Photos from UM Pro Day

So my digital camera is on the fritz so I'm uploading some old pictures, but I think they're good for discussion purposes anyway.

They're from this spring's UM Pro Timing Day where players leaving school (either graduating or leaving early) showcase their skills in drills in front of NFL scouts.

The shoot was pretty difficult because the press was stationed about 100 yards from where the action was taking place on the Greentree practice fields.

To make matters worse, it was a cloudless, sunny day so lighting on all the shots was problematic. In fact, I learned the hard way that picking the right exposure settings, even on a point-and-shoot like mine is important, probably even more than if I had been working with professional-level equipment.

These are all of Calais Campbell, by the way, who was taken in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He was the featured athlete that day since Kenny Phillips decided his results from NFL Combine workouts were good enough.

I think I took around 80 shots, mostly fidgeting with settings on exposure length and some with rapid shot to reduce blur and get the lighting right.

As I alluded to earlier, I had to scrap about half of them because the lighting just wasn't going to work in print. I'll share one of those at the end. Definitely a hard learning experience since a couple really nice shots were ruined due to the fact that they were way too bright.

As you can see from the first shot to this one on the left, I started to realize which settings were best and began to get better color, which you can see in even the color of the grass.

I think the zoom worked well without too much distortion, especially considering the resolution for which I was working.

Anyway, here's two more, the former being one of the better I took, and the latter being one I am not too proud of. I think I got a few usable shots, and the article, which has suffered from a website redesign, turned out decent.