Football !

It still feels like summer in KC, but the first event of the high school football season was tonight.

This weekend the schools are allowed to hold a full speed scrimmage against other schools. These events are called Jamborees.

The four high schools from the local district got together for tonight's Jamboree. The format is like this: you play 12 plays on offense then 12 plays on defense. No kickoffs or punts. Offense starts at the 40 yard line and tries to work in. One pair of teams on the north end of the field and the other two on the south.

It's full speed contact for the players and preparation for the regular season that starts next weekend.

It is also a good warmup for this photographer! Especially since this is the first football with the D7000. Here are some sample images:

The D7000 will be a great sports camera. I was happy with the results from Basketball last year, and Football has the opportunity to be great as well. This camera can be very sharp, but as many others have noted it can also point out all your shortcomings like hand shake. All of these were shot with the 70-200mm VR. The focus is speedy and accurate. It is so fast that it can pick up the nearer player that crosses into the frame. But it can quickly recover as well. The 6 frames per second is nice too!

Two of these images were shot in JPEG and two in Raw. The sun was bright and the skies cloudless so the shadows were dark and sharp. Both types of files accepted some Fill Light well. The color and white balance are as came out of the camera.

We are hoping to shoot at least six football games for McPherson this fall, along with several other athletic events for the college this fall. Stay tuned !

Searching for the Milky Way

Updated 5/16/11: I'm home and have had a chance to process the images on my home computer. The images are greatly improved!

I am spending the week at my family home in Southwestern Nebraska. Something that I have been wanting to experiment with was star photos. I've been searching the web for sky and light tools and star photography techniques. I discovered that this week was at the end of a good "dark" cycle: the moon is rising and setting in synch with the sun. This provides for moonless "dark skies" that help make good star photos possible.

The other thing that I learned is that the Milky Way would be rising during the current dark sky period. Just like the moon and the constellations the Milky Way rises and sets. So I set out to take photos of this astronomical feature. Here are the results. The processes for capturing and post-processing I followed are after the images:

Milky Way - Northern Arm

Milky Way - Southern Arm

How did I do these:
- Camera: D7000 and Tamron 11-16mm f/2.8
- Settings: ISO 800, 30 second exposure, aperture f/2.8
- Post processing ACR and CS5

In ACR the images's exposure was boosted +1.0ev  +1.75ev along with applying Clarity and Vibrance adjustments.  Noise suppression was also done in ACR.  That converted image was then completed in Photoshop. There the image was built up as a composite of several layers of the same image and curves adjustments applied. The cropping was done in CS5.

I am very excited how these first efforts came out, with a degree of sadness about how difficult it is to find truly dark skies. I left the horizons in both of these photos to demonstrate how much light pollution there is in the night sky, even in rural Nebraska.  In the second processing I did crop out the village lights from "Southern Arm", but you can still see the effects of the light pollution.

I shot from near the top of the highest point in the county. The Northern Arm image is taken to the northeast, which to the naked eye is the darkest horizon. I also took advantage of the peak of the hill to try to block some nearer lights. But there is a large town, some 90 miles away, and a couple of smaller villages in that general direction. You can see the glow at the horizon.

The Southern Arm is the more dramatic section of the Milky Way, and to capture it I had to shoot to the southeast, in the general direction of a village and the farms in the valley. You can see how the glow actually prevents seeing the Milky Way all the way into the horizon.

I also want to call out the tools that helped me plan this outing:
- The Photographer's Ephemeris: this tool provides you with the times of the rising and setting of the Sun and Moon, as well as the various twilight times. It shows the locations of the Sun and Moon at the horizon and the elevation at different times of day. It also includes maps that allow you to plan when the sun will be striking a mountain or illuminating a valley
- SkyGazer: this is a astronomical star chart program. It will show you where the various stars, planets, galaxies, etc. will be in the sky at a given location and time.

Market Day

Kansas City's City Market is one our favorite places. It has full-time produce vendors, the weekend farmers market, coffee shops and bakeries and restaurants. On this past Saturday morning you could get a fresh scone, a live chicken, and a big sack of navel oranges.

