On the right track...

Photographing sports is fun, but shooting a track meet can be a beating. There are multiple events happening at the same time, and there is always a nagging thought that somewhere, at that very moment, one of the kids you should be covering is doing something great in nice light.

It is easy to sit and wait for 20 minutes as kids from various schools go through their turns at something, only to have the one athlete you want a shot of knock off the bar or foul out.

So, I've adopted a much more fun strategy of trying to shoot somewhat creatively and try to find a creative shot at each sport I make it too. And to do that, I shoot students from anywhere.

Finding good backgrounds can be a chore, but so far both meets I've been to this year gave me blue skies. Makes for a lot of low-angle photos, but I'll gladly take it with the evening sun.

The other fun track meet adventure is silhouettes in the setting sun.

Best with the relay, but I would love to get rid of the fence.


Runners in a closer lane make it easier... and throw in some wispy clouds for dramatic.


Works for people warming up on hurdles in the infield too...


Pole vault is fun to shoot... you never really know how things are going to work out.

Nice and clean


Did I mention the background problems?


To deal with the bad bg, zoom in closer, right?


The track at Rockwall has a nice hill at the finish end for sprints (they run right-to-left on hurdles and sprints). That gives you a perch to use the track as the background. Looks cool with hurdles too.




And when boredom sets in, fun detail shots are available






High jump makes for nice shots too..

She isn't that short... these guys jump high

A lot of the athletes have unique styles or traits... This guy flies like an airplane..

While this one floats as if levitating

Ok... that is enough of that...

Have a great weekend everybody!

Don J.

Softball and slideshow fun

-UPDATE.. music on the slideshow is gone. Having it play automatically is just annoying.

Softball league players are a pretty devoted bunch with scheduled games pushing well past midnight some nights. A friend of mine is one of those.

Sooo... after the lovely wife was off to sleep, I decided I should be just as dedicated to my creative outlet as the players are to their athletic diversion. Off to the softball fields for me.

Creative problem challenge #1- I only had a short zoom with me... Canon 40D with the 24-70 was all I brought home from work. This is not ideal for shooting softball. Really.

Creative problem challenge #2 - This place has some massively thick chain-link fencing all the way around the place. Even shooting wide open, if you are not zoomed all the way to 70mm and centered in a fence hole, the fence shows up a lot.

Personality problem challenge bonus ... I only knew one of the players, so I'm the weirdo hanging around with a nice camera hanging around snapping pictures. If this isn't a challenge for you, that is great. For me, it is a stretch to not allow limitations on what I want to do creatively while being watched by strangers.

What can we learn from this?

Creative challenge #1... Plays from anywhere outside of about 50 feet away were not going to be very useful, so I focused on shooting batters and looking for ways to frame things. If I had brought the 70-200mm or 300mm, it would have been just like shooting a baseball game for work, and a few of the photos that I like here would have never happened.

Creative challenge #2... I tried to use the fence as a framing device with some shots that I kind of liked. Other than that.... it just makes life difficult. To eliminate the fence as much as possible, you have to put the end of the lens very close to the fence. That is scary when the replacement cost of the lens is high.

Personality challenge... well, I might have tried some different things if I knew more people there, but it was a good exercise in not being self-limiting.

Also... Zenfolio added music capability to their slideshows, so naturally I had to try it. Maybe the wrong mood for softball? I almost went for a hard rock song, but the free ones are pretty bad. Comments are welcome... If you think music actually adds anything to the viewing experience, let me know. Personally I often find music on websites to be very annoying, especially if the music starts automatically.

Don J.

High School Rodeo

This week had a serious farm and ranch theme for me, with three days of the Kaufman County Youth Livestock Show and today, about an hour of youth rodeo. As I mentioned a few posts ago, it is good to have some boots for this job.

Even with bright sun outside Wade Arena in Terrell, TX, there is not a lot shining through the open sides of the building. I will try again closer to sunset to see if any shafts of light come through... that could be interesting.
Today, it was only good for some silhouettes.







Shooting toward the opening made for intriguing backlight, and some terrible exposure issues. Shooting at +1 to +2 exposure compensation helped, but it was really random for nice shots. Interesting, yes... good.. not so much.






If anything, that shows that catching interesting moments is more important than good light, but finding good light makes the nice moments look a lot better.


From the side of the arena, the open end made a nice big light source, even if it was not very bright with all of the dark dirt soaking up the light.




I like how much angle the horses get when going around a tight turn... much like a motorcycle. Judging by the fearlessness and ease shown by most of the riders, I would think they spend quite a bit of time in the saddle.







I tried some slow-shutter blurs for the fun of it... with limited success. Some riders are smoother than others, but there is so much motion going on, getting anything in the frame to be sharp is a trick.


OK, that was fun.

Don J.

10 Photo tips in five minutes...

Here is Rick Sammon with 10 photo tips in five minutes..... basic stuff, but good tips and reminders to be creative and pay attention for great shots.

Don J

More Football... with a creative challenge

I haven't really challenged myself recently to be creative, so for today's Terrell Sharks game, I went with only the 40D with a 300mm f4 and the 5D with the Sigma 14mm f2.8.

It did not turn into a creative boost, but it was definitely a challenge. The 40D/300 combo makes an equivalent focal length of over 450mm, so the practice following/focusing/composing during the game was great. As for the 14mm.... that forces you to get in close, and really begs for creative angles and framing. A wonderful blue sky with some clouds was nice, so that features in most of the wide shots.

Have a great rest of your weekend everybody

Don J.