Taxing season

        ƒ/7.1

 

80.0 mm

1/500

 

320              

Flash (off, did not fire)

I've been practicing on the soccer fields near home.  Yes, I still want that 70-200mm f/2.8 but for outdoor sports I really don't need it.  I've started stopping down so I can get a better focus.  Soccer players move fast and it's hard to focus on them, increasing the depth of field helps a bit.  So even if my lens was 2.8 all the way through, I probably would not have tried to get this shot at f/2.8

So this week I got a good soccer shot but then the problem was getting the cut line information. I Facebook friended some soccer players who told me they knew the names of everyone in the league and I could get all the info I needed from them after the game.  Great!  That meant I was free to just shoot and maybe get a good shot rather than miss the good shots due to having to run around and collect names.  

Then it turned out that no one who I talked to knew the name of the team they played for.  I mean folks did not know the name of their own teams!  And I was unable to get the name of the player in red.  This was frustrating, I was able to get just barely enough cut line info for the shot to print.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my photo on the front page. I thought that any soccer picture I took would get buried back in the sports section.

Hopefully all this hard work will get me some new friends in the local Hispanic community.  Maybe next time getting cut line information will be easier. 

Last week one of my pictures from a school board meeting made it into the paper.  I did not think the photo was worth submitting because it was not visually exciting, but it was the news so my spouse convinced me to submit the picture.  My spouse did right.

Next week I shoot my first wedding.  A wedding is a big  important event and I'm nervous, but the event should happen in a predictable and set order.  I think the bride will be easier to follow than a soccer ball.

I finally got my taxes done, the AARP does taxes for free, even for the self employed.  I have so many equipment needs that it might be a few years before my income exceeds my expenses.

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.

Soccer Practice

It's soccer season again.

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

Log Truck Roll Over

Log truck roll overs are not uncommon in this depressed little logging town.  This is the first one I have gone to photograph.  I know some of these would have sold if the local paper had not sent their own reporter to cover it.

I contacted a regional paper about buying these and they told me that they do not buy pictures from other photojournalists.  King 5 news liked the pictures and encouraged me to send them more pictures in the future but said they would not be buying my pictures today.

I was happy enough with my slow 200mm lens for this job.  I was actually pleasantly surprised with the zoom range it's been so long since I used my long lens.  I had really gotten used to only being able to zoom in to 50mm.  The 70-200mm f/2.8 is still just a distant dream.  I would be nice to have for photographing my kids soccer games though.

In the mean time I have booked a wedding gig. 

More Pool Protestors

I'm still documenting the Shelton High School pool protests and school board meetings.

My lens was not set to vibration reduction and I could notice the difference in some of my indoor shots.  I had turned off the VR when I was using my camera on a tripod the day before.  There are so many things that need to be checked and reset at the start of each photo session.

Michelle Schreiber and her mother Beverly Goodwin hold signs in support of the pool staying
open on 6th ave. March 10th 2015 in Shelton Washington

Two boys hold a banner in front of Choice Highschool before the start of the 
school board meeting on March 10th in Shelton Washington

A group of pool supporters hold signs on 6th avenue before the Shelton School
Board meeting March 10th in Shelton Washington

From left: Alec (Sharkniss) Dodge and Levi Vance, Levi is writing on a sign.  Both are on the SHS swim or dive team March 10th in Shelton Washington

Alec (Sharkniss) Dodge holds up a sign while  Levi Vance uses his
back as a solid surface to write on a sign.   Near  6th Ave on  March 10th in Shelton Washington

Citizens attending the school board meeting react the the school boards continued insistence
on removing the Shelton High School and Community Pool, in the Choice High SchoolAuditorium and Auditorium on March 10th in Shelton Washington

While the school board meets in the Auditorium Lawyer Eric Valley stands outside
the Auditorium doors and discusses legal strategies with pool supporters.  At Choice High School
Auditorium March 10th in Shelton Washington

Pool protest continued, access denied and bikini baristas

From left: Joy DeRoche Ordonez, Emma Gordham, and Rishel Weatherly wave signs in support of the pool staying open while Chuck Dusharme drives past in his car with the words "save pool" painted on its side at the Timberland Library in Shelton, Washington on Tuesday March 3, 2015

There was a high bank behind the protesters that I stood on to get overview shots.  I was lucky that this car drove past while I was on the bank.  I was taking pictures of the protesters waving to passing cars and I did not see this special car until after I had taken two pictures of it.

