Boredom, String and a Maglite

As the title suggests, the three elements above came together tonight in an explosion of silliness. My daughter and I suspended a maglite torch (with the head removed - just the bare bulb) from the cross piece of a backdrop stand by some string. We set the camera on the floor looking straight up, put it on bulb mode (f22 and ISO 100) and then swung the torch in as close to an arc as we could. We used exposures in and around 1 minute for these. The plain light trials were then exported into photoshop and layered with a rainbow gradient layer (using multiply mode) to produce the final effect.

The first one is mine, the second is the work of a rather precocious 10 year old.

Pro Wrestling Ulster

I had my first chance to shoot some local wrestling bouts on Sunday night, courtesy of Pro Wrestling Ulster. The event was in the ballroom of the Balmoral Hotel, Belfast and there was reasonable crowd turned up. The crew at the event were really helpful, with lots of tips and suggestions for what/where to shoot. Technically, this was a difficult one due to the poor lighting in the venue, and my original idea of shooting using only ambient light went out the window very quickly. Using on-camera flash was also awkward, since I didn't want to blind someone while they were leaping off the top rope. The solution seemed to be to use bounce flash with the very low and white ceiling as the target. I ended up shooting at 1/500sec, somewhere between f3.5 and f5 and with the ISO set to auto (it seemed to range between 4000 and 6400.

As always with wrestling (or at least what I've seen on TV) there's a lot of theatricality and that definitely makes for good shots.

Catching the various wrestlers when they're not actually throwing each other around the ring was also pretty easy and yielded some nice shots.

But, of course, it all comes down to the action. Guys in mid-air, guys hitting each other, guys hitting the floor of the ring hard. As with any new sport, I had issues with my timing and angles. This meant I was spending a lot of time on the move trying to figure where and what to shoot. I ended up with a reasonable collection of shots by the end of the night, but also a fair number of "duds" for the trash basket. Some more experience might make this a bit less "hit and miss" if I get asked back.

Last Derby Bout of the Year

Sadly, Saturday was the last roller derby bout of the year here in Belfast. It's been almost exactly one year since I first approached the team and asked to come along to take some shots at a bout, purely out of interest. One year on and I've now covered six bouts, done the photography for a video shoot, taken two sets of head shots, taken special effects shots for bout programmes, got pictures published in the local newspapers, came second in the roller derby pub quiz with my kids and generally had absolute shit-loads of fun.

Roller derby has taught me a lot in terms of photography and given me the chance to swap ideas and pick the brains of similarly inclined photographers from all over the world through Flickr and Facebook groups. I've also had the chance to meet and work with a great bunch of ladies who seem to like what I've done and are always very complimentary and kind, even when I mess things up.

Saturday was notable to a couple of reasons. Five minutes into the bout my 32Gb CF card died on me. Just died with no warning and demanded to be formatted in the camera. Thankfully I had spare cards (as always) and was able to shoot the bout, with a loss of about 40-50 shots out of a total of 450. The second remarkable thing was that the team presented me with a thank you/birthday present at the end of the bout - a lens mug (Canon, but it didn't stop me drinking out of it) a cracker bottle of Green Spot Irish Whiskey from the Middleton distillery and my own BRD t-shirt with 2nd Shooter printed on the back. I've been after one of those for ages and am secretly very pleased to have been given one.

I'm looking forward to next year. More bouts at which to improve my skills at shooting and processing action shots. Some ideas for more arty stuff using slow sync/rear curtain flash and lighting. I also want to pitch some ideas for a calendar for this time next year - roller derby meets boudoir style. Bring it on.

Love Hearts

Hadn't seen Love Heart sweets for years until I was given some for my 50th birthday last week. I was munching my way through the last packet when I had the idea of doing something with the sweets and the wee men. And here it is.

Well, it seemed like a good fit.

My Bag

Photographers seem a wee bit obsessed with the contents of their camera bags. Being stuck in bed with the 'flu today I thought I'd take a rattle through the contents of my own bag of tricks.

Camera
I've just upgraded from the Nikon D90 to the Nikon D800. I loved my D90 having had both the D40 and D80 before it. It was like an old friend and I knew it inside out. The D800 is a beast of a camera, high resolution and full frame. It is amazing in controlled light situations (still life, portraiture, studio work) but also copes admirable with the other things I like to shoot (street photography, sports, night shots/light painting). Big file sizes but amazing performance when shooting in raw. I'm getting to grips with some of the many built-in features such as an intervaluometer, time lapse, HDR and so on. It's going to take years to get to the same level of comfort as I had with the D90.
My back up camera remains a little old reliable D60. Unfortunately it doesn't autofocus with most of the lenses listed below, but I can live with that.

Lenses
My go-to lens is the Nikon 24-70 f2.8. Sharp as a tack, fast and versatile. If I had only one lens, this would be the one.
For sports and street stuff, I often use the Tamron 70-200 f2.8 which is not quite as sharp or fast as the Nikon equivalent but does a pretty good job.
I use a Tamron 10-24 f3.5 for my wide angle stuff such as landscapes
I use two primes, the Nikon 50mm f1.8 and the Nikon 60mm f2.8. Both are lovely lenses for portraits and the Nikon 60mm is a superb little macro lens.
I also use the Lensbaby composer, and have tele/wide lenses for it as well as a set of macro filters.

Tripod
A Vanguard Alto Pro with a Vanguard ball head. Solid, stable and easy to use.

Other Stuff
Two cheap and nasty flashguns, a Nikon SB-28 which is older than me and a Nissin 644i. Both can be set on manual which is why I got them.
YungNuo wireless flash triggers. One of the cheapest wireless trigger sets around but they are simple to use and reliable 99.9% of the time with only the odd mis-fire.
Microfibre towel for wiping camera/lenses in the damp
Lenspen and wet/dry cleaning wipes
Torch for night shooting and light painting
Cards. I have had to invest in bigger and faster cards since getting the D800. Mostly 32Gb/16Gb cards in both CF and SD formats for the dual slots in the D800. Depending on what I'm shooting I have my camera set to use the second card as overflow or as a JPG backup to the RAW files on the primary card slot.
Spare battery. Never leave home without making sure I have a fully charged battery in my bag just in case.