Old School: Shooting Hockey !

Believe it or not, if you were a kid back in the '50s or '60s,
it was possible to hang out with the newspaper shooters
and learn some stuff. I cut a guy's lawn, and washed his windows,
and he'd let me carry his gear down to the Olympia when he shot hockey.

He was no dope. It was a competitive business, and even if you shot for one of the dailies, you didn't have a guaranteed spot to shoot. And if the editor told you to get a certain shot, at a certain size, you just had to do it. You shot from the corners. And if you had a kid to carry all your bags,
he could sit on them while you went up for a beer and hotdog for dinner.
This was before we were called Interns or Assistants. I was "The The Kid Who Sits on My Bags".
I got in to see the Wings, eat a couple hotdogs, and when I was ready, to watch in the darkroom.

Equipment. Ah, well. None of this clamping DSLRs to a rail aimed at either net, and getting comfy with a remote in one hand, a beer in another.

AND, precious little of the Nikon F/F36 motor/300/2.8/ TriX pushed to the moon. If the editor wanted to see a face you did it the old fashioned way. Get close, get eye level. (No, this is NOT one of my efforts ! And, yep, this one had some flash help !)



Three skills were handy. You absolutely needed to know HOW TO:

1. Shoot a split second before peak action
2. Push the film (and flash in the ice in the darkroom)
3. How to draw a puck, with grease pencil, on a ferrotyped print.

S H H H H !
.

Don, I am sooooo looking forward to having that beer with you in June.

Wow. Keep the stories coming!

Old School Sports Photography meant:

Shooting on a deadline for a Daily Newspaper that ran several editions during the day.

A picture above the fold that GRABBED you as you walked past the newstand was worth EVERYTHING !

Your tonal range was newspaper white, ink black, and 3 shades of grey. SIMPLE composition was essential.

A 4x5 Graphic was perfect for this world with a 127 lens; you could shoot a couple sheets of film
(through holes in the glass in the corners !) and send the holders back to the paper with the writer
if you had something else on your list. The guys at the paper had a vat of something to develop your film,
and kept it in the tank until the image was good enough to print. If it never came up, your next visit to the paper was usually short.

While this was WAY before my time, the place still smelled the same, cigar smoke and a bottle of rye in the bottom paper safe.

A moment to honor the best of the best by the best:
Weegee, by Halsman
(different cats, same jungle)

A co-worker at my .gov long ago (25 years) used to shoot Florida Panther Hockey athletes in-game action and did so to sell prints to other co-workers. Film. It was his side hobby. I dont know what he charged.

(Ok, I really only wanted to revive this thread. This was the first one for this category.)

Q. Does anyone shoot sports action scenes and sell their photography to others locally, meaning at work? Sort of like kids buying chocolates cheap and selling hi at school. The guy got fired for other reasons btw.