Shooting sports with a remote camera

I've been shooting with off-camera flashes for several years now.  I generally trigger them wirelessly using my Cactus V4 radio triggers.  Toward the end of my son's last soccer season, it occurred to me that I could probably use the same technology to fire a remote camera instead of a strobe.  Since that epiphany, my theory has been confirmed by several blog posts by Scott Kelby, who used Pocket Wizards to trigger remote cameras at the NFL football games he photographs.  I was finally able to try this technique for the first time while shooting the neighborhood boys jumping their bikes and while shooting my son's YMCA soccer game.  The theory worked well, but doing it efficiently was more difficult than I expected.

Enjoying a total lunar eclipse

This past Monday night--actually the morning of Tuesday, 15 April--the Western Hemisphere got to enjoy the first of four full lunar eclipses in the next 18 months. Although it was cold and the event occurred in the wee hours of the morning, local time, the skies were clear and dead calm, making for excellent photography conditions. I couldn't resist dragging out my big lenses and heading outside at 2am for a little moon-gazing.

Sandhill Cranes along Nebraska's Platte River

For the fifth straight year, my daughter (now 12) and I spent two days wandering county roads south of the Platte River between Grand Island and Kearney, Nebraska, in search of Sandhill Cranes.  It's an easy search.  Half a million of these handsome birds stop in central Nebraska for six weeks each spring to rest and bulk up for their migration to their summer breeding grounds in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia.  This year, we found more large gatherings of cranes than ever before.  That, combined with the better lenses we took with us, made for a very productive photo outing.

Bald eagles on the Mississippi River

Every winter, as the weather gets colder in the northern USA, the Mississippi River freezes over, and thousands of bald eagles lose access to their primary food source.  They then fly south in search of open water in which to fish.  The Army Corps of Engineers operates two dozen or so locks and dams along the Mississippi to facilitate shipping access.  As the water passes through each dam, the resulting turbulence prevents the water just below the dam from freezing and also stuns the fish as they pass through.  That's a double bonus for the eagles, so they congregate by the hundreds at the base of each dam during the cold, winter months.  This creates a target-rich environment for bird watchers and photographers.  My daughter and I recently drove six hours each way to take in this spectacle for ourselves.

Friday night lights, 100 and counting

As you read last month, I've started photographing high school football for the first time this season.  The Lincoln Christian Crusaders are having perhaps their best season ever, and that happily coincided with my own piqued interest in shooting sports.  My inaugural outing went OK.  I learned a lot, and wanted to correct some mistakes at my next outing.  The next home game was the final regular season game, which is traditionally when the team's seniors are honored.  This also happened to be head coach Matt Farup's 100th game coaching the Crusaders.  LCS won the game, finishing the regular season at 7-1 and earning a #2 seed in the playoffs.  In short, it was a special occasion for several reasons.

Friday Night Lights

I've enjoyed photographing active people for a while now. Usually, it's just my kids at play or in their youth sports leagues.  This year, I wanted to step it up a notch and shoot some athletes that are a little faster, more organized, and more predictable, so I approached the football coach of our kids' high school (also my alma mater) about roaming the sidelines during a game.  I'd get some fun experience, and the school would get free photos that were hopefully good enough to use for something.  He loved the idea.  This past weekend, my availability finally coincided with one of the home games, so I got my first taste of shooting Friday night lights.

Shooting Sandhill Cranes with my daughter

My 11-year-old daughter loves animals.  She also loves art work, including photography.  Consequently, every year, she and I make a 24-hour pilgrimage to Nebraska's Central Flyway to photography Sandhill Cranes together.  It's a fun trip, and one that we've made for four years now.  My previous blog post explained the basics of the great Sandhill Crane migration and gave tips on how best to enjoy their annual, spring stop-over in central Nebraska.  This time, I wanted to share a play by play of our most recent trip.

Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska's Central Flyway

I'm blessed to live just a couple hours away from one of the great spectacles of nature:  the migration of half a million Sandhill Cranes from their winter homes in Texas to their summer homes in Canada & Siberia.  En route, these 4-foot-tall birds stop over along central Nebraska's Platte River for 5-6 weeks each spring to bulk up for the journey ahead.  It's quite a sight, and one that people travel from all over the world to see.  My family has been driving out to see it every year for a while now.  Enjoying a profitable trip can be pretty hit & miss if you don't know what you're doing, so I wanted to give some pointers on getting the most from the experience.

Organic patterns in window frost

Living in a 100+ year old house has some drawbacks.  One of them is that the original, single-pane windows leak heat like a sieve.  The silver lining is that when the warm, moist, indoor air leaks through the window and freezes on the outer storm window during really cold weather, the resulting frost forms the most amazing patterns.  Sometimes they resemble miniature forest scenes.  Other times, they look like vines, leaves, or feathers.  Combined with the right back light, this simple window frost can provide some beautiful images.

