Monday Night Ride...

In the last blog I said I had some interesting stuff coming down the pipe, and I'm now here to prove that statement to be true. Despite the fact that I'm on vacation right now, as usual someone manages to find something to get me interested in bringing the camera with me. This trip was no different as apparently a good friend of mine bought brand new Ducati.

(Nikon D3s, 3200ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8@28mm. 1/2500th@F9. 2 Nikon SB900's and a single Nikon SB800 superclamped toa light stand held by Andy, set to fire via SU-800 Commander unit attached to the camera via SC-28 off camera cable. All speedlights were set to fire at +1.7EV and were zoomed to 105mm)

Honestly that shot wasn't what I was intending to start out with, in fact it was a test shot for the action shot lower on this page. Simple lighting scheme, which was all hard light. 3 Nikon Speedlights all super-clamped to a light stand and held by my buddy Andy as illustrated here:


I set up the lights like that because Andy had a very very important job. Well a few important jobs maybe as his first job was to make sure the lights were pointed at Biker Mike, and to yank me out of the way if somehow I got in said way... Luckily, only once did the bike brush through my hair on the way past, which I suppose is par for the course that I play on when it comes to Photography. In case you're wondering, no that shot didn't make the cut. I'm sure Ducati would have loved that itw as almost just a frame of their logo and the riders left hand pumping the clutch, but this one seemed much cooler...

(Nikon D3s, 2500ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8@28mm. 1/2000th@F9. 2 Nikon SB900's and a single Nikon SB800 superclamped to a light stand held by Andy, set to fire via SU-800 Commander unit attached to the camera via SC-28 off camera cable. All speedlights were set to fire at +1.7EV and were zoomed to 105mm)

That's one of the final shots there. Originally I wanted to have a much nicer bluer sky, with potentially a bit of a sun flair in the frame. This sky is what I got, and honestly I can't say I'm terribly upset about it. I feel as though it gives it a good bit of dramatic effect, especially since the sun was giving the clouds that orange burst while it started to set. Surprisingly we weren't out there for very long, I figured it would take quite a few more attempts at this, and really I'm very intrigued about doing it again having learned a few things on this attempt. Who knows, I may have to pull a Redo on this one. The action shots at least, the few portraits I shot I was relatively pleased with. More Soon.

(Nikon D3s, 200ISO, Nikon 85mmF1.4. 1/1250@F2. Single Nikon SB900 zoomed to 70mm attached to the end of a light stand held above Biker Mike by Andy, set to fire at iTTL +-0EV from a Nikon SU-800 Commander Unit from on camera.)

Friends, Bikes, and Toys!

This week started out being somewhat slow, but then ramped itself into 7th gear all of the sudden starting on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I'm trying out a new toy thanks to Jeff Penn at Nikon. It's only to borrow and there will be more on that later, but I'm excited about it. No it's not something that isn't out yet either, so don't think that I know something that other people dont know that they think they know. Last thing I want is for these guys to come after me:

(Nikon D3x, ISO 200, Nikon 18-35mm F3.5-4.5 @23mm, 1/200th@F5. Single SB-900 Speedlight to camera left fired by an SU-800 Speedlight commander from on Camera set to +3 output)

I've been trying to find anything to shoot just to put this thing through the ringer to see what it can do. I've shot 3 beds at Ultrasun this week, I've arranged for a fashion shoot at the beginning of next week, and I'm working on trying to get 2 derby shoots done before I leave for Canada next weekend. That means that the next post is going to be full of technical information and big pictures. (Hey that's my kind of post! Big Pictures! EEEEEP!) It's actually sort of rekindled the artistic shooting in me honestly. Wednesday night Brad and I went and shot downtown for about two hours, using our tripods as swords to fight off the homeless people muttering, "chaaaaange.....chaaaaaange" as if they were some sort of zombies.

We got some good stuff, but that'll come in the next post too. Until then, I'm going to try to make the most out of this toy Nikon loaned me for a bit. I'm also going to try not to get hit by any motorcycles over the weekend with my friends from out of town. Seen it happen, figure it's overrated. Not only that but State Farm is mailing me a check for that SB-800 that got eaten by the Hot Rod as seen in this post. I don't think they will want to deal with me being run over so recently afterwards. Either way it'll be nice to see my friends from out of state while not having to work the GP, and to have a full set of speedlights again to play with at the beginning of the week. Maybe I'll shoot some GP stuff as just a fan; we'll see. Until then, have a nice weekend. More soon.

