Hate to hijack a thread, but since YOU did:

Lens for action swimming was always the 70-200. For the starting block shots it was either the 17-55 or 24-70, depending on D2X, D3, or D7000.

Ball player was the lighting, NIK Tonal Contrast, Topaz Spicify, NIK Pro Contrast. But much of the effect was in the lighting.

I looked at the portrait page and there are 26 images and I would guess 22 different lighting arrangements. A few were ONE light, one or two had 4 lights, and the positioning was all over the place. I use umbrellas a lot on location as they pack and set up so quickly. Studio stuff is almost always softboxes. Square, rectangular, and octagonal.

Some location work is done with just Nikon SB-800 flashes.

With very few exceptions, even my outdoor stuff will have at least one flash.

I do use a retouching plug-in for the business headshots as those need to be done fast and they are reproduced small. I use Portraiture by Imagenomic. For real portrait customers, I have some techniques I have picked up over the years that are more labor intensive, but give a much more honest look. Even with Portraiture, I use it on a layer mask so I can remove the effect that will sometimes hit the eyes, teeth and hair.