Jennifer Greybeck

In the 2005 Outlaws season Jennifer Greybeck was sidelined with an injury. 

Jennifer is at the left, #34.  She is posing with several other
players sidelined with injuries.

I carried two Nikon cameras to the games, my new digital and my old reliable film model.  She asked me about the two and pretty soon offered to help me shoot the game.  I gave her the digital and asked her to get some fun sideline pictures and try to get some action photos.  Specifically I asked her to try to get line play because the line tends to get limited exposure. 

You need to understand that the digital camera is difficult to use.  Well, it is a point-and-shoot and should be automatic but it takes practice learning where the camera focus is sharpest and how to shoot with limited lighting.  And there is a shutter lag - you trip the shutter and the camera pauses before taking the picture.  Terribly annoying when doing candids and action.  

I didn't teach Jennifer how to use the camera.  Just told her to have fun and we'd see how it came out. 

The pictures I'm about to share aren't technically perfect.  Some not even close.  But they reflect Jennifer's personality.  Fun loving, willing to try.  And able to get her subjects to act up for the camera.

When I shoot individuals it is from a distance. They rarely know I'm focusing in.  With Jennifer, the players knew.  And obviously approved and liked the photographer.

Action shots were much more difficult with that little camera.  My action photos have improved a hundred times with my new Nikon D40.  The old one, the one I had Jennifer using, was extremely difficult to use for sports photography. 

But Jennifer did a pretty good job, don't you think?

Photo by Jennifer Greybeck - This is a great shot with any camera.  Jennifer was getting the timing down.

Jennifer caught the opponent making an illegal block.  I think
that's Laurin Smith being denied the tackle. 



I asked Jennifer to get photos of the line play because the line
gets left out of the spotlight.  This is one of her line photos.



I'm shy.  During the game I keep to myself. I figure coaches and players are busy with the business of winning a game.  They don't need to entertain me.  The fact that Jennifer became a photographer's assistant says something about her, not me.  She was friendly, outgoing, inquisitive.  Eager to try something different, eager to learn.  She initiated our friendship. 

After 2005 I didn't see her.  It was only the one season we visited a little.  But in that brief time I felt I had made a friend. 

I miss her.