Ken Griffey Jr. placing images expertise to Ryder Cup take a look at

There weren’t too many moments throughout his baseball profession that 13-time All-Star Ken Griffey Jr. may very well be simply one other face within the crowd. 

His post-playing profession passion has afforded him a bit extra of that anonymity, even at a spot just like the Ryder Cup, the place hordes of New York sports activities followers have descended on the famed Bethpage Black course, however few appeared to note the Hall of Famer snapping away as a credentialed photographer. 

Griffey has discovered a ardour for images since he retired in 2010 and first picked up a digital camera in 2015, thanks partially to wanting to look at his children play sports activities undisturbed. 

“I started off because my daughter played basketball and people were bothering me in the stands, and nobody bothers the photographer,” Griffey informed The Post on Wednesday after his first day of capturing on the Ryder Cup.

Griffey stated that it was a photographer buddy of his who had despatched him his first digital camera and gave him a technique to get pleasure from and be current for his children’ sporting occasions. 

The solely recommendation he was given was “don’t put it on automatic.” 

Since then, Griffey has been credentialed to {photograph} MLB, MLS, NFL and IndyCar occasions, together with main sporting occasions just like the Daytona 500 and made headlines earlier this 12 months photographing The Masters. 

As far as his images expertise are involved, Griffey has seen stark variations from when he started to the place he’s now, although he joked, “It’s not my full-time job, because if it was, I’d be a lot better at it.” 

He described himself as “incredibly fortunate” to have the ability to study from a variety of expert folks within the business.

“My learning curve has drastically changed because of the guys in this room and the guys in other rooms that I am now following around and trying to understand and be in certain spots that, and try to capture certain things that they capture,” he stated. 

“Even the learning curve from me shooting the Masters, from when it’s my start of that Monday to Sunday, it was leaps and bounds, and I was there five days.”

While Griffey has seen a variety of sporting occasions via the lens of his digital camera – a Sony Alpha 1 II – his favourite moments to seize have been those involving his children. 

“I can see the joy in their face, because they look so much like me. I can understand, I can relate to them, just like some family member watching their kid do something,” he stated. “I can relate to my kids. I can appreciate and enjoy it, but can’t relate to Scottie Scheffler winning a tournament. His family can, because they’ve seen the journey. I haven’t seen the journey, but I’ve seen the journey in my kids.” 

As for his plan for this week’s Ryder Cup on Long Island, Griffey was blown away by the sheer measurement of Bethpage Black. 

He’s additionally getting ready one of the best plan of action for photographing the staff golf occasion. 

“There’s gonna be four groups, so being strategic on where you got to go, I think that’s one of the things that I’m learning and mapping out,” he stated. “I got to an assignment just like everybody else right now. I got to go in there and produce.”