Sun Burn

So two more days in the sun left me raccoon eyed and a bit worn out. But at least I got to experience shooting golf for the first time, that was a bit interesting: long long long glass and only a few chances to get the shot every once in a while. There is no constant peak action, and there is NO contact of any kind. In fact, I can now see why some argue that it is more of a game than a sport.


Now triple jump on the other hand, while not having any contact between players, and having long breaks between bursts of action, is quite the show.


DePauw's Justin Bull competes. He jumped so high that he bounced when he hit the ground:


Hurdles are also pretty intense, requiring this kind of ninja-kick to get over them. Of course this makes you think, what inspired someone to develop this event? "Hey, let's get some people to jump over things while they run! That'll be fun!"


Coming up this week is more music class shots, and then real prom pictures on Friday!

(tech stuff for this post: everything was shot with a Nikon D2h or 2x, sadly these cameras, + the 300 2.8 that they came with, has to go back today. Oh well... Shooting track is fairly easy once you get used to finding the right position for each race-- if you don't, you will run into some trouble with your framing, etc, and will get nothing but the runners hands, for example. Golf is a lot trickier because you have to stay well out of the way or they will get really mad at you-- even if just the shutter click disturbs their swing. So it calls for long glass and cropping-- I turned the high speed crop mode on on the D2x, and wound up with a focal length that was equivalent to 840mm, when the 1.4x TC was included in the equation. At the same time, it's really slow moving and you have to be ready to get the shot when it presents itself, because they only swing once for each stroke!)

Sports and Prom

Today was a bit strange in subject matter. All day in the blazing sun shooting track and field, then tennis. Then at 10:30, 'Senior Prom,' a rather clever party idea where a bunch of friends dressed like it was prom. I was as much a part of the set as I was actually documenting it-- what's prom without prom pictures! But it was a good time and I got less sunburned than I did shooting at the track. However, it did not have my favorite event of the day, which was Steeplechase. Whoever decided a good way to test strength was to make people run 3k around a track and jump in water every lap was a bit of a nut, I think, but it makes for interesting photos.

Tech stuff: I shot all day today with a borrowed Nikon kit, using a D2x and D2h. I had shot with this stuff before, but I feel like I've really got them down now, except for the pesky backwards zooming. 'Prom' gave me yet another chance to break out the Alienbees, though I just used one AB800 with a brolly box. The results were a bit contrasty, but not to much that a little touch up couldn't fix.


The aforementioned Steeplechase.


DePauw's Bryan Heck returns a serve during a match Friday afternoon.





Some 'prom goers.'

First Post

Some work for the university, covering music school classes for admissions literature.





A couple more similar assignments coming up, thanks to my interim job as campus photographer. Coming up this weekend is the SCAC sports "2008 Spring Sports Festival/DePauw Schedule of Events"