Check out this short behind-the-scenes video of a sports photoshoot by St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Chris Lee. Call me a photo nerd, but I love being a voyuer on stuff like this! ;)

Maybe it's just a slow sports news day...but I LOVE it when Sports Illustrated does these features of their top photographers and their favorite shots. Check out uber-talented sports photographer Peter Miller's gallery of favorite shots...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0711/gallery.canon.miller/content.1.html

USA Today staff sports photography extraordinaire Robert Hanshahiro is featured on this video -- demonstrating the 3 camera, remote-trigged set-up that USA Today used to capture Barry Bonds' 756th home run. The video takes a little while to load (it's 26 MB, don't try this from a dial-up connection!) but it's worth the wait. Enjoy!

In case you have trouble with the link, here is the URL: (copy + paste into your browser's address bar)

http://www.sportsshooter.com/special_feature/30fps/

Recently I read an article on Sportsshooter.com about assisting other photographers. The author, Jared Dort, documented his recent experience assisting USA Today staff photographer Robert Hanashiro on a two day assignment. Click here to read the article.

Here is a quote of Bert's (Robert Hanashiro) from a converstation he had with Jared.

"The person assisting me is there mainly as an extra pair of hands and more importantly, an extra pair of eyes. I am usually concentrating so much on one thing at a time - aiming a grid or working with the subject - having someone else there on my side (not some publicist) looking at the whole picture can be helpful."

Sports Illustrated has a cool gallery of "Favorite Shots" images. Click here to see a collection of photographer Simon Bruty's favorites. I think it's cool that Simon gives a bit of history behind each shot and that the camera / lens information is presented as well -- it certainly shows the diversity of lenses he employs!

More SI photographer "Favorite Shots" galleries can be accessed by clicking here.

Recently I went out to shoot some collegiate baseball pictures. I had a picture in mind where I would focus just on the ball being pitched -- the ideal shot would freeze the motion of the ball with only the ball in focus. Here is one of the shots I got that day...

Many people ask how this shot is done. Well, it's kinda like what the character Edna Mode from the movie The Incredibles says..."Luck favors the prepared."

Luck is basically being able to time a shot that involves timing the placement of an object to arrive at a fixed focal length in less than a half second.

Preparation is -- manually prefocusing on a spot approximately two-thirds of the distance between the pitcher and home plate, use the infield grass. Also, shoot in manual exposure mode -- the fewer decisions the camera has to make, the better. To freeze the action of the ball you'll need the fastest shutter speed your camera will allow -- and don't try this at night! ;)

The above image was captured at ISO 400, 1/6400th shutter speed, f2.8.

I positioned myself directly behind home plate and shot through the backstop netting. You'll have to just keep practicing to get the timing of the pitched ball delivery to coincide with the arrival of the ball at your pre-focused distance. Yes, it will take some practice. But that's the beauty of digital photography -- it's not costing you any more to keep shooting!

I sit here in my comfy living room recliner witnessing Duke take an unusual early exit from the NCAA tourney (there goes my bracket...I don't remember when I had them leaving...but it wasn't in the first round!), I'm compelled to post a good tip for sports photography.

Probably one of the best web-resources for sports photographers is sportsshooter.com and the Sports Shooter Academy IV is just around the corner. Sports Shooter Academy is a five day hands-on training experience that puts students right along the sidelines of NCAA sporting events. Some day I'd love to attend one of these!! One of the coolest things about Sports Shooter Academy is the reasonable cost -- under $500 for students and just $550 for working pros.