People often compliment me on my photography and I appreciate that. But if they only knew.

Well I’m going to tell you. In fact I may have written this column before. I’m old, I forget things. Which seems to be going around lately.

My photography has gotten better these days with the advent of electronic shutters and lightning fast auto focus. So you see with the right equipment taking great photos is not that hard. It’s just a matter of right place, right time and paying attention.

The biggest challenge I have doing my job anymore, the only real problem, is that I have to identify who is in all those great images. And not just the name of who is in on the play. Do I have the team names and all the other facts of the contest correct?

So here is where it becomes a problem, if I don’t have access to an accurate program, roster or line up, I’m scrambling.

The photos, that’s the easy part- getting the correct player names- that seems to be like pulling teeth at times these days.

Whether it’s people choosing to save trees and not use up paper, lack of workers or volunteers to create the roster or just laziness, not every venue or contest bothers to make a program. I understand there is a cost to printing them but not everyone in attendance is the mom, dad or second cousin of the goal keeper or quarterback. So a program could come in handy for many of those at the game, not just me.

There are times when I cover three games in one night, I can’t just wait by the locker room door after the game to ask the coach or individual players to spell their names. Logistics require me to take the photos and dash to the next gym.

I’m not sure what the future holds for the printed roster but I do know if I didn’t have a smart phone I would be totally in the dark when that hard copy is not around. Thankfully I can find a few team websites and other sources online to get the information.

Maybe it’s because I’m a dinosaur. I learned to write Associated Press style cutlines in high school in 1978 and old habits of asking Who, What, When, Where and Why are hard to break. It’s my responsibility to not only make that cool image of Susie making the play but also to get the family name spelled correctly for all the world to see. (Okay, some of the world, this website isn’t THAT big).

I could go on with stories about football programs with double player numbers. You know, two 11’s, one is a starter and one is a red-shirt freshman still in street clothes, which you figure out after having written three cutlines using the wrong number 11. Trying to decipher the chicken scratch of a hand written baseball line up and trying to remember the correct spelling of a player’s last name when the coach or the school has spelled it wrong all season.

While I know it’s not as big an issue as global warming or even what’s for dinner, for that matter. But for me it is a preoccupation that churns my stomach at times just before kick-off. Until I have that roster sheet or printed program in my hands and know for sure each name listed, both home and visitor, has its own number next to it, I can’t rest easy.

Once I have those names and numbers the easy part, the magic, begins: point, focus and push the shutter.