Ken Griffey Jr. putting photography skills to Ryder Cup test

There weren’t too many moments during his baseball career that 13-time All-Star Ken Griffey Jr. could be just another face in the crowd. 

His post-playing career hobby has afforded him a bit more of that anonymity, even at a place like the Ryder Cup, where hordes of New York sports fans have descended on the famed Bethpage Black course, but few seemed to notice the Hall of Famer snapping away as a credentialed photographer. 

Griffey has found a passion for photography since he retired in 2010 and first picked up a camera in 2015, thanks in part to wanting to watch his kids play sports undisturbed. 

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

Griffey said that it was a photographer friend of his who had sent him his first camera and gave him a way to enjoy and be present for his kids’ sporting events. 

The only advice he was given was “don’t put it on automatic.” 

Since then, Griffey has been credentialed to photograph MLB, MLS, NFL and IndyCar events, along with major sporting events like the Daytona 500 and made headlines earlier this year photographing The Masters. 

As far as his photography skills are concerned, Griffey has noticed stark differences from when he began to where he is now, though 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 be able to learn from a number of skilled people in the industry.

“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 said. 

“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 number of sporting events through the lens of his camera – a Sony Alpha 1 II – his favorite moments to capture have been the ones involving his kids. 

“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 said. “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 size of Bethpage Black. 

He’s also preparing the best course of action for photographing the team golf event. 

“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 said. “I got to an assignment just like everybody else right now. I got to go in there and produce.”