LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you?  If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by.  In this blog we are going to talk about the changes that have been happening with my photography.  I have been shooting for over five years and during that time I have worked mainly on shooting Landscape photography.  Well it is time to change that and move to other genres.  I have been so busy lately with this change that it is not funny. I have not had time to sit and write like I used to.  I have had to learn a whole new genre of photography which has had me busy as hell lately.  I mean I have shot more in the last two months than I have in the last year.  

You see it all started two months ago with me getting a new job working as a school bus driver again.  This time it is not the same as it was before.  I was mainly a route driver in Casper which meant that my day to day driving was the same.  There were times that I was taking kids on sports trips while there in Casper so this is nothing new right.  Well this time around I am a trip driver down here so that means that I am getting to spread my wings and truly learn how to be a sports photographer.  This challenge is something that I never thought that I would be doing.  I was shocked at how much fun it is watching the games and seeing the highs and lows of the teams.  

This has brought me joy in my life and after the last two years it is much appreciated I can tell you that.  Having a purpose again is something that I was missing working at Subway.  Don’t get me wrong I truly enjoyed my time working there helping people with making the sandwiches.  There was something that was missing working at Subway.  Yes I was able to work with people but the limited time you spend with each customer is so short that you never truly get to know them.  Working as a trip driver I am getting to know the kids and the coaches.  I missed working with people on a more meaningful level than what you get with customer service.  The act of getting out and driving is something that I was missing a lot.  I love being behind the wheel of the bus driving it makes me feel whole again. 

This brings me to the point of the change in my photography and why I have not been writing or posting like I used to.  I am taking so many images of the teams that it is not even funny.  I mean in the last two weeks I have taken well over 5,000 images just for the sports teams.  This means that I am out shooting more and more and there is not time to write the blogs like I used to.  Now this is going to last for a little while so just stick with me.  I am learning so much about how to shoot sports and I want to share that knowledge with you guys and gals. I have a new look on photography and you know the funny part is there is not a whole lot of difference in shooting sports or shooting a landscape.  The biggest difference is the subject is moving and that is harder when you are shooting with older gear like I am.  

The truly amazing thing about this change is seeing the kids eyes light up when they have a professional photograph of what they did on the field.  Some of these kids have never had this in the past so it is fun to see them glow up with joy when they see themselves for the first time.  The point of me doing this is not to charge the parents for the photos at all it for me to give back to the community for a little while so that way the parents that cannot go to the away games can see the highlights of their kids doing his or her best on the field.  

For the longest time I was a proud owner of the Canon 80d and it was such a great body for shooting just about anything.  Well when I took the job knowing that I was going to start shooting sports I thought that it would be a great tool for it.  Well it is but it isn’t and that is no joke. The 80d was great for shooting the day time sports and the faster shutter action was allowing me to get so many images.  The main issue that came into play was shooting the night games and the noise issues that you have with shooting with a crop body came into play in a big way.  I was lucky enough to have a Canon 5D2 which is full frame and I am able to shoot during the night games so much better. The issue of shooting with two different bodies is now an issue so I ended up selling the 80d to buy another Canon 5D2.  The best part about it is the company that I sold it to is giving me money back so it paid for the new camera and got me money back.  

Now the down fall of using such an older camera for shooting sports is that now I have to shoot with less frames per second (FPS).  This means that I had to learn timing on when to take the shot and not just start shooting and letting it go for a while like I was doing on the 80d.  The problem with shooting like that was the AF could not keep up with the action so I was missing images that could have been great.  Now with a smaller buffer and less FPS I am having to watch the plays unfold and start shooting when I feel the action is going to happen.  This has helped me in getting the shots that are more meaningful to the players.  The fact is the older DSLR is slow and the the buffer is smaller which makes me think more about the shot and when I get the photo it is so much better than it would have been with the 80d.  

This is an update on how things are going with me and why I have not been around for awhile.  I was learning and growing as a photographer and that is what it is al about.  If you are not learning new things than you are not growing as a photog.  Get out there shoot and learn from every photoshoot that you are doing. Enjoy from St Johns y’all