THE Moment!

 

The moment, the moment that will never be the same ever again. To capture that moment on film or digital is the true art of photography. I like to give this example; say you are photographing a 3 hour football game. You take 500 photos in total (unedited). your shutter speed for the game is set at 1/500th second.(This is what most photographers think is the best minimum speed to shoot action) Question; how much actual time was recorded by you during the game. Easy math, 500 photos at 1/500th of a second equals 1 second of actual time. Think about that for minute. 3 hours invested in a football game but only recording 1 second of time. Those images taken are tiny slices of time that were captured by a photographer. Those images will never be exactly the same ever again. 

Another example; set up a camera outside somewhere on a tripod and leave it there for a year. (not recommended due to weather concerns) Set the camera to take a photo every day at the same time every day. Those photos will be different every day. Lighting will be different,(cloudy/sunny) items in the photos will be different,(leaves-spring and summer , bare trees in the winter) birds may be in one photo but not another etc...

So every time a photographer takes an image they are recording a tiny slice of life on this planet. that, my friends, is the true art of photography. In this world of digital imagery, there so many things that can be done to enhance or change the reality of a photograph. Reputable newspapers tell their photographers if they alter their images in any way, they can be fired. Altering an image does not include basic adjustments in brightness contrast or cropping. 

I am not advocating for the purity of photography by not using Photoshop. I am simply stating that this is the origin of the photographic arts and should always be remembered when we pick up the camera. I have certainly been guilty of photographic manipulation. Most of my sports photos are pure in their content. 

The above image was taken in November of 2005 late in the Rutgers football season. The image was created using the first generation Canon EOS 1D. Lens was a 300mm f2.8 with a 2x converted making the lens a 600mm f5.6 lens. Shutter was 1/800 second at f 11. I was positioned in the endzone along with several other photographers. Some got the photo at a different angle but I was the only one to get this image at this angle. 

To view more sports images that I have taken: https://larrylevanti.zenfolio.com/p870597374