tryin' to keep it all in perspective

yesterday i had an opportunity to tag along with my older brothers while they played in a golf tournament. my interest in being there was not to play, the allure of the game of golf continues to escapes me. what got me out on the links was the opportunity to try to gain another skill set. i wanted to try my hand at sports photography.

i mistakenly thought that golf would not be that hard to shoot but i was wrong. there are definite rules about when you can fire your shutter, for example at no time during the back-swing. simply put you can only shoot from the time the player contacts the ball, through to their follow-through.

the course as well can limit where you can stand and the skill level of the player can determines where you stand. my quest to be ahead and to the left of the action was quickly pooh-poohed. i found out that have a brother who has a tendency to rocket the golf ball out that way.

trying to ensure tight focus was also a challenge that i did not expect. while the player was setting up their shot i would target my focus but what i failed to recognize is that during the act of swinging the player actually moves forward. so i was a bit disappointed as i felt my shots weren't as sharp as they could be. who am i kidding i was for all intensive purposes beating myself up over my perceived failings. stupid mostly because HELLO it was my first time and i was shooting a sport i really had no clue about.

i know that my family will get a lot of pleasure out of the pictures i took and if there is any critiquing to be had it will be of their golfing form and not of my photographic skills.

sometimes too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. prior to the tournament i did some research on how to shoot and i looked at a lot of golf photographs. i really hoped that i could emulate what i saw but i think i set myself up for an impossible task. i showed a few of my pics to the poorboi and he had to remind me that the professionals shoot with pro style cameras and lenses. as he reminded me i do not have comparable equipment and he felt that i did an awesome job with what i had.

another friend, who i will refer to as the little general also had some poignant words of wisdom for me today. she reminded me that if i continue to push myself to be perfect every time i press my shutter i run the risk of losing the joy that i have found with the camera.

i am lucky, i have some really great friends.

and as per usual a couple of pics for your entertainment. enjoy!

here comes the sun and i say... it will do for now

i am still here still distracted by the digital camera and still trying to learn as much as i can. even though i haven't been posting with the frequency i once did i am still shooting fairly regularly. however it is mostly just my mothers assorted flora.

i was having trouble sleeping last night and since i was wide awake i crawled out of bed and went looking for a sunrise photo opportunity. based on all my reading you are supposed to scout locations before you attempt to shoot a sunrise but i can't imagine just wandering around without the camera and if it is with you... wouldn't you just shoot?

the first location i went too was gated and i could not get in. my back up plan was to shoot a nearby fighter plane monument. sadly the large trees and thick vegetation that surround the plane made it hard to get a good sense of the sunrise in the pictures.

the trees that surround the monument were dark, the monument itself was dark and it was just before sunrise. if i exposed the shot for the plane then i lost all of the interesting colours in the early morning sky. if i exposed for the sky the plane and trees were overexposed. the best work around in this case was to use the hdr technique that i tried earlier. in this case i would say it was more of a successful endeavour than my last hdr attempt.

the key to sunrise photography is to face east when you shoot your subject. i have a couple of problems with that the first being my directionally challenged ass has no clue when i am facing east. i also still have to find an interesting subject to marry with the early morning sun. i would also prefer a location that is reasonably close to home and somewhere that isn't too sketchy or dodgy.

but until then... enjoy!

into each day...

i haven't been blogging as frequently as i have been. partially because i am all kinds of distracted with the new camera but also because there have been some challenges to deal with lately. since i'd really rather this be a happy place where people can come to be amused or entertained i have refrained from posting about the more shitty events in my life.

the training continues, the shooting continues, the writing however seems to be on a hiatus. i blame that soley on the shoulders of the 'fro' and by extension onto the poorboi. along with supplying me with a nikon camera body that quickly became like crack to me. the poorboi has also provided me with some links from which to gain information and/or knowledge about the art of photography. one of those links was to the site of jared polin at FroKnowsPhoto.com. the 'fro' has been posting videos and supplying information for about three years. there are tons of videos to watch and since photography is my new crack, i have been doing my level best to watch them which means there is little time for anything else.

i wanted to try hdr photography. an image that is composed of several exposures of the same shot providing a photo with a high dynamic range. for the most part the photos that i have seen in this style have been overly processed, in my opinion to the point where they cease to look like photos to me and look more like very high-end graphic novel imagery. but every now and then i will come across an image where the hdr is so subtle that the end image still looks like a real photo and that was my goal. i'd like to say that i achieved what i set out to do but i really can't say that i have. as i am still learning i am still making some mistakes during the initial shoot that i think were amplified by the time i got to the hdr portion of the exercise. but as they say you live and you learn.

the hdr images:

some other recent images:

until next time