Dr. Sketchy's...

A few weeks ago my girlfriend Shannon asked me if I would go with her to Dr. Sketchy's anti-Art School at Birdy's Bar here in Indianapolis. If you aren't familiar with Dr. Sketchy's, it's a Burlesque show where the models take poses and everyone takes a few minutes to try to sketch them out. In my case, and in the case of a select few others they allowed us to photograph the event.

Nikon D3s, 2500ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4G, 1/60th@F1.8

Not to say that I didn't sketch a few things out with Shannon as well as photograph the event, after all we went to spend some time together on top of doing an art related activity; but my sketches were so EPIC that I was asked not to post them here for fear that I would give the troop a bad image devalue the sketches.

There were a few other shooters there, Ryan Baxter whom I met at the Warehouse Photo workshop last year, as well as a guy named Don, whose business card I can't find at the moment but will try to remember to update with a last name later. It was a neat experience as I'd never actually seen a Burlesque show before, but the thing that really excited me was the fact that I was there under no deadlines, instructions, limitations (other than no flash) or any pressure to post the images anywhere. Very un-normal for me.

Nikon D3s, 2000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@185mm, 1/60th@F2.8

As it also turns out Shannon and my friend Nikki is joining the troop as well, so it looks like we'll be going back to see her perform. That night she was doing the job known as being the 'Stage Kitten', meaning she got to collect the things that the Burlesque Dancers dropped while they were on stage. Unfortunately due to different distractions, as well as a lack of spotlights while she was doing this I was unable to get a photo of her doing her job. Next time Nikki, Next time.

Nikon D3s, 4500ISO(EEK!), Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm, 1/60th@F2.8

That's Violet Phoenix from the Bloomington Burlesque Brigade. She was the special guest/model for the evening and she really genuinely seemed to enjoy what she did. Holding poses for anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes at a time is tough! If you don't believe me, you should try it out and see for yourself. I digress, though. It was quite the event, and it definitely helped me out with working on shooting things just for myself as I wanted to do in 2011. It's not something I concepted out, or had any control of; but whether I took the photos or not didn't matter. I was doing it because I wanted to just like this guy here using crayola crayons to sketch miss Violet.

Nikon D3s, 12,800ISO (hOly cOw!) Nikon 70-200F2.8VR@180mm, 1/60th@F2.8

Last night I gave the opening class lecture for the Advanced Portrait class at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. One of the things that I pushed to them was that their personal work would get them more gigs shooting than anything they shoot with a big name attached. I'm not sure that my night shooting at Dr. Sketchy's really qualifies as 'personal' work for me as it was just kind of an event coverage, but the fact that I was there shooting just to shoot under no real pressure from anyone or anything is a good start. I even broke the ISO barrier in as I very rarely take my camera above 800 normally... Welcome to 2011. More Soon.

That time of year...

Year after year the people of our planet continue to celebrate the passage of time in several ways.  Thanksgiving is the start of this passage of time, as it's a holiday seemingly independent from religion.   Everyone gets together with families and talks about what they are thankful for, to which there should be a great list of such things if you're normal.  Some people are down on their luck, and really I start to wonder if the keeping of this tradition near the end of the year is on purpose, as it helps prepare you for what you want to do better the following year.  Keeping in with these traditions there are things like Black Friday and Christmas that get tossed into the mix as well.  Christmas isn't something as universally accepted as Thanksgiving, yet here in Indianapolis around a hundred thousand people pack the downtown for the festival of lighting the Monument in the center of downtown as a tree. 

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF16-35F2.8L@16mm, 1/15th@F6.3)

Personally one of the things I'm most thankful for is being able to continue to do what I love, which is taking pictures.  Definitely a dream job for myself, that I hope I'll be able to do for quite some time to come.  I've been honored over the last few years to be on staff at the Indianapolis star with the likes of Michelle Pemberton, Matt Detrich, Matt Kryger, Sam Riche, Bob Scheer and many more.  All are award winning photographers and rightfully so.  All friends of mine now, which I can only count my blessings as there are many days I wonder what sort of song and dance I had to do to actually get this job in the first place. 

