Outside the Box...

It's been a busy week for me. Last weekend I went to Louisville to shoot the Naptown Warning Belle's as they kicked butt against the Derby City Roller Girls. Great time, Great bout! Great Car ride down too. My favorite part might have been when one of the skaters was trying to decide which of the other skaters to give her credit card too.....Miso Crazy, or Helluva Gudtime......I'm not sure I'd like those chioces either. lol. Right after I got back, I had to shoot the Honor our Hero's festival here in Indy, which is where the shot above is from. D3, 18-35mm, 720ISO.

Sometimes when you're busy it's hard to get everything done though. I think everybody can Identify with this, which made me realize something that I know a lot of Pro's don't do which saves me a bunch of time. When a lot of people think of Pro Photographers they think of either super expensive camera's, or camera's that are set to nothing but Manual. This isn't the case however. Remote cameras can be set to priority modes, or sometimes you just can't predict what light is going to do. Pro's will also find ways to get camera's into places that most people aren't. That especially includes, places that other pro's arent...


The shot above was a D300 and a 10.5 Fisheye set to Manual Exposure. 1250 ISO, 1/60th a second at F2.8. Shot blind while holding the camera 60 feet above the track as far under the catwalk as I could reach. Getting a shot like that is tough; there are a lot of things to consider like do you want the action to stop? will the reflection of the floor make the picture too dark if you use it on automatic mode? ect ect.

Setting a camera to a complete manual setting is scary the first time you do it, but not the end of the world. Recently however I've become a BIG fan of the 'Auto-ISO' function on my D3 and D700. Freakin amazing feature that I know a lot of pro's overlook. It lets you decide how much of the action you want to stop (shutter speed) and how much depth of field you want (aperture) and then adjusts the sensitivity of the sensor to take your shot! It's almost like cheating in my mind. It's amazing. It doesn't even keep to standard ISO's. I shot a photo earlier at 580ISO.

A perfect example is the shot at the top of this post. The camera Automaticaly set the ISO on that shot to 720. Without Auto ISO that shot would have been taken at 1600ISO or whatever I may have set it at, when I started shooting. The photo would have been grainier, and not as reproduceable at a large scale. Where that shot is going to go...I have no idea; but at 720 ISO out of a D3, someone could make a poster out of it. When you're a pro, that's a big deal. Printing things big is especially important when you're doing things like this:

(Styling by Nikki Sutton, and Assist by Greg Andrews)

Like I said when I got started, I've been super busy lately. We are starting the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar very soon. The shot above is from last year's calendar and it's one of my favorites. I shot it with a D3 at 200ISO, with a single Dynalite 400JR through a 44" translucent disk to camera right. (would have used a softbox, but gosh....bathrooms are small...)

Looks like I get a little bit of time off for good behavior coming up though before it's time to really grind. I'll be in Maryland for the 4th of July, and I'm rather excited about seeing some long lost friends. When I get back though It's hard to work on the the Derby Calendar, A Swimsuit Calendar, as well as a few other projects I know I've got coming up over the summer. Until then, Everybody have a Happy 4th of July (even if it's just a regular Saturday for you).

Until next time, think outside the box. Try some of the crazy features on your camera like Auto-ISO. Try to get someplace you've never been to see things a little differently. You may find yourself not only pleased with what you get out of it, but you may also take a few pictures you like to remember it by. More Soon.