Three photo essays

June 16th A-28

June 16th A-23

June 16th B-6

4-H Fishing Derby

Again I left my long glass in the car and just brought the wide angle.  This job had me walking on docks and having big bulky lenses and multiple cameras could have been hazardous.  If I fall into the water I only want to dunk one camera and not two!  A girl did fall in.

I thought to try for some silhouette shots as I was driving to the job, but that did not work with dark trees in the background.  Fill flash was a must for this job with the sun to everyone's back.

June 9th A-11
I really liked the picture on the bottom right.  I waited until the yellow fishing bobber was in the frame before I shot.

Nora Maylin 8 and Becky Maylin from Port Orchard wait for a nibble 

A line of children fish off the dock in the background while Karl Swalander wrestles for

control  of a trout he just landed.

Ed Swalander helps Karl Swalander age 8, both are from Elma.

Seraphina Short age 6, is shown how to properly display her fish before a family photo is snapped.

From Right Damain Flores age 11 and Jack Seabert-Olsen age 10 take a pause from the

 action to admire trout that they have already caught

This was my favorite shot since is was so candid and I just happened to find it.

Aaron Arnold 10 of Elma proudly carries his prize winning 23.5 inch rainbow trout to the measuring station.

Aaron Arnold 10 of Elma lays down his prize winning catch  to be measured.  The monster trout registered at  23.5 inches.

From right Panhandle Lake camp staff Jeff Wetcel and Krag Unsoeld relax and chat in the shade while looking out over Panhandle lake.  

Alpaca shearing

I brought both lenses to this job, but mostly only used my wide lens for this up close work.  These photos have been held for next week.  I had trouble finding the event, but I got there in plenty of time anyway.

Intern Clay Mosby holds Coco the Alpaca while Cocoa gets a haircut.  (I

like how they have matching hair)

From front to back Clay Mosby and Dr. Dana shear Cocoa the Alpaca

while Nate Welch trims his nails at Rights of Passage Farm near Shelton on Saturday.

Festival Season 2016 has begun - Forest Festival

I've been busy this week.  My first job was a Royal Court Breakfast, this was a new thing for me and I only had about half an hour to get the job done.  I tried to find an interesting angle in my short amount of time.  I eyed an balcony and went for it.  Only one of the pictures printed and it was mixed into a photo essay with two reporters pictures.  Same thing happened last year with the forest festival pictures.

I rode my bike to the job and only brought my wide angle lens for what  would be almost all indoor work.

From Left Paul Bunyan Drake Adams and Timber the axe man
Joeseph Mcgrew load up their plates with a hearty breakfast fit for a lumberjack.

Nikon D7100

17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8

ƒ/3.5

 

20.0 mm

1/250

 

3200

Flash (on, fired)

 

Mr. Mason Area Joseph Weeks age 10 and Miss Mason Area Petite, Madaline Johnson age 9 check out the breakfast buffet line

The Shelton Forest Festival Royal Court and the Miss Mason Area Royalty line the entrance of the Colonial House to Greet the Port Orchard Fathoms O' Fun Royal Court during the Shelton Forest Festival.

Reporters pictures are crossed out to reduce any potential copyright issues for photos that I don't own.
  The reporters took great photos.
  June 9th A-21

Happy New Year Polar Plunge

My oldest camera and my cheapest lens were taken to this event.  The weather was crisp and foggy.  I had reflections, costumes and silhouettes to work with.  What a blast!

Nikon D90 with 19-50mm 3.5-5.6 lens and a plastic bag made just for cameras.

No water on my lens this time, but quite a bit of water splashed onto me and my camera.

Open House at the Museum

 The Mason County Historical Society Museum got a face lift and they held an open house and book signing to celebrate.  I enjoyed shooting in this space, the low white ceiling was great for bouncing my flash.  I set my FV to plus three and used shutter priority for the most part.

In other news 13 of my photos are in the Oysterfest insert in a newspaper.  They were all credited as file photos.

Assistant museum supervisor Charles Fisher and Peggy Moore look at items in a display case at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

   Jim Tostevin of Shelton looks at books for sale while drinking a cup of complimentary coffee provided by the museum. at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

Gretchen Borck of Olympia in Orange and Jeanne Fisher of Shelton, point out familiar sites in an old aerial photo of Shelton on display in the museum.  at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

Bob Cliff of Gig Harbor looks at a book on a display case.  Statues of Paul Bunyan and other loggers are in the foreground.  at the Mason County Historical Society Open House held at the Mason County Historical Society Museum in Shelton Washington on September 19^th, 2015.

    From Left Heidi Saup, Cathy (Tillotson) Drebick and Danelle (McKay) Borel look at a year book for Irene S. Reed High school.  Cathy and Danelle will attend the Irene S. Reed High School Class of 1960 reunion at little creek casino tonight.