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 5000ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8, 1/1600th@F2.8)

Those are the shoes of the tapdancers going on stage in the first photo.  I decided recently that one aspect of my photography that is lacking is some detail work at events, for which my thoughts were to go big or go home for this event.  With that thought I shot most of the event using a 300mmF2.8 lens, and rotated back and forth between using it with and without a 1.4x multiplier.  I probably should have thought about what I was doing as Matt Detrich shot this event as well for the news side of the paper.  I'm fully prepared to find his image on page A1 tomorrow, and he deserves it.  Outstandingly great shooter.  You can check out his coverage of the event here.  He beat me to santa on that first image.  I wasn't happy, but I guess that's the way things go, and I guess that's why he is who he is.  Always knows what he's looking for.  Photojournalism is something that I lack at as it's not something I have to do on a regular basis.  I'd love to do more of it, but in terms of what I do normally it's most likely not in the cards unless it comes from outside Indystar.  

 

(CanonEOS5d Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8, 1/200th@F3.2)

Being this my 5th year covering this event, I wont even lie; I 'm running out of ways to shoot it.  I may have said something similar last year when I shot the event too, but I'm not going to go back and read about it. I suppose that another thing I'm thankful for is that my images don't get put side by side with Matt's, who I'm fairly confident only actually took 16 photos tonight; each of which were perfect and posted them up online. (Maybe not, but he is aweseome) I figure maybe they will discover the number of bad photos I take in a days time or something, cause me to need to clean the bathrooms, or something equally cruel and unusual.  I kid, I kid, they would just look at me funny; not make me clean the bathrooms....

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8 with a 1.4x Teleconverter bringing my total to 420mm.  1/200th@F4)

One thing I am also thankful for this year is that I personally own Nikon Equipment.  I apologize for throwing this in here, but since I'm confident that nobody important reads this anyway I'll go ahead and say that I am absolutely disappointed with the 5D Mark II that is provided for me to use through the Indianapolis Star.  I have never used a camera with such abysmal autofocus whether in low light conditions or not.  I find myself firing three times as many frames as I do with my Nikon equipment because I need to make sure that I have a photo that is in focus to turn into our clients.  Not that I don't like the fact that I'm provided equipment, I just wish I could rely on it to produce sharp results, which I can't.  I'd prever my Nikon D700 or D3s ANY DAY, even at half the resolution.  

I feel like this blog post has been more of a rant than anything else, and that's not what I'm going for here I assure you.  I am very thankful for quite a few facets of my life.  Especially thankful that I've got Monday and Tuesday off this week.  Have a trip to St. Louis planned with the Girlfriend which should be nice.  The normal Photo of the day posting may take a hit unless I can figure out how to do it from the iPad, which I firmly believe is possible but potentially beyond the realm of my figuring out. 

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8, 1/160th@F4)

I think everybody knows who that is.  If not than I cant help you.  He is a staple at this event and normally spends a lot of time with the coloring contest winner for the state (whose prize for winning the contest is turning the key to light the tree).  Really as a kid, that's a pretty solid prize.  Heck, if I won a contest and they told me I got to do that I'd be excited too.   

Really though I think I'm excited to have a few days off.  This weekend I need to finish the proof of Justin and Lori's wedding DVD and start going through the pictures again, as well as work on another few shoots I had last weekend.   But Monday and Tuesday are totally work free.  Unless I can do it on the iPad which I mostly can't.  (I can edit HD Video on the iPad?  Awww crap...).  Either way, I hope that everyone else can find things that they are thankful for.  Work related, family related, life related or just in luck.  I know I've found a few new ones lately, what about you?  More Soon. 

Static Shocked....

Two weeks ago I got a very strange call from my boss at the newspaper.  That call was about an assignment that was very much unlike a normal assignment for me, in being that it wasn't a controlled environment, and a controlled subject.  This assignment was an event at the Vogue here in Indianapolis called Static Shock hosted as a fundraiser by Static Salon in Broad Ripple here in Indianapolis. 

(Nikon D700, 2000ISO, Nikon 14-24F2.8Nano@22mm 1/60th@F2.8)

Anybody that has read this blog knows that most of my newspaper and non newspaper assignments include things like business portraits or product photos for glossy publication.  A fewer amount of people are going to notice that while normally I shoot Canon for the newspaper (as that's what they provide me), This event I decided to break out my own Nikon equipment as it provides me cleaner and sharper images in this kind of an environment. 

 

(Nikon D700, 280ISO, Nikon 14-24F2.8Nano@21mm, 1/40th@F2.8)

Honestly I was very saddened by the number of photographers that I saw at the Vogue that night that were shooting just to get their names out there.  Don't get me wrong, I can definitely understand the need to get your name out there, but in order to even think about doing that you need to have some idea as to what you are doing.  There were several 'photographers' that night that had cameras that were most certainly set to program that had flashes on camera set to EPIC blasting the most amount of light as possible towards their subjects.  In some cases missing the most beautiful of light in the darkest of places...

