretch their body out to chase a shot they're really really long! In several cases they exceeded the size of my frame. As a result I had to do my best to lead the shooter. I still used group weighted continuous autofocus but I kept my thumb on the focus area button. When I saw the player going for a backhand I'd move the focus to the left so I could catch the player reaching.

I let the D2H do the metering for me and it worked out pretty well. There was solid overcast, my vantage point was fixed, and the background didn't vary much. As a result, the camera's meter did very well. I used ISO 200, cloudy white balance, approximately 1/2000 of a second shutter speed, and f2.8 aperture. I thought about stepping down to f3.5, or even f5.6, but I wanted to see how well the lens would perform at f2.8 during the entire shoot.

The shots were fairly sharp and look pretty good. They actually came out a lot better than the women's game. I don't happen to think they're very exciting in comparison to some other sports, but I believe that's a personal opinion. Al said they were of good quality, and at this point that's all that matters: the quality of the shot.

Al and I are planning on getting together to cover the Maryland Football Media Event on Monday. I'm not quite sure what this event is about, but I hear that the media relations people will be there. I typed up a brief company synopsis that describes the DC Sports Box, and I'm hoping to hand it to one of the Maryland guys. I'd really like to be on the field for Maryland Football this Fall.

Overall I'm happy with my 400mm lens. I can't even begin to give justice to how poorly PayPal handled the entire transaction, so I won't go into that subject in detail. The only artifact I don't like about the lens is that the lens hood is missing the 2nd piece and is also missing a screw that keeps it secured to the body. Because it's missing the screw I have to rely on insecure tape to keep the hood in place. I may take it in to a local shop to get a quote on installing the part. Hopefully they'll do it for an affordable price.

I'm also giving some thought to purchasing Al's D2H as a second body. After using the D2H at the Capital's Uniform Unveiling as well as 2 tennis matches I'm pretty happy with it's results. I don't plan on printing anything above 14"-19" for now, and 4.3MP is plenty for me. I'm relying on optical zoom for everything because I have the 70-200mm and the 400mm, so pixel-cropping isn't an issue. If I need a really high resolution shot I can always use my 10MP D200.

Things are really heating up around the DC area both temperature wise and sporting wise. The Nats are doing well, the Redskins and the Ravens are practicing (even scrimmaging), and Maryland Football is starting up. I'm really excited about all of the practice I've had over the past 8 months, and I'm looking forward to the fall and being able to apply what I've learned to some new sports. Can't hardly wait!

Earlier this week my 400mm/f2.8 AF-S lens arrived from Karl in Texas, and I've been really looking forward to using it!

My wife and I decided to wrap up her weekend-long 30th birthday celebration with a trip to the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. Several years ago I went to a Legg Mason Tennis event as part of a tennis camp, and more recently Julie and I used to attend using tickets that her employer (Fannie Mae) offers at a discount. Although the discount no longer exists (or is substantially smaller), we still enjoy going. Professional tennis is fun to watch, and it's a nice summertime activity.

The DC Sports Box was granted 2 credentials for the entire week, and Al assigned another photographer to cover the event. Unfortunately the other photographer was unable to attend the final and the credential is not transferable. I called and pleaded with the media relations folks to transfer the credential but they insisted it was against their policy to create "additional" credentials. I tried to clarify the request and explain that I wasn't trying to add another credential but to change an existing one. It didn't work...

I then phoned a different office at Legg Mason and asked what kind of photographic restrictions were enforced for today's matches. The intern reported that the only restriction was "no flash photography." I asked: "Can I bring my 400mm lens?", and while my wife laughed in the background I listened to the confused intern respond: "Uhhh. Yes." When I hung up the phone my wife laughed at me and said: "Do you think he knows what a 400mm lens is?!" followed by "You're never going to get in with that lens..."

The 400mm lens is quite large. It's easily 12" long barrel-wise, and at the front glass element it's probably 6 or 7 inches in diameter. It weighs about 10lbs, and you can't shoot it without a monopod. It's a professional lens that you typically see at outdoor field sports like soccer, football, and baseball.

Most sporting events have strict rules on camera use inside the arena. If you aren't a credentialed photographer you're not getting in with anything longer than a 18-55mm kit lens, or maybe an 80-200mm lens as long as it's f4 or f5.6. Anything thicker and "professional" looking (at least in the subjective eyes of the 18 year old security guard) is forbidden.

