Going to Mexico

The St. C's K class is on a trip to Mexico these days, and I had the good fortune to be a sombrero-making volunteer. The actual forming of the hats was more work than you can imagine (so the photos are limited), but the painting was pretty fun. One little guy had the Pollock thing going on...

I have finally found a little time to start looking at the TWiPpers' sites recently, and would like to give a shout out to Aaron Mahler, Frederick Van Johnson and Steve Simon.

Holy $#*! It's Cold!

Cumberland, Virginia. Swinging Bridge 35 & 50K trail races. 8am start. 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

I shocked my Zune changing clothes in the Town & Country and thankfully didn't erase KC & the Sunshine Band's 'Boogie Shoes'!

The registration and pre-race photos were fun - especially with 2 hobo-style trash can fires blazing. But shooting the runners as they left the start line, I had absolutely no feeling in my fingers. Both hands all the way to the second knuckle. I'm surprised any of those shots came out. There was a definite point where you could see the exposure drop off because I couldn't work the f-stop controls. It was unnerving not being able to feel the shutter-release. I honestly couldn't tell if I was taking any pictures.

Jogging back to the van I removed glove liners and mittens and put as many fingers as would fit into my mouth. The edge of frostbite is a horrible aching sensation. The drive to the 5.5 mile aid station got me back on track though, and I didn't have cold hands for the rest of the day. I think the liners were ruining the mitten's whole-hand warming usefulness (I ditched them and only used the mittens).

Frost covered all the runners' exposed facial hair and anywhere else that moisture could cling. It was like watching 100 Jack Frosts going by. And the major creek crossing was mostly ice. This made for some great episodes of folks trying to avoid getting wet. I actually witnessed two folks 'walking on water'. I swear the ice was so thin a bird would have cracked it, but these two must have weighed less than a starling.

Unfortunately, my tree-climbing perch was for naught. The spot where people would ford the creek beneath me was not the way anyone wanted to go. It would have been some great photography, though!

As I waited about half a mile before the 35K finish to get the final stretch shots, I had a few minutes to realize one of the really great things about this kind of photography: the solitude. Listening to nothing but a light breeze in the trees, I felt like I could have stayed there forever. Even though it was 20 degrees...

Holidays & Birthdays

Man, what a dry spell! I guess it's time to start marketing the biz. At least I'm getting my running back to some regularity. Since I don't really have anything else to talk about, I'll mention shooting a little during the holidays and my son's 6th birthday just to shake the dust off.

Xmas had us up and down I95 a little too much (if you ask me). But the teenage cousin-in-law humored us by helping the young 'uns build a Lincoln Log fort. I think there may have been some money involved there, but I can't be certain.

And last weekend had us hosting the Star Wars birthday party. It's kind of difficult to be the ring-leader and photographer of the same event. But some of the shenanigans came out alright in the jpeg realm. And yes; I did have a hand in creating the R2-D2 cake, but my sister did most of the grunt work.

The Importance of Multiple Memory Cards...

Here's a little story to go along with some recent TWiP discussions involving memory cards, and their sizes and need for more than 1 per camera...

This past September I drove down to Williamsburg to shoot the VPCGA's Annual Meeting (opening reception & dinner) at the Williamsburg Lodge.

It was about an hour away from Richmond, and I drove down a little early to see the layout of the rooms we would be using. That being done, I took a seat in the lounge to get my game face on. Turning on the cameras to clear the memory cards from the last event (I leave them on the cards until the next gig after I make 2 copies of all originals).

Whazzam! (to quote my almost-6-year-old's favorite catch phrase) NO CF CARD. That's right. Both cameras. A cold chill washed over me. I had 30 minutes until go time, and an almost 2-hour round trip. It was Sunday night in Colonial Williamsburg. Even if there were a camera store, they certainly wouldn't be open.

And then I noticed my weatherproof memory card case in the bottom of my bag beneath the off-camera shoe cord. With 3 512MB and 1 2GB cards in place.

I had become so complacent with never needing more than my usual 4GB cards, that I quit using the others. And I always ASSUMED I would leave the cards in the camera, but in my moment of panic I remembered them vividly resting on the card reader by the desktop. Let that be a lesson to us all!

Mother-in-Law

Being a reading teacher, my wife's mom is very involved with the Richmond Area Reading Council. And, since I bother her sometimes to watch Willem when I have a job, she asks me to photograph her meetings and special events. They aren't too demanding, and seldom take more than an hour, and it's good practice when I'm between jobs. As with a lot of my indoor work, the low-light conditions bug me, but I can get my people skills honed with the close-ups.

Back on the 20th, I made my way over to Broad Street and shot the Read Aloud Virgina's Santa Breakfast. It was really amazing to see just how much the kids loved getting books.

Junior Olympic XC

The morning immediately following the Nursing School's graduation, I was out at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville. It was 25 degrees. I forgot a jacket. Actually the jacket was more for the photography gig than my more immediate plan: to run the 5K course of the 2008 USATF Junior Olympic Cross-Country Championships. Backwards, of course, so I could see the angles that would look best with the kids running towards me.

There were 3 different courses: 3K, 4K, and 5K, so they were a little confusing at the 1K split. Once I figured that out, though, I had to plan how fast I could cover 3 positions and still beat them to the finish. One of the problems I have with the SportsBackers events (when Rick can't help me out) is covering both the 'look' and 'feel' of the race while also getting the winners crossing the line (for the press releases). A lot of the time I let the event photography company have the press release shot. My 'straight-on' finisher stuff has not worked out as interestingly as I would like anyway. I have some Neil Leifer - like ideas that I want to try out with remote cameras...

A lot of this event was back lit with bright sunlight, but I have been trying to learn shooting without the flash so much. I'm finding that I like the flash... it changes the look somewhat, but it also provides a unique look if you bump it up a little more than mere fill. The background looks richer if you under-expose the sky a stop or two. I managed to run much more than any of the kids (counting my course pre-run), and felt pretty wiped out at the end.

Back to the Siegel Center

Friday a week ago, I covered the VCU School of Nursing's December Graduation ceremony. Not too much different than the May event, so I was a little less nervous. One thing was better. Since the full graduation excercises were the following day (in the Siegel Center instead of the Coliseum, as in May), the lighting was noticeably brighter. Not great, but better than before.

I am really getting to the point now where I need a new camera. Low-light situations like these are really bringing me down. For web use, the photos look ok, but if large prints are ever needed, the grain in the darker areas will look awful. Of course, they all look awful to me anyway (graininess, not composition) because I'm my own worst critic. I usually end up shooting at ISO 1600 (the Rebel Xti's maximum) and only between 100-160th shutter speed. And I'm almost wide open at around 3.2 or 3.5. A tri-pod would be a hindrance, so I'm ready for something better.

With that in mind, I have been listening to Scott Bourne, Ron Brinkmann, and the gang at TWiP, hoping for one of them to tell me which Canon body is best suited to my needs. Most of them use Nikon predominately, though. So if I'm willing to buy another $3 grand in lenses, I will look at the D3, but in the meantime I need someone to point me in another direction.