(Nikon D3s, 450ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4G, 1/80th@F2)

That was shot in completely ambient light that night in the Vogue.  Not but moments later I saw another of many photographer blasting Mr. Stuart Sayger with their direct on camera flash.  Not saying that using flash is always bad, and that you need to ramp to High ISO every chance that you get either because getting away with using High ISO all the time can make you lazy.  It's like when I was younger and because I survived the dentist I told my mom and dad that I deserved some candy because I had no cavities.  A month after I'd be using that same excuse for candy knowing full well that the reward time had long since past.  If you get away with using it once or twice you can easily start to always think it's feeseable.  Even thought my D3s is capable of very useable images at 12,800ISO doesn't mean I always if ever actually go there.

(Nikon D3s, 2000ISO, Nikon 70-200VR2N@116mm, 1/250th@F4.  Single Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/32nd Power zoomed to 105mm superclamped to the upper level of the Vogue pointed down at the runway fired by Pocket Wizard.)

That's one of the lovely ladies from the Fashion part of the show at the Vogue, after all; that was my assignment.  I can't honestly complain about having to take photos of so many lovely ladies either.  Honestly the only thing better than doing that is the fact that my girlfriend Shannon accepts the fact that I do what I do, knowing that these girls are doing their job while I'm doing mine.  Speaking of doing my job I had the fortunate ability to run an experiment at the vogue while I was there...

(Nikon D700, 2500ISO, Nikon 14-24mmF2.8Nano@17mm, 1/60th@F4.  Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/32nd power zoomed to 105mm superclamped to the upper level of the Vogue fired by Pocket Wizard)

Shooting Sports gave me sort of a crazy idea that I put into practice that night as you can see above.  That blueish light in the photo isn't actually as much a blueish light as it is a Speedlight superclamped to the upper level of the Venue.  Having shot enough sports using speedlights set to low power I decided to see what that could do for me in terms of sharpness at a venue with uncontrollable dynamic lighting.  Honestly, it was the best thing that I ever did as it allowed me to bring my ISO down to between 1600 and 2500 for the evening, and made my images more consistantly sharper than they would have been otherwise; just like when shooting sports this way.  

 

(Nikon D3s, 2500ISO, Nikon 70-200VR2N@70mm, 1/200th@F2.8.  Single Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/32nd Power zoomed to 105mm superclamped to the upper level of the Vogue pointed down at the runway fired by Pocket Wizard.)

All in all the evening was a heck of an event.  It had a great turn out, and was beautifully scripted to which the naked eye could tell no deviation, and I met at least one other photographer that I felt as though I could learn from.  Great job to the ladies out at Static Salon for the event that they put on.  I greatly hope that they decide to host such an event next year whether or not  I'm fortunate enough to cover it or not.  More Soon. 

Racing to shoot...

So last year I was offered an opportunity. I was offered an opportunity to shoot a Nascar event known as the Kroger 200. I only bring this up because I didn't do it as I was already slated to shoot a wedding that weekend. The big thing with me is that I don't like to say no to too many projects that I want, as I know that the more I say no the less people will ask. Not that I'll take on any project that comes my way (as no photographer should), I just don't like turning people away when it's something that I especially want to do. Luckily though, Kroger came back to me this year and asked me to shoot their Race the night before the Brickyard 400: The Kroger 200 at O'Reilley Raceway Park.

(Nikon D3s, 1250ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-4.5@18mm. 1/250th@F3.5)

The regular star coverage can be found here. I'd never been to a NASCAR Race, much less gotten an opportunity for an ALL ACCESS PASS to shoot one. You may say that I know nothing about Shooting a race, and I'd almost agree with you. Not almost agree because I've shot an Indy 500, or a MotoGP. Not because of the Purdue Grand Prix either. I'd only almost agree because my assignment meant that I was only required to take one shot. That's all. Just one. That meant that the other quite a few hours that I was out at the race? I was there getting paid, just for me.

(Nikon D3s, 1000ISO, Nikon 70-200VR2@82mm, 1/200@F2.8)

My assignment was to take a photo of the winner. Until I knew who that was, I had free reign of the entire racetrack. The guy above was one of the pitt crew for Car #98, Paul Menard. He was watching the race from on top of the travel trailer. Honestly I'd have love to have climbed up there and seen the race from there even, but honestly short of levitating I'm not sure how he got up there. Didn't need the shot, but just like a lot of photographers; you don't just take what you need.