I was expecting that Julie was right: we'd get there, and I'd haul my 400mm lens from the car to the entrance and be turned away. To my extreme surprise they waved me on through. I was absolutely shocked. I had my camera bag and my lens over my shoulder, and the only fuss I received from the guards was a request to look in my bag. I opened it up, and when they saw it was just filled with lenses and cameras they let me through.

It may have worked out because both the credentialed photographers and the general public accessed the venue through the same location, and the security had a forward posture compared to the ticket takers. I think that the security guard probably thought I was credentialed, and didn't bother to escort me over to the ticket people. Because of that I made it past security and then Julie presented our tickets to the ticket taker. Since we were past security the ticket taker let us in, because her job is just to take tickets and not to turn people away. Security, powered by 18 year olds earning $12/hr, at it's finest...

We walked around and found the women's single championship match. The double's championship match was taking place in the main stadium, but I wanted to get a few close up shots of the women. I like the smaller venues were there are smaller crowds and you can move around easily. I didn't want to head up into the official stadium just yet...

Julie and I sat on the uncrowded side of the court, and it was exceptionally hot. We sat down on one side of the court and I rigged up Al's D2H to my 400mm/f2.8 lens to take my first official sports shots. As I looked through the eyepiece I was overwhelmed at how close the lens got me to the action. It was too much magnification for me, and I adjusted my location to get some wider shots. I backed up as far as I could, but even at the far end of the court I was too close for the 400mm lens.

I swapped the lens out with my 70-200mm lens and continued shooting. I was using Al's D2H and I left my D200 at home because I'm considering purchasing it and I'd like to see how well it performs. In retrospect I wish I had brought both bodies so that I didn't have to swap lenses. Al had told me that the 70-200mm lens would be fine for me in tennis, but I really wanted to try out the 400mm lens.

Unfortunately a lot of my shots of the women's game were dark. I think that the D2H and the D200, although very similar, have some subtle differences in how the rollers work on the body. I think that I must have adjusted one of the rollers and indavertently set the exposure compensative to darken the image. My first several shots were very dark. It took me awhile to figure this out because the LCD on all cameras is not very bright, and it's pretty unreadable under direct sunlight.

Eventually a cloud moved over and I managed to realize that I was applying too much EV correction and I adjusted it back to zero. Afterwards my shots cleaned up. In post-processing I was able to lighten the images and they were definitely salvageable.

After trying the 400mm lens I switched to the 70-200 for the rest of the match and was quite happy with it's performance. I adjusted my location several times, and that was really difficult in the heat. The sun cooked the green bleachers, and whenever I moved around I was greeted with a fresh new hot seat. I couldn't kneel on the ground because the ground was hot as well.

I sweat like crazy during this match and felt like I lost 5lbs of weight. But in the end I was pretty happy with how the shots turned out. I had a lot of "firsts" during this shoot, and overall I was pleased with the results. It was the first time I played with 400mm, first time on a D2H, and first time shooting tennis.

As I've written in the past, first-times are often the worst shots. You don't know where to shoot from, you struggle to anticipate the action, you don't know the rules of the venue, you are unfamiliar with the players, and the lighting is something new. Given all of that I'm very happy that I was able to piece together 49 shots during the 1 set my wife and I managed to watch.

I'm anxiously awaiting my 400mm f2.8 to arrive, so in the meantime I have to make do with a 70-200mm lens.

With my season credential in hand I decided to stop off at Prince George's Stadium on the way home from Zenoss on Monday evening. PG Stadium is a great place to shoot for several reasons.

First: they engineered the stadium well for photography. The sun sets over 3rd base rather than in the outfield. Since most games are played at 7pm (or in the late afternoon) this makes for great lighting. I'm sure this was intentional: how could you sink money into building a stadium and not think about the position of the Sun in the late afternoon.

Second: the crowds are friendly. This isn't a high priced NBA event. It's a low-key during-the-week event that offers promotions to get fans to attend. Whether it's "Belly Buster" night (free hot dogs) or "Fireworks on Friday" the staff at PG Stadium are definitely trying to appeal to the family crowd. They keep the prices reasonable and that attracts families, and they're (for the most part) friendly.

Third: the proximity to the field is decent. It's not as tight as Maryland Softball, but it's not as bad as Maryland Baseball. You can cover a lot of the field with a 70-200mm lens, and with a 300mm or 400mm you're perfectly set.

Fourth: the staff is fun. There aren't any unions out at PG Stadium... It's all younger folks that are working for the summer or older folks that are looking to do a good job and get picked up at another stadium. They're friendly, professional, and seem to have their act together. Getting into the venue hasn't been a problem (unlike RFK Stadium).

