First off, for those of you who are not privy to our facebook group (join us by the way - just search for ThoseTwoPhotographers on facebook) we had a wee bit of a Snow Day in Regina, SK on the 25th of January. We thought we would take a couple of photos. Nothing earth shattering here photographically speaking but know there are a few subscribers to this blog living in places that snow is not an issue:

My parking lot. (If you look closely you can see me inside the car begging for a morsel of food and a glass of water -DH).


My filthy truck beside my parking lot.

My still filthy truck in alley north of parking lot. As it turns out, we have nothing on the state of Washington.

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Chapter Two

The idea of making sausage had never once crossed my mind. Sausages are something found in a grocery store or sitting on a fence post because a neighbor was being neighborly. We've all come to grips with the fact that animals comprise a significant part of most of our diets and some people actually hunt. I'm not one of those hunters. I've damn near killed myself trying to avoid hitting rodents on the highway. Yes, there was a time as a child that a gopher's life was taken for my entertainment and that still bothers me. Hunting with a camera is the only hunting you will ever find me doing. That said, no amount of modifications will turn a Canon 50D and a 400mm F2.8 lens into a meat grinder so when approached by my neighbor to take part in a sausage making gathering and reap the spoils I could not turn him down. I love sausage made form wild meat, just had no idea how much manual labour could be put forth to make it. Eight hours of hand cranking a meat grinder and hand mixing a few spiecies of dead animals into a variety of spices, three of us had damn sore shoulders and a good glow on from the hydration products one must consume when in attendance at such an event. Only mid way through the exhaustive process did we start talking of the availability of more automated devices for the tasks. The following are a few images created during this experience - most of them with my trusty old 50mm 1.4.

(To add to Rob's story all that will be said here is that when told about this upcoming "boy's sausage making day" what continually ran through my mind was the blue satin-suited stud in the Bud commercial informing everyone that "there will be no sausage party tonight boys". For those of you who have not had the pleasure of seeing this yet just follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkzfDr6Bv9w. - DH)

"The Grinder" - Pentax K7 - 50mm
1/160 @ F2.8 ISO400 EV-0.3

"The Outcome"
1/60 @ F4.5 ISO400 EV-0.7

These next three images are more about the expression on the sausage makers face that anything else. It kinda takes me back to my preteen days. (There is so much that I am forcing myself not to say right now - DH).

"Fascination"

"Pride"

"40 Something"

1/30 @ F4.5 ISO400

1/40 @ F4.5 ISO400

1/25 @ F4.5 ISO400

1/40 @ F3.5 ISO500 EV-0.7

So much for this weeks food photography. On to sports.

The University of Regina Cougar Athletics Basketball program recently added some new interest in the form of Mr. Jimmy Scroggins. Jimmy hails from Phoenix, Arizona where he attended and played a little ball for North High. He was born on August 8th (just like my little bro), 1988 and eventually attended Mount Mercy College in Des Moines, Iowa before coming to the U of R. He last played at Bakersfield College, where he was a two-year member of the Renegades and averaged 5.7 points per game during the 2006-07 season, as Bakersfield went 30-3 overall and won the Western State Conference South Division co-championship with an 11-1 conference record. Jimmy also scored 5.6 points per game in 2007-08 with the Renegades.

What? No Ball? - Eyes, Emotion, Peak Action - One of or more of these three things need to play a part in any sports image or else it hits the proverbial cutting room floor. Some people get hung up on the requirement to see the object of an athletes focus as in the ball, the puck, the horseshoe or... you get the point. You need not hang yourself on such a notion if you can find an alternative interest in an image. The above image is about the intensity and you see that through Jimmy's eyes and the fact that the guy who he just beat has a look on his face that totally speaks to where that elbow was a split second before. If you don't know this is a basketball image without the ball given the garb of the day and the body position then you should probably go back to reading your romance novel and grooming yourself with those knitting needles as you are obviously not into sports. Compositionally Jimmy (the primary subject) is in the top right interscetion of that grid you keep hearing us rant about and those are the reasons this image works without a ball.


This would be Jimmy making a sweet over-under-over move to the basket. The eyes are just as important in this shot as the ball. Note the body position taking up the area on the right hand vertical third line and his eyes on the top horizontal. He is on the right because his attention is turning back to the left side of the frame where the basket was.

Canon 50D w/ 70-200mm 2.8L @ 165mm
1/250 @ F2.8 ISO1000 EV-0.3
Not usually a big fan of the free throw photo because they are usually a little boring. Not to mention the fact that some guys (fool inconsiderate photogs) will jump right under the basket right in the face of the player to get this overdone shot. Yes, this is ignorant. Think about it, the player has enough to deal with given the fans in the stands working over their concentration, they don't need some little peon with his camera jumping in his face just prior to putting it up. Even worse is when it is done right in front of a blank wall so the only thing there is the basket and the photog. So take a tip, shoot this shot from the side somewhere a little away from direct line-of-site and then challenge yourself to compose it proper (thirds) and keep the player sharp while getting some movement in the hands and ball

Not all emphasis should be placed on Jimmy as the women and those other athletic teams who are important to us all should also get their due.

