Ozzie Sweet Photography / Q&K Media

05/29/2024

This isn't an Ozzie Sweet photograph — Jim Thorpe played for the New York baseball Giants from 1913 to 1919, and Ozz was born in 1918. But it's got that Ozzie feel, with the low-angle view and heroic look. Thorpe had such a perfectly chiseled face that I know Ozz would have loved capturing him on film.

It also looks like a Charles Conlon portrait, which would make sense: Ozzie loved Conlon's work.

—Larry Canale
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=774788858148661&set=a.364696742491210

Jim Thorpe played six years in the big leagues, but his legacy transcends baseball, football and track and field. The Native American star was born in 1887 as Wa-tho-huck, meaning “Bright Path.” https://ow.ly/67aq50RY0Zj

03/17/2024

Seventy years ago, Ted Williams was kicking off a season in which he missed more than 30 games due to injuries — but still managed to hit 29 HRs with 89 RBI while posting a .345 batting average. Plus he led the AL in walks with 132. So... in 526 plate appearances, Williams had a league-leading .513 on-base percentage. Not bad for a 35-year-old!

Ozzie Sweet took this memorable portrait of Teddy Ballgame several years earlier. It's always worth a look. The original image is owned by my good friend Paul Plaine. Check out Paul's Ozzie Sweet Gallery at https://www.ballparkprints.com/ozzie-sweet-gallery.
—Larry Canale

03/02/2024

New England always gives us weird weather patterns, and 2023-24 has been no different. A new post at WBUR.com* asks, "Where's the Winter Wonderland?" — noting that this current winter has seen one of the "feeblest" snowfalls on record. The 9.7 inches of snow in 2023-24 is the sixth-lowest on record. WBUR also reminds us March is capable of surprises (don't put the shovels and snowblowers into storage just yet!).

So... with snow out of sight (or maybe on the horizon), I give you one of Ozzie Sweet's most impressive winter scenes — a highlight from the "toboggan session," as he called it. The beauty — and the trick — of this Rockwellian image is that the toboggan and kids are not actually moving. Ozzie, always a master at controlling his photographs, had:
• the toboggan hoisted up by a steel girder off camera.
• the kid models scrunched together, coaxing them to act as if they were flying off a hill.
• an assistant blowing snow into the frame.

Presto, an action shot! Or, as, Ozz called it, "simulated action." He employed the tactic all the time, whether making photographic illustrations for baseball, football, basketball, golf, hockey, hunting, boating, camping, fishing, or whatever. It's one of the ways he always got perfectly composed, perfectly lit photographs.
—Larry Canale

* https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/02/29/boston-no-snow-winter