It is important to recognize your strengths and weaknesses.

In sports, each player has a specific task to complete that speaks to his or her strengths. Like the pitcher in baseball. He can throw a 90 mph fast ball, but when it comes to being on the other side of that ball, he can’t always hit it out of the park.

In photography, you have photographers who can shoot just about everything from sports, to features, to concerts, to portraits, and in the world of photojournalism, it is so important to have these dynamic shooters out there. Typically however, most photographers really excel at just one of those, like sports.

I am here to tell you today that I am not that photographer.

Two weekends ago, I assisted Dan at a University of Denver hockey game. He was going on behalf of The Denver Post, and did a fantastic job (see his images here). I was able to try my hand at shooting some frames as well, but to be totally honest, sort of flailed around. The image that heads this post is really the best of about 400 that  I walked away with.

It is hard. Don’t let the pros fool you. They make incredible images and they often make it look effortless,  but let me tell you: it ain’t so easy.

Sports in general – but hockey perhaps especially – are very fast-paced. The players fly by, spinning about face at a moments’ notice, switching it up, passing the puck or ball, running each other over, falling over, turning over, all before the game is over.

It’s madness I tell you!

So, while I had a great time giving it a go that Saturday, and while I will definitely give sports photography another try in the future (and another, and another), for now, I’ll stick to my strengths and continue to focus (photography pun of the day! I’m a nerd I know…I’ll understand if we can no longer be friends) on my favorites: lifestyle and feature photography.