Taking the path less beaten

 

While walking around Seattle’s International District, searching for some photos to take, I happened to stumble upon a small antique shop tucked away in an alley not too far from S. Main Street. What drew my eye immediately to the shop’s front window wasn’t the contrasting styles of Chinese pottery displayed next to a ceramic duck, but a cat napping and sunning itself.

Positioning myself across the sidewalk, I slowly raised my camera, hoping not to disturb the napping cat, I was able to fire off about three frames before the cat jumped down.

I dare to say, this is probably one of the most unique still life

photos I’ve ever taken and glad to have not taken the beaten path and instead ventured into this alleyway.

 

Adding story-telling elements in covering a football game

 

I wanted to show you how I approach covering a football game. I normally look for elements of fan and player emotion, offensive and defensive plays that might tell a complete story from start to finish of the game and on Sunday this was no exception. The Seahawks, 7-9 in the regular season, shocked the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans 41-36 with the arm of quarterback Matt Hasselbeck’s four touchdown passes, a defense that produced critical plays when the time counted and running back Marshawn Lynch’s electrifying 67-yard touchdown in the final minutes that sealed the victory. Thrown in those factors mixed with the constant roar of 66,336 spectators at Qwest Field a photographer would have been blind not to come away with decent game pictures.

#1 -- Marshawn "The Beast" breaking tackles (at least eight) on his way to a 67-yard touchdown that sealed the 41-36 BFC Wild Card game against the Super Bowl Champions New Orleans Saint.

#2 & 3 -- Brandon Stokley's TD catch and run and celebration.

#4 -- Saints quarterback Drew Brees passing up pressure from the pass rush of Seahawks Chris Clemons.

#5 -- Seahawks defense bring down Saints running back Julius Jones.

#6 -- Saints head coach Sean Payton calling time out.

#7 -- Seahawks wide receiver Cameron Morrah breaking away from Saints defensive back Roman Harper.

#8 -- Seahawks' Tyler Polumbus pass blocking on Saints defensive end Alex Brown.

#9 -- Seahawks Hasselbeck completing a pass to running back Justin Forsett. Hasselbeck completed 22 of 35 passes for 272 yards, four Td’s and one interception.

#10 --Seahawks Raheem Brock and Lofa Tatupu celebrate a sack on Brees.

#11 -- Seahawks fans make noise at Qwest Field, forcing a false start against the Saints.

Fans at Qwest field have made opposing team commit 106 false starts.

#12 -- One fan came painted as the Hulk.

#13 -- Seahawk fans scream as loud as they can to cause a false start on the Saints’ offensive unit.

#14 -- As time runs out, defensive tackle Colin Cole raises his arms in victory.

#15 -- Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll shake hands with fans before heading into the locker room to celebrate with his team.

#16 -- Defensive tackle Craig Terrill picks up and twirls his wife while celebrating the Seahawks 41-36 win over the Saints.

Anyways, each game is different and you have the chance of taking different story-telling pictures. Had the Saints been ahead and were sure to win, I would moved over on their side of the field to focus and capture more images of offensive action, their players and fans reactions as well as sideline jubilation.

Let there be light

Ever try shooting wrestling in high school gyms with bad lighting or lack of it? How about trying to capture images where they turn off all the overhead lights, and lower one flood light from the ceiling that’s positioned over the circle of the mat. No light, bad light…no photos...period. Depending on the number of cheerleaders and where they are allowed to sit, I either set up two to three remote strobes, two at the front corners and one in back.  These lights are triggered at the same time using a Canon Speed light transmitter ST-E2's. The lighting didn’t turn out too badly and it didn’t brother the wrestlers at all. When the lights are turned on In other area high school, you can get by shooting ISO 800 at f2.8 and 250th second.

I shot these using the following settings:

Date: 1/7/10

Time: 7:47:00 PM

Latitude:

Longitude:

Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Serial #:

Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh

Frame #:

Lens (mm): 93

ISO: 800

Aperture: 2.8

Shutter: 1/250

Exp. Comp.: 0.0

Flash Comp.:

Program: Manual

Focus Mode:

White Bal.:

ICC Profile: Adobe RGB (1998) (embedded)

Contrast:

Sharpening:

Quality:

I shot these using the following settings:

Date: 1/7/10

Time: 7:47:00 PM

Latitude:

Longitude:

Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Serial #:

Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh

Frame #:

Lens (mm): 93

ISO: 800

Aperture: 2.8

Shutter: 1/250

Exp. Comp.: 0.0

Flash Comp.:

Program: Manual

Focus Mode:

White Bal.:

ICC Profile: Adobe RGB (199

8) (embedded)

Contrast:

Sharpening:

Quality:

Making the best in a bad situation

Our good Canadian neighbors North of Washington State sent us an Artic Blast for a few days on Monday night right after the snow we received on Sunday and throughout Monday. Unfortunately, the lights and power went out right before halftime in the Monday Night Football game between the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos.