Freezing motion with flash, how low can you go?

Nikon D90

17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8

ƒ/6.3

38.0 mm

1/25

500

Flash (on, fired)

I was presented with a job photographing kids indoors.  Kids don't like to sit still, so photographing them indoors can be a bit of a challenge.  The ceiling in this indoor space was too high to bounce my flash off of so I had no choice but to point the flash right at my subjects.  I could have taken the flash off the camera and used a cord but that required too much juggling and made it impossible for me to hold my camera with both hands.  I used a large softbox and I constantly changed the FV value to get the results I wanted.  I think I had it at -.3 for this shot.

In the above picture my flash froze the motion nicely and I was able to get away with just 1/25 of a second for a nice clear shot.  The kid in the back ground is a blur but he was moving fast and the flash was not pointed at him.  I was not able to freeze the motion of fast moving subjects at such low shutter speeds.  I'll keep experimenting.

I was really happy with how much ambient light was preserved while using the flash.  The entire reason to shoot with such a low shutter speed was to let in more ambient light so my pictures would not look like they were taken in a cave.

The softbox worked well to defuse the light and the slower shutter speed called for lower flash power both worked together to eliminate and hash light or shadows on my subject.

Summer time

Fourth of July at the Shelton Farmer's Market

I've started to shoot my paper assignments in .jpg again.  When I shoot in .jpg I can take advantage of Nikon's active D lighting.  Active D lighting pretty much ruins RAW images. I feel a bit lazy shooting in .jpg  because jpg files don't need as much editing as raw files, but the paper does not like my pictures to be edited much anyway.

I'm doing as much of my work as possible with my 70-200mm lens and only breaking out my wide angle lens when I need to get really close to my subjects.

4th of July at the farmer's market.  I took the face painting shot due to the flag and this child's
patriot clothing, it printed.  At any festival the face painting shot is a for sure safe shot.

Old dogs waiting to be in the 4th of July parade

WSU Garden Tour

A vigorously growing pumpkin plant blooms and sets fruit as it climbs up a trellis at the Rob Wilson-Hoss garden.

at The Mason County WSU Master Gardener Garden Tour Saturday, July 11 from 10 AM – 4 PM. Gardens are located north of Shelton. ~copyright 2015 Shawna Whelan

) Flowers blossom in the foreground of Rebecca’s Bowden’s decorated house wall.

at The Mason County WSU Master Gardener Garden Tour Saturday, July 11 from 10 AM – 4 PM. Gardens are located north of Shelton. ~copyright 2015 Shawna Whelan

Rob Wilson-Hoss tends to his pepper plants while prayer flags hang overhead and behind him.

at The Mason County WSU Master Gardener Garden Tour Saturday, July 11 from 10 AM – 4 PM. Gardens are located north of Shelton. ~copyright 2015 Shawna Whelan

Make-a-Wish

Last week I photographed a Make-A-Wish foundation party.  This was an intimate event held at a family home.  There were no real technical challenges for this assignment.  I was shooting outdoors in overcast weather.  I mostly used my 50mm 1.8 prime lens.  I was able to move around freely and get as close to or as far away from my subjects as I wanted to so the fixed focal length was not a liability.

A couple of weeks ago I was requested to stop cropping my images so "aggressively" and to give my pictures some room to breath.

Mad Easter Dash

Wow, what a day this was!

ShyAnn Stone, almost 2, gingerly collects eggs to put into her striped bee basket Saturday at the 31st Union Easter Egg hunt.  The  event sponsored by  by local area businesses took place at Union Community Park on Saturday.

The editor asked me to send an uncropped version of this photo, I hoped that meant it was
going to be featured on the front page.  For this photo I used my fill flash to help cancel out
any harsh noon time shadows.  It took about six pictures for me to get this one with  her isolated from the background, facing me, basket in view and egg in hand.  I later wished I had shot it at f/2.8.
  

ƒ/9.0

 

17.0 mm

1/200

 

200

Flash (on, fired)

I had two assignments on Easter Saturday and I had to do my taxes.  Once my taxes were done I headed to my first assignment in the pouring rain.  I carried an enormous heavy golf umbrella in one hand to protect my camera.  In my other hand I carried my camera with external flash attached.  I needed a third hand to wipe the water from my lens.  The rain was dripping down off of my umbrella and hitting my camera in spite of my umbrella being enormous.

My second assignment was miles away and started just minutes after I left my first assignment.  I was really afraid that I was going to miss the second one.  I was racing down twisty dirt roads, driving way faster than I wanted to.  I could not arrive late!

