The North Star Marching Band marches off the field as Sioux City North takes on Ottumwa during football action at Olsen Stadium Friday, August 31, 2007. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Tonight’s weather almost made up for the other day when I had to shoot photos in the pouring rain at South Sioux City’s football practice for a preview story. Actually, the perfect Friday night weather is when there is a bit of a chill in the air, enough that a cup of hot chocolate tastes great but not enough to freeze my toes.

Anyway, the photo gallery from North’s game against Ottumwa is up, so check it out!

Sioux City North’s Anthony Tomscha carries against Ottumwa during football action at Olsen Stadium Friday, August 31, 2007. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Coach Matt LaFleur watches his players as rain falls during South Sioux City football practice Tuesday, August 28, 2007. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

A few days ago I wrote that I was excited about the start of football season. I take it back. What the heck was I thinking. I forgot about having to shoot in the rain.

Well, OK, I’m still excited about football season, but today I had to shoot photos at the South Sioux City practice for a preview story, and it poured. Shooting in the rain is not fun. Thank goodness for autofocus. Between the water drops on my eyeglasses and the viewfinders on my cameras fogging up, I could hardly see anything when I was shooting. I had a towel to keep my cameras dry, but it wasn’t enough. Hopefully it will be dryer on Friday for the game.

Judy Eisley, Sioux City, and her son Anthony, 2, feed a swan at Memorial Park Cemetery on a sunny Monday afternoon, August 27, 2007. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Ever wonder what a typical day is like for a newspaper photographer? I once had a co-worker from another department tell me that she thought all we did was drive around looking for photos all day long. I wish it were that easy.

We shoot it all…. news, sports, features, entertainment, politics, business. If it’s in the newspaper, we shoot it. And besides what is in the Journal each day, we also shoot photos for the Journal niche publications such as Siouxland Health Magazine, Home Magazine, Hispanos Unidos, and occasionally the Weekender.

And we don’t just shoot the photos and call it a day. The photos need to be captioned, toned and preped for reproduction. And not just the photos we shoot. The photo department also has to do the pre-press work on all of the Associated Press photos you see in the paper as well as all of the submitted photos such as business mugs, obituary photos, weddings, anniversaries, out-and-about photos…. If you see it on one of the news pages we did the pre-press work on it. Add it all up and we probably spend 2 to 4 hours a day, sometimes more, sitting at a computer working on photos. And in addition to the photos, we are now using more and more video on the web, which means even more computer time.

Some days are so hectic we just have to shoot and scoot at each assignment and may not be able to cover everything the reporters and editors want us to shoot. Those are the days when my dinner break is a hot dog at a ball game.

But some day are slow. And those are the days we hop in our cars and drive around looking for feature photos — a nice, slice-of-life photo that can stand on it’s own without a story. And of course, we are always keeping our eyes open for photo ops. When I was an intern in Jacksonville, Florida, one of the photographers told me that whenever possible I should take a different route on my way back from an assignment that I took on my way there because you never know what you might find. Great advice.

Had some time to kill earlier and I was surfing the website for one of my favorite online camera retailers. When logged onto their site I can view my order history for the last several years. I clicked on one order from about three years ago where I paid $180 for a Lexar 512mb compact flash card. Prices for memory cards have dropped some since then. That same card now: $16.95.

So far most of my blog entries have been me just rambling on about whatever pops into my head. And I’m more than willing to keep doing that. But if there is anything photo related that you, the reader, would like me to write about please let me know. You can email me at jimlee@siouxcityjournal.com with your questions, comments, concerns.

I know there are at least three people reading this blog, so I want to see those requests rolling in.

Briar Cliff players and coaches pose for a team photo during Briar Cliff football media day Saturday, August 25, 2007 (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Today I had to start work early to cover the Briar Cliff football media day. Their media day was scheduled at noon at Memorial Field with a scrimmage scheduled from 9-11 a.m. at the Briar Cliff practice field. Since I had to work until 9 p.m. and only needed a couple of shots anyway, I figured I’d just show up at 10 a.m.

When I got to the Briar Cliff campus at 10 there were no football players, only students moving into the dorms. A man directing traffic told me the scrimmage was moved to the golf dome in South Sioux City because of the weather. I looked up at the clear blue sky and jokingly asked “What, is the sky too blue?”