No cable, radio, computer, internet or stove. So what do you do in these middle age conditions?  Just set a fire in the living room , grab candles, lanterns and play Monolopy. Lucky for us we still had hot water and a downstairs fireplace that is on a natural gas line, so we could still take hot showers and heat one room of the house, which kept us from turning into human popsicles.

Cooking, not a problem, earlier that afternoon, I cooked a hearty homemade tomato, barley, and chicken soup, with carrots. All I had to do was run down to the basement and pull out the camp stove, hook up a can of gas and warm up the soup and boil water for hot coco on the snow covered deck in 25 degree weather.  It was sort of like camping out, but in the comfort of your home.

Because of vast amount of icy covered trees that were blown down on power lines up and down the Kitsap Peninsula, we had heard that some folks might not get their power on till Friday.  While hoping we weren’t one of them I was planning on cooking the Thanksgiving meal on the camp stove. The turkey could be cooked in the smoker, but I was wondering how to cook a pumpkin pie, Maybe on the grill, with the gas turned low and hope it would be ready by Thanksgiving Day.

During the board game, I ran down stairs, grabbed the camera and took a few pictures of the competition. After the game and while everyone was settling in for the evening, the power company managed to restore power at 7:15, only 11 hours after it went out. We are truly one of the lucky ones. I, for one, am truly happy that I won’t be bundled up, standing in the 25 degree weather and wind to cook the meal. Happy Thanksgiving to all and be thankful for what we have and not for what we wish we had.

Seeing human contrast within a picture

I have a fascination with people and being a photojournalist, I love taking pictures of people everywhere I go.  Scott Bourne, a very good friend of mine, once said, “Most people wait until someone gets out of their picture, Jim, waits until someone walks into his."

I’m just that type of guy, who, will always try to capture some sort of human element that will add to my pictures. One of those elements I use is contrast.

To me contrast of subjects within the frame of my viewfinder tells a story.  Not the type of contrast you see in colors, tones, conflicts or shapes, but a contrast in emotions, body languages, relationships and age. This takes seeing, timing, composition, watching and paying, attention , waiting and timing for that decisive moment to happen when to press the shutter button and know when you’ve captured a story-telling

picture. 

The Canon 500mm f4, What a sweet lens!

 

Wow, what a difference a lens can make. Normally, when covering the Seahawks games, I use either my 300mm or 400mm f2.8 lenses and follow the action up and down the sidelines. However, this Sunday I was loaned a 500mm f.4 from Glazer Pro Photo. Glazer's, who have been providing pro support for at least six years, brings a battery of loaner equipment to the Seahawks games for us pros to check out and use. They bring a cart full of MK IV's, MK III's, and 300mm, 400mm and 500mm lenses. I normally use the 400mm f2.8 (mine is in the shop), but someone already beat me to the lens so I used the 500mm instead.

Talk about a sweet lens!!!!!!!! With this lens there's no need for chasing the action up and down the sidelines.  My work area was from the corner of the end zones to the 30 yard lines and I was able to get pictures in front of the offense of developing plays, catches, open field running or hang out behind the QB to get pass receptions, interceptions, behind the line sacks or stuffed plays. 

From time to time I've watched the Seahawks team photographers and studied how they cover a game. Now I know the method to their success in capturing great action shots.

Not only was the 500mm much lighter than the 400mm and I wasn't weighted down like a pack mule, but I didn't arrive home with the effects having to run a marathon as well.

It's a Mystery to Me

 

Sometimes when modern technology doesn’t work, you just have to revert back to just putting the camera on manual, raise the ISO and bracket your exposures and hope for the best. While recently working on a feature metal sculpture artists Dan Klennert at his Elbe, Washington outdoor studio I couldn’t get my 580 EX flashes to fire.

Earlier in the week I was there to photograph the wonderland of rust-colored scrap metal sculptures that included dinosaurs, birds, fish, horses, insects, people on Harley motorcycles and a huge iron wheel.

Since he was welding at the time I returned a few days later to capture shots of him welding and planned to set up the flashes to lighten the sculptures a bit using Strobists/Joe McNally type lighting techniques, but for some reason they wouldn't fire by Radio Triggers. Since he using an arc welder/cutter and using a high amount of electrical current to work, it must have caused a lot of EM noise, which easily overpowered the signals. Then again maybe it was the fact that I was enclosed in a steel frame structure with an aluminum walls and roof and was filled with medal scrapes of all sizes and shapes. That could have quite possibility nulled out both the radio/IR signals too. Who the hell knows, the signals just didn’t fire the flashes while he worked.

So, I used the “Hail Mary” method, camera on manual and bracket

the exposures.  Also every time I got too close with the 16-35mm flying sparks created from the welding landed on me.  I should have gone to the car and grabbed a safety hat and glasses, but at this point and time I only worried about capturing a picture.  A few times when sparks landed in my hair and smelling burning hair I stopped shooting to slap the top of my head, but I continued shooting.  The slow shutter speed method worked, as I was able to make photos of him using a shutter speed of 1/20^th of a second at f.5.6.

After I returned home and set the strobes up in my office they worked fine. As Fleetwood Mac once named an album, “It’s a Mystery to Me!”