Archive for April, 2008

Broomball – Remotes. Some lessons learned.

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

I was out at Penrith yesterday shooting Broomball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broomball). I used to opportunity to set-up some remote camera on the railing of the mezanine level of the rink. Everything worked well……apart from the results.

It was not all worthless, with a few sort-of keepers, but I doubt they are salable. Check the video for my set-up.

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Results from the 1DMark2N were fair at best, but it is ok at OSI1600 and the settings on 1/200 and f3.2 were ok, but the shot was no way tight enough. It is almost pointless to crop this sort of shot and the aperture was too shallow.

1dmk2n-remote.JPG

Results from the 1Ds at 1600 were not really good. Same settings as the Mark2N, but the quality was too poor under any crop. Needs to be WAY tighter in framing and needs to run from a strobe or under better light.

1dsmk2-remote.JPG

Lessons for next time:
1. Shoot tighter.
2. Shoot wider aperture.
3. If using the 1Ds in poor light, use a flash/Strobe.
4. Shoot tighter.

Canon 1Ds Mark 2 Joins the stable…

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

frontview-001.jpg

In an effort to get deeper into commercial photography, I have bought a 2nd hand 1Ds Mark 2 off eBay. The camera’s full sensor and 16.7 MegaPixel lakes it ideas for large super high quality prints.

Info from dpreview : The EOS-1Ds Mark II is the sixteen (point seven) megapixel successor to the EOS-1Ds which was announced almost exactly two years earlier. Carrying on from the EOS-1Ds the Mark II has a full size 35 mm (36 x 24 mm) sensor which means it introduces no field-of-view crop, an 18 mm lens on this camera will provide exactly the same field-of-view as it would on a 35 mm film camera. At first glance it’s clear to see that Canon has stuck (as they did with the EOS-1D Mark II) with the same body and control layout. The timing of the EOS-1Ds Mark II’s announcement was interesting if not totally surprising coming just five days after Nikon announced the twelve (point four) megapixel D2X, the megapixel one-up-man-ship continues.

Despite the significant jump in resolution from the EOS-1Ds (11 mp) to the EOS-1Ds Mark II (16.7 mp) the camera maintains an impressive four frames per second shooting rate and a buffer large enough for 32 JPEG or 11 RAW images. The EOS-1Ds Mark II’s internal bus throughput of approximately 67 megapixel/sec is virtually identical to the eight megapixel EOS-1D Mark II.

Published – Ironman Program – Page 48

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

The shot published in Australian Triathlete in January has been used again in the Ironman program. The article was for the Port Half Ironman.

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Ironman Videos

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

I’ve put some videos together from the Ironman weekend. Still new to Video so please excuse the shots and editing.

I spent quite a bit of time getting my gear ready for Ironman. I like to be prepared. Check the video for the gear list

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Video of the Ironman Village and the locations for Sunday’s Race

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Getting gear ready for the Carbo night and shots of the night itself

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Getting all the gear ready for race day…

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Shots of race day…

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The Day before…

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Tomorrow is the Ironman Triathlon in Port Macquarie. Athletes are checking-in bikes and getting ready; and we are using the entire regions allocation of electricity to charge 1 million batteries. There is barely a square centimeter of floor space free from cameras, lenses, chargers, wet weather gear….it’s like a war zone.

I’m hoping my day is less hectic than last year. I am mostly in the Ironman Village for the swim finish, bike finish, then the race finish. Should be a good day and I should be able to see some mates cross the line.

I shot the Carbo night last night and I still struggle with that sort of editorial work. I feel like everyone is looking at me and I have to blend in rather than do my work. I really admire photographers of can get excellent photos and not piss everyone off. If I get a moment with James, I’ll have a chat to him. I see that part of my photography as the most in need of improvement. Shooting sports is ok, but shooting crowds of people or events etc is really scary.

Aaaanyway. Must get back to cleaning and charging. Will check back on Monday if I have time.