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With my new scanner I've been scanning new negs, and old prints. In July and August I'll be showing my sports work to other photographers (more on that later) so I dug out some really old sports photography. This image stuck out immediately. I remember it like it was yesterday....except it was 1993. I was working for Casey Madison at The Columbian. I was sent to this gym that was the darkest I've encountered since. It was notorious among the veteran photographers as being the worse in the Portland/Vancouver metoropolitan area...and Milan Chuckovich said it was darker than any gym in Idaho as well.
Anyway, I was using Nikon F4's with the first version of the 80-200/2.8. It was loaded with Kodak TMZ 3200 pushed one stop to 6400 iso. There was literally no room to stand on the baseline, but there was a balcony over the court. I shot from there and got really lucky with the player falling to the ground and trying to pass. Then, a defender steps in for the steal.
Even though I really didn't know what I was doing that early in my career, I managed to pull a decent shot out of very difficult circumstances. Casey was very pleased. The funny thing is, I know I couldn't do any better now, even though I've got another 14-years of experience and way better equipment. That night, I made a few right decisions and had something interesting happen in front of my camera. I still feel the same way when it happens now....pleased.
I was also amazed by the image quality. This print has grain the size of golf balls. It's dark and gritty...but I there's something kind of cool about it. Photoshop can't do that...at least I don't know how to do it.