(Nikon D700, 1250ISO, Sigma 15mm Fisheye, 1/800th@F5.6)

There are certain things you will do though while there. As an example, I am sending Kroger the photos that I did take, that I like but didn't use. Everything above is an example of that. There are lots of uninteresting photos of random racecars, strange people with mullets, or weird fisheye angles that didn't quite work out, but I'm only sending them as an extra for having me out. After all, they didn't have to right? Not only that, but from what I understand they were very pleased with the shot I took of the winner. It ran full page on the back of the Racing Special Section last Monday. Full page isn't a good enough description though I suppose. It ran larger than the front page photo by Sam Riche (an awesome photographer/good friend), which was almost full page. There were no extra ads on this photo, it was just the photo. Second largest thing I've ever had run in the newspaper. Just like the largest thing I've ever had run though, this one had no photo credit....More Soon.

More Nursing...

In case you missed it, all of the final Nursing products and publications went live last Weekend. You can find a gallery from the event here. Since we also put full print publications online at the newspaper now, you can either find a paper from yesterday, or you can check out the full Salute to Nurses special section here. It's flash so if you're viewing this on your phone, you should look at this one.

In the middle of a couple other big projects right now too. More soon.

Salute to Nursing...

Not every photographer looks forward to doing the same event over and over again, year after year, but here at the Indystar I am fortunate enough to be a part of an event that is an incredible honor to be a part of. Each year the Indianapolis Star salutes Nurses throughout the state of Indiana. If I had to pick one profession that wasn't thanked enough, I would have to say Nursing is it.

(Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 160ISO, Canon 100mmF2.8 Macro, 1/40th@F4.5. Single Canon 580EX Speedlight on a stand shot through a 42" umbrella to camera right set to 1/4th power fired by pocket wizard. Single Canon 580EX SPeedlight on a stand directly behind Ken zoomed to 105mm at 1/16th power fired by pocket wizard.)

Nurses a lot of times work long hours, strange days, witness some grueling things, and yet excitedly get up every day to do it over and over again. Anybody can recognize the fact that a sick or injured person can be pretty grumpy, and Nurses deal with on a day to day basis. Some of which never get the thank you that they deserve. One nurse who was nominated is 84 years old, and has been a nurse for over 40 years. She now teaches patients how to deal with their orthopedic surgery recoveries.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 400ISO, Canon 70-200mmF2.8L IS@150mm, 1/60th@F3.5. Single Canon 580EX Speedlight to camera right on a stand shot through a 43" umbrella set to 1/16th power fired by pocket wizard)

Each year I am assigned the task of visiting each of these amazing Nurses and and taking photos of them for our special section, media for the event, their ads in the paper and the Nursing Quarterly magazine, and this year even taking a video of each of the nomonees. It was a busy couple weeks for sure, but the event was an epic success thanks to a lot of planning by my good friend Adrianne in our marketing department. She and I have a list of places to visit in our quest for world domination the best BBQ chicken pizza in town. We had to put our quest on pause while she worked on this event, but we'll be started up again soon on. She made a beautiful event, and all of the winners were honored as they should have been. The videos and photos shows up flawlessly on the projection screens at the event as well. Great Event.

(Canon EOS 1D Mark II, 800ISO, Canon 70-200mmF2.8L IS@80mm. 1/40th@F4)

I always get a kick out of seeing stuff I shot up on the big screen, just as much as I get a kick out of seeing it thumbnail sized inside any print publication. It never gets old, I love it. The photos up on that screen were all used for Johnson Memorials ads in the Nursing magazine I've spoken of in the past, as well as for the special section. There are also plans to use them in the future for ads that the hospital is running with us, which is great. I always like it when clients decide to reuse media that I created as sometimes its not a quick 10 minute process to create such media. I was at Johnson memorial shooting for 5 hours that day to make sure we got everything they wanted.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 250ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@26mm, 1/30th@F6.3. Canon 580EX Speedlight shot through a 43" umbrella to camera right set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard. Canon 580EX speedlight zoomed to 70mm set to 1/32nd power fired by pocket wizard back behind crowd right aimed at the wall to help separate the right side of the group from the wall.)

Over the last few years the event has grown almost out of control. Last year we had the luncheon in the Indiana Roof Ballroom. By the panoramic below, I think you'll agree; we've grown up a bit. More soon.

(Canon 1D Mark II, 1250ISO, Canon EF16-35mmF2.8L@16mm, 1/60th@F3.5. 13 images stitched together using Photoshop CS4's automerge function.)

The Cure...

