One of the most frustrating things with my Birth Years card series is waiting for usable pictures to appear.I am down to one card remaining for the 2010 season. This series, which lately has been coming every Wednesday until yesterday, will be postponed until a proper card can be made or the end of the season. I'm still waiting for a usable photograph of relief pitcher Gregory Infante. I have three photos of him in a Chicago White Sox uniform, but there are issues with each one.
The first is an extreme close-up of Greg on his first day with the parent club, with an upside-down Gatorade cup stuck to his hat with gum. It's definitely a different photo, but I can't use it for a 1987 Topps card. The second is another close-up of Greg, not as close as the first one, but still not usable on the card design because it was done with a studio backdrop. The third is another angle of the Gatorade cup, this time a wide shot.
The third shot is usable, but it doesn't fit in with the general vibe of the card set. See, that's important too. The wrong type of photograph can break the illusion of that year's original set. Anyone can make a custom card and slap a photo in there. I pride myself in getting the details right, at least most of the time.
Gregory has been with the club since September 1st, when the Gatorade cup pictures were taken. Since that point, he has appeared in four games spread out over 3.2 innings. To me, that would seem ample time to get at least one usable game photo taken. Or at least a shot of him warming up or just hanging around the stadium. The kid made his MLB debut on September 7th and there isn't one single photo of that? Out of the sixty-three pitches that he has thrown as a big leaguer, not one picture exists? That's ridiculous.
Instead, I've been seeing too many pictures of Manny Ramirez, every other reliever that's entered a game this month, and an Oakland A's fan that needs to see a dermatologist about some nasty two-tone green fungus growing on their skin.
There are ten more games. I'm hoping to find a decent photo of Infante pitching during those ten games, but if not, there will be a card all ready to go. Not one that I'm 100% on, but one that might have to do.
5 comments:
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/551804/139879_rays_white_sox_baseball_large.jpg
Not the best for an 87 Topps, but better than a Gatorade Cup/Bazooka love-child.
I'll keep searching...
My bust. He wears #47. Sorry!
That's a photo of Carlos Torres from 2009. It gets misidentified as Infante for some odd reason.
Thanks for looking though. I appreciate it! :-)
As a relative newbie in the card creations, I feel your pain. For the most part, I don't worry about the picture fitting the feel of the set, because if I find a picture of a jersey-wearing celeb, odds are it is one of a kind. I do have a few pictures with studio backdrops which I haven't used.
To paraphrase Kramer as said to the Soup Nazi, "You're an artist. You suffer for your craft."
Great work all around though.
Reminds me, do you have birth year cards of the coaches?
If the coaches were former White Sox players, they will get a card when I go back far enough. Ozzie has a manager card, but it will be many cards before Jerry Manuel gets one for the 2003 season. Oops! I just gave away plans for the offseason. :-)
Coaches typically have a high turnover rate and they tend not to be photographed as much, so I've opted only to do players and managers. I have a hard enough time finding pictures of some players. The further I go back, the harder it is to obtain photographs of certain players.
I'm still looking for a manager photo for Doug Rader and many players from the 90s and 80s.
BTW, I love the Kramer paraphrase. It just made my day!
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