Meaningless Glimpse

Not my best picture of the day, but it's of Philedephia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook and brother Byron.

Today was the longest day. It must have started when I got out of the wrong side of bed. Wait, I can only get out of one side of my bed.

Maybe it started with getting up early. I can usually mosey into work before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, not the case today. I was at Towson early shooting NFL scout day. About five players, one being the above Byron Westbrook and other being Towson's Jerome Bushrod, whom I a portrait of and won a SPJ award for.

Anyways, it's was a nice sunny day, all was well, then some rude guy tried tell me how to do my job.

Next aggravation of the day, no parking spots, in the always open, faculty lot. Towson loves to give away "reserved" faculty, staff parking lot spots to visitors for special events. Thanks for making me drive around twice for atleast 30 minutes trying to find a space.

Next up, rain. For being such a beautiful day, I am glad it chose to rain during the lacrosse game. Then stop right after. [CUSE VS. TOWSON SHOT]

At this point in the day, I have had it. The work load continued to pile on and my work is suffering. I was not happy with any of my shots and lingering in my mind all day has been my exam tomorrow, which I was hoping to be able to study during the day; void that.

Luckily, I was uplifted a bit after class by [Chris Assaf] from the Baltimore Sun. I am lacking subtle advice, if any critique by professionals. Since he filled in for Monica tonight, he gave me some advice that will be taken a long way.

Chris gave me two quotes to live by when shooting. They are now pinned in the middle of my board. They read:

"Another meaningless glimpse into the obvious," - Janet Knott, Boston Globe

"Mindless Documentation." - Larry Nighswander, then N.G.S.

BINGO. What more motivation can one get? Simple quotes often do this to me, but I couldn't stop thinking about it on my drive home.

Sometimes, today being one, we get bogged down, maybe question our integrity. We become satisfied with the average. However, we need to still work hard and take photographs that mean something, tell a story and inform the reader.

I've done it, I probably still do, but what are we doing if our photos mean nothing? I think our photos show when we do or do not put passion and emotion into them.

I will keep these quotes in mind when shooting for sure. Thanks, Chris.

300.

Today I woke up and said, "I am buying a 300 f/2.8." Why? Because I wanted to end my lens collection. I've been eying a 300 for a long time, and couldn't find a used one, and frankly, didn't want a used one. I trekked to Penn Camera, and got their last one.

It's FAST and SHARP and produces a beautiful bokeh. This is one lens I will never regret buying. I cannot wait to throw my 1.4x on it and see how tight I can really get.

I must say, my sports images will suffer for a week until I get used to the fixed focal length, but thats OK with me. I will still be throwing my 70-200 over my shoulder, but this is will be my primary sports lens.

Too bad I had to test it out during a night game tonight. By the way, we won, 14-7. I predicted 18-5, I was pretty close. Cannot wait for Maryland to visit next week, should be a great game, and huge turnout.