kylehess10 Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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dmwierz wrote:
Kyle,
All of the above is good advice, so let me take a slightly different tack. Being ABLE to shoot the sport is important. Knowing HOW to review your images and select the keepers (AKA, sellable shots) is important. Knowing HOW to caption is important. Knowing HOW to edit/tone is important. Knowing HOW to resize is important. Knowing WHERE to stand, sit, or squat is important. Knowing HOW to FTP is important. Knowing what NOT to do is important. However, being able to do all these things simultaneously under the pressure of a deadline is a much, much different thing. Without a doubt, learning how to do this was the most challenging thing I faced when I first started shooting for USPW/USATSI, and I had worked for another (mostly non-deadline) wire service for a couple years.
Therefore, I'd offer the suggestion to practice your workflow over and over again. Baseball is the one sport where you have to ingest/select/edit/caption/transmit DURING the action of the game. There are no real breaks (like between quarters or periods, as exist for football, hockey, basketball, etc.). Absolutely learn how to use Photo Mechanic; learn how to utilize the Code Replacement function (a real and undeniable life saver - believe it).
Here's my workflow, FWIW:
- Shoot images and tag the ones in camera that I think I'll like.
- Ingest images using Photo Mechanic between innings from the photo well - some like to ingest only tagged images - I do this sometimes
- Select keepers in the lightbox view of PM
- Perform basic editing on selected images (straighten, minor toning as required, minor sharpening if needed, resizing to 1-1.5MB./image) in PhotoShop
- Review to ensure images are sharp in PM
- Caption selected images in PM
- FTP selected images in PM
While you're doing all of the above, you need to continue to cover the action on the field, especially if runners get on base or something else interesting occurs. I transmit at the end of the first inning; a couple innings after that; maybe in the 5th or 6th inning and at the end of the game, and ANY time in between when something important happens. I can send images as many as 6 or 8 times in the course of an action-packed game.
You should receive a style guide from USATSI - if not, ask for one until you get it. Try to get it early enough to read it over several times. If you have any questions, contact the USATSI Director of Photography, or if you can't reach him, you can PM me (or other FMer's who shoot for USATSI - there are quite a few on here).
Good luck, and don't forget to have fun.
Dennis
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Thanks Dennis, this is great advice.
When I worked for the Braves Triple-A team last year, I did work with deadlines, but definitely not as fast as USATSI will be, having me transmit every few innings. I've been working with PM all day today and plan on practicing my workflow every day until my first assignment. I definitely want to speed up my transmission times and impress them from the get-go.
The code replacements seem very useful; I'm already getting those ready. Also, I've been in contact with Jerry recently, so I have his contact info. He was very helpful with getting back to me to let me know when they would review my portfolio. Very nice guy.
Thanks again everyone; I'm glad there's very helpful USATSI shooters on here that could help a rookie out. I appreciate it a lot! I'm jotting down so many notes from everything posted in this thread and going over it again and again so I'll be well-prepared.
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