A good drive to the hoop by Polish born University of Texas at Elpaso Guard Joanna Zalesiak.

and a little sport art of our own Gabrielle Gheyssen

and a little hockey "no ball" if you will shot in an arena with no light and no strobes and what light exists is six different colours - ask me if I am bitter. Go Ahead! Am I pumped about a new arena next year? U better believe it!
Canon 50D w/ 70-200mm 2.8L @ 125mm
1/800 @ F2.8 ISO6400 EV+1.0
Forward Ryan Sawka - Note eye position relative to top horizontal third and body position on right moving into space on left.

Gilbert Musonza laid a licken on a few guys in the 57KG category to pick up the win at the Cougar Invitational. The following images are here to display a few interesting portrait compositions. I challenge you to work on these poses the next time you can get two people to model naked for you ;o)

If you are not now smiling you should go check your pulse.

For more sports images visit www.sportsshooter.ca and challenge yourself by going through galleries and for each image take note of how the rule of thirds was applied. Eventually it will just start to happen.

This issues final image was captured just outside of the supermodels igloo where I found her fashionably clad in a fur (fake) headdress and complimenting Helly Hansen jacket. (Apparently I am a really REALLY good sport as when this headdress was purchased a vow was made that no human eyes would view it while being worn - DH).

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Devona Start - So that is more or less the end of Rob's comings and goings and now I will post the few images that I have as unfortunately life has been way too busy as of late to do much shooting The first few images will take you WAY back to Christmas when we had a chance to do some shooting at our friend Normiiin's place.

 
The above is shot with a macro lens as the actual object is only about 1 or 2" in total.

Lens (mm): 100
ISO: 100
Aperture: 5
Shutter: 5
Exp. Comp.: -1.0
Flash Comp.:
Program: Aperture Priority

Lens (mm): 100
ISO: 100
Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 2.5
Exp. Comp.: 0.0
Flash Comp.:
Program: Aperture Priority


The above photo shows the effect of the shallow depth of field when using a macro lens with your aperture set wide open.

Lens (mm): 100
ISO: 100
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/6
Exp. Comp.: -0.3
Flash Comp.:
Program: Aperture Priority

My daughter Brooke was in a tournament last weekend in Saskatoon with her team the RVC's Voltage. They went undefeated all the way through to win their 14U division In the images below you can see the effect that occurs when shooting at extremely high ISO's. Unfotunately due to the extremely dim lighting in the gym there was no way around this as shooting at a lower ISO would have rendered too slow of a shutter speed resulting in blurry images.

 
Lens (mm): 70
ISO: 6400
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/640
Exp. Comp.: 0.0
Flash Comp.:
Program: Aperture Priority

and a little more Sport Art.

ISO: 6400
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/1000
Exp. Comp.: 0.0
Flash Comp.:
Program: Aperture Priority

Devona End
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And now for a reach into our mailbag. We are going to do our best to address your mail as it comes in and when we feel it of value to our readers, we will respond to that mail publicly (last names withheld of course) via this blog or our podcast. If you include photos we will include those as well when we can.

Rob & Devona,

Just a short note to say thanks so much for last night! (this opening sentence leaves a lot to the imagination...) It should be classified a small miracle that I took ANY decent photos prior to attending your workshop.
 
One question for you regarding AV setting: if you're taking a photo of more than one person, how do you focus on multiple subjects when selecting the red light? This is where I've struggled a lot when attempting to capture my two little darlings in a photo....unless they're lined up perfectly (ha!), one of them is usually out of focus so I often revert back to automatic just to be safe.
Thanks again - you rock!

Sincerely,

Janita

~~~~~

Janita,

Thanks for the positive feedback. The situation you face is not all that easy and "Auto", although it may work on occasion, is not the answer. The direct answer to "how do you focus on multiple subjects when selecting the red light" or single point of focus is you can't. Fact is, focus, as you have figured out, works based on distance of the subject from the camera so unless both your subjects are parallel to the camera, one will be out of focus. Increasing aperture, which is all that Auto is doing, will increase your depth of field and your chances of having both in focus but you may have to up your ISO to ensure a fast enough shutter speed to handhold (you probably don't want to go beyond 800 with a Rebel). That is the technical answer.

Now the real answer, even though you are photographing two children, rarely is the image going to actually be about both of them. One must be "The subject", as one is usually doing something with or to the other and that child which is the primary must be the most in focus. If the image truly is about both of them and they are interacting with each other, then your positioning relative to their activity is what needs to change. There is almost always a way to position yourself so they are both (facially) approximately the same distance from your camera but not always is this easy.

If you just want the shot and could care less about it looking natural, then "A-Dep" (if on your camera's dial) and multipoint auto focus, or "P" on combined with your on-camera flash will give more depth of field.

Stay in touch and let us know how else we can be of assistance.

Rob & Devona

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A special thanks to our readers and subscribers for their support. Our WinterScapes '10 Field Trip sold out in a record day and a half. Given the response to this event we probably could have filled two or three of these but our schedules just don't allow for it. Our plan is to have another sometime in May so if you want to guarantee a spot just get in touch and let us know. 

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