The Photography of Rob Migliaccio

Biography

General Photography Background: Photography has been a pursuit of mine for over 60 years. My dad first introduced me to the art when I was seven. At the time, we had a darkroom no bigger than a closet. As I learned how to develop and print my negatives, I think I burned through his entire stock of "postcard" paper!

I started with an old 35mm Exakta, processed my own B&W film, and printed images with an Omega B-22 enlarger. By the time I was 14, I started taking sports pictures and selling them. I attended as many high school games as I could and took hundreds of pictures. I bought my own film, paper and chemicals in bulk. I would work feverishly over the weekends, and on Mondays the players would swarm around and view the 4x5s that I printed of the games the previous week. I charged less than the local newspaper did for enlargements (my price - $1 for 8x10s; their price - $2). In addition to being the Sports Photography Editor for my high school yearbook, I also supplied action shots to the local newspaper.

When I turned 16, I had enough money saved to buy a Nikon F (new) with both a 50mm lens and a 200mm lens (both Nikkors). When I was 17, I had added a Nikkor 300mm lens to my kit.

Well, a long time has passed since then. My allegiance is still with Nikon (I have the Z9 and Z8 mirrorless cameras and two D850's). I still supply pictures to the local newspaper, an image of mine from a national sailing event back in 2001 made the cover of foreign sailing magazine, and my college sailing images have made the covers of, among other publications, the Sailing World Guide to College Sailing for the last fifteen years. I am also a moderator for several forums at Nikonians, the worldwide home to almost 200,000 Nikon® enthusiasts.

I try to be different than other photographers by getting "up close and personal" with the athletes. The expressions on their faces speak volumes. If distance is an issue, I will often crop an image to achieve the same effect.

Photographing a sailing event presents special challenges. As an avid racing sailor myself, I know where to position myself on the race course to get the difficult shot, yet stay out of the way of the competitors. However, the platform from which the images are taken is anything but stable, so care must be taken to keep the equipment dry and minimize motion blur resulting from excessive movement of the camera.

Although "sports" photography is my focus, I also enjoy portrait photography and the unique lighting challenges presented in that medium.