When do you take or not take the photo?  Whether or not you are a professional at times this can be a dilemma and potentially create problems for you.  Hopefully if you’ve pondered this question ahead of time you won’t freeze when it’s your time to capture that once in a lifetime photo.  As my mentors often told me, it’s easier to delete or throw away a photo than it is to not have one to start with.

I previously worked for the San Diego Padres as one of two contract team photographers.  My assignment was to cover a fundraiser for the Hall of Champions featuring two of the best hitters ever in baseball, Ted Williams (right) and Tony Gwynn.  Going into the event the premise was simple.  The patrons for the evening would be able to have their photo taken with Mr. Williams and Mr. Gwynn and then later enjoy a discussion on the art of hitting.  Simple concept?  No……

Hall of Famer, Ted Williams was passionate about hitting.  He had a profound respect and enjoyed talking about the art with Tony Gwynn.  Apparently either he wasn’t told about the photo shoot, or he didn’t care.  All he was interested in was talking hitting with Gwynn.  Each time someone one came up behind them for a photo I would have to say something like, ” look here sir, look here Ted, look here Captain” to get his attention.  Finally “The Splendid Splinter” got fed up.  Without any hint he went ballistic and angrily blurted out “I show you something to look at…..” and proceeded to award me the double bird.  I shot the photo without hesitation.  Needless to say William’s handlers rushed in to stop him and calm him down.  Gwynn and John Moore’s nephew (the boy behind them) were shocked and later Gwynn would laugh and joke about it.  After a few minutes we continued shooting the last few guests and moved on to the rest of the evening’s schedule.

After the film was processed and printed the image was circulated to the ownership of the Padres.  It was decided that even though it was a great photo that it would not be released or published until after the death of Mr. Williams.  However, several prints were made and given to a select few.

I have great respect for the subjects in my photo.  However, I am first and foremost a photojournalist.  Without the photo, often times there is no story.

Technical notes:  Shot with a Hasseblad ELM and a 50mm lens on neg film using Dynalites.  The image above was scanned and color corrected in Photoshop from an 8×10 print.

My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com

Old archives and sports images are on: www.bigstudioz.com