Apparently recent rains left the field too wet, so off to South Sioux City I go. I cross over Vets Bridge and I see several people with signs protesting illegal immigration. I had no idea the protest was going on, but figured the editors would probably want to see some coverage from it, especially since a couple of TV stations were already there.

So I stop to shoot a few photos then off to the golf dome I go. I pull into the parking lot just in time to see the players leaving. Oops. Well, I tried. Luckily the main photos we needed were from the media day scheduled at noon so we still have pics.

Mike Narducci, Omaha, speaks in a microphone as members the Nebraska Minuteman Civil Defense Corps stand along Dakota Avenue in South Sioux City to protest illegal aliens Saturday, August 25, 2007 (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

First photo gallery for the football season is up: Dakota Valley vs Tri-Valley

I always get excited at the start of football season. Nothing beats being on the sidelines on a warm autumn evening or shooting a college game on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Of course, I’m always cursing the day I first picked up a camera when I have to shoot a game in the freezing rain or while standing in a foot of snow.

Dakota Valley players take the field against Tri-Valley during football action at Dakota Valley Friday, August 24, 2007 (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal)

Reading about all of these new toys from Nikon and Canon got me to thinking about how much photography has changed since I bought my first SLR camera, a Canon AE-1, in 1981.

When I first started, newspapers were all black and white. Yes, some of the big newspapers had color on their section fronts, but for most of us it was a black and white world. And we all shot Tri-X. It was rated at ASA 400, and if we were shooting indoor or night time sports we would often push it to ASA 1600 or even 3200. I know this means nothing to the non-photo types out there, but that meant the photos would be grainy looking.

Then along came Kodak P3200, a black and white film the was designed to be shot at ASA 3200 and suddenly our low-light sports stuff looked good. But then all of the newspapers started running more color photos. The color films looked great at ASA 100, OK at ASA 400, but really bad at ASA 1600 and above.

Then Kodak and Fuji came out with new color films that looked good in low-light situations, but along came digital. The first digital cameras were expensive. The quality was passable at ASA 200, but is was just plain ugly for shooting indoor and night time sports.

But digital cameras kept improving and getting cheaper. And now digital looks far better than 35mm film ever did. And guess what? Now we’re switching to video. The web is the future of journalism and readers want to see more video. We’ll still be shooting a lot of stills (for now), but we will also be taking still frames from the video to run in the newspaper. The roller coaster ride continues.

Actually, it’s more of a tidal wave. Today Nikon announced the D3, a full-frame 12.1 megapixel camera, and the D300, a 12 megapixel DX format camera. You can read the the specs for yourself, but assuming the quality is there, the D3 may be the ultimate sports photography camera.

Nikon also introduced some new, cool lenses. A 14-24mm f/2.8 and a 24-70mm f/2.8. Nikon also updated some of the super-telephoto lenses, adding vibration reduction to them.

Canon announced a couple of new cameras today, the Canon 1DS MarkIII and the Canon 40D.

The 1DS MarkIII is Canon’s top-of-the-line 21.1 megapixel camera and will have about an $8000 price tag. The 40D is a 10.1 megapixel camera and is more in my price range at $1300.

Right now I shoot with a Canon 20D and a 30D. I used to be one of those photographers that had to have the newest, top-of-the-line camera, but I’ve learned over the years that I tend to be rough on cameras. And yes, the top-of-the-line cameras are supposed to be built better, but I found the average life expectancy of a camera in my hands is 2 to 3 years regardless of build quality. Usually, the second model down from the top has the quality and features I need, and it saves me a whole lot of money.

So most likely my next camera purchase will be a 40D. It should have improved autofocus and better image quality compared to my 30D and it will take all of the same accessories that I already have. And my 20D is about 2 1/2 years old so it’s about time to cycle it out of my line-up.

Canon also introduced a few new lenses, nothing that excites me, though. They have a new 14mm f/2.8 L II USM, which is an update of their previous 14mm f/2.8 L and should have better optics. And they have a couple of new consumer zooms, an EF-S 18-55 mm IS and 55-250 mm IS.