Shutterbugs vary in how they capture Masters memories

For an event like the Masters Tournament, most patrons want to capture the moment and make it last.

But most have different ways of going about it at Augusta National Golf Club.

Patrons walk the course with everything from bulky, professional cameras with long lenses to pocket-size digital shooters.

“I see all these people carrying those huge lenses around, and I just don’t know how they do it,” said Mike Comley of Illinois, whose last picture Wednesday was of the famous Masters leaderboard. “I just want the photo so you can look back and remember. This takes just as good pictures.”

Others see it as a chance to brush up on photography skills.

Richard Blakely of Houston, Texas, was learning by doing with his Canon EOS5D digital camera with a long lens Wednesday. Although he came to the Masters to watch golf, he focused his camera on the landscape.

“This is my first Masters, and I mainly wanted to come and see the course,” Blakely said. So his camera was filled with images of rolling hills and pine trees but not the course’s signature azaleas, which bloomed early this year.

Mike Page of Pleasanton, Calif., borrowed a 7200 lens from his son, a professional photographer, to take photos on his first trip to the Masters.

He said he’d miss not having the azaleas among his scrapbook pictures but that the experience in itself is enough.

“This is probably my first and last Masters so I’m sad to miss out on the beauty, but this course is still amazing,” he said.

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