Girls Basketball / Patterson Mill at Fallston
December 20, 2008 | Filed Under Sports, basketball | Leave a Comment
Two local photographers, Russell Tracy and Dave Yoakum contacted me to come out to meet and shoot with them sometime. That time came last Thursday night at Fallston High School. Russell and Dave are practicing their off-camera techniques and this would be a good opportunity to learn from each other.
The Fallston gym, like most in Harford County, has very little room, and no balcony at the end of court which prevents getting our lights high and pointed parallel to the sidelines. We had to place the lights on the sides, which create too much crosslighting and harsh shadows.
When using strobes/flashes, ideally you want to over power the ambient light by 3 to 4 stops so that when you are shooting at your camera’s sync speed (typically 1/250 sec), the quick burst of light from the strobes is what freezes the action and not the shutter speed. I tried bouncing my 580EXs off the back wall to create a large light source, but my flashes, even on full power, could only muster about 2 stops over ambient. In a darker lit gym, this method would probably work, but Fallston’s ambient lighting is better than average.
I had to stick with direct light from the corners of the gym. I placed my flashes on my 7-foot light stands and set them each to 1/8 power, 28mm zoom and aimed them towards the top of the key.
Here are some samples from the night.
Holiday Spectacular
December 12, 2008 | Filed Under Performance Arts | Leave a Comment
Last night was the dress rehearsal for the BSO’s Holiday Spectacular, which opens tonight and will have 14 shows through December 23. If you can make the time, I recommend attending.
The performance this year features the African Children’s Choir — made famous on American Idol’s “Idol Gives Back” and The Tonight Show. What a talented group of young people.
Christmas Ornaments
December 7, 2008 | Filed Under Personal | Leave a Comment
Here in Maryland there is a light dusting of snow on the ground, temperatures in the high 20’s low 30’s. My wife and daughter are out to see a play, and my son is upstairs taking a nap. The only football game on right now is the Eagles/Giants game — yawn.
I’m bored. What to do? I know, take some pictures of the Christmas ornaments on the tree we recently put up.
These shots were taken on a tripod with my 135 f/2.0 lens. ISO 200 and a tungsten WB. The average shutter speed was about a third of a second.
John Carroll Grapplers Win Home Opener
December 3, 2008 | Filed Under Sports, wrestling | 4 Comments
The John Carroll Patriots wrestling team opened their home schedule against Boy’s Latin on Tuesday afternoon with a 56-18 win.
