2009 in Review...

I'm a little late to wrap up 2009, but that has been typical of this holiday season.

It was a big year for me in a lot of ways, and photography has been a big part of that, so first, to those of you who have shared it with me, thank you!

Early in the year was some sports and portrait work that I was pretty happy with. One of the themes I will explore more in 2010 is portrait lighting, which finally started to click for me.


Shooting sports was a big part of the year, and I have felt better about these images this year as well.

Sometimes, of course it was just dumb luck of being at the right place for once...


... and other times it was all about making the time to be somewhere because just because I could...


... and then there are the combinations of both.


I was blessed to take a big adventurous trip to Peru with my wife. It was a wonderful place visually, and will be memorable for many reasons, but as the first major destination we've visited since I dived into photography it was even more amazing.


And that wrapped up the first 3/4 of the year, along with the first career of my adult life. After twelve years at a tradeshow technology company, I switched to journalism as an entry-level reporter at the Terrell Tribune.

While I am not exactly pulling my weight as a reporter just yet, it has been great fun to stretch my photo skills in all sorts of ways. In a smallish market, newspapers still have an opportunity to be relevant and meaningful to the community, while major news outlets tend to rehash the same major stories all day long.

On the "Community and Schools" reporter beat, it is usually just flat out fun.

Cute kids...


Caring kids...


Seriously.... no bad pictures with subjects this good...


Of course, cheesy group shots... but great kids make it bearable.


Throw in some random product photography...



And back to cool kids...



While that is all wonderful stuff to shoot, there have been some very emotionally difficult stories as well. Terrell lost two fine young men in Afghanistan within a month. Shortly after that, two sisters and a friend, all TISD students, died after being struck by a car.

Photographing at a funeral is not pleasant, but I am very thankful to the families who were so gracious to us in allowing me to be the eyes of the community during their time of grief.

These photos are from the return and funeral of U.S. Army Spc. Joseph Lewis just before Thanksgiving.

Hopefully by the end of the week (or month at this rate) I will have this blog planned out through the end of 2010 with some meaningful content... stay tuned.

My best wishes for a blessed and happy new year, and of course, lots of great photos.

Happy Shooting,

don j

Sunset

Driving westward toward home in the evenings has given me a wonderful light show over the last couple of days. Today I finally stopped on the side of the road to take a snapshot. This is the Sigma 14mm on the 40D.

This lens has a tendency for lens flare, but I did not take the time to remove the little dot on this one.... it is just part of the deal I suppose.

In case I do not post between now and then, blessed, happy, safe and meaningful Christmas and holiday season to you.

happy shooting,

don j.

It is a season of lights... have fun with them!

Christmas lights can be a lot of fun as a photographer...

One of my favorite things to do is to make them fuzzy little highlights in the foreground or background of a photo. All of these photos involve Christmas lights hung on the side balconies of Terrell ISD's Performing Arts Center.

Opening up to maximum aperture (in this case, f2.8), will do the trick, especially if the lights are a good distance from the subject. Using longer telephotos make the background look closer, and the out-of-focus effect will be great, like this one from backstage, behind the elves. (just wish I could get some smiling parents in there too... could not find the angle.)

Canon 40D, 120mm at f2.8, 1/125, iso800

For a really cool effect, put the lights between yourself and your subject. Up on the balconies, you might think that the lights are in the way...

Canon 40D, 115mm at f2.8, 1/200, iso80

... But if you focus through the lights to your subject, the lights turn in to little dots of translucent light over your subject.

Canon 40D, 115mm at f2.8, 1/200, iso800

With some careful composition, you can find a point of interest and frame it with the lights. We cropped this one down a bit for the newspaper, but the group of musicians in the center becomes the focal point when the rest are obstructed by dots.

Canon 40D, 200mm at f2.8, 1/160, iso800

You can also use lights on a tree to frame one side of a photo with lights... this one with colorful lights was on the far edge of the stage.

Canon 40D, 200mm at f2.8, 1/125, iso800

To make it a really cool photo, you also have to catch a great moment, which didn't happen with the shots above.... my favorite shot from the TISD Christmas programs was during a choir concert... alas, no lights. Poor girl almost got slapped in the face.

Canon 5D, 200mm at f2.8, 1/200, iso 1000

Have fun playing with the lights....

don j.

SWCC Basketball

I was a little bit worried about the lighting situation at Southwest Christian College when I left with Cliff to go get a shot of the SWCC homecoming game vs. Mountain View College. I had only seen the gym from the outside, and it is a pretty old building.

The pleasant surprise was that there is a large row of windows along the top of each side, and it was a 2:30 p.m. tip-off. It was a beautiful mix of hard light from the windows and soft light in the shadow areas.

Even better was the game action. If you are within driving distance to Terrell and you want to see some great basketball from up close, these guys put on a show. You won't be disappointed, and the atmosphere is just the opposite of the over-commercialized college sports in the big schools.

I only took the 40D and a 14mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.4 lenses with me, knowing that no matter what the light would be like, I could sit under the basket and get a shot. I only had about 20 minutes to get it before going to another assignment.


This is a better shot of the atmosphere of the gym, with some adjustment of the drama in Lightroom..


Have a wonderful weekend,

Don J.

Marching Band...

I am a bit of a band geek myself (drummer if you must know) so photographing the band is a lot of fun when I'm at football games.

Last Friday found me in Kennedale, TX, and they have good lights in their stadium...

There was a great glow in the sky as the band filled the stands and started to prepare for the game...


While in the stands, I could use lower ISOs (800 and 1000) with IS lenses to get much better sharpness and color than when I shoot at 3200...

Then came UIL marching contest... in the rain.

Maybe I should review the Kata rain cover. It worked great but has a few quirks.

Warming up...


Drip, Drip, Drip


Such a dreary day... so I decided to have some fun in Lightroom. This is a slightly modified version of one of the "300 Look" presets from the Lightroom Killer Tips blog.

Shooting in the rain definitely gives you rare shots.. other than the folks who were making videos of the competition to sell, I did not see any cameras out there.

Don't be afraid of the rain, just be careful.

Happy Shooting,

Don J.

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.