Football settings for 2023

 1/1000, f/2.8 Auto ISO Matrix Metering is working at night. 

f/8 10 (ish) mm crop lens

Volleyball

 D5, 70-200 f/2.8 3D tracking with face detection on auto ISO f/3.5

  Shot from the balcony.  

Nikon D5

70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8

ƒ/3.5

 

200.0 mm

 

1/1000

 

8000

Finally made the jump to full frame

Thanks to the newer mirrorless tech the price of DSLR gear is dropping fast! I am now the proud owner of a Nikon D5 and a 400mm Nikkor VR lens. I got a 400mm lens last year but it weighs 14 pound and was hurting my elbow.   So the week before football season I upgraded to the VR version that weighs four pounds less.  Getting the lighter lens was a great decision.  I hope I can sell the older heavier one though. 

Due to some other changes I will have a lot of my photos published for the next four months. 

400mm f/2.8 on a crop for football

 Sharp learning curve but I'm getting there.

Dynamic Area Auto Focus

 Dynamic Area Auto Focus really seemed to work well for basketball.  I had always used single point focus in the past but maybe the newer cameras work better with dynamic area auto focus.

Finally got the big bad lens

 I did it, I found a good deal on a 400mm f/2.8!  It is a 1985 model and very heavy, but it works!

Shot with my new to me 400mm f/2.8 on a D500

I was able to hold my 400mm on the monopod in my left hand while getting closer shots like this with my 105mm in my other hand.  

Clover Park at River Ridge Homecoming Football Game Oct. 11th, 2018

 I'm still convinced that these will sell if the right people ever see them.

Back from New Zealand

 I'm back.  Covid slowed everything down here at home but I'm back now and this was my one award winning photo from 2020

Housefire in the Blue Light

Got a new lens and only need to do 30 jobs like the one above to pay for it.  YOLO!

Housefire Close to Home

a first responder stands in the middle of Railroad avenue as smoke and steam from an extinguished house fire at 1407 Railroad, reflects orange light from a parked fire truck.

The 35mm 1.8 worked out well here as did the second D500.  What a treat it is to have two cameras that can focus in the dark. Most of these were shot in manual mode as well.

 I learned a lot during football season, learned to trust the meter in my viewfinder too.  When I trust the view finder meter I don't have to waste as much time chimping to see my histogram.  There is very little time to capture flames, the fire department had this fire knocked down less that 15 seconds after they started to put water on it.

I don't know what if any of these will be printed.  I only released the orange fog photo on my social media account.

A fire inside of a house begins to spread through a window to the outside  as the fire department arrives
and shines a light on the fence at 7:26 on Tuesday evening.

A fire fighter's shadow is cast on a fence as another firefighter enters the house moments before hitting the fire with water for the first time, as the fire begins to  leave a window and spread to the ouside of the house.

With the fire mostly extuguished a firefighter disappears into a cloud of smoke
and steam as he enters the partially burned house.

A PUD worker on the scene  lowers himself back down to his truck over the heads of first responders after he has finished cutting power to the house.

A PUD worker walks past disassembled fire hoses on Railroad ave that were used to supress the fire.

A child walks  towards the scene of the housefire on waterlogged Railroad avenue.
 Water from the fire suppression efforts spilled onto Railroad ave.

D500 times 2 finally.

I finally bought that second D500 I have been dreaming of.  My first job utilizing two d500 bodies was at the local very dark bowling alley. The area where the players sit is so much darker than the alley that  I can get good silhouette shots.  One Silhouette shot per job is great, after that I had to push my camera to the max to get usuable shots.  It was great to have two good cameras.  One was equipped with my workhorse second hand 70-200 f/2.8 that other with my new favorite lens the 35mm 1.8.

This week I also used my 10-20mm Sigma 4.5-5.6 to get a shot I have always wanted to try.  This lens is wide enough to pull it off.  10mm is really pushing it for a lens and it shows. The lens is a bit soft and at anything over about f/16 it is blurry.  f/8 seems to be the sweet spot for my copy but f/11 is okay too. I got the lens for real estate, but will use it a little bit for other things as well.