Twin Cities Junior Roller Derby_5897

Twin Cities Junior Roller Derby_5897, originally uploaded by Fotodog_1.

Cyclone Celia - Your lead jammer.
From the Friends and Family Scrimmage held at Juvie Hall on February 13th.

It was a great day for derby. The skaters were jazzed because their parents and a few friends were there to see them do a full-length scrimmage, the referees and coaches were awesome (thank you so much) and the light was amazing.

I did something I swear I'd never do. I overshot the event. I shot over 500 shots in the two hours we were there. How? I have no idea and even worse (from my standpoint) I posted over 400 on Flickr.

Why? Because the kids were so damn cute AND the kids build their confidence when they see they are doing something on the track that emulates their idols. That and bragging rights for parents.

Congratulations TCJRD for a fantastic event. I'm honoured to be a part of such a fun organization.

Upcoming events for TCJRD: March 27th - The first bout, June 24-26 - JuniorCon both at Juvie Hall
Cheers!
~fotodog

One Lens - Three Views - 9 shots

St. Agnes, originally uploaded by Fotodog_1.

I've seen a ton of blogs on digital photography that have been carrying the same message lately, "shoot a lot of images and then shoot some more. You can always delete the ones you don't want. And the more you shoot the better results you'll get"

I've been a huge opponent of that view for one reason, just because you shoot a lot doesn't mean that you'll get something good or that you'll get better. Being prolific only increases the CHANCE you'll get a decent shot.

In the case of this image, I used my Nikon 16-85 on my Nikon D300s and challenged myself to capture the essence of this magnificent building (St. Agnes) as well as the glorious light that January brings us in the Great White North. I challenged myself to only three views.

I walked around and composed in the camera over a dozen times, but I didn't trip the shutter until I had exactly what I wanted. I did take three exposures of each composition, bracketing +/- 1.0 just in case I wanted to do HDR on them (which I did). I didn't want to take 50 or 100, then review and edit them all. I don't have the patience or time to do this with every assignment.

One thing I do advise is for photographers to practice new technique, refine the ones they already use and shoot often to keep fresh. But to shoot 100 or 400 or 1000 images to get a few usable ones is a waste of your time unless each of those images is a different composition or a different subject.

I do think it's ok to shoot a lot when you're first learning photography or just got a new camera or testing new techniques to master them. I also think it's ok to shoot a lot when you're doing sports or weddings (to a certain extent) to capture those fleeting moments. But, as an example a noted photography blogger recently posted on his blog that he shot 144 images in 12 seconds on one play of an NFL game. But by shooting 12 fps he still didn't capture the decisive moment of the play because his buffer got full at the key time. If you're going to shoot like that, maybe you should think about doing video.

And a final note, if you do shoot a lot, please edit what you put on your website, or online photo album or facebook. Think about the story you want to tell and put your best shots in a best of folder and then place the rest in another folder so if you have viewers that want your best they can view it easier and if they have time to view your 2000+ photos they have another option.

Peace and Love,
~fotodog

Shooting Christmas Lights

Rice Park, originally uploaded by Fotodog_1.

Now is the time of year that is a favourite of many of my family friends. Driving around admiring the Christmas lights that our neighbors so painstakingly put up.

The question I hear the most is "How do I get the best shots of Christmas lights"

The best of time to photograph Christmas lights is just after sunset or just before sunrise. The reason I like to photograph at this time, is that I get detail around the lights, buildings, trees, landscape, etc.

When you choose to shoot at night all of this falls to black. There's just not enought light to illuminate the rest of the scene.

Another issue is that your camera will try to lighten the vast darkness to a light grey (18% grey) so your exposure will either be very grainy and/or look washed out and rather icky. (icky is a technical term in the Fotodog household :) )

Bring a tripod and cable release, and if your camera allows, select aperture priority. I like to shoot around f/16 or f/22. This will give a long enough exposure to ghost out people moving in front of your camera and a large depth of field to get the most of your scene in focus. By using a tripod you will be able to shoot with a lower ISO/Sensitivity. Setting your ISO between 320 and 640 will yield great results. I tend to shoot a bit lower on the scale (320) to get richer blacks and a bit more contrast.

Remember: with such a contrasty image, you may need to put in exposure adjustments or set your exposure manually. Check your preview and histogram to see where your highlights and shadows are appearing.

A really fun trick is to go to manual focus, zoom in as far as you can and manually focus until all the lights become a big blur. You'll get some great patterns to print out for scrapbooking or for fun graphic design projects. Try this with different focal lengths and various amounts of blur until you find the shapes and colours you're looking for.

I look forward to seeing your images!

Merry Christmas!
~fotodog

Minnesota State Fair

State Fair, originally uploaded by Fotodog_1.

The Minnesota State Fair starts in 9 days (August 26th). I really enjoy the fair, mostly because I love to people watch but now that the kids are doing rides, it's a lot more fun.
We love doing the Big Slide every year, as well as the horse barn and the DNR Birds of Prey exhibition. So many things to do and so little time. So much food, so little appetite.
This shot was taken in my pre-digital days on Fuji Vevlia slide film.
This was a new ride that year and I loved wathing the people get off the ride. It was more than they expected.
We'll see what rides and photos we can get this year.
See you at the Fair!

Fourth of July Fireworks

I love fireworks shows.

Went to the Saint Cloud show on the Fourth of July and sat at Hester Park. The stupid people were running rampant, but I managed to find a nice spot. I was super impressed by the show. I loved that they would stop for 2-3 minutes and fake us all out for a minute and then start up again. The only weird thing was the rather large group of Somalis standing next to me doing the death warble. Kind of gave me the shivers. Didn't seem right in the USA heartland.

I was really happy with the photos, just wish I could get closer. Maybe next year!
Cheers,
~fotodog

Black Widow Killers

Black Widow Killers, originally uploaded by Fotodog_1.

An exercise in creationism and efficiencies using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS3.

The Black Widow spider, spider web and maltese cross were all created in Illustrator. To keep things uniform, I used the Effect>Transform command multiple times to get them the way I needed.
After getting them into a usable format, I created symbols so I can reuse these at a later date without having to create all over again.

I exported each symbol as a Photoshop file and combined the three. They are all Smart Objects in Photoshop so if I do need to edit them, the updates will transfer directly into the Photoshop file.

Cheers,
~fotodog

View from Bob's Steakhouse and Resort

View from Bob's Steakhouse and Resort, originally uploaded by Fotodog_1.

A reminder of simpler times.

Something about rural America and the simple pleasures in life. Sunshine, a cool breeze and a great panorama.

I truly enjoy returning back to this vista whenever I can. 1. for the view and 2. Bob's Steakhouse has the absolute best steak I've ever had and the best view.