Roller Derby Photographer’s Day?
What is it all about?
2.8 is a reference to the maximum or the most wide-open aperture of the typical prime or zoom lens that you see a photographer use around the track. 2.8 is also the ideal or the ticket into the world of shooting sports. The rationale is the more light the lens can let in, the better the odds of not having a dark picture. Even if one can afford the 300 f/2.8 lens that is only the beginning. After the camera and the lens comes the accumulation of contacts and building of experience. There are of course faster lenses which are just as ideal. 2.8 is just the maximum aperture of a typical long sports lens. Someone might fawningly look at the camera or lens slung over the shoulder of the photographer, some might say it is not the camera or the lens that matters, but it is the camera and the lens that matters. Many thoughts and dollars go towards the consideration of the camera and the lenses. Knowing what to do with it all, that is another matter.
I do not need any special day. We are here to celebrate and thank you. As a reflection of the year of what derby leagues and teams and players and coaches – junior or senior – and volunteers and fans go through, most of my friends out there know the distances and lengths that I fly or ride the buses or travel in your cars carrying suitcases of gear.
2.8 With maximum aperture comes maximum effort.
And I would have to cite my influence Cartier Bresson:
“There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment,” wrote the 17th-century cleric and memoirist Cardinal de Retz, “and the masterpiece of good ruling is to know and seize this moment.”
Midnight Matinee 