Back in May the Baysox were my #1 target for summer shoots, but they turned me down because I wasn't shooting for a media outlet. Fortunately Jake has helped me overcome that by introducing me to the folks at the Baysox and helping me get a season pass. I wanted to cover the Baysox because on Mondays and Tuesdays I live in College Park MD and commute to Annapolis. PG Stadium is right along the way home.

I've been doing a lot of reading about sharpness on the D200 with the 70-200mm lens. Over at Nikonians.org there are some great forums for owners of various lenses and bodies to discuss techniques and share experiences. On a couple of posts people have remarked that the 70-200mm is not sharp on the D200 at 200mm and f2.8. A coworker (Jason Stevens) recommended reducing my aperture to f5.6 to see if that improves the sharpness. During my tests at the Royals game that certainly helped.

Tonight I decided to expand on my testing by going to f5.6 when the sun was still high enough in the sky and taking several photos. I was concerned about the impact on my depth of field. I love the out-of-focus effect that occurs through a narrow depth of field. And I was worried that by going to f5.6 I would have in-focus foregrounds and only slightly out-of-focus backgrounds. At f3.5 and f5.6 while shooting the pitcher from next to the 3rd base dugout it wasn't too bad. Above f5.6 the stands behind 1st base started to come into noticeable focus though.

The folks over on Nikonians.org and Jason appear to be correct: shooting at a smaller aperture (higher f-stop) on a D200 and a 70-200/f2.8 VR lens improves sharpness. This presents some challenges down the road.

With a zoom lens you're going to want to zoom in and out. At 70mm and even 100 and 135mm and f2.8 my lens is sharp. But if I go out beyond 135mm the sharpness degrades. So when I'm in the field covering an event I'm going to have to give some thought to how I manage my zoom with respect to my aperture.

If I'm at 100mm I can push the aperture open to f2.8 and achieve sharp photos. But if I'm at 200mm I need to reduce the aperture to f3.5, f4, or f5.6 to achieve sharp photos. I can see it is problematic to achieve this, but I'm going to give it my best. If you have any suggestions, experience, or ideas please feel free to leave comments.

Another change I made tonight was using Manual mode exclusively. Most of the time I've used aperture priority mode and let the camera meter for me. Tonight I used Manual exclusively for the first time, and boy did my shots show it!

I constantly overexposed. Ridiculously! While sitting behind home plate I'd be shooting the pitcher while he pitches. I'd be using 1/1000th of a second on f3.5 and the exposure looked good. Then the batter would hit and would start running to 1st base. I pan to 1st base to capture the action, and I'm hit with an enormous amount of reflected light coming from the billboards in the outfield. They'd completely wash out the shot.

I'm not sure what to do in that situation. Now that I'm aware of it I'm going to take a few more test shots of this and see what I can do to try to manage the change in light. I'm sure there's some kind of reasonable technique you can apply. Maybe it's having a second body?

many opportunities. But all in all I consider it a successful shoot. I was able to tinker around with my f-stops and lMy shots weren't too bad during tonight's game but they weren't great. There wasn't very much action (very few steals) so there weren't tooearn a little about sharpness on my D200, and I also started breaking ground on using manual mode (something Greg Fiume suggested to me).

This week Al is back and I plan to meet with him to talk about the DC Sports Box. We have to go through some incorporation issues, as well as some growth topics. Specifically we're talking over several "what-if" scenarios associated with incorporating: "what if we hire people? what if we need to fire people? what if we want to award ownership to people? do we want the company to own our photographic equipment?" There are a ton of issues at play when you incorporate, and you really want to give a lot of though to it before you sign your articles of incorporation or organization.

We're also going to talk about scheduling. As Fall approaches it's pretty exciting to look at the calendar and visualize the number of upcoming sporting events. A challenge for us will be to manage those events and make sure we put in credential requests and assign people accordingly. The worst thing that could happen is for us to miss the opportunity, so it's important for us to develop a system whereby we can communicate assignments in a concise and timely fashion. Using iCal's "publish" system, a WebDAV server I deployed, and Google Calendar I think we have a decent system we can use. The trick will getting other folks at the DC Sports Box to rely on it!

I'm very excited about this week: the MGN kickoff event for the Fall is Wednesday night, Al and I are getting together, and the Nats are back in town against Cincinatti. Lots of stuff going on now, and it's invigorating to be a part of it!