Yes, I decided to photograph another pool protest. This protest was smaller and the light was really sweet. I had time to catch the overall mood of the protesters and to capture them from different camera angles. I did not use my flash at all, the lighting was just perfect. One thing that I like about photographing this group of people is that I can get their names later by asking for them on Facebook.

 It's nice to be able to just take pictures and concentrate on the story and the artistry instead of frantically running around with a pen and a note book begging for people's names and hoping that I've spelled them correctly. 

Sometimes the business of getting every ones name interferes with my photography.   There have been times that I've taken a good shot but could not get the names of the people in it because they left or I could not find them and that made the shot unprintable.  There are other shots that I never bothered to take because I knew I could not get the names to go with them and there are other times that I make sure to get more than three people in the shot so I don't have to ask for names.    With this group I can just concentrate on the photography and nothing else because I know I can get all of their names later on Facebook.

Kristi Holzgrove and Jax Holzgrove,5, stand together as the sun sets and display a handmade banner in support of the pool staying open in front of the Timberland Library in Shelton, Washington on Tuesday March 3rd  2015.  Two weeks earlier the Shelton School Board voted to close the High School and Community Pool.

The sweet light was leaving but I took advantage of the last of it by shooting some silhouettes.  I'm not often out covering stories in the sweet light, so I tend not to shoot very many silhouettes.  I think this silhouette captured the mood of the somewhat deflated protesters who were disappointed with the small turn out.

For the next shot down I decided to  be a bit sneaky and shoot from the hip .  Normally I reserve shooting from the hip for street photography.  The newspaper wants all shots to be candid and they really like pictures of children.  A lot of children are right at my hip level, so I have to bend down to take eye level pictures of them .  Children are often very aware of me with my camera, especially when I crouch way down to take their picture, so it can be hard to get candid shots of children.  Children don't notice me quite as much when I shoot from the hip.  I predict that I will be doing a lot of hip shooting on future assignments.

I really like the intense look in this little boys eyes, the way he is holding the sign with his right hand clasped over his heart and the shadows in the background.

Judah Holzgrove, 8,  holds up a sign for drivers of passing cars in front of the Timberland Library
 in Shelton, Washington on Tuesday March 3, 2015

In other local news a Bikini barista stand has arrived in Shelton and the city commissioners are not pleased.   I stopped by the stand and took a photo of one of the baristas.  I also covered a city commissioners meeting were citizens were complaining about the bikini barista.

I'm still happy with my Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 lens.  I still want a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens but I can't justify the expense unless I get some wedding gigs.

Name unknown bikini clad barista at Fifth and Railroad in Shelton Washington on Tuesday March 3rd 2015

Shelton Pool Closure Protest and Meeting

Last week the Shelton School Board  voted to shut down the high school pool. Pool supporters are protesting. I love to photograph protests, so I that is what I went out and did.

I really liked this picture, I felt like it was a winner even before I shot it.  Cute kids following the rule of thirds, what more could a photojournalist ask for?

Maddie McGee, left, Laura McGee, holding Jace McGee, and Kason McGee hold signs supporting the
The Shelton Hight School pool remaining open Feb 19. 2015 in front of the Shelton Timberland Library

The paper preferred this version, I think because it is more candid that the one above.

Members of the Shelton School Board face about 250 attendees Tuesday at CHOICE Alternative School

I submitted several photos of this scene including a two photo panorama.  The paper used my panorama.