I've had this itch to blog all week, and yet I just haven't found the time. Been on the road a lot this week (almost 500 miles in the car), so I've had plenty of time to think about what I should blog about. Nothing really stands out more than an event that I shot this morning though; "Race for the Cure".

(Canon EOS1D Mark II, 50ISO, Canon 70-200MMF2.8LIS@145mm, 1/8th@F32)

Yea I shot some engagement photos, I did the technology test last week by shooting a Nikon D2Xs at a concert vs a much newer more advanced D700 as well, and while those are both very worthy blog topics this one seems more relevant as the thoughts and memories are fresh in my mind. I'd say it was a tough thing to make it to as I was up late with a very lovely lady last night out on the town, but that I'm sure is nothing in comparison to what a lot of these women (and a few men) have gone through marching in this event.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 100ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@16mm, 1/100th@F10)

That was the scene at the IUPUI campus and Military park this morning at about quarter to 8 in the morning. I know some people that read this probably didn't realize there as an 8AM that goes along with the 8PM, but trust me it does exist. Not only does it exist, but most of the people in the above photo were there much before then, preparing for their walk/run/race.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@16mm. 1/125th@F11)

It really was quite a sight seeing all the people running and walking for the cause. Very inspiring. There were a few Roller Derby ladies in the run/walk as well, however I didn't run into them. I will see them in af ew hours though as today is the final bout for the 2009-2010 home season. I'm charging batteries and prepping gear pretty much at the same time that I type this. Double header, it's a big day. Going to be zonked out tired at the end of it too, but as always I've got some neat stuff coming up for future blog material so stay tuned. More Soon.

Out and About...

Been kind of missing from the blogsphere lately. Not on purpose, but sometimes things just get in the way. A lot of very eclectic events have been strung together lately, but at the same time it's just that eclectic nature of this profession that I truely enjoy. While as normally I do like going on location to shoot things, I've been doing a lot of on location event stuff. The event stuff can pose a different challenge that takes a shooter back to shooting things in the beginning. You don't have a lot of control, you can't light something, things get in the way, and there's nothing you can do about it but hope that you're fast enough to catch what's happening; and that your camera functions like it's supposed to.


That's a shot from Howl at the Moon in Downtown Indianapolis recently. I love the colors in stage, or performance venues. It's a tough thing to recreate outside of an environment like that. I like using my color gels just like any other photographer, but a lot of times it's just not the same. That all the same not everyone takes the flashy approach to presentation. A good example of that would be this:


That was the Vagina Monologues as performed in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis. Someone associated with Roller Derby was a part of the program, which is how I got involved. They didn't have a lot of flashy lights, but they had a relatively nifty venue. The room wasn't large, there were probably about 50 people in there I would guess, and the ladies really did put on quite a powerful performance. I had no idea what I was getting into when I walked into the room, but luckily having done so much work for a Women's Sports team, I wasn't too surprised by what came next.

I've shot a few other strange things recently as well, including the Jefferson Awards banquet earlier today, right before playing dodgeball with baseball's that were ricocheting off of a brick wall......among other things. When that' video is done I'll be sure to post it. Lets just say some things are more resilient to baseballs than you can imagine. One thing that isn't as hard to predict though, is the fact that no matter what venue I go to for an event, no matter how nice it is I always manage to find the one piece of gum on the floor to sit on, kneel on, or step on in the whole place. More Soon.

Weathermen.....

The running joke in life is that weathermen have the greatest jobs in the world. "Wouldn't you love to have a job where you could be wrong 60% of the time, and still be employed?". That's one of my favorites right there, but quite frankly I've learned that weathermen are usually pretty accurate as long as you're looking within a 24 hour window of the forecast. This guy's job however, was long term weather predictions and forecast for the planet.


That's Dr. Brian Soden from Miami. He's a global warming specialist and a few weeks ago I was asked to photograph his presentation by the Hoosier Environmental Council. One of the things I find greatest about being a photographer is that in an occasion like this I am learning something new while doing something I enjoy. It doesn't matter what the topic is as I'm one of those people that falls asleep some nights with the History or Discovery channel on the television; but I love hearing what experts in different fields have to say regardless of what that field may be. Dr. Soden was no different as his visual aids, as well as his stories about the compilation of weather data in the United States since the 1970's held true with the weather jokes that we've all come to use and love.


A lot of people don't believe in global warming because of the 20" of snow we received last week here in Indianapolis, and I can understand their doubt. I don't like the snow as much as anyone else, as I have yet to do anything with it photographically which I consider to be a personal failure. I've got a few ideas, but I just haven't done any of them. Dr. Soden did pull a full house crowd though. Old, young, students, anybody and everybody seemed to be there, which is good as he has quite a few interesting things to say.