Sports

This morning I found out that I would not be shooting the Indianapolis Motorcycle Grand Prix this year. It's fine and good, since I will now be able to spend time with friends that I have coming into town for it. In truth though, I will miss the event. Some people know it, and others don't but before I worked for the Newspaper I shot sports at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. I was by far not the shooter then that I am today (not that I'm leaps and bounds better today), but I enjoyed it. To this day in fact I continue to enjoy shooting sports because it is a difficult unlike anything else. Sports can be a ballet of action in which you are either in the right place, or you are not. You either get the shot, and are even looking in the right place; or are not. Your photos are sharp, or they are not. The horrible part is that I'm incredibly anal about photos being sharp.

(Notre Dame vs Purdue in 2005. Nikon D70s, 1600ISO, Nikon 70-300mm F4.5-5.6@155mm, 1/250th @F4.5)

Lighting challenges occur, people get in the way, you don't have enough lens, you have too much lens, you can't make it someplace fast enough, you hesitate a half a second and miss a shot, and many more problems can arise while shooting sports. It takes a special kind of thinking ahead, or at lesat it used to. With Today's cameras you can shoot at 3200ISO and feel confident that you can even crop in on your images. When the image above was taken in 2005 that wasn't the case with digital. 1600ISO was cleaner than film was, but you couldn't crop in on it very much without showing off the 'grain feature'.

(Purdue Womens Basketball 2/11/2006. Nikon D70s, 800ISO, Nikon 80-200F2.8@125mm, 1/320th@F2.8)

While I was at Purdue I shot all of the sports. Everything except for golf, which was ironic since I actually played golf and understood the sport better than many of the others. I shot for the Purdue Debris Yearbook, as well as the University itself later on, but it didn't matter who I shot for to me. I just enjoyed it, and why not? I had the best seats in the house!

(Purdue Womens Volleyball vs Ohio State University. Nikon D2x, 500ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR @105mm, 1/250th@F2.8)

Sometimes I wish I'd have been better at Shooting Sports when I was, so that maybe I'd still be doing that today. The newspaper pays better though, and I can't tell you how much I've learned about on location shooting, and lighting while working there. Honestly though, there will always be a part of me that will miss the Basketball, Football, Baseball, Volleyball, Tennis, Soccer and more that I shot at Purdue.

I can't say that I haven't shot any sports while for the paper. I do shoot the Indiana All Star Basketball games as you can see in this previous post. If you've read my blog more than once you'll know that I also shoot for the Naptown Roller Girls Roller Derby Team. I love shooting the Derby, it's like nothing I had ever shot before and it maintains a special place in my portfolio because just like any other sport; it's not easy to shoot.

(Nikon D300, ISO 1600, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@102mm, 1/250th @F2.8)

I guess the whole point of this blog is that when I do get to shoot things like sports I feel lucky. I just find it a unique challenge that is different every single time I have a chance to shoot it. Last year I got to shoot the MotoGP, and I"m not sure exactly what circumstances allowed that but hey I'd rather be lucky than good right? The shot below was from the 1st Annual MotoGP last year. I have a 24"x11" version of it hanging on my wall here at home because I liked it. I'd never shot a motorcycle race before, and was incredibly pleased with this shot.

(Indianapolis Motor Speeday's 1st Annual Motorcycle Grand Prix. Canon 1D Mark II, 800ISO, Canon 400mmF4DO with Canon AF 1.4X extender, 1/100th@F13)

Funny part about the GP shot is that it might have been during the worst shooting experience of my life. That weekend in Indy was the worst weather in IMS History that a race had been run. The rain and the wind was so bad, that Matt Detrich had to use his belt to tether himself to where he was stationed on the roof to make sure he wouldn't fall off. With 40mph winds the rain felt like needles on your face, and visiibility was low enough that the auto focus in my camera was having trouble on the bikes traveling at 200mph several yards away. That was of course if you were lucky enough to be able to hold your lens pointed towards the bikes in the 40mph wind and rain. The weather was pretty awful, and honestly I'm glad I shot with Canon Equipment on loan to the paper from CPS that day instead of my stuff. It was an unforgettable experience, and I'd do it all over again. Why? Because I love what I do. Maybe one day I'll figure out exactly what I'm doing. Of course if I do I think I'd still almost rather be lucky than good. More soon.

