Sunday, February 27, 2011

I Never Dreamed

Quite a game at Wyoming Area to open up the HR girls' run into the district tournament.  After arriving a few minutes late,it looked to me as if your Royals were well on the way to coasting to victory- keeping a double digit lead through most of the play.  This seemed to be as is should- the number one seed coasting through their first game. After all, low seeds never make a long run, right?  Plus, no one ever comes back from a big deficit like that- just ask the Bruins.   I never dreamed  that this would get close, much less end in the nail biting thriller that it did.  Congrats to both teams on their efforts, and thanks for providing an enjoyable afternoon of competitive basketball!

Some thoughts- because I know you are dying to hear what I think....

Wyoming Area's gym is one of the best in the area as far as lighting goes.  If you are looking for better quality photos (as far as color and lighting at least) this is the set where they will be.

While the lighting is good, apparently the roofing is slightly below average.  Congrats to the maintenance crew for their on-the-spot solution.

Note to fans- When you vehemently protest this foul being called, your judgment comes into question.

Speaking of fans, I am not sure what they were trying to accomplish with this-  I somehow doubt that it is a show of respect for the team from the catholic school... perhaps its that start of a joke?  (Jesus, a priest and three catholic schoolgirls walk into a bar....  you fill in the rest!)

Look familiar?

Some of the best photos were of the bench as the game got closer and closer.  Here's Mary doing her Curt Schilling imitation.

Sara resorted to the "death grip" on Fallyn and Shaina.

In case you are curious, this is what it looks like when your game is forced into OT.

The second free throw could have ended it in regulation.  Do you think this girl will forget this very quickly?

Shannon, with her dodgeball face....

Look Jesus- I don't care if you are the saviour, you are going to have to stay in your seat during the game.

The paper talked about the one she missed, but I seem to recall Olivia sinking a few late free throws to put this one away.

It never felt over for me though until this moment- Sydney's decisive rejection of Nanticoke's last shot.

There is a long story about why these shots are not what you expect.  It has to do with a full memory card, and a lens that was long enough to take pictures at the far end of the court.  For now, enjoy what we got, and hopefully we'll have the chance for more!

Off we go-

Game shots

FotoFink

Enjoy!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Skating Away

If you are a member of the FotoFink facebook page, you may have seen some samples of this latest "pet project"- night skiing photos.  Over the last two weeks, hardy members of the Holy Redeemer ski club have gathered on the cold slopes of Sno Mountain, skating away over the icy conditions to help make some cool action shots for all of us to share.  Before getting into the details of our fun, there are a few thank yous that need to be relayed....

This was not a simple project.  Every shot took 4-5 people "working" in some capacity to produce the results.  Lots of ski clubbers pitched in, and in case I missed thanking you in person, please accept this blanket "Thank You" as a small token of my appreciation.  If you made it into some photos, then hopefully that will be an additional reward... on the other hand, if none of your photos came out.... Then my lame thank you will be all you get.

Onto the business at hand then.   Occasionally, I am asked about the photos here on FotoFink-  Things like "How do you take those?" or "How come mine don't look like that?" or even "How come I look gross in this one?"  Blame the lighting for that, and the rub-on tan that never made it to your face. This shoot was actually a little interesting, so here's a few words on how this was done....

Usually, taking photos at night, on the ski slopes, is dicey at best.  Photos need light, and there is very little of that on the slopes.  Add in to the mix that cameras don't handle scenes very well that are almost all white, or all black- and the results can be .. average.  So how did these work?  At the most basic level, we brought our own light in.  There were two highly trained assistants carrying flashes on poles for each of these shots, which, in theory were fired with a radio transmitter attached to everything.  The effect is like a strobe in a disco that makes everything look stop-motion-  without the flash, the camera is set to "see" nothing- the burst of flash reveals the subject for a split second (about 1/800 actually) and freezes the motion on the frame.  Another quality of light is that it "falls off" very quickly (google "inverse square law" if you are as much of a geek as I am and want to know more about that).  The result is a well lit subject, and then a completely dark background.  Cool stuff, if that's the look you are going for.

So what can go wrong?  Having been out there twice now, I can answer that with some authority.  First off, batteries don't do well in the cold, and spares are completely useless if you leave them at home.  This was the harsh lesson of week one.  The cold has some other negative impacts as well- the radio flash triggers, which are supposed to work from a distance of 3 football fields away, struggled to work at anything more than 10 yards or so (I will blame the cold for this, as they have been very reliable indoors).  Auto focus in low light is another struggle, and focusing manually is no walk in the park either.  (Hats off to the old-timers who did this before the days of auto-focus.  And electricity)  As a result of the short range on the flashes, the camera needed to be closer to the skier than I would have liked, resulting in some "over-zooming"  Throw in some operator error on my part- bad timing, bad aim, etc. and this was really a minefield of possible disasters.  Thankfully- there were a few instances where the stars lined up just right, and we got some very good shots as a result.

Enough technical stuff- let's see the photos, Fink!

Ted's photo came out well- but for some reason, his skis look tiny.....

Another good one.  Maria was one of several who spent a lot of time holding the lights.

Casey was a bit help too, which makes it especially disappointing that her shot came out all blurry.  See the autofocus explanation above.

David's photo is one where only one flash triggered.  While its not the effect I wanted, its still pretty cool...

Nice finish...

Artie with some nice air...

This shot of part of Bernie is an example of the "operator error" I was noting earlier.  I missed, and I was too close.  Still....  This is kind of cool....

Melissa was another huge help.  Pretty gutsy too.

Something has to be said about David's jacket.  The last time I saw these colors, I was at the Flock of Seagulls/Go-Go's concert.  Which was a great show, btw.  The muffler falling off my car on the way home kind of spoiled that evening though.  No lie- I tied it back on with my sock.

I have no idea who this is.  I hope they have a better side.  My bad on this one.

I know for a fact that Courtney has a better side.  She was another major help to the project.

See?

There were a couple of guys who saw what we were up to and asked to get their photos taken too.  "C'mon" one said to the other, "we'll be on the internet!"  Wow.  First off, aren't we all anymore?  Secondly- Its a big internet.  Facebook has more users than most countries have people.  Maybe you should have asked for the website.  This may be one of them.  The photo didn't turn out too well anyway.

Photos from these excursions are all on the FotoFink site.

Week 1

Week 2

Enjoy!