September 22, 2017

Yoga Over The Wabash

Yoga On The Bridge

Last night I went down to the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge to photograph Be Moved Power Yoga and their Peace Day yoga session on the bridge. I found out about this session earlier in the day at another Peace Day celebration so it seemed like a good way to cap off the night. I don’t know much about yoga, but I do know that a camera in your face can really ruin it for you. I made the shots I wanted to make, and then got out of the way.

Going Above and Beyond

One idea that I had that was not obtrusive to the people doing yoga was to take my drone up. It was a good way to get the scope of the event in, and to help tell the story better than any shot on the ground could. I haven’t been using the drone as much as I have in the past so it was nice to get it back out for a while.

Advertisements

Posted by on September 22, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 24-105mm f/4, Canon 5D Mark IV, DJI Phantom 4 Pro, West Lafayette/Lafayette and tagged , .

Leave a comment

September 21, 2017

Gameday Landscapes

Shooting a Few Landscapes on Gameday

One thing about going out on a business trip with a team is that you don’t have control on the schedule. I was in a state that I have only been in while touring Arlington National Cemetery in 8th grade, but with no time to explore. Imagine my excitement when I looked out over the Liberty soccer field and saw this scene. I had just gotten to the stadium, but it was over four hours until the kickoff of the game. I had some time to try a couple of things. I put my 70-200mm on my Canon 5D Mark IV and started trying to find some interesting little scenes. It was a cool way to get some shots in that I normally would have missed. Between my morning walk and this short shoot before the game I made some photos of Lynchburg that I was happy with. That makes a good trip great for me.

The Week In Photos

When I first put my week in photos post together I had completely forgotten to place these pregame shots in it. The first group of people to see the post overnight did not get the entire week in photos. You can view the complete week in photos here on my Exposure site. We are coming up on two years of putting these together now, and they are still fun to do. It is nice to put your favorite stuff from the week out there. It is even better when people come to look at it. Thank you to all of those who do that.

 

Posted by on September 21, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L II, College Football, Lynchburg, Mountains and tagged , .

Leave a comment

September 20, 2017

Art In Downtown Lynchburg

Taking A Walk Around Downtown Lynchburg, Virginia

I don’t think that I could fairly judge the downtown section of Lynchburg, Virginia right now. They are in the middle of a massive construction project that looks like it is rejuvenating the city. Sadly as I was there I mostly saw unpaved roads and construction as we just came at the wrong time. There were some very interesting aspects to the town though that I was able to see.

Just Up The Hill

The section of Lynchburg where we stayed was on a massive hill