Before anyone asks again...

Since everyone always asks why photos take so long to get posted...

[elynah.com]

People often don't realize that there's a lot more to high quality photography than simply simply pointing and clicking. Not that this surprises me, since I didn't realize this before recently having a couple of long conversations with a friend about digital photography.

damn age your pictures always look great but when seeing the originals it shows how awesome the final product really is. nice work.



Post Edited (11-06-03 15:56)

Age:

As a pro-photographer from a past age (1966-1981), I marvel at how the digital process makes aspects of photography easier than the old silver image methods. It's still not quite instantaneous! However the talent to make a decent image is still the same. It takes a high level of concentration to keep a steady hand and a sharp eye, particularly with a decent telephoto lens.

And there's one more thing: When you're a fan as well, you can't cheer at the same time as you're shooting. I always found that to be particularly difficult when photographing Cornell hockey to keep my emotions in check until after the photo was made.

I really enjoy seeing your images on the web. Very nice work.

Larry '72
Cornell Sun Photographer 1968-70
Ithaca Journal Photographer 1967-68, 70-72, 74-77
Syracuse Herald Journal Photographer 1973

Hi Larry,

To my eye, your black & white photos and Age's color are almost different media. Anyway, I still have not seen anyone's silver images of hockey games that capture the action better than yours did. Maybe I've told you this before, but when you returned to the Journal in '74 I vividly remember seeing a Cornell hockey photo in the paper from across the room and saying, "Larry's back!" I couldn't tell you the specific subject (beyond Cornell hockey), but the style, the composition, the crispness was distinctive and superb. You always had a shot with the perfect angle and timing.

There was a lot to cheer about in those days, wasn't there?

-Dave Harding '72

David:

Thanks much. It was a lot of fun back then and there was a lot to cheer about. Still is today!!

There's no question that the color digital photography of today has a completely different feel from the black & white images of the '60s and '70s. There is a tremendous amount of detail in the color images, particularly in the shadows, that just wasn't possible in the old B&W images.

Not only is the digital technology better, so is the light in Lynah. Remember the old lights...the "really" old lights. I think the lights in the late '60s and '70s were the originals from when Lynah was built. They were changed in the late '70s if I remember correctly and again just recently. Those original lights were pretty bad with the rink looking like it had numerous rings of bright and partially shadowed areas. I can only imagine how hard it was for the players to see the puck at times. It was tough to photograph in as well...for the photographers on the forum, there was over one "f" stop difference between the bright and dark areas. Also the "bright" areas in those days were at least 2 stops less than we have today. We had to "push" the B&W film to EI (ASA) 1600 or 2400 to get decent shutter speeds. Of course the shadow detail decreased dramatically with that technique, but we had images.

I also had a few angles to shoot from that are not really available to today's photographers:
- There was no netting at the ends of the rink so it was possible to shoot from the "platforms" at the scoreboard end of the rink.
- The scoreboard end also had a lower glass height than it does today, so we used to use a step ladder from the corners and behind the glass to shoot over the glass. I did that a bit. The master of that angle was Randy Shew, an editor at the Ithaca Journal who used that angle a lot in the early to mid '60s.
- Until the boards and boxes were redone relatively recently, we could shoot unobstructed from the single penaly box. It always was interesting when the box was full.

Larry '72

Reading Larry and David's posts makes me wonder: is there enough material for a pictoral history of CU Hockey in, say, coffee table book or other format? I know that when historical photos of Ken Dryden were scanned and posted here, I and a lot of others were really fascinated. I would be very interested to see Larry's work and others through the years.

Olin library has Daily Sun and Ithaca Journal on microfilms. That's one way to find old pictures and articles.