Monday Photo Roundup - Oct. 1

Settling into fall and football weather..  To follow up on last week's homecoming post, here is an interesting observation.  On Friday, the best reaction upon the announcement of king and queen winners was from the parents rather than the students.

Be a Photographer!  1946 vocational film shows that everything has changed, and not much has changed.


The cost of printer ink, relative to other liquids.  There's gold in them thar cartridges!

Big price drop on the still-impressive Canon 5D Mk II.  The dreamy look of modern wedding and family portraiture is, in part, the work of this camera.  However, the autofocus and sensor improvements of the Mk III version may be worth almost twice the price?

There are other Canon rebates as well...

Golden corporate headshot advice from The Slanted Lens is up on Strobist...

Finally... In low-light high school football, you really want the action to be right in front of you (or invest in an $11k lens).  So it was nice to be in the right place at the right time Friday.  In Terrell, the light is particularly bad, as you can see in this series....

Have a great week!

Homecoming Queens

Ahhh, Homecoming.  The wonderful high school tradition that is lost on me, but that is OK.  Maybe I will get more sentimental later in life.

I was discussing photog duties during homecoming with another photog and was reminded that this will be my fifth year doing this.  Which is a challenge now to make something that doesn't look like every homecoming shot from the last four.

Of course, the homecoming queen is the primary objective.  Football and all else may be lost, but you really need the queen :).

The real problem is that there isn't much room to take a risk.  You have to get some sort of shot for the newspaper to run.

The first year I shot homecoming was the best reaction moment of all so far.

2009 was less of a reaction, and less of a sharp photo by me. Not what I would call a success.



2010 was a switch to Terrell, but I didn't get much from the reaction.  A bonus, the queen's face was nicely framed by the previous queen's arm as she was crowned. Sometimes the arm is blocking the face instead.


Last year was a good reaction and a poor job by the photographer capturing it...

At least the crowning shot was in focus.

This year, it will be two homecoming games.  A few weeks ago in North Forney I got an OK reaction shot..


And an OK crowning/hug.  But just OK.


Hopefully an early start will mean good light and a good shot tonight.

See y'all in Terrell.

The fun part

For me a 13-hour stretch this weekend was great example of why it is fun to keep a foot in the world of photojournalism.  Dealing with a lot of varied situations can only make you a better photographer.

Friday night started with volleyball as the two Forney ISD high schools squared off.  I had about 20 minutes to get some useable shots for the Tribune.  Getting there a little early allowed me to get some stock shots of most of the players for North Forney.  Of course, you also get a lot of this in volleyball.


Then it was a short drive over for the first night of Rodeo Terrell. The Tribune had a big hole on the front page that needed a photo, so no pressure there. Second rider out of the chute in Bareback Bronc riding was a keeper..


More photos from Rodeo Terrell can be seen at the Tribune's Facebook page.

After editing into the weee hours, it was a early alarm to head to the lake. High school fishing competitions are apparently a rapidly growing, with lots of prizes and college scholarship money on the line. We will look at that in the next edition of Kaufman County Life magazine. No clouds meant a beautiful morning in the boat with some really cool young men and dedicated volunteers who make Kaufman's program a success. Did I mention the light was great?

You'll have to get the magazine to see the good ones :). Of course, a large part of fishing is waiting for fish. The 70-200 is NOT a birding lens by any stretch, but hey, the birds were there.

I just need to figure out how to tell them to fly on the other side of me to get the good light. Hmmmmm... Have a great rest o' the weekend.

Lens, Baby

Shooting at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco seemed like a perfect opportunity to break out the Lensbaby Composer.  I haven't used it in more than a year, so it was time to play.


It is fun, but very tricky to focus quickly, so it isn't much for action shots.  That would take some serious practice and a lot of luck.

Works for band with a little lens flare..


I think it is just time to find a tilt-shift lens to play with instead..


Have a great and safe holiday weekend, folks.

Cross Country is fun (and exhausting)

I made it over to Samuell Farm in Mesquite for a high school cross country race this morning. While I don't know how this spot rates for runners, it was a lot of fun as a photographer. It was a big meet with lots of schools present, and the weather was perfect.

If anybody wants to know how I approach finding photo spots and the thought process for that, here is a quick run-through of the event.

Initially, I went to the starting line. Cross country starts are boring affairs, and this one had a freeway for a background. A little slow shutter panning made the photos look as jumbled as the real thing... this is 1/25 of a second.

Even with intentionally blurry shots, you need a focal point that is sharp. I was tracking the ladies from Rockwall Heath in the red uniforms.

I was happy to see Marcos Quintana and Andre Leighton shooting the event. They were helpful in showing me around the course a bit, thanks guys.

Closer to the finish, there were a series of loops that went out and came back to the middle of the property, giving opportunities to catch the runners at several spots without too much trouble.

First up, the runners coming into the nice early morning light... but terribly busy background with all of the team tents.


Looking left from there a nice old barn with a Texas flag had possibilities as a nice background, but it put the runners in spotty shade from trees. I like a few of the shots, but the lighting was just too inconsistent.


Shooting from closer to the course, the runners went through a nice bright spot with a shady tree background which I liked too, but it was hit or miss for runners getting into the light and me catching them there...


Just across the course, there was a low area that gave a good visual perspective without laying on the ground. From one angle, it was the runners coming around a corner and into the sunlight


And another angle looked through some trees, again with nice light. Just need to work on timing the runners in a good spot with more sky or something.


The finish was close by, and that is the place to go to get the emotional / drained / exhausted photos. I did not take any of those. Instead, I tried some slow-shutter stuff as the runners sprinted to the end. Next time I may spend time trying to catch the exhaustion in pictures.


The final races had no Terrell runners, so I started to wander around. At the far end of the course was a pond that the runners were going around. Reflections on the pond? Well, not exactly. The runners were on the pond dam about five feet above the water line. I still like the idea, but I could not get it to look like the picture in my head.




Meanwhile, that also placed the runners right above me as they went by (with some strange looks). I wonder if the yellow weed flowers are producing the pollen that is killing my head?


On the way out of there, I saw a red barn that seemed like a good background prop. It probably could have been too, but the runners were facing out of the sun by this point. Also, it was the last race and I was getting tired and hungry, so maybe next time.

OK, so... find good light and nice backgrounds and the photos make themselves (sort of)...

Have a great week everybody,

Don J