Professional chimping...

[MarkK0120]

A friend of mine had two extra tickets to the Texas Rangers game tonight, so my wife and I decided to go at the last minute. To ease her level of embarassment, I left the 300D and lenses at home -- had I known where the seats were, I certainly would not have.

We were on the front row, directly behind the camera well near the first base dugout - I literally propped my feet up on the rail. When we arrived, there were three photographers in the well -- one video guy, two still. One of the still guys was using a Nikon -- I didn't catch the model, and the other was using a Canon 1D (immediately identifiably by the large white telephoto lens attached to the monopod). He also had another 1D around his neck, with another white L. Upon closer inspection, the large lens looked to be a 400mm f/2.8, and the smaller handheld was a 70-200 -- didn't catch the aperture range.

Anyway, I tried to talk with the guy a couple of times, but he was "less than friendly," so I gave up on that. I did continue to watch him throughout the game, and noticed he was chimping after every shot -- kind of funny I thought at first, but I then noticed he was continually going back through photos and deleting his bad ones on the fly. I wondered if he was short on memory card space -- this appeared to be confirmed when I saw him make a switch of a 256mb card for another 256mb. I would have thought he would have larger capacity cards.

The funniest part of this though, was that in the bottom of the 8th, it was tied at 0. The Rangers 3rd baseman, Blaylock, comes to bat, and hits what ended up being the game winning home run. But the photographer was so busy deleting photos at this point, that he missed the home run. When he realized what was happening, he quickly turned to try to catch the hitter rounding the bases, but didn't seem to be too successful, as when he was reviewing his photos later, there seemed to be a lot of blur and someone else in the way (the video guy perhaps). After taking several shots (the bad ones) with the monopod unit, he GENTLY laid it down and jumped up on the rail with the handheld. Perhaps he got some better shots this way; I hope so.

I just thought it was funny that the Dallas Morning News' official photographer at the game missed the game-winning run because he was too busy doing his "after game work" during the game. It inspired me to order another memory card, which I plan to do now...

[theflyingkiwi]

Funny thing about chipping, When I am shotting when there is alot of action, I don't do it.

WHen I was at the warbirds over wanaka this year, during the air show and even when I was walking around taking photos, the last thing that I wonted to do was take a look at the photos that I had taken.

During the action of the air show I had very little time to check it out anyway so I figure what's the point.

Lucky I had taken 2x 1gb cards with me. worry about the photos when I have time.

[PhotosGuy]

WAIT!

It inspired me to order another memory card, which I plan to do now...

I just posted this:
SanDisk CF 512MB is $70 online this week! Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post Delete this post
Three months ago I paid $89 after rebates & I just saw this at the Circuit City website:

SanDisk 512MB CompactFlash Memory Card
Brand/Model: SDK SDCFB512768

$69.99 after $70.00 savings & $40.00 rebate(s)

http://www.circuitcity.com/searchresults.jsp?catoid=-10267&department=Cameras+and+Camcorders&displayAll =&u=c&category=Memory+Products&cattotal=36&hdENTER ed=no&qp=0&sort=Price&fv=20997&fv=33058&caller=sea rchresults.jsp&c=1&b=g&u=c
:)

[IndyJeff]

Mark I can understand the guys less than friendly attitude when you tried to talk with him, if he was working. I have people who try and talk to me when I am shooting a race. Of course they are yelling as they are about 20 yards behind me, I just ignore them like I don't hear them.
Every year some kid or sometimes even an adult will lose their frisbee or ball over the fence and expect a photographer to get it for them. I will but only when a yellow light comes out.
I have on more than one occasion gone over to the fence and chatted with fans but, it was always when there was a yellow light. They always have a dumb question or two but, I don't mind answering them. Nobody will ever go home and tell of a prick photographer at a race and be meaning me.

If the guy was chimping during the game and missed shots then he shouldn't have been there. His boss will probably see to that if he was a staffer. If he was a stringer he probably won't be getting a lot of assignments in the future.

[KennyG]

There is chimping and there is chimping.

One is as you described where the photog clears out his dud shots on the fly. Not a problem as long as the action has totally stopped and everyone is on a break. The simple cure is more storage and clear the duds at the end of the day (my method).

The "was that a good shot" chimping to confirm that you did it right shot after shot shows a lack of skill or confidence, or both.