As usual, I am working on a few other things too though. I have been throwing around a few short film ideas, similar to the video posted below:


That short film was shot entirely with the Pentax K7 and various lenses. Very cool video, very cool idea. I've been shooting a lot more video lately with the 5D Mark II and I've been loving every minute of it. It's annoying carrying two camera systems around though to the point where there may be a D3s in my future before the end of the year if I can get all my ducks in a row. (Dang that's a lot of ducks...) Lots of neat stuff coming up soon though. Going to be at an uber secret location Warehouse Indy photo workshop on Tuesday night. Have some neat new light modifiers that I'll be trying out that night; going to be doing some neat stuff there guaranteed so check back for that. Speaking of light modifiers, I've also had some equipment questions come though, and am working on an equipment page for the blog. Will keep you posted as to how that goes. More soon.

Shooting the Moon...

Recently I was asked to shoot at a place that for a while was also called by some to be a second home. When I first moved to Indy I had a few friends that loved to frequent Howl at the Moon in downtown Indianapolis. I'll tell you what, It's a good time and I definitely still do enjoy going there even though I don't go as much as I once did.


Someone once asked me what I thought about working here in Indianapolis, and what I thought about the quality of talent it had to offer. Personally, I think that Indianapolis has the same caliber of talented people as you could find in Chicago, LA, New York or anywhere. The musicians, performers, photographers, athletes, ect just don't get the same exposure here. You could travel to lots of places in Chicago and see people that aren't as good of musicians as some of the people that play at the Howl at the Moon here in Indy. Truely a talented group of people.


That's Todd, and he's not only a piano, guitar, and fiddle player but also a firefighter. I swear this guy must sleep less than I do, but he's probably lost more of his marbles than I had to to start with total which would probably explain how he survives the hours. There are some reports that He'll work all night at Howl and then make an appearance at a 2 alarm fire at 5:30 the same morning. It's pretty wild I'm not gunna lie, I don't think I could do what he does. That's for darn sure.


The staff was gracious and helpful, the crowd was excited about my being there even though to them I was more of just Random guy with BIG A$$ CAMERA. There are a few things that I would do differently next time, but that's still to come as I'm not done there yet. I'd like to get a good shot of each of the performers doing there thing, but the lighting doesn't always tend to things like that in such a dynamic environment. Not to mention the very lovely and talented Joanna the piano player who broke her ankle in a Hula Hoop contest. Something tells me she'll be sitting somewhat stationary for a while. I definitely look forward to a return trip in the next few weeks, either for myself; or possibly for them.

On a side note, I was not hired to shoot in promotion of the bar because of a statement that the General Manager made before the Colt's vs. Ravens game a few weeks ago. That had nothing to do with it by any stretch of the imagination. For the record, I do know him personally and anybody that took his message poorly obviously does not understand sportsmanship. I do think that he could have sent his support of his hometown slightly differently; but if you can't take a little smack talk about football than you shouldn't be allowed to watch it. Enough said, and as always; More Soon.

Picking Fav's...

As I mentioned in the last blog post Roller Derby Season is Among us. As part of that the ladies moved into a new venue where a whole new realm of photo taking possibilities are available. You can view their most recent bout in my photos located
here.



On Flickr I belong to a Roller Derby photo group, and one of the forum questions asked users to post their favorite derby shots that they have ever taken. After looking through the other posts people had made, I decided to participate in this post, and these are the shots that I came up with as the top 5 Roller Derby Photos that I have ever taken. (Presented in no particular Order) (this is the original post on flickr)



The shot above was taken in Minneapolis Minnesota during the North Star bout almost 1 year ago now. I took the shot from 90 feet above the track on catwalks inside the dome of the arena. According to the other team nobody had ever gone up there for bout action before, and the hits to the photos proved it. At the time this photoset was taken, it had more hits to it than any other derby bout I had photographed.


This photo is of a skater named Sweet C. I took this photo back when I had the D2x during season 1. Anybody who knows Cameras knows that the D2x was an Awesome camera, and the Mecca of resolution at that time in camera history. Anybody also knows that this camera had more noise than a broken antenna eared TV that used vacuum tubes powered by a hamster in a wheel. My solution to some of this problem was the use of flash pans in up close action. In this photo Sweet C is celebrating victory by giving High 5's to her fans. The motion blur creates a dynamic to the frame that I feel can easily get lost in sports, while keeping her face sharp and identifiable with the flash gives it personality; as well as the intense feeling of the win.




