I started my internship with the Winston-Salem Dash minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox today. After introducing myself to everyone, I received my shot list for the evening and got to work. There was a good crowd on hand for the opening game of the regular season, plenty of on-field activities between innings, and a fireworks display following the game. I spent most the night shooting with a Canon EF 70-300mm 4-5.6 lens on a Canon 7D. As the sunlight faded I did have to bump the ISO to 640 and still managed to take well exposed shots. I didn't like losing the depth of field, but my current lenses will perform admirably until I can afford faster glass.

One of the reasons I took the internship was to gain experience shooting action and portraits, and after looking at my stills I'm glad I'll have the summer to improve. During the night, I noticed my portraits and group photos were loosely framed, and I think my landscape photography caused those mistakes. You've got to capture people's faces. Most of the night I was too far away or not punched in tightly. As a film director I know the importance of the close-up, and that's no different when photographing people at a sporting event. That's an exciting revelation to see how photography will strengthen my directorial sensibilities in terms of framing a scene for dramatic impact.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer and maybe renting some fast lenses for a weekend. ;)