From Left:  Pool supporters Anne Flynn, Kadie-Tsark, and Paxson Walsworth hold up signs
in support of keeping the pool open.  This was on Railroad ave in Shelton, Washington on
 Thursday Feb. 19th 2015 at 4:45pm

At 5pm  Pool supporter Michelle Schreiber holds up a sign in front of the library.
Other pool supporters can be seen in the background 

Pool supporters hold up re-purposed signs in front of the library, other protesters are across the street.

Pool supporters reused signs from other campaigns including this "Save our Air" sign on the left

At 5:50 PM Pool Supporters chant and hold up signs on the street below the Shelton  School

 District Board room at Choice High School.  Pool Supporters left at six when the board meeting started.  This

is the view of the pool supporters from the Board Room

I was outside photographing protesters when I realized that the shot I really wanted was the view from the school board, so I ran upstairs and took this shot through the window.

At 7pm the community meets at the Civic Center to discuss options for saving the pool.
Jacquie MacAlevy is at the podium

Later pool supporters had a meeting of their own in the Civic Center.  The Civic Center has nice lighting, but the ceiling is probably too high for bouncing my flash.  I did bounce my flash of a wall for some shots.

Mary Jean Hrbacek speaks out against saving the High School Pool.   She is holding up a copy of
 a newspaper with her full page advertisement that she said that she paid $950 to run

Ronald Reagan's Son

I was given an assignment to photograph the Reagan Legacy Dinner.  I was given this assignment just a few hours before the start of the dinner.  Since I'm freelancing for a weekly paper I normally get my assignments days in advance.  I was told that I should dress conservatively for this job.  I really wish I had gotten closer to my subject.  I was too nervous and the room was very dark.

     Keynote speaker Michael Reagan, author, talk show radio host and son of former  president Ronald Reagan,  speaks at  Reagan Legacy Dinner sponsored by Mason County Republicans at the Pavilion on Thursday June 12^th 

Democratic State Senator Tim Sheldon greets citizens Bill and El Wanda Bryant  at  Reagan Legacy Dinner sponsored by Mason County Republicans at the Pavilion on Thursday June 12^th

L-R Judy Lloyd (in black), citizen and owner of bread of presence book store, Dorothy Vanhof (in blue) Citizen and mother of ten and Beverly Craig (in pink) retired Bordeaux elementary school teacher greet each other before the  Reagan Legacy Dinner sponsored by Mason County Republicans at the Pavilion on Thursday June 12^th ~

Boys and Girls Club Polar Plunge

I got to shoot a polar plunge this weekend.  I felt a little bit intimidated by this assignment because the publisher of the paper that sent me to photograph this polar plunge won awards for his photography of a similar event just last year.  I set the bar for myself very high and I wondered if I could meet my own expectations.

As usual I turned to the internet for tips.  There is not a lot written about how to photograph a polar plunge.  Search on “how to photograph a car show” and you will find many helpful links.   Search on “how to photograph a polar plunge” and nothing comes up that actually matches. 

I thought about my assignment some more, what would be the best angle?  What is the most cliché angle?  It became clear to me that if I wanted to get the best shots I needed to be in the water.  I could stand on the shore and get maybe one shot of the sides of the participant’s faces and then have to shoot pictures of their backs or I could stand in the water and get close pictures of the participants faces. 

Okay, so I was going to stand in the water, but was I the first to think of this?  No, of course not.  So I searched again,  but this time for references to photographers standing in the water while shooting a polar plunge and that is when I found  Meryl Schenker's blog: http://merylschenkerphotography.com/2010/01/25/special-olympics-polar-plunge/.  I read her blog post and  I saw something that made me think twice about my idea of standing in the water. 

“This was actually my first time photographing a polar plunge and I learned a lot about where to stand and where not to stand as saltwater splashed my expensive camera gear, which thankfully appears to be fine. A couple of colleagues were apparently not as lucky as they lost their equipment to the sea.”

