Shelby Competes

This had to be tough for Shelby. Her first judo competition in about 3 years....and it was in a foreign language! As you can imagine, she was a little nervous. We didn't know how we would know which mat to be on and when. She was unfamiliar with the venue, the fighting style and the refereeing style. She lost her match, but it was hard fought. Shelby did not look nervous or timid. She attacked well and confidently. Shelby used some of the techniques she has been working on for use against taller competitors with longer arms (which is most of her opponents). In today's match, even the winning throw, both Carl and I thought Shelby was going to be able to reverse it and win as they were going down. I'm sure Shelby's opponent would never have guessed that it has been so long since Shelby's last competition.

Some Things I didn't Consider

in my blog entry yesterday.
The lighting can and will change with weather, time of day and time of year
The background or foreground can change because of artificial and/or natural reasons.

And how and why I now know these things you ask???
Today I went back...
It was at a different time of day, midday today, vice late afternoon last week,.
This resulted in the blue being much more noticeable in the sculpture. The change was so dramatic, I checked my prior photo to make sure I didn't do something drastic to affect the color balance while I was processing it. And this time,
there was a nasty looking truck in the background, but I adjusted my position to eliminate it

"Portraits"

I'm not much of a "people" photographer. Beyond the family shots, I rarely take photos of people. In general, I actively try NOT to include people in the picture when it comes to travel and landscapes. I do like taking "portraits" if you will, of sculptures and statues. I think some of the reasons are:

• they don't move and their expression doesn't change, so I know what I will be getting


• I can move around, change my angle without worrying about the pose changing


• they won't be upset if the photo ends up being less than flattering


• generally, they are already in a classic pose


• I can go back and do it over, they'll still look the same, same hair, same clothes etc

Here is one I took recently in a small garden/park behind an office building about a block away from us. I ended up cropping a fair amount to get it close to the composition that I decided I wanted (after the fact). So now at some point, I'll return and re-shoot with the composition I've now determined I want :)

Indoor Sports

Here's a shot of Shelby at judo practice last night. Indoor sports photography is always a challenge. The lighting is almost always poor. Plus, the weird and mixed color casts from the different light sources aren't "fun" like they were here. And then there are the challenges of the particular sport, in this case judo. You want to get a nice action shot, but a good deal of the time, you end up being in a bad position relative to the competitors...or right as the throw happens, someone gets between your camera and the action.

This was shot with my EOS 5D and a 70-200mm 2.8L IS lens. I set the ISO to 1600 (hence the "noise" and the reason why this photo really won't look a lot better big if you click on it) and shot aperture priority 1/200s at f/4. The computer tells me I was zoomed to 130mm, I would have probably done better to have gone out to 200mm, since I ended up cropping a butt out of the left side of the frame and some wires and junk off the top. I worked on the white balance some when I did the raw conversion, but it is basically hopeless. The lights are not all the same, and there is a nasty red light coming from the reflection off the mat.

Sarajevo

This is one of those images I've had in mind for a while. I knew the spot, time of day etc. that I wanted for the shot(s). I even took them a few months back but as I was processing them I realized that there was a little bit of camera movement (even on a tripod) that made the final product a little less than I was looking for. I went back today and got what I was looking for. Like the previous playground/park there are still some little details I want to work on, but overall I'm happy with it. The bridge in the foreground is where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated to start World War I.

City Park

Today, I saw this on the way to take the photo that follows. Again it is HDR, my current "phase". The photo still needs some work, for instance I'd like to work on making the graffiti draw the viewer's eye a little more. I'm happy with the composition though, and the way the slide seems to encircle one piece of the "urban art".

The Last for now ...

National Bank of Azerbaijan - Baku (Image 1446 taken 30 September 2006)

continuing...

Cemetery Statue - Sarajevo, BiH (Image 1296 taken 4 September 2006)

...and...

Bird House - Santa Fe, New Mexico (image 1093 taken 4 August 2006)

Yet Another

Jahorina - Bosnia and Herzegovina (Image 2330 taken 4 Nov 2006)

An Early One...

Volcán de Fuego Erupts at Sunrise - Antigua Guatemala
(Image 0032 taken 14 April 2006)

Another...

Evening Storm in New Mexico (Image 1182 taken 5 August 2006)

The First of a Few

Image number 0001 on my digital camera was taken 12 April 2006. It is now almost 11 months later and yesterday I took image number 3632...the equivalent of 101 rolls of slide film. At $10 per roll counting processing, that would have been over $1000. I didn't really "save" that much money though...I have 4 memory cards at a cost of $540+. I'm set for a while longer there, but digital photography has not been cheap. Or I guess to be more accurate....I have not done digital photography cheaply...I'm going to post a random sampling of some of the photos taken along the way that haven't made it to the blog up to this point. I hope you enjoy them.

Krka National Park, Croatia (Image 1638 taken 8 Oct 2006)