Sam Bennett's photostream  

Okay, it's about time that I said a few things about me...


(photo and awesome t-shirt courtesy of the lovely and talented Fairy Brutal)

First things first: I'm not a professional photographer. I am a web-application developer by trade. I love my real job, although it's incredibly demanding and often stressful.

Photography was originally an outlet for my overflowing creativity, but over the past few years I've started shooting some events "professionally" (meaning, people pay me to do it) and is starting to become "drudgery". I'm trying to fight this though, by mixing things up when I can.

What do I shoot professionally? My main thing is a Dog Sport called "Flyball". It's a relay race run with 4 dogs going over a series of jumps, grabbing a tennis ball shot out of a spring-loaded box, turning around and coming over the same four jumps while the next dog is released. The teams are timed, and whoever gets the fastest time without incurring a "foul" wins. It sounds bizarre, but it's a hoot - been doing it for about 5 years and I'm still not bored with it (which is saying a lot with my attention span).




I started off by competing with my dogs, and when I got back into photography with the purchase of my first dSLR (Canon Digital Rebel if you're taking notes) I started realizing that there was a market for high quality photography within the sport. I've honed my technique and approach to Flyball photography to the point where I now have an extensive onsite printing setup that I bring to events. We make enough money to keep investing into it, and that's good enough for me.

Our onsite printing setup at an event (read about it here)



I also shoot for the Carolina Rollergirls, Raleigh's Roller Derby team - 3rd in the nation, baby! I supposedly shoot Roller Derby "professionally", but I haven't billed them in a year, so I'll let you decide if I'm a liar or not. Personally I'm pretty content in just being associated with such an awesome collection of gals and guys making fun for themselves - it's a really amazing group of people. If you haven't been to a Roller Derby recently - go. It's a blast. I like to think I'm pretty good at shooting it after doing it for a few years...





I was a Canon dSLR shooter for years, using the 300D, 350D, 20D, 5D, 1D Mark I, 1D Mark II and 1D Mark III throughout that time. I've recently made the jump to Nikon since I wanted to simplify my setup down to a few high-quality zoom lenses and the noise performance of the D3/D700 allowed me to do that. I'm currently shooting with a couple D700's, which I love.

Finally... I'm a sarcastic, intelligent guy with a fairly dry wit. I tend to offend on the internet, but not in person. When you read my posts, please keep the following photo in mind:



I do not take myself too seriously, please imagine me laughing instead of scowling when I'm making a pointed comment about something you may have said. Remember, it's just the internet.