Lazy Foxboro

I’m sure it has nothing to do with skit from that show I don’t watch — I’m only aware of it from watching The Office — but it sums up the point pretty well. I don’t even remember when I promised to get these up, but the photos I took at the Pats playoff game against the Jets on January 7th are finally on flickr. My laziness is to blame for the delay.

I think the biggest problem with something like this is taking the time to sort thru all the shots taken and then taking some time to crop or adjust them. Well, remembering how long it took me last time, I kept putting it off and I really need to get better about this if I am to be serious about it being a part of this blog.

I took 462 shots at the Jets game, which is roughly twice what I took at the Colts game in November. Trimming that down to the 87 shots I posted in the photo set was very time consuming… and then deciding if I wanted to edit them or not… and then actually doing it… and then uploading them… and then giving them name, descriptions and tagging them… well, it took at least five hours, if not longer.

That is with me cutting corners too by basically not doing any adjustments for sharpness or color or brightness, etc. I also cut another corner by not keeping a standard frame ratio when cropping them. I vowed to do this, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it this time given the large amount of photos, so I cheated and just free-formed my selections, and to be honest, I feel okay with it.

You see, the bottom line is almost none of you will take any time to look at the photos, never mind click on them to access the larger sizes — click the “All Sizes” button above the photo on the detail page — where you can see the detail. I know that it should be evident if it is a good shot from the small size, but looking at it larger really shows the detail that makes it even better.

screenshot of the All Sizes button

Now, I realize some of you just aren’t interested in looking at the photos because they are football or because we are already more than a month removed from the season, and that is fine. Offense is not taken if you don’t want to check out my photography. It is just that if no one is, then why am I spending five hours on a Saturday night posting them? If you are checking them out, then comments are appreciated so that I know what I am doing well or what needs work.

So, there is one new set for all the shots I decided to upload for the game and then there is one of just the cheerleaders, which is a combination of this game and four from the Colts game. For now, I kept the cheerleaders in both sets plus their own, but I don’t know that I’ll keep it that way. Anyway, I guess that set is for the boys. 😉

As for the game itself, well it was pretty good and obviously we won… mostly because the Jets suck. I went with my friend Jay from work and we had our usual seats. During the X-Mas shopping season, I picked up the big lens I wanted as a present for myself. You should really notice the difference in two ways: the first being it stops the motion a lot better — look for the sand being kicked up from the field turf — and the second being it has a much longer reach, so the close ups of all the guy’s asses during warm ups are so much better!

Hey, so does anyone know if The Donald was at the game? I have one shot in there were I swear it is him ,or at least his hair, but I have no confirmation. Amazing what you’ll pick up when looking at the detail because I don’t know that I noticed him when I took it. I did see Joe Perry though, not that I’m an Aerosmith fan in the least. Nice entourage though dude…

I think I mentioned in the previous post that I wanted the bigger, faster lens. Man, I really wish I bit the bullet before that game because I took a lot of the pre-game shots from the same area as those seats (didn’t see Johnny Mac), so the game shots would have been amazing from that spot, although I think they were pretty good anyway. I’m still having some trouble with nailing down the settings I want for each situation and sometimes I get stuck on the wrong ones because I forget to change them. That comes with experience.

I can’t wait for Spring to get sprung so that I can get out and walkabout Boston or someplace else and fire away without freezing my t!ts off. The lack of good snowfall this Winter hasn’t exactly encouraged me to get out there.