Meet Rachel...

OK so this is a quickie blog post, just as very much like it was a quickie photoshoot. I get a call on Monday afternoon after I had gotten over my WTF food poisoning in regards to a last second photo shoot for a girl named Rachel who needed very fast, shots to send to her agency in Florida. I am not going to lie, I hesitated at first because I hate doing things very last second, but in the end I agreed to shoot the pictures; and am very glad I did. Rachel is an awesome girl, and I've sort of half known her for a month or two now. By half known I mean she has been my waitress a few times where she works. Either way, she had a few shots in mind and I pulled a few things out of left field, which brought us to this:

(Nikon D3, ISO 250, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@175mm 1/40th @F5. Single SB-800 set to 1/4 power triggered by pocket wizard to the left of camera, shot through an umbrella slightly above Rachel. SB-900 Speedlight set to half power zoomed to 200mm triggered by pocket wizard wedged into the saftey release of the glass door directly behind Rachel, fired at her back.)


Rachel needed these shots absolutely immediately after they were shot, to send to her agency. These shots are what the agency was going to use to try to get her into the Ducati Runway show over the weekend of the Indianapolis Motorcycle Grand Prix. If I'm not shooting the race (which I hope I am) I'm going to have to try to get in there to see her. Or maybe I'll try even if I am shooting the race......you never know. The interesting part of these shots is this: YES, I did send them like you see them now. Why is that important? Because they are straight out of the camera; untouched by the airbrush gods, or by my feeble photoshopping skills at least. What does this hint at now? This hints that YES, Rachel is really that smokin gorgeous!

It's funny because I'm sure this shoot was incredibly tame, lame, and downsized as compared to all the shoots that she's been in for her Agency, or for the Miss Indiana competition's she's participated in. She was a 500 Princess, hooters calendar candidate, and probably been in about a bajillion other awesome things.


(Nikon D3, 250ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@150mm, 1/40th @F2.8. Nikon SB-800 Speedlight to 4 feet above camera left triggered by Pocket wizard set to half power shot through an umbrella)


We had a lot of fun shooting, Rachel is a riot. She was super excited that we were able to shoot Monday night, and in the end I'm very happy I was able to shoot as well. I am very pleased with the outcome of the photos, as well as the possibilities they will open up for her. She also gave me the greatest compliment on my photography I've ever recieved. In fact it was so great (and subsequently hilarious) that it is the name of the facebook album that she started with the shots she sent to Florida. She said, "I am going to build a church, and name it after you". I was so flattered, and laughing at the left field aspect of that statement that I had to stop working for a minute. Thank's Rachel, everybody gets lucky from time to time. Greatest compliment I've ever recieved. Itwas awesome.

Hopefully in the future we'll have more time to shoot some more, as the time and format constraints on this shoot were pretty tight. Needing to have them in as soon as they were shot, as well as that they all needed to be full body shots was sort of restricting. Either way, it was a good shoot and I look forward to the possibilities. I also look forward to editing through the rest so I can provide final photos to her as well (seriously, who wouldn't like looking at 300 photos of her?...come on). Best of luck Rachel, hopefully I'll get to see you make the walk down the Ducati Runway in a few weeks. To end, I leave you all with her favorite out of the few that we looked at already. Thanks again, and More soon.

(Nikon D3, 250ISO, NIkon 70-200mmF2.8VR@155mm, 1/40th @F4. Single Nikon SB-800 shot through an umbrella at 1/2 power through an umbrella above camera left by pocket wizard. SB-900 Flash unit dialed to 50mm set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard about 100' back on some stairs fired into the brick wall with the Florescent white balance gel supplied with the unit).

A slightly better setup shot can be seen here:

(Photo by Brad Clampitt) (No the camera on tripod is not mine, Brad just likes to have more cameras than me, when he documents things like this. That and that camera/tripod is wedged in my light stand to hold it from being blown away by the fan)