 I made it with three minutes to spare.  I found a parking spot right in the front that was only blocking the street a little bit and I jumped out of my car with mere seconds to spare.  Then I had to rush back to my car to get my notepad. 

Luckily for me the event started about five minutes late so I had enough time to briefly orient myself before the mad dash for Easter eggs began.  I decided to focus on younger kids for the second event since my focus had been on older kids during the fist event.

I homed right in on a little girl with a bright pink coat and striped bee basket and I waited for the hunt to start.  After the egg hunts were over there was an egg toss.  I was really glad for the egg toss event as all my pictures so far had been of kids hunting for eggs and I wanted some variety to turn into the paper.

At some point my lens image stabilization (VR) switched off but my hand was steady enough that my pictures turned out fine anyway.  I have now put a piece of tape over the VR switch so I will never accidentally move it again..  It is a problem that that  M/A switch and the VR switch are identical and right next to each other on my Sigma lens.  I tend to accidentally turn off the VR when trying to turn off the auto focus.  I wish this lens would allow me to switch to manual focus without flipping a switch.

I used my external flash all day long, first to combat the gloom and later as a fill flash.  I did not use FP but kind of wish I had used FP at the egg toss.  My in camera flash does not support FP but my external flash supports it and my camera will support FP with an external flash.

I mostly shoot in programmed auto.  There is no time to mess around with manual settings when things are happening all around me and I need to catch them as they happen.  For some of the egg toss photos I put my camera in "sports" mode so I could take the shots and not have to worry about the camera settings, the cost was no use of my flash.  Next time at an event like that I will shoot in shutter priority mode so I can get the shutter speed I want and have FP flash.

I used back button focus for the egg toss pictures and regular auto-focus for all the egg hunting pictures.  I brought two D90 camera bodies with me but I ended up using only one of them.  The one I used was equipped with my Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8, the other one was equipped with my Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6.

 Earlene Shaw holds a plastic bag over her head for protection from heavy  rain while children finish hunting for eggs at Oakland Bay Jr High

ƒ/9.0

 

17.0 mm

1/200

 

200

Flash (on, fired)

Soggy participants open up eggs for the candy inside and then put
them into a recycle bin for next year at Oakland Bay Jr High
The blue umbrella in this picture is the exactly the same as the umbrella I was using

ƒ/6.3

 

17.0 mm

1/160

 

200

Flash (on, fired)

Justino Hernandez (in yellow) 8, falls to the ground and trips up Joel Hernandez (in blue) 9 while both boys rush to collect eggs on the slippery wet field at Oakland Bay Jr High on Sat.

ƒ/10.0

 

17.0 mm

1/200

 

200

Flash (on, fired)

Children age 17 and under line up and take one practice toss at the start of an egg tossing competition at Union Community Park on Sat.

ƒ/4.5

 

50.0 mm

1/1000

 

400

Flash (auto, did not fire)

Lacy McIntosh of Shelton reacts as her egg splatters during the egg tossing competition at Union community park

ƒ/13.0

 

17.0 mm

1/200

 

200

Flash (on, fired)

Race cars and princesses revisited

This may have been my most fun assignment yet.  Our local race track hosted a regional training session for race track workers and volunteers.  I got to play with the jaws of life and I got to go for a ride in a race car.
Everyone was in a good mood and enjoyed having their pictures taken.

My photos from Frozen were printed this week too, but my favorite photo was not selected for the paper.

I had a technical issue that could have ruined my race track photos.  I always shoot in RAW / .NEF, so I thought that when I set my camera to "Active D lighting" at the highest level it would have no effect on my RAW files.  I set it on high so I could see what effect it had on my .jpg files.  No other settings have effects on RAW files as the RAW file is just what the camera sees with no editing.

Well I learned the hard way that active D lighting does effect RAW files.  It changes the exposure level before the shutter opens.  My files all came out slightly under exposed.  I was able to bring the exposure up to the proper level in Adobe camera raw but at the cost of adding a small amount unwanted  noise to my photos.  The photos were still better than newspaper sharp, due to my ISO being set at only 200, but they were not quite up to my standard.  I have now turned off active D lighting and I will leave it off.    Lesson learned the hard way.

This week and last week

I went to Shelton Memorial Park to take pictures of boy scouts and the VFW cleaning military graves in the rain.

Two weeks ago I photographed a sing-a-long movie with little girls dressed as princesses.  The paper sent me to photograph it, but my pictures did not go in the paper, I did not ask why.  I suspect that they ran out of room.

From Left Carly Vind 8 (dressed as Elsa) and Markie Vind (dressed as Anna) eat cupcakes and popcorn before the start of the movie. They decorated the cupcakes themselves.  At the Anna's Bay Chorale Frozen fundraiser event held at the Shelton Civic Center on Sunday March 15th