It is one of my favorite places for lots of reasons. The photographic opportunities are great because of the various activities and peoples. And it faces the morning sun.

These images are just a few favorite images from our latest visit.

The last image of the flutist was taken in a sunbeam in one of the passageways. On this busy Saturday morning there were many musicians playing around the plaza. I have seen this man playing there several times. The hands of musicians reflect so much of their skill and power. And this man's hands describe so much of a long life.

Camera info: D7000, 35-70mm f/2.8

Dewy Morning

We woke to a beautiful morning. It was cool, clear, and dewy. I headed for the woods to see what was new today !

Photogeek info: D7000, 35-70mm in Macro mode. Conversion in ACR & CS5

Sunrise - Sedona Day 3

This morning I rose early to greet the sun. Sedona is usually known for sunset images.

I call this image "Fire on the Horizon"

35mm, f/8, 1/125s, -1.0 EV

Cathedral Rock - Sedona

We are spring breaking in Arizona this week. We are starting off with several days in Sedona. Of course, that means sunsets and red rocks! But there is much more than that. Stay tuned

One of the iconic images from Sedona is Cathedral Rocks from the edge of Oak Creek. Here is my image:

I'm pleased with the way the image came out. I would call this the 75-cent version. The $1 version is the famous image with the pinnacles reflected in Oak Creek. However, this time of year the spring runoff is still in progress so the river is rough and muddy (no reflections, boo...) I guess that is a reason to return in the fall when the creek is low :-))

The light was great, but you could ask for a little more cloud action behind the peak, but the rich blue sky is a plus.

Photo geek info: Nikon D7000, 35-70mm, f/8 @ 1/750s. Conversion in ACR

The Bulldogs are Hot !!

After several weeks we had another opportunity to go to see the McPherson College Bulldogs play basketball. This past Saturday the 'Dogs played their in-county rivals the Swedes of Bethany College.

The Bulldog Men's team have gotten hot at the right time of the season. After a slow start they have won eight straight games, include Saturday night's contest, an 81 - 68 victory.

These photos are from Saturday's action

The team is playing with speed and control. They made the extra pass to get the open look all night. They have developed good depth in their bench rotation as well. The 'Dogs have set themselves up to have a first round home game in the KCAC post-season tourney.

These images are from my new D7000. All were shot with the 70-200 f/2.8 VR I lens. These were all shot at 3200 ISO and 1/350s. You can see more images in the Sports gallery on my website.

There is still some noise in the background of these images, but within the plane of the depth of field you can get great sharpness. These were post-processed in ACR, including white balance, noise reduction and the first pass of sharpening. I have shot white balance reference photos at several points on the court and I have put together a processing preset for this gym.

Rebound !

Welcome McPherson Bulldog Fans! Click on this link to see more images from 2010 - 2011 Bulldog Sports!

We had our first chance to photograph the McPherson College Women's basketball team this weekend. The game was a close fight, but the Lady Bulldogs came out on the short end of the score 44 - 49.

The Sport Center gym is a typical small sports venue: Dark !

I am working with my new Nikon D7000 to see how much improvement there is with the ISO noise processing. I can see a definite difference. But at 3200 ISO there is still noise. These images have been converted from NEF to JPEG, WB adjusted and noise reduction applied in Camera Raw. Additional sharpening and resizing performed in Photoshop.

Despite the noise, the sharpness that the camera can provide can be incredible. But the camera can also point out all your little errors like hand shake. It will be fun, and a challenge, to master this camera!

Down Under Broadway

The Broadway Bridge is one of the main crossings of the Missouri River between downtown Kansas City and the areas north of the city.

Around and under the bridge is one of the old industrial areas of KC. It is a collection of brick and steel, grime and graffiti. Gentrification is trying to creep in, but the nature of railways, bridges and the river will likely keep the rough and rusty feeling the same for a long time.

I made a trip at sunset to scout vantage points for the bridge. The sky was nondescript, so better images of the bridge are likely yet to come, but some of the other objects and views made interesting images.

Under Broadway

Viaduct

Diversion

All images were taken with a Nikon D7000 & 18-105mm lens. PP with ACR and CS5. To see more images follow this link