Branching Out / by Grey Gallinger

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I'm currently sitting in a stuffy hotel room 12 hours due south of Winnipeg, in Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm here for the Winnipeg Goldeyes four game stretch against the Lincoln Saltdogs, shooting photos as a freelance gig for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Tonight was the last game, Winnipeg suffered a tough loss to cap off their 10 game road trip, coming home with an 8-2 record. Not too bad really.

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This trip is my first real forray into sports photography, as well as working within a tight deadline. Over the course of four days I've shot somewhere around 4,000 photos, a mix of portraits, candids, and action shots. The 40mm that's usually permanently mounted to my 5D Mark II has been replaced by a 200mm f/2.8. Instead of wide angles, immense depths of field, and black & white urban landscapes, my camera has been narrowly focused on pitchers and batters and moments caught at 1/8000th of a second. My dimly lit apartment that acts as my studio has been replaced by the press box at Haymarket Park.

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Needless to say the whole experience has been new to me. I've made some mistakes, but I've learned a bunch. I've taken some shots I'm proud of, and have had more photos published in a week than I've ever had published before.

Now I'm looking forward to getting home. Lincoln's been a blast, but it's hot, I'm running out of clean laundry, and my cat is probably getting lonely.