This shoot was for the birds

I've always enjoyed Joel Sartore's "Photo Ark" project, wherein he photographs simple portraits on black or white of endangered animals.  When I as asked to shoot images of some birds for the web site of a local parrot rescue organization, the Photo Ark was the first concept that popped into my head.  I had never made serious portraits of animals before, so I did a test run with a friend and her cockatiels.  The goal was to photograph her birds on black and white backdrops, sometimes posing with her family.  Kids?  Animals?  Flaky equipment?  What could possibly go wrong with that trio?

Railroad photography and Operation Lifesaver

Fall is nearly upon us here in the northern hemisphere, and the season is in full swing for family portraits and senior photos.  As photographers and their subjects seek to portray ever more interesting environments, they are increasingly shooting on and near railroad tracks.  Unfortunately, railroads are private property, so this activity constitutes trespassing, and more importantly, can be very dangerous.  I've recently learned of a big push that's being made here in the US by Operation Lifesaver and the rail carriers to curtail this behavior.

Skating at sunset

I had the privilege recently of hanging out with my family, our neighbor kids, and a bunch of strangers at a local public skateboard park.  My oldest son was the impetus for the outing.  He's no Tony Hawk, but he enjoys playing with his skateboard, his BMX bike, and especially his brand new Rip Stick.  As I do with most family park outings, I took my camera bag just in case.  There was a large crowd at the skate park that evening, and we were blessed with a gorgeous sunset that provided some excellent photo ops.  All of the kids were happy to perform for my camera after they saw the type of shots I was getting, and I handed out several business cards so I could share the images with them.  I figured I'd share with you a few of the techniques that I used that day to capture the action.

Brenden Stai Golf Classic, round 3

Every year, Husker football celebrity Brenden Stai sponsors a golf tournament in Lincoln to raise money for Tiny Hands International.  A handful of other Husker celebs partner up with each foursome on the course, and a dinner & silent auction take place the preceding evening.  This summer marked the fourth year of the tournament, and the third year that I've been its official photographer.

Shooting youth soccer

Odds are, at least one of your kids has played organized soccer (or "football," as it's more appropriately called in most of the world) at some point.  It's an easy game to pick up and requires very little equipment other than a round ball & some open real estate.  Being an outdoor sport, it's also one of the easier pastimes to photograph.  I'm no Sports Illustrated photographer, but I have shot my share of kids sports.  There's also a lot of carry-over here from other types of event photography, which is my bread and butter.  Keep reading to find out what I know about shooting soccer.

Portrait postprocessing

I had the opportunity recently to shoot some portraits of couples for a local charity.  While it's always preferred to get the best shot possible in camera, sometimes that just isn't possible for a variety of reasons.  Even when it is, portraits often require some additional postprocessing to clean up various stray hairs and skin blemishes.  I'm fairly new to portrait work, and don't intend to do a great deal of it, but I wanted to share some of the steps that I took to process the photos from this gig.

Shooting hoops with the kids

My oldest son loves to play basketball.  Warm afternoons will often find him out on the driveway with the neighbors and a ball.  He just finished his sixth season of YMCA youth basketball with a second place tournament finish.  These games always pit the photographer against the father, as it's very difficult to follow the game while looking through the viewfinder.  Hence, I only shoot a few games each year for posterity, and simply enjoy the others along with the rest of the parents.  I therefore don't get a whole lot of practice photographing these games.  I did, however, shoot their final tournament weekend (three games).  I got stopped by several parents asking how to make their own shots better, so I wanted to share what I've learned.  It's no coincidence that March Madness is in full swing as I write this.

Image resolution for digital photography

Creating the sharpest images possible is a holy grail for many photographers.  It's easy to get the idea that image sharpness comes only -- and always -- from bigger, more expensive gear.  This isn't necessarily true, but even if it were, you may not need better equipment at all depending on your application and processing workflow.  Read on for info on how good is good enough when it comes to image resolution.

How to use a histogram

Proper exposure typically means that you maintain detail in both the bright and dark areas of the image.  A good way to see the distribution of shades from dark to light is by using a histogram.  Many people have seen a histogram either on their camera LCD or in their photo editing software, but if that little mountain-shaped graph is to be more than just a curiosity, you have to learn what it means and how to use it to your advantage.

Small scale DIY light tent

I wrote a while back about photographing some camera lenses using a DIY light tent that I made from a plastic storage tub and some printer paper.  This time, I demonstrate that the smaller the subject is, the simpler the lighting gets.  In this case, the subject is the SD memory card that I bent in two a few days ago.

First snow of the season

Today brought the first significant snow of the season to Lincoln.  There wasn't a lot -- only about an inch -- but it was enough to turn everything pretty.  As luck would have it, this is Saturday, so I was home & available to spend some time outside enjoying it with my camera.  It was even relatively warm and calm, which made shooting rather enjoyable despite the continuing precipitation.  Read on for a few pointers on cold weather photography.