Quick Pics - Bonfire!

Bonfires don't quite carry the emotional significance that they did back in my high school days, but I made a quick trip to the Kaufman HS homecoming tradition to have some fun with the camera.

I was a late arrival, and the sun was setting behind the stage area... not great. Over on the side, another trailer had a line of cheerleaders. The sun made for an interesting near-silhouette. Your camera will automatically do this most of the time when shooting into the sun as it tries to compensate for the brightness with extra shutter speed.



The pep rally stage had a rather cluttery background (nice logo placement by our friends at Paul Murrey Ford though) so I gave up on that pretty quickly.


Up close is better, but still not great. Here the Lionettes officers show off their dance moves.


I thought it would be cool to shoot from behind the stage to show the crowd while the dancers danced. On second thought, there are probably a bunch of photos from their perspective that make it look like I'm shooting the dancers' backsides.


Having given up on the stage, I went out to visit the Lion Band... Go Band. Shiny reflective stuff, cool evening sky.. it's all good!

And now... time to have a bonfire. The only reason to take photos at a bonfire is a silhouette shot of people in front of the fire, right? Again, the camera will usually do this on its own as it tries to compensate for the brightness of the fire. To make sure, either manually set your camera for the fire, or just use exposure compensation and intentionally underexpose by -1 or -2.

This is -1, aperture priority on f2.8 for out of focus fire...



I tried the 14mm for a wide view from behind the fire to show the crowd and sky, but the people were so far away that they don't really register in the photo. The sky might be OK with some processing work, but nothing too exciting. By this time, the fire was going very well, and the heat was getting up there. My vote... move homecoming later to ensure a cooler night to enjoy the heat by!



Some more shots... Go Lions! Should be a great night for football on Friday.









Happy Shooting Everyone

Don J.

Volleyball... with the Lensbaby

I did not shoot any volleyball last year, so as with baseball and basketball, my timing is way off and the results so far have been less than what I'd like.

One thing I have been wanting to try is using the new lensbaby with every possible shooting situation... and my first volleyball game of the year was just such an opportunity.

And it is difficult!

Being manual focus along with selective focus, it is pointless to try to follow the action. Instead, you have to pick a spot and wait for the action to come to you.

I think I also need to adjust the diopter correction on the 5D, as what I though was in focus clearly was not. Clearly not in focus... hmmm... it is getting late!

Still work to do on that front ( composition, focusing and exposure)... more to come.

Here are some more volleyball shots.. I hope to get more chances to improve as the season rolls on.

Probably my best shot of the night for timing and composition... of course, the focus was way soft. At least some creative adjustments in Lightroom make it interesting to look at.


Focusing on one player can help, but timing is still difficult. You can anticipate some things by watching where serves are going, etc.


With arms constantly in the air, shooting through the net is a good bet to actually see players' faces. Of course, you have to contend with the camera focusing on the net sometimes. Also, backgrounds are rarely good from floor level.






Shooting from the floor at the side of the court, through the net is a focus problem again, but looks promising. It is a bit of a low percentage shot with the arms though... this one is about as good as I got from there.. . . focus?


Shots of the serve are easy enough... now how to make them interesting? Not sure yet.


That is a good shot for the lensbaby.. routine action at the same place makes it easier to get something resembling in-focus.


Last thing.. I did like the results looking directly down the net... when the focus was on..
Here it worked as a shot of the ref. Unintentional, but it works.


Wider..





No Posts for the next two weeks.. and lots of exciting changes in the EastTexasPhoto/DonCJohnson Photography Universe are coming in October.. and it is all good!

Go out and take some pictures!


Happy Shooting

Don J.

Quick Pic - Football Begins

Tonight kicked off (pun intended) the 2009 football season for me. While shooting a scrimmage is not as fun to as a game, it was good to get some practice. Yes, it takes practice!

Here is a quick pic to start the year off.. I could not ask for a more beautiful backdrop than this sunset. Now I wish I had worked it for more shots.


Happy Shooting,

don j.

Shooting Soccer is Hard!

Thanks to a heads-up from Christina over at the Kaufman Herald I had the fun of shooting both KHS soccer playoff games at Richardson Pearce HS last week. I did not make it out to any of the regular season games, but from what I understand, both teams have played very well in a rigged-up 4A district.

With the girls starting at 6PM, there was plenty of light. OK, so there was so much light that it made for really contrasty shadowy faces for a while. But I will not complain... light is good for shutter speeds, remember?


Kaufman was playing the Highland Park Lady Scots...


Unfortunately, it did not take long to see that the Lady Lions were a bit overmatched in this one. Most of the action was happening on the defensive end of the field, so I headed down there.




There were some nice shadows forming from the bleachers which helped a little with the harsh sun


There wasn't much help for the ugly car background though.
From the side of the field...




One gets by..


With the game winding down and the score 8-0, the Lady Lions held tough for the last four minutes.


It would be easy to make excuses playing against a much larger school with a more experienced team. After all, the HP squad was making substitutions of three or four rested players at a time. And they made sure to park their big black charter bus in plain view. Impressed? Hardly. The Lady Lions took the loss pretty hard, and I got the impression that they will certainly come back with something to prove next year.

Then it was time for the boys to play Richardson Pearce. This was a home game for Pearce, but the Kaufman crowd matched them for volume. Especially with some less-than-favorable officiating. Nice sunset happening back there somewhere...


As you can tell, this is not much of a stadium. I suppose you don't need light to play soccer, but it sure helps for photographers. To make matters more interesting, there were dark and light spots in the field. I just under-exposed and hoped for the best. There was still a lot of motion blur to ruin shots.


Or maybe it is just artistry? Yes, that's it, artistry.

It is hard to decide where to shoot from in soccer. I wish had been closer to this collision.


The Pearce crowd and announcer seemed pretty proud of their goalie...


But at halftime the score was tied at 2. (do they call it halftime in soccer?)

The Lions' goalie got some knee reinforcement


And overall the team was in good spirits.


The second half was a tough battle, but the Lions had no answer for two more Pearce goals.

My timing was way off. It was a lot like shooting basketball in that you always have to be watching and anticipating. It took well into the second game to get close to a header-on-the ball shot, and there were plenty of opportunities.


The closest I got for the Lions was way out of focus.


There was plenty of mid-field action.




Did I mention it was dark?








Soccer will not likely become my favorite sport to shoot anytime soon. It is, however, quite a challenge, which makes it fun.

Prints are available, as always, at http://www.doncjohnson.zenfolio.com/

Happy Shooting,

Don J