Shanley vs West Fargo Volleyball

Ah...the enigmatic Shanley gym. I love this gym for the amazing athleticism that has graced its reverberant halls...and I fear this gym for its more than difficult lighting. Tonight was both the "Dig the Cure" and "Senior Night" celebrations for the lady Deacons, and Volleyball was the heart-pumping sport in question.

Volleyball is perhaps one of the most difficult sports for me to capture. The environment (low-light gymnasium) is generally unforgiving, and the action is fast and furious. The auto-focus on my beloved Nikon D300 responds like a drunken sailor during a tsunami. It finally acquires focus about 2 seconds after the ball has left the hand of the athlete...which in a photographer's world is enough time to visit the Men's room and order a Hillshire Farms hot dog from the adjacent snack booth. My keeper rate is perhaps 1 out of 5, and all the shots that I'd send to my grandma (rest her soul), are blurry at best. Well...maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but still, could someone turn on the lights? Speaking of lights--the Shanley gym's lights "cycle" (meaning one shot is pink, the other green, the next blue-ish, etc.). This makes for some interesting late-night moments in front of the computer with me saying, "Come on, White Balance...I promise I'll bury the kaleidescope when I'm finished.!"

All whining aside (remember, I promised to whine regularly in my first blog), a million thanks go out to Ann for emailing me this particular game request. I can't begin to say how much game requests mean to me. I've never missed a request yet (well--that's a lie; maybe one or two thus far), and I'll do everything shy of short-changing my family to fulfill the request. It was my honor to not only attend the VB game, but to also be in attendance during this special "Breast Cancer Awareness" event. Cancer is vicious--and breast cancer one of the worst. It brought tears to my eyes to see a sea of pink permeating the cloth of both women and men occupying the stands.

Ann (and all Shanley VB parents and athletes), I'll try to have the game posted by mid week. Wish me luck!  :)   Please follow this link: http://www.fmphotographer.com to return to the front page of my picture site, or fmphotographer@cableone.net to ask a question.

Welcome to the FMPhotographer.com Sports Blog!

Welcome, Sports Fans!

My name is Don Welk, and I thank everyone for stopping in and perusing the following blogs on everything and anything related to my photographic adventures in the greater FM and surrounding area. As many of you know (parents and athletes who've kept touch with me over the past 2 odd years), I'm never at a loss for words, so I'll try not to bore you with mundane musings...unless of course it relates to sports photography.

One of my passions in the world of digital photography is the use of computer-based tools, such as Adobe Photoshop, Bibble RAW converter, and a host of plug-ins that improve the functionality of the aforementioned applications. In many instances--primarily indoor gymnasiums--the use of Photoshop is the only means I have of salvaging what are oftentimes dark and murky looking photos of area athletes. Not many folks realize that each and every picture I post on my http://www.fmphotographer.com site has been leveled, cropped, color corrected, curves adjusted, sharpened, de-noised, etc before being uploaded for view. This takes TIME...and so now you know why I don't get games uploaded for oftentimes days after the event itself. My "Mission Statement" where FMPhotographer is concerned, is that every photo that you find on my site is a picture that I'd be proud to enlarge and frame on my own wall. I repeat: "each and every picture!"

On every blog I post, I'll refer back to the Home Page of my site either once or several times so that you can get back to viewing pics of area athletes in action...so keep an eye on the underlined link, http://www.fmphotographer.com .

I also will be throwing out my thoughts regarding specific sports or games as they come and go throughout the seasons. For example, there are a couple gyms in our area that are almost adequate for acceptable results, and there are gyms that I've got to pull off every digital trick in the book to make presentable. Sometimes I'll whine like a baby about some murky gyms, and other times I'll pat myself on the back when I 'luck out' where post processing these fussy gyms are concerned. Sometimes I'll engage in 'tech talk' where digital cameras are concerned, both as a means of educating other parents in the use of their cameras, and/or as a means of letting the inner geek out of the box. When all is said and done, I hope my blogs are both informative and entertaining to my customers, both parents and athletes alike.

Again, welcome to my blogs, and please don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts. My website is http://www.fmphotographer.com , and my email is fmphotographer@cableone.net . It's always an honor to hear from you, and I make every effort to respond to your inquiries. Until next time, take care!