
Hockey game, Halifax Nova Scotia Canada. (click image to enlarge)
Just this past week I had yet another editor going to do wonderful things for my career if I could give him a photo from a local hockey game… I am much quicker with my response now… “are you working for free? No? Well sorry, neither am I.”
I am often left in amusement when photo editors believe they have the God given right to belittle a photographer’s skill to the point of asking for images that are free of charge. About 12 years ago, I had the opportunity to photograph an IMSA motor sport race near Halifax. Having photographed a few political conventions during my “stringer” days, I played a hunch: Sure enough, sandwiches and cold drinks were in the press lounge.
It was in the lounge that I met a Ferrari staff photographer who had the strangest set-up I had seen. Digital cameras were just coming on board and this was my first look at one of these behemoths with enough umbilical cords to substitute as a wiring harness for that red horse in the back stretch paddock.
Over the course of the weekend, and between practices and time trials, this Italian photographer and I developed a great rapport. I told him of the local area and he apprised me of all things digital. It was amazing back then, in a matter of minutes he was shipping these images back to his head office in Italy. Meanwhile I was driving like mad to the local lab with film in hand, paying for rush processing so I could have the chromes by the next morning. My new friend provided some very useful hints as well to this neophyte, and I will share the most important advise with you: Stake out a corner where the cars have to slow down; it will be easier to focus and the cars will “bunch up” creating more action.
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