Sunday, June 7, 2009

Heartbreak


Sometimes digital photography can break your heart. This past weekend I was called to shoot the Best of the West fastpitch tournament in beautiful Santa Barbara. I spent two days on the ball fields, capturing what I thought was some of my best shots, and it was all for not. As many of you have seen, I carry quite a bit of gear, and in open parks such as the one in Santa Barbara I have to be watchful of where the gear is at all times as it is open to the public. I even take advantage of my friendships with the fans and players to keep an eye on the gear when I am not around. However, all precaution aside, I like to keep the digital chips with me. In case the gear disappears, I always have the images that I have worked hard to capture. This past weekend something went horribly wrong and I lost the case that contained the chips with the photos of the last day of the tournament. I can’t describe the feeling of losing those photos and the sense of disappointment in not being able to provide Dave, the tournament director, and the players the images that they saw me taking throughout the tournament. This has given me time to reflect and reconsider my approach and with the help of my very able husband we are working on a workflow process to avoid this in the future. So for now, if you do not see your team in the photos, know it was not intentional and that I am truly sorry for the loss. In the meantime, I was able to save some photos from the first day and some from the second. You can find them here for your viewing pleasure.