Uh oh!  I had no desire to lose my equipment to the sea.  Maybe it was time to rethink this.  It was late in the evening and my shoot was to be early the next morning, but I sent  the blog author Meryl Schenker  an email  in hopes that she might have the time and inclination to answer me.   I told her that I was about to shoot my first polar plunge and I asked her what she had learned about where to stand.

While waiting for an answer from her I decided that I would shoot the polar plunge with my cheapest DSLR and lens.  I would use my Nikon D40 with the 18-55mm stock lens.  I can shoot great photos with this set up in spite of it being cheap and it would not hurt as much to ruin it with salt water.

Meryl  wrote back to me.  Her instructions were to stand in the water and wear waders while trying not to get knocked over or get my camera wet.  From that I gleaned the other photographers who lost their equipment to the sea probably got knocked down.

I don't own waders, but I decided to stick with my plan to stand in the water use my D40.

The fog and low light meant that I had to bump up the ISO to shoot action

When I arrived at the shoot the next  morning the weather was overcast and foggy. I took a couple of test shots and I knew that  I was going to have to shoot with an ISO of  at least 640 if I wanted to get a good shutter speed and enough depth of field to have most of my subjects in focus.  My D40 would not be up to the task.  The D40 does not handle ISO very well above 400.  The D90 is good to about 800 and acceptable up to about 1,600.

So I went with my D90 and my 17-50mm 2.8 lens.  In other words, my best gear.   I decided to minimize splashing by only going out knee deep and I went so far as to ask the organizers to ask the participants not to knock me over or splash me on purpose.  Of course I was going to get splashed a bit, but I did not want to get caught in the middle of a splash war with people purposefully splashing me.

Twice last year while on assignment, people splashed me and my camera on purpose.  I had water squirted at me at both the Tahuya Days Parade and at Oysterfest.  Both times it was done on purpose by people trying to have fun with me, but not realizing that there is nothing funny about  getting water on an expensive camera.

When it was time for the plunge the events happened quite fast.  I did not have time to get into the water before the countdown started.  Thankfully the organizer, who had forgotten about me, paused the count at 5 to ask the participants not to knock me down and then the count resumed from 5.  I did not like being the center of attention but I was glad that the participants were warned of my presence.

 I had been hoping that it would be done quietly and I never imagined that it would be done in the middle of the countdown.  At least the pause gave me time to get into position!  I was not happy to have my presence interrupt the event and I hoped that it did not constitute some sort if ethical breech.  Another newspaper had a reporter/photographer there.  What was she going to think?

I had planned on standing where I could focus on the participant who was dressed as a leprechaun, but I was lucky to even make it into the water on time, so I just stood right in the middle of the oncoming line and took pictures of everything that caught my eye.  

Oh girl, here they come rushing straight towards me.

By the 6^th picture I had water on my lens, I reached for the lens cloth that I had kept handy in anticipation of a wet lens, only to find that the pocket I was keeping it in was wet.   The cloth was too small for me to quickly dig out of  my now wet and sticky pocket.  I grabbed a larger washcloth I had and I used it instead.

 The washcloth was not perfect and it smeared water on my lens but I had to keep shooting as the event was going to be over fast.  With water smeared on my lens, my camera had a little bit of trouble focusing so I did not get as many shots as I wanted as quickly as I wanted them.  I fired away as quickly as I could and I hoped for the best.

Then while I was still in the water photographing the last folks who were coming out of the water, I realized that some of the participants were already leaving in their cars.  That meant I would not be able to get their names for the cutlines. 

However, through the magic of facebook I was able to at least get the names to go with my favorite shots before the deadline.

L-R:   Christy Garner,  Mary Gonzales and Katie Hopkins splash into the frigid waters
of Allyn's North Bay  together.  

This picture might be "newspaper sharp" but with no name for a cut line it probably won't publish.

I got a few drops of water on my camera body and on the outside of my lens, but my camera is just fine.  I used a UV filter over the front of my glass to protect it from any splashes.

Shooting this event was a rush and I want to shoot more of them now.  There is another plunge next weekend, but that job has been given to a staff reporter.