I got my first exposure to digital photography in 1999, when I assisted Gabe Palacio in a shoot at Fenway. He was using a digital camera to create Quicktime VRs of the field at Fenway. It was a lot of fun and the VRs came out very well -- until the Red Sox PR Director noticed what we were doing. Apparently, Major League Baseball is reviewing what it's future options are regarding it's properties on the Internet, and they have a ban on people producing content specifically for the Internet.
My first work with a digital camera was at the Sports Illustrated 20th Century Sports Awards where I shot the arrivals. The idea was to shuttle the flash card from the camera to a laptop where the images could be posted to cnnsi.com almost immediately. It didn't work out quite so seamlessly however; the photos didn't actually make it online until the following Monday. You can see the gallery here, and below are some outtakes. Or, you can check out my Roy Jones fight coverage, also shot on digital.
These were shot on a Nikon D1 using a 2.8 35-70mm Nikkor zoom lens and a Nikon speedlight, which I had to bounce in order to avoid burning the images. The internal white balance of the camera worked well enough -- everyone's tuxedo shirts are white; but the lights in the arrival area left a yellow cast on everyone's skin. Overall, I found the camera fairly easy to use, with the only problem being the speed that the camera writes to the flash card. The liquid crystal display on the back of the camera was wonderful for editing shots on the fly. Yogi Berra apparently liked his picture so much, he called to ask for a copy. It's on display at The Yogi Berra Museum.
