24 Degrees

I've felt very stale with my outdoor shooting this winter. The winter has been very blah here in the KC area. No snow to speak of, and not even many frosty days. To help motivate myself and to practice and learn I have designed a project to help me get out and see different parts of the region and push my photographic abilities.

I call it Project 24 Degrees. Why 24 Degrees? I went out for an afternoon of shooting during the Christmas break. When I was going through the photos later I was liking the angle of the shadows and the quality of the light. I checked TPE* for the time and location and discovered that the sun was at 24 degrees above the horizon.

So, my challenge: to go out to shoot late in the afternoon at appropriately the time when the sun reaches that position. I go seeking geometry and bold colors.

The following are three images from the outing. B&W helps emphasize the contrast and the shadows.

I took many more images today, many scouting some areas that will be good for some "blue hour" shots. Today was an absolutely bare, blue sky so nothing to share from that part of the shoot.

The first image is a three-image HDR to pull out some detail in the shadow areas. Both B&W images were converted with Silver eFx Pro and all three were processed in CS5.

*The Photographer's Ephemeris, a great tool for outdoor photographers! A free download for your laptop.

Park University Volleyball

I've continues taking opportunities to photograph various sports events. A relatively unusual event is Men's college Volleyball. Not many schools in the mid-west have men's teams.

I have been shooting some events for Park University in Parkville, MO. Their Men's Volleyball team was ranked Second in the country when I took these images this week. Enjoy!

Images taken with the D7000 & 70-200mm f/2.8. PP with ACR, CS5 and C eFx 4