FOXBOROUGH, Mass. _ I've had a secret for years and it's about time I fill you all in.
It's a story on how and why I take the best binocular photos on the Patriots beat.
First things first, if you want your phone to take a picture zoomed in through your binoculars, it's paramount to have steady hands. Make sure that camera lens is in the middle of one the binocular lens. The camera has to focus, so you need to hold it still with one hand while holding the binoculars steady with the other. It's not easy.
Once the picture is in focus on the screen, hold down the shutter button and take a burst of photos. Don't be shy. Get about 20 in a row. They won't all be winners. Crop the best ones, hit the auto-enchanted button and adjust the light if need be. There you have it.
Then post the photos on Twitter and watch those 'likes' and 'retweets' rain in. (Of course, it really helps if the pictures are of Tom Brady.)
If you follow me on Twitter (@MarkDanielsPJ), you'll know that since 2014 I've been tweeting out photos of Brady's throwing motion in a four-photo burst before every game. I'll admit this has been self-serving. When I started at The Providence Journal, I had around 1,200 followers on Twitter. I noticed when I tweeted a photo of Brady, you crazy fans would like and retweet these by the dozens. I thought, "come for the Brady photos and stay for the stories."
Admittedly, some pictures were awful. I remember sending out a grainy photo from the press box in Indianapolis in 2014. Our columnist at the time, Jim Donaldson, tapped me on the shoulder, pointed at his computer screen and said, "That's one of the worst photos I've ever seen."
I shrugged. "Look at all the retweets."
Every time I do this, you see photos of the greatest quarterback of all time.
But I see a tribute to my father, Paul Daniels.