That shot was taken in North Carolina inside of one of the coolest Roller Derby Venue's I've seen to date. It was an ex hockey arena, that had these cool windows all around the outside. During warmup sometimes I like to take the opportunity to try new and slightly more lucrative photos of the Derby Girls which most often end in my butt being nailed by one of them in a turn like this. Nobody ever gets to see the girls this up close and personal during the bouts, and this seemed like a pretty solid way to so up close and personal what exactly these girls do.


This photo is of one of our jammers. Her name is Katya Lookin, and she's a great inspiration to quite a few girls on the team. That is of course when she's not looking angry enough to be in your derby eating your children. Last year I wanted to do HDR style photos for the programs and so I shot a few of these to pitch to the Art Director. In the end we didn't use them for anything, but the girl who is pictured here loves this photo, and so do I. It shows all the hotness, as well as the fierce undertones that derby has to offer.



Last but most certainly not least is this photograph for the 2009 NRG Calendar of Cereal Killer. This shot was done in Red Rocket Michelle's bathroom with 6 2 gallon bags of Fruit Loop equivilent cereal. Nikki Sutton did the style and the makeup, and good ol' CK just laughed it up for us. It was an awesome time, and a helluva cleanup after-wards. Michelle said her bathroom smelled like milk and cereal for at least two days after that. We only used about a quart of milk too, the rest of it was water which was hilighted by the use of the single 400 watt strobe inside of the tiny bathroom.

So there you have it; the 5 derby shots I have taken that are my favorites. There are plenty of other ones that I've taken and there are plenty of others that I have yet to take which I'm sure can top these. These by far are not the best roller derby photos out there either, in fact; If it was the 5 photos that others have takenin question, than this is a whole other ball game because there are tons of talented photographers out there covering roller debry all over the Country. Tom Klubens, Dr. X, Greg the Mayor, Red Rocket, Bob Scheer, Polina Osherov, and many many more just here in Indianapolis, and all are worth checking out. Roller derby has been a valued experience for me thus far, and has taught me a lot about myself and the way I shoot sports. I only hope that everyone who likes to take photos can find something they are as passionate about. More soon.

Not Long Now......

(Nikon D3, 250ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@130mm. 1/30th@F7.1. Dynalight 400JR to camera right fired by pocket wizard at 1/4th power though a 60" umbrella. Single Dynalight 400JR to camera left shot through a 24"x24" softbox at 1/8 power fired by pocket wizard.)

Anybody who knows me knows how involved that I am with the Roller Derby team, the Naptown Roller Girls, or the Naptown Tornado sirens if you will. I love roller derby, and quite thankfully it was what helped me make my transition to living in Indianapolis. When I first moved here, I knew not a soul except for maybe a friend or two from college. My then, work acquaintance Michelle Pemberton (Red Rocket to some of you) found out that I used to shoot sports at Purdue and asked me to come check out her roller derby team. Sure enough, I did and I'm now the stain on the back of the bad penny that nobody accepts as current but nobody is evil enough to throw away.

Now 4 seasons later, I have helped produce almost 3 calendars for the team, as well as had photos from bout action published in numerous magazines, books, and other various media outlets. The Roller Derby has afforded me many travels, many friends, and many late nights working on photos for what has ended up to be not for the girls on the team; but for me. I have a lot of portfolio work from the team and for that I am forever grateful. A lot of it comes from the calendar that we put out every year, which will be ready for the Bout in December. While I can't show you the shots from the calendar yet, I think it's only fitting to give you a little something to amp you up before the first bout of Season for tomorrow evening. So what kinds of things might you find in Roller Derby Season 4?


(Nikon D3, 400ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4AF-S. 1/80th@F1.4)

I made a deal with the devil and can't tell you what you'll find. Yea so I suck. I've been called worse by better so I'm not worried. What I can tell you is that I'm pleased with how things shaped up. Like putting play doh through one of the little spaghetti machines and getting that perfect pasta. Dig it, but don't get all bloodied up over it.


(Nikon D3x, 100ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-F4.5@28mm. 1/50th@F10. 750w lights set to 1/4 each to each side of the camera shot through 42" umbrellas. 6 400 watt lights around the perimiter of the scene set to 1/2th power hard light.)


Don't expect to see Hellvua like this in the final product. You can dream though, because she got a lot more bloodied up before the end of that day. Little did anyone know, but blood isn't easy to wash off......


