I don't post a lot of sports pictures on our daily featured photo for a few reasons, not all of life is about sports and we like to showcase slices of life and not just action. But I photograph sports nearly every day. When I started shooting sports for The Meadville Tribune 13 years ago I was pretty awful at it. I would turn in pictures that were simply out of focus. I was capturing good things in the frame, but I wasn't nabbing the focus. It took a sit down chat with my photo editor Jim Stefanucci who taught me a great lesson. He said you can have a mediocre picture that is sharp or you can have something you almost captured that isn't sharp. He said the sharp one is always going to be better, more professional and do more for our readers. Then the problem came up--can I do it? I try my best with everything I sink my teeth into so this became my challenge and I finally got it. My sports pictures were sharp. Then I just had to figure out how to get the really good moments in focus too. Admittedly auto focus and digital cameras really helped out too. Even though I was getting good photos in focus by the end of film at our paper, I began getting more and more in focus with digital and the better moments came. I got this picture today and even though I can pick it apart for its flaws, it is a pretty good action shot and one I was glad to get. I got about 5 good shots from todays game, much like this and several others that were sharp and good for the newspaper if these good action shots didn't grab the editors attention or tell the story well enough. Meadville Tribune photo by Richard Sayer
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I had two assignment today that required as much time driving as they did photographing them. So I thought about a lot of things. These days I think a great deal about teaching my photography class and my students. I've been talking about the frame and how really good photographers concentrate not just on the subject, but how they place the subject in the frame. It sounds simple, but it really isn't. We have a ton of people who take good pictures now in the world--cameras and cell phones have given us a chance to see more and more good images, but good photographers take good pictures all the time and they do so because they really pay attention to what is in the frame and how they place their subjects. I was thinking about how moments can sometimes break this theory apart, but not really, great moments help make a photograph great. I didn't notice the girl sticking her tongue out as she whirled around on the ride at first, but once I did I knew I had a picture if only I could capture it. I also talk about looking deeper than the surface for a picture. When I saw Josh Kell at the fair I thought I should concentrate on the reflection of his glasses to get a picture of the fair(its a device I use all the time and am still trying to take as good a photo this way as Jim Stefanucci did of little gridders years ago). But as I kept my camera on him I saw him smoke and then I saw I had a neat portrait of him. And I also try to talk about trying things that might not work. I was waiting for the football game listening to the national anthem and thinking about patriotism and 9/11 and thought I wanted to try to show the emptiness of how we are patriotic at certain times, but mostly we're not practicing day to day patriots. For many its a show, but are they true? I thought it might be an interesting way to make commentary on the 9th anniversary of a tragic event that we will, at least some will, take time to remember today. Meadville Tribune photographs by Richard Sayer
I am washing my dishes right now and this is what it looks like. I would rather be making pictures than washing dishes...I would rather chew my own leg off than wash dishes...Photo By: Harmony Motter
A few day ago I wrote about how I was going to ride on the tall ship to do Thursday nights story about the kick-off of Tall Ships Erie. Well the planning worked out, but it would require me to be on the ship for 7 hours and that means an hour to get there, and hour back, then process and tone pictures so we were looking at an 11 hour day. Our company doesn't really allow such things anymore and Friday night football(which is second only to going to church and eating dinner around these parts) doesn't allow for taking Friday off. So I covered the parade from the shore and it might have been for the best anyway. I got to pick my locations for using the light and witnessing the people who came to witness the spectacle. On board would've been long, tiring, cold and i would've been concentrating more on the just the crew and less on the event. I didn't get great shots, it was overcast and the ships didn't come in full sail, but it was something different to cover and it got me out of the office for several hours--which is always a good thing. Meadville Tribune photos by Richard Sayer
What I love most about what I do, is capturing moments. The love between the two is evident in these photos that I made of Shannon and her daughter,Aislin.
Photo By: Harmony Motter The Veterans of the Vietnam War Post 52 the Jack Greer Memorial have been an organization over the years who have really tried to to keep the soldiers from this country, past and present at the forefront of Crawford County's minds. The first operated without a home, then they got a small home and now they have begun to build a new home. Today I went to see the new construction and get a few photos. This picture of Phil Davis who has served virtually every post within the organization, was one of the first pictures I took when I arrived with reporter Ryan Smith. Phil was walking across what will someday be the main floor of the building. Under construction photos can led to interesting shapes and angles when the light is good, today the light wasn't the best so I was hoping to get some sort of moment with Davis showing off the place. It never really happened so I was glad to get this frame and a couple other similar frames. I also shot a picture of the post's sign with the construction in the background to help tell the more rounded story. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
So, If you haven't read the book 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' you should. It was written by Richard Bach in 1970. I read it when I was 23 years-old and have thought of it quite often over the years. The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with his daily life. Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself, learning everything he can about flying...That is all that I will give away, just in case you are running to Barnes & Noble to purchase the book. Anyway, I was making pictures this afternoon and found these seagulls. I smiled to myself and thought about Jonathan. Here are a few quotes from the book..."Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating."..."The same rule holds for us now, of course: we choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing , and the next is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome.”
Photos By: Harmony Motter In my class I've given as the first assignment a self portrait. I do this to get my students fully aware that their work is personal, it is about them--so I figure this is sort of my way to get them to look inside. I tell them they should think about doing assignments based on what thy think I like, but what they like and what their work is about. I want students to solve problems their way. Not mine. If they solve things on their own they will have the tools to that 'out in the real world' after college. So after giving the assignment I stumbled on a folder with some pictures I'd been meaning to put into a piece and ended up making my own self portrait for the day. This may lead to a bigger piece, I'm not sure yet. By Richard Sayer
I've spent most of today toning pictures for picture orders and I still am only half way there. This picture was of my friend BreAnn after she first lit up a cigarette. Photograph by Ricahrd Sayer
Well, today Reporter Lisa Byers and I got soaked. We were running late to the starting of a historic engine and we parked and ran to the site. As we were going it began to rain, then it began to rain heavier and heavier. Then we found we weren't late and that the engine wasn't co-operating and they had trouble starting it. It kept raining. Mind you i had a perfectly good rain coat back in the car, but we didn't want to be out of position for the moment. As I was waiting I saw this girl catching rain dripping off an umbrella with her tongue. I really needed to change lenses--put on the 80-200, but I didn't want to risk getting rain inside the camera--so I shot it a little looser than I wanted and then cropped in. The other lens would've made the background better, but I did what I needed to do in a bad situation. I was glad I did. The pictures from the event weren't very good at all--so I was glad I got this out of the day. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
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