Friday, May 27, 2016

Odds and Ends



Work is picking up a bit for the next couple of weeks anyway.  Some of my pictures have been entered into a regional newspaper contest.  From now on I will post all of my printed pictures here with the date and page they were printed on so I can keep track of them.

I feel inspired to go out and try to get the best soccer shot I can get now that my photos are starting to be entered into contests.

Lucky shot as this was my first photo of the day and my camera was still set to manual focus.  Next time
I will attempt to use a more shallow depth of field in the soccer field.  For this shot accidentally set to manual focus
it was good that I had the lens stopped down a bit!  Such an ugly background though    May 26th A13

This one was interesting because it blocked the major highway that runs through downtown.  Also this shot
was taken with a new camera and is the first shot from this camera that has been printed.  I took this
with a Ricoh GRII, it was just a short detour for me to take this shot while I was on my way to the post office.
It is easy to take my GRII everywhere and in day light the photos are plenty good enough for print.
May 26 A8

This new to me  room, had a white ceiling of the perfect height for using my bounce flash with the card up.  I shot in manual all night long and I had to change my settings as I moved to and from different areas.  I handled this so much better than the last event of this type a couple of years ago.  My technical skills have greatly improved since then.
May 26th A15



One that I did not submit.  The head chef insisted on posing for a picture, so I set him up in front of a mirror.
 I never submit posed photos to the newspaper.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Fire Destroys a House

I found a huge fireball on Boundary street at 11pm. I've learned to park far away from fires so I don't get blocked in by fire hoses. After I parked and walked towards the glow and then I saw these huge flames and I ran to them and I hoped that my cameras were ready to go.  It was dark and hard for me to see the dials.  Huge flames like this don't last for long, the fire department knocks them down quick.

By the time I got to the scene and started taking pictures my legs were shaking from adrenaline.  It took every bit of technical skill that I have and pushed my cameras and lenses to their limits to get these. 



I took these on a Tuesday night and the paper goes to the printers in another county on Wednesday at about noon.  These just barley made it into the paper and did not make the front page.  They were printed on page A2.


I got a couple of good pictures at ISO 3,200 but then the flames died back and took the light with them.  I had to mostly shoot at 6,400 but they turned out well for the paper even at that ISO.





May 12 A-2











My second year in a row shooting the Mother's Day Dash on Mother's Day.  This was my first mother's day since my own Mother died.  Personally it was a rough day for me, but having a job to do helped.



May 12 A-18