That's right everyone,  I am officially going to create a dance in celebration of the end of yet another cold and harsh winter here in Saskatchewan.  Not only am I going to create a dance but I am going to ensure that it becomes a bigger hit than the Macarena ever was   Okay, I just took a minute to compose myself and realized that I may have been being a wee bit optomistic on the whole scale of the dance creation idea... let's start small and go with it being bigger than the Achey Breaky for now. [I could go on to comment about the requirement for one to have some semblance of rythm in order to dance at all let alone "create a new dance" but instead I will point out to the newbies here that her heiness the dancer tends to start these blogs and then I come along and make smart-assed comments inside of these otherwise useless brackets... as well as add a few photos - Rob W.]

This weeks blog is going to be on the shortish side as Rob and I have not been out to much due to the temperature being below 40 most of the time.  We did however get to the Saltcoats Vintage Snowmobile Rally (these guys really need to update their site) last weekend.  We even managed to shoot for about an hour before certain parts of my face... my hands and my feet started to feel like they were going to break and fall off.  The one thing that I will say is that the crew that came out to participate in this event must be tougher than nails because there is no amount of clothing layers that would have kept me warm ripping around that track 50 times with a windchill of about -42! [You will note a bit further down that even though "we have not been out much" I still have bills to pay so tend to shoot albeit not necessarily within my creative space.]

Here are a few of my pictures from the race... I'm sure that Rob will be inserting some as soon as he finds some time this week:

ISO- 100, F 7.1, Shutter Speed - 1/800th sec, Focal Length - 70mm

This was the first race of the day which was the kids.  This little guy closest to the camera not only appeared to be the youngest by far but was also riding a machine that was at least a few decades older than his competition and he literally blew by them like they were driving backwards

ISO - 100, F 5.6, Shutter Speed - 1/2000th, Focal Length - 200mm

Take note that for this shot I used a much bigger lens as even though these machines may look old they can still fly around the corners!  I was safely standing right behind a large post in the hopes that if someone did come off the course they would run into that before me as I was unable to move due to the hard packed snow that I was up to my waist in!

Same setting as above but with a shutter speed of 1/1600th sec.  Yep, the corners got a bit dangerous.  Rob has a series of pictures where he has one of the guys flipping his machine and flying off... I'm hoping that he will INSERT THEM BELOW.  I hope he manages to find the hint that I subtly placed in here for him

[Not sure this guy needed to be reminded of this incident. I was about 300 yards away but could not resist pulling the trigger. Fact is I had just turned in this direction about one second before the first frame, apparently I have an instinct no doubt developed from my own fair share of going over the top or high-siding]

Alright, that is the last of my rally images.  Well, actually I have dozens more but I'm thinking that is the last of the snowmobile images that you will be wanting to see from me for now

[So I will insert one blow]

 
1/800th @ F4.5 +0.3 - ISO 100

I am going to give you guys a winter photo tip as this is what I do when I have time on my hands and am looking out the window thinking that I must be living in Siberia or something as it has been too cold for human habitation for months now.  What I do is I go out and buy some flowers and then just figure out different ways to shoot them.  Try to get creative... use mirrors, candles, a reflector... you name it. [Alternatively you could find someone who is not aesthetically challenged and have them remove varying amounts of clothing - at that point you could opt to photograph them] 

Below are a few of the pictures that I took this week: [and a few that I did not - Don't get me wrong, I love them as they are great images. I'm just trying to get rid of the reputation I have for taking pictures of flowers. Thus the race cars and talk of nudity.]

ISO- 100, F 2.8, Shutter Speed - 0.5 sec, Focal Length - 100mm

ISO - 100, F 2.8, shutter Speed - 1 sec, Focal Length - 100m

Well folks that's it for now.  Rob will be adding his 2 cents... or more like 25 cents shortly.  We will have a much larger blog over the next few weeks as we are going on a Northern photo excursion with some friends so hopefully we will bring back a pile of new images

[[For those of you who know me or are friends on facebook you will know that there are two things on my mind at this time of year. One is being on my bike (photo below by Devona) and the second is motor racing - sorry guys, no flowers here, nor nudity although those things may as well be on my mind].

1/250th @ F6.7 +0.5 - ISO 400 - Notes on setting: 1/250th because I was panning the shot and wanted movement in the background and the wheels spinning (those of you who have taken our class know that a car moving 200kph photographed at 1/1500th of a second is a "parked car"), F 6.7 because I needed the depth to get the whole car in focus (car was cornering), plus 1/2 stop as it was a relatively bright day.

Now for a few images from indoor soccer and track and field which tends to be what I spend my time doing at this time of year.

Grainy as hell tends to be the story with indoor track.

Sometimes square is not so square.

I also often preach that you need to find a unique perspective from which to shoot sports or you need to do something a little different.
We have all shot the high-jumper going over the bar but the intensity and the focus on said bar is another part of the equation.


There is this sport here in Saskatchewan called boarded soccer or futbal and I think this frame speaks to one of the inherent dangers of playing it.


Saskatoon has two great facilities for indoor soccer. Great for playing soccer, not so great for photographing soccer. Manual white balance is key and even then....

Same goes for Regina's' soccer facilty. I shot there yesterday and can't believe that a building only a couple years old already has three different colour temperature lights in the ceiling.
No setting suprises here... shot as shallow as possible to get as much light as possible and an the slowest ISO that will get you an appropriate shutter speed. That should all make sense to you and if not, perhaps you too should enroll in one of our Digital Photography Workshops of which we have scheduled two in Yorton, SK and are investigating doing so in a number of other communities.]

Have a great week and try to enjoy some of this beautiful weather now that it's finally here! [Bedeep, bedeep, that's all for now folks!]

Devona [Rob]