Masters Week Photo Blog Part 1

As the excitement of the Masters starts up again, the Augusta Chronicle staff figured this would be a good opportunity to show people what it is we do, and how we do it during the long week that is about to unfold. During the rest of the year, when most of us meet new people, whether from Augusta or not, they are very often fascinated by what it's like to cover the Masters.

It's a lot of hard work, fun, and teamwork.

So every day of Masters week, we'll be updating our blog with behind the scenes photos and writings about what we're up to at the National.

Today, Michael Snyder, the director of photography, and I got our credentials and arrived at the press building to set up gear. We have what we call a darkroom (from the old film days, we are all digital now) where two editors will look at every single frame our staff of photographers take. Each photographer will be outfitted with two Nikon D3 and Nikon D2Xs camera bodies each with the usual wide angle and medium zoom lens (70-200mm f2.8). In addition we have several pool lenses available to the six staff photographers including one 600mm f4, one 500mm f4, four 400mm f2.8, two 300mm f2.8 and a couple 200-400mm f4. Yes we can shoot the moon with them, and yes, if we get close enough, we can shoot Tiger's nose hairs. But the things weigh a ton and by Sunday's final round our shoulders are very sore (the 600mm alone weighs in at 11.2 pounds).

Below are two images, one an overview of the darkroom, and another focusing on the lenses we have.

Stay tuned tomorrow to learn more about the editing process and where the photos go when we're done.