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Sorry for the long silence - it's football season again and that means I'm busy! I love photographing football even though I think it's the hardest thing there is to photograph well. It's a live event which means there's no second chance, and it can be pretty unpredictable. You never know exactly what's going to happen and at the Football Championship Subdivision (Division 1-AA) level things are more likely to get crazy. Any play can end up with a turnover, a touchdown, a gimmick, etc.
It also demands the most expensive equipment, which I don't always have. I've been renting a 1-D mkIIn recently and it's pretty darn nice, until the lights go down in Spanos Stadium. There's just no way to get good blow-ups and shadows at ISO 3200 from a four year old camera. Even after the new stadium lighting before last season, it's still a little too dark in there when there's no help from the sky.
The good news is that those problems will all be gone in a year or two. The lights aren't going to get brighter, but the cameras are getting a lot better! I've seen some good looking shots from the new Canon 7-D at ISO 5,000 and Nikon just came out with a camera yesterday that goes to ISO 12,800. Assuming that 6400 is OK, shooting at Cal Poly should no longer be a problem. All that great technology will filter down through the product lines soon. (Hopefully Canon can concentrate on image quality and drop their addiction to megapixels.)
I've shot two games so far (Cal Poly hosting Sac State at home and then Cal Poly visiting San Jose State). This weekend is Southern Utah at home, which is also Homecoming, so that should be a lot of fun. I've heard there are still 1,000 tickets available for the game so if you're in SLO, come on down! The weather should be really nice in the evening and the game should be a lot of fun. Come see the new scoreboard too!
In other football news, a shot of mine of Miami quarterback Jacory Harris was selected for the Miami media guide. I shot Miami and Cal in the Emerald Bowl last year and got a lot of good shots. It's good to see some of them getting some usage.
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