In modern sports, the great photography is often taken for granted. This story from Clive Brunskill details the challenges of shooting the 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

“It got to the point that it got so dark, I had to put my fastest lense on for match point...And I just remember thinking, I can’t even see him. All I could see was the white of his outfit and I was thinking ‘Where is he going to go?’” he said.

In the span of 10 years, our equipment has changed so much. The fact that he got that picture with that experience is simply incredible.

The Washington Capitals are your 2018 Stanley Cup Champions.

This, from Barry Svrluga and Isabelle Khurshudyan is a great look back at the season that almost wasn't, before it became the one that was THE one. The whole piece is worth a read, but this, from the conclusion really does a great job encapsulating it all:

Before the final faceoff in Holtby’s end, Ovechkin stood behind Backstrom on the bench, hugging him. When the horn sounded, the Swede leaped over the boards, the Russian looked to the sky, and a human pile decades in the making grew at one end of the ice.

“It was like we were a bunch of little kids again,” Niskanen said. What an innocent thought for such a hard-earned moment. Just a little more than 12 months earlier, the Capitals had dissected not just goals that hadn’t been reached but whether they could be reached at all.

On Thursday night in Las Vegas, when Ovechkin lifted the Stanley Cup and handed it to Backstrom, the pain felt like a necessary part of the journey.

This season's group of Washington Capitals wasn't their most talented of the Ovechkin/Backstrom era, but ultimately it turned into the best one.

Congratulations Alex and Nick and Evgeny and Braden and John and Jay and Brooks and all the rest; you earned it.

In DC, we haven't stopped celebrating, and we will continue to tomorrow at the parade.

Six months ago, a conservancy official cleaning out an office came across two cardboard boxes that had been sitting around for decades.

Inside were 2,924 color slides, pictures made in parks across New York City’s five boroughs late in the summer of 1978. No one had looked at them for 40 years.

There are some really good images in here, and I'd love to have the opportunity to see the full exhibit. It really paints a picture of a time and a place in a way that only photography truly can.

Looking for Insta-piration? Some good follows in this list.

I've personally added a few of these to my Instagram list:

• If you leave
• Feature shoot
• GUP magazine

They say it’s the journey not the destination. And when they say that, the best possible version of that journey would be this drive. Because for one stretch of land, perhaps only for this stretch of land — it’s both. A place you would fight your whole life to end up endlessly driving on.

I spent a day on the PCH almost 2 years ago with my college roommate.

We began in Los Angeles, and approximately 16 hours later we put our heads down in Santa Rosa. It was one of my favorite days in recent memory. Josh's post might inspire my own story in the near future.

Stay tuned.

What would it take to convince you?

That is how Marius Masalar begins his Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II review. He does not go on to spend the next 1,800+ words simply telling us what makes the camera great, or where it might have warts. He does certainly does those things (and the informative bullet points probably do in fact make of the majority of his words), but its his images that convince. Marius tells us a story with his fantastic images about the kind of tool this camera can be when put into a talented photographer's hands.

He ostensibly calls this piece a review, and it certainly has many elements of that, but ultimately it is a love letter to a camera that, for the moment at least, has become a trusted tool.

Marius ends with this:

I’m done chasing the best camera. The "best camera” only makes the best photographs in the right hands, and as long as the camera’s capabilities exceed my own, I haven’t earned the right to upgrade. For at least this year, I’m happily settling down to master the tools I already have.

I don’t want better gear, I want better photographs. And that part is on me to accomplish.

As a photographer, who has thought many times about trying to express my own choice of the E-M1 Mark II (but this could certainly apply to any other camera or system that truly works for its owner), I couldn't and won't try to say it any better.

👏🏻

Samuel Nute is a lifestyle, editorial, and travel photographer based in New England. He describes his work as:

My work creates cinematic and timeless scenes through the use of subtle, natural colors and clean composition. Often full of absence, my images leave just the essential to connect the viewer with the photograph.

I highly encourage you to check out all of his work, but I adore the travel images linked in the title of this post.

H/t to @joshuaginter's Fresh Links section on The Newsprint for the link.

This is Sean Flynn’s Leica M2, with a Steel Rim Leica 35mm Summilux and a strap that was hand fashioned from a parachute cord and a hand grenade pin.

One of the reasons that makes this camera so special is that we absolutely know where it has been, who it belonged to and what it has been doing. How do we know this? Because the camera has been doing nothing, absolutely nothing. This camera has been tucked away in a dark corner for more than 30 years. But recently the family finally decided that a new home should be found for it, which is when they found me.

What a story.

You know the photo. We all know the photo. This is the story behind it.

I can't even imagine what the life of a field photographer must be like. Thanks to Jeff for sharing this story with the world.

The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.

Uncertain. Alone.

Cratered by imperfections.

-- Tahereh Mafi

The moon, as seen from Alexandria on December 2, 2017.