(Photo by Tom Klubens)
(Nikon D700, ISO 800, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@70mm. 1/640th@F4.5)


Eventually after a while the rumor is that all the blood came clean without too much of a disaster. Dr. X still has his bloody socks from the even though as he showed me last week at a shoot. For those of you that don't know who Dr. X is, I've got a photo of him right here....


(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-4.5@26mm. 1/50th@F14. Dynalight 400JR set to full power to camera right hard light fired by pocket wizard, Dynalight 400JR set to half power to camera left both fired by pocket wizards. This shot was during a light test to fire two SB-800 speedlights with orange gels underneith the awning. They didn't fire on this shot.)


Take from these shots what you will. Every single one of them was from a shoot featured in the 2010 Naptown Tornado Sirens Calendar. Some have more information in them than others, and some I'm not sure will tell you much at all. I just like causing trouble I suppose which seems to be the theme of the week for me. One thing I can tell you for sure; and that is the fact that we were sponsored again this year. Good luck tomorrow ladies, you know I'll be there as usual hoping that maybe I'll be able to get lucky, and fire that shutter at the right moment just a few more times....More soon.


(Nikon D3, 800ISO, Nikon 50mm F1.4AF-S. 1/30th@F1.4)

Derby, Concerts, Food, and overdue posting...

Whoa so it's been over a week since I posted something last. I decided I needed to take a minute and do that real quick, before all 8 of my readers stop reading due to lack of content. It's either that or something shiny flew past and I would be forgotten completely. Whichever/or.

So yea that means I've been busy. Big surprise right? It's summertime, and summertime is super busy for me. I tell that to any girl I've dated, "Enjoy me now, you wont see me much over the summer." For the record; no that doesn't always go over that well... These bad boys though......These will make anybody smile.

(Canon EOS 1D Mark II, 160ISO, Canon EF 100MM F2.8, 1/100th@F7.1. Single 580EX Speedlight at 1/2 power through an umbrella above left fired by pocket wizard, Single 580EX Speedlight fired by pocket wizard shot directly into a silver reflector 3 feet to camera right at 1/8th power)

I really need to figure out this whole online color profile thing. I post photos and the colors are sometimes muted down due to the browser that people look at them in. On my comptuer the pancakes are that perfect golden brown pancake color, and the jam is that blueish purple awesomeness color. I've heard (again from those 8ish readers) that sometimes the colors look muted. That bugs me. It might even keep me awake at night actually...

Other things that keep me awake at night are things that I shoot on weekends. Friday night KJ Testin had her first big live performance at 8 Seconds Saloon here in Indianapolis. KJ did an awesome job, and I'm really happy for her. I hope that her music goes noplace but up, and from the looks of it; I can't imagine anything different happening.

(Nikon D3 560ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR @200mm, 1/100th @F2.8)

On an earlier blog post I showed the Music video that we made for one of KJ's songs, and we had a ton of awesome feedback on it. Live, KJ really did put on a great show. The fans seemed to dig her, and the GM of the venue seemed very pleased with the crowd that she brought in. As for me, I was thrilled to get to shoot a concert type event. I don't really ever get to shoot anything like that anymore. Especially not events where I know the artist even. It's so cool, I almost wanted to wear blues brothers glasses while I was shooting. I really needed to give my buddy Adam a call and get a few pointers on shooting concerts, but I didn't end up having any time to do such a thing and just had to wing it. I think I did alright though, but more importantly a great job goes to KJ! Keep singing the great music! Everybody should check her stuff out here.

Quick side note here: This is the kind of thing where Auto ISO is a godsend. Nikon has really done their AutoISO right, and I have absolutely no hesitation to use it in this type of event. You can see that the two photos that I posted are at 400ISO, and 580ISO (580? WTF?). I shot everywhere from 200ISO to 6400ISO that night, but the camera knew when 6400 or 1600 wasn't necessary and allowed me to shoot at these lower sensitivities. That's right folks. that means that if KJ wants to make a 40" poster of her singing on stage; she can do it with these files. I'm telling you. AutoISO. Check it out.

(Nikon D3 400ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@110mm, 1/100th @F2.8)

This week finished like many others have or are bound to finish, and that's with a page out of the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar. Next week will be no different. I ended up being home sick today with some kind of WTF food poisoning. Am better now, but this morning I felt like death had been microwaved and served to a prison inmate on one of those Styrofoam plates (which of course made the trip through the nuker as well). The good news is that the shots from last night turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Of course I can't post anything interesting about it here, but I'll try to find something that I can post by the end of the week. Last night we shot in Salon 6 in Broad Ripple, next week we are doing Bikers. The logistical challenges never end it seems... More Soon.