Growing forward is always a good thing. I always tell people, especially when I am talking to a group, that if you stop growing in your photography then you might as well hang it up. What fun is there in a creative endeavor in staying in the same place all the time? Isn't one of the motivations of regularly creating to create something in a little different way than before?
Sometimes its the little stuff, like making better use of the infrared triggering system in the Nikon flashes (Canons do this too) when you can't set up the full-blown portable light kit. It made for a better result in this image from a couple weeks ago for a client who was writing about a young man who is interning at the state capitol. One strobe with an Omni Dome on his face and another putting a little highlight on his cheek, thereby separating him a bit more from the background. Some assignments must take place when they must take place. This lighting also allowed me to make the best of that shadowy, unappealing midday light.
That said, it also doesn't hurt to revisit the old days, like when my newspaper work took me to the weekly drama
of high school age competitions. I don't miss some aspects of newspaper photography, but, I always enjoyed the fast moving athletics, and kind of miss those assignments. In the grand scheme of things these games might not matter too much, except to these kids, but it was always a fun challenge to pull the best image I could out of each opportunity.
The old skill came in handy for a friend whose son plays volleyball for a Valley school and is about to finish his scholastic athletic career.
Volleyball is tougher than it looks to photograph. That little white ball moves pretty fast and it takes some practice, or some re-oiling of some old skills, to get that timing down to get those frames where the ball is still close enough to the players to matter. Its great to move on to new skills but it can also be a great deal of fun to revisit some that haven't been exercised in a long time. 
Sometimes its the little stuff, like making better use of the infrared triggering system in the Nikon flashes (Canons do this too) when you can't set up the full-blown portable light kit. It made for a better result in this image from a couple weeks ago for a client who was writing about a young man who is interning at the state capitol. One strobe with an Omni Dome on his face and another putting a little highlight on his cheek, thereby separating him a bit more from the background. Some assignments must take place when they must take place. This lighting also allowed me to make the best of that shadowy, unappealing midday light.That said, it also doesn't hurt to revisit the old days, like when my newspaper work took me to the weekly drama
of high school age competitions. I don't miss some aspects of newspaper photography, but, I always enjoyed the fast moving athletics, and kind of miss those assignments. In the grand scheme of things these games might not matter too much, except to these kids, but it was always a fun challenge to pull the best image I could out of each opportunity.The old skill came in handy for a friend whose son plays volleyball for a Valley school and is about to finish his scholastic athletic career.
Volleyball is tougher than it looks to photograph. That little white ball moves pretty fast and it takes some practice, or some re-oiling of some old skills, to get that timing down to get those frames where the ball is still close enough to the players to matter. Its great to move on to new skills but it can also be a great deal of fun to revisit some that haven't been exercised in a long time. 
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