The 'need to catch a moment' chimp is a one I sometimes come across and confess to having used. Picture this - four of us in a line, all with monopod mounted 300's trying to catch a flamer from a Jag D type and every single person was chimping after every shot of this particular car. Fortunately the following car was a couple of seconds behind so no action was lost. We must have looked a strange bunch all peering at the LCDs at the same time. I got him second time round and then had the fun of watching the other three chimp.

http://www.motorpix.co.uk/images6/cr06.jpg

[AzzKicker]

Not to mention, I dont really trust LCD viewing on the camera.


Sometimes what looks crap on the LCD can easily be fixed via Photoshop. OR the opposite. I've learned to not even look at LCD even after taking pics. I look at EVERYTHING on a computer monitor.


Example, Group shots, sometimes on the LCD screen of a camera its hard to tell if everyone had eyes open. SO its always good to just keep shooting, never look back :)

[MarkK0120]

KennyG's point about chimping to verify a specific shot is well taken -- makes sense. As for his attitude toward me, I was very careful to wait until between innings to approach him both times, even waiting for him to finish jotting down some notes from the previous inning. In any event, I can understand that he was working, and was not offended in the least.

Don't get me wrong -- I chimp all the time. As most of my shots are family/friends, many times they want to see the photo. I just thought it was a little humorous, and thought I'd share.

BTW, thanks for the tip on the 512mb card. I'll check it out.

[MarkH]

Last weekend I was taking pics at the Rally of New Zealand. This invites chimping because the top cars start 2 minutes apart and the lower order start 1 minute apart. I checked each group of shots after the car had passed, looking at the histogram and checking my composition. I didn't want to get home to find that every shot had blown highlights or that I had been mis-timing my shots and cutting off the front/rear of each car.

For a baseball game I would imaging that you could take a quick look at the LCD as a batter is walking up to the plate, but surely once he is ready and the pitcher is about to pitch you shouldn't be busy reviewing your earlier shots? What's with the 256MB cards, at todays prices it wouldn't cost much to buy half a dozen 512MB cards!

At the Rally on the practise day I talked to a few pro photogs, they were friendly and didn't mind telling me about their gear. Those I spoke to were using 1GB cards on their 1D cameras. I saw many white lenses that day!

[Kinger]

Well here is one of the shots I got a few weeks ago of a pro chimping during the phillies game.

http://home.comcast.net/~king247/images/IMG_0275.jpg

P.S. It's the guy with the white hat.

I just thought it was funny to capture them doing it.

[defordphoto]

Sweet shot KennyG!

[KennyG]

Thanks Jim. It is always fun trying to get something like flames, lifted wheels or smoking tires. Just makes it different enough that they may publish it.

This also caused a chimping frenzy (including me of course). Very nice Porsche in horrible weather, too wet to change over to my x2 for a tighter shot. This car looked good from all angles.

http://www.stiuk.dial.pipex.com/flamer.jpg

[defordphoto]

I love these shots. It shows the action. That Porsche shot is awesome. The flames, the dust flying, the reflection of the flames on the dust (!!) the roils (heat rising from car). You wouldn't have wanted this shot too much tighter.

It'll be nice to have that cropping option with the larger format of the MKII so you can crop back down to an APS sized-sensor shot if need be and still get a killer print.

Great job, Kenny.

Oh! And to keep this on topic, these type conditions are the only times I'll chimp at all. Or if knowing I blew the shot and have time to chimp. Otherwise I rarely go through my photos until I'm done shooting. I get in a "mode" and want no interuptions when I am shooting, so I understand why that ball & stick photoboy was annoyed.

[PhotosGuy]

I get in a "mode" and want no interuptions
Yeah, that used to really steam my girlfriends! 'Specially if I was shooting a model & I gave her "The Look" as I checked her hair & makeup. I got in sooooo much trouble over that! :lol: :lol:

[arthurb]

It is hard to imagine chmiping to delete photos in the heat of a sporting event. As someone mentioned, the lcd is a very poor place to view since some bad shots may look good and some good shots may look bad.

Here is my example;

http://www.ajb.info/albums/album01/IMG_1056.sized.jpg

When I was looking at it on the lcd, (during the track cleanup) I thought I had a shot of a cloud of smoke. Once it was on the monitor, I could see that I caught the bottom of the car as it flipped. The rest of my shots from that day are at http://www.ajb.info

Also, maybe I'm the only one who does this, but I save every picture I take, except obviously very very bad shots, pictures of the lens cap etc.

It gives me a reference of my improving skills, and I often see shots in magazines that I would have thrown away, so I can't always trust my own judgement... :D