You have to start somewhere..
posted by Gameshots, 9/16/2008 04:13:00 PM
I love taking photos and I want to share my passion for photography with others. My goal is to keep this blog interesting, educational and enlightening with information from a different viewpoint (behind the lens near the action)!
But first, very briefly, we'll start with my photography background. Over thirty years ago, my career began in the retail world. Among a variety of jobs, I managed Camera Departments and managed stores with Camera Departments and even managed a Photography store (Simpson Photo) in the McAlister Square Shopping Center in Greenville, SC. During that same period of time, I taught a Photography Class at Greenville Tec.
Next, my career path took me into Information Technology where I was a programmer, analyst and worked in various management positions while having photography as a ‘hobby’. The computer background was useful as we now use ‘digital darkrooms’ instead of the traditional ‘chemical darkrooms’. My school age children were athletic so for years I was busy shooting the action with all kinds of cameras from 35mm, APS-format, to various video cameras.
Then, thankfully, along came digital format cameras. However, I was very hesitant to go digital as I was not comfortable with digital quality at that time. Now, for the last seven years, I’ve been shooting digitally exclusively. The quality now is unbelievably good.
One has got to love the freedom and power of shooting digitally. Prior to digital photography the photographer was restrained to shooting either 24 or 36 exposure film. To put that in perspective the 3079 pictures that I shot for the Georgia game would equal 86 rolls of 36 exposure film! Of course, if someone is trying to load/unload that many rolls of film they would NOT have the time to take any pictures. We won't even think about costs to edit and print that many pictures. Talk about freedom to be able to concentrate on shooting the game with no concerns related to dealing with film, we've come a long way!
Now I load two memory cards (one 8GB SDHC card and either a 8GB or 4GB CF card) in the Canon 1D Mark 3 and one 4GB CF Card in the Canon 40D and Canon 30D cameras. Having all of this memory for the storage of the High Resolution images brings additional 'problems'. You have to be able to quickly download all of these images to a computer for selection and editing and transmission.
We will touch on these aspects (and many others!) in future blogs as downloading and editing is a story in itself. I will also seek to share helpful information without getting bogged down in long technical discourses. Gameday schedule and activities as well as various activities during the week will all be covered.
Currently I am a full-time photographer who loves covering Carolina Gamecock football, basketball, and baseball (as well as the occasional recruiting or High School game or event) for GamecockCentral.com and Gamecock Illustrated Magazine. Additionally, I shoot the traditional photography work such as weddings and events but those events are NOT NEARLY as exciting as shooting an SEC sporting event!
Hopefully the blog will be similar to what I try to do with the photo galleries, have a collection of pictures with something for most everyone.
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Welcome to my photo blog!
I love taking photos and I want to share my passion for photography with others. My goal is to keep this blog interesting, educational and enlightening with information from a different viewpoint (behind the lens near the action)!
But first, very briefly, we'll start with my photography background. Over thirty years ago, my career began in the retail world. Among a variety of jobs, I managed Camera Departments and managed stores with Camera Departments and even managed a Photography store (Simpson Photo) in the McAlister Square Shopping Center in Greenville, SC. During that same period of time, I taught a Photography Class at Greenville Tec.
Next, my career path took me into Information Technology where I was a programmer, analyst and worked in various management positions while having photography as a ‘hobby’. The computer background was useful as we now use ‘digital darkrooms’ instead of the traditional ‘chemical darkrooms’. My school age children were athletic so for years I was busy shooting the action with all kinds of cameras from 35mm, APS-format, to various video cameras.
Then, thankfully, along came digital format cameras. However, I was very hesitant to go digital as I was not comfortable with digital quality at that time. Now, for the last seven years, I’ve been shooting digitally exclusively. The quality now is unbelievably good.
One has got to love the freedom and power of shooting digitally. Prior to digital photography the photographer was restrained to shooting either 24 or 36 exposure film. To put that in perspective the 3079 pictures that I shot for the Georgia game would equal 86 rolls of 36 exposure film! Of course, if someone is trying to load/unload that many rolls of film they would NOT have the time to take any pictures. We won't even think about costs to edit and print that many pictures. Talk about freedom to be able to concentrate on shooting the game with no concerns related to dealing with film, we've come a long way!
Now I load two memory cards (one 8GB SDHC card and either a 8GB or 4GB CF card) in the Canon 1D Mark 3 and one 4GB CF Card in the Canon 40D and Canon 30D cameras. Having all of this memory for the storage of the High Resolution images brings additional 'problems'. You have to be able to quickly download all of these images to a computer for selection and editing and transmission.
We will touch on these aspects (and many others!) in future blogs as downloading and editing is a story in itself. I will also seek to share helpful information without getting bogged down in long technical discourses. Gameday schedule and activities as well as various activities during the week will all be covered.
Currently I am a full-time photographer who loves covering Carolina Gamecock football, basketball, and baseball (as well as the occasional recruiting or High School game or event) for GamecockCentral.com and Gamecock Illustrated Magazine. Additionally, I shoot the traditional photography work such as weddings and events but those events are NOT NEARLY as exciting as shooting an SEC sporting event!
Hopefully the blog will be similar to what I try to do with the photo galleries, have a collection of pictures with something for most everyone.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Paul Collins. Paul has been a GamecockCentral photographer since 2005, with a focus on Gamecock football, men's basketball and baseball. He may be reached by email at paul(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.