Prepping for a dawn shoot in the Cascades
July 31, 2009
I’m pulling together gear for a sunrise shoot at Rampart Ridge in the Cascades. It’s going to be an overnight push – start the hike tonight at around midnight, probably about 4 hours hiking to get to the ridge, sunrise at 5:47 AM. It’s not an epic trek by any stretch, but it’ll be interesting to do it in the dark. We’ll shoot for a couple of hours and then head back down.
So what does the equipment look like when you’re going to haul ass up a mountain in the middle of the night?
- Nikon D700
- Nikkor 24-70 F2.8
- Nikkor 70-200 F2.8
- Speedlight SB-900
- Manfrotto 3001BWN tripod with RRS BH-55 ballhead (ugh, heavy, need to get a lighter tripod for outings like this!)
- Westcott 4-in-1 reflector kit
- Headlamp
- Lots of spare batteries and memory cards
- Rain gear, warm gear, hat, gloves
- Water, water filter, camp stove for morning coffee, food
- Compass, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent, map, basic first aid, iphone
- Trekking poles.
Some of this might seem a bit overkill – but only if you’ve never been caught out without proper gear in the mountains.
Pics to follow…
Skateboarding action
July 17, 2009
Here’s the second set of skateboarding shots from Wednesday’s shoot. Special thanks go out to Aris Williams, owner of Liyght Skateboards and master instructor, who acted as my primary model for most of the day – Aris is the guy with the green hat and the LSB logo on his shirt and board.
Skateboarding – motion blurs
July 16, 2009
Last Saturday the new skate park at Seattle Center opened, so I headed down yesterday to check out the action. I’ve never shot skateboarding before so I spent a fair bit of time watching to try to try to get the rhythm of the sport before I picked up my camera. I ended up with two very different sets of shots – one set of more straightforward sport shots trying to nail the action at its peak, which I will post separately, and this set where I wanted to capture the speed and intensity of skating so I dropped to to between 1/8 and 1/20 sec shutter speed and panned with the action to create some motion blur. Let me know what you think.
A few birds…
July 14, 2009
Yesterday I pulled together a quick selection of some of the best bird shots that I’ve taken in the last year. I’m not a birder by vocation, but I’ve had a couple of nice opportunities this year to make some good bird images, so here they are.
Syl Arena names his wish list for Canon Speedlites
July 8, 2009
For those of us who are Canon shooters, this post pretty much nails our frustrations/wishes for Canon’s Speedlite flash system. Kudos to blogger and amazing photographer Syl Arena for this post.
http://pixsylated.com/2009/07/syl-arena-canon-speedlite-wishlist/
Teddy had it right…
July 7, 2009
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States.
Teddy had it right. Now go out and make some pictures.
Small Town 4th of July Parade
July 6, 2009
The 4th of July is a unique holiday…plenty of straightforward Americana, and it’s always interesting to see what else is going on, like in this parade shot in a small island town in the San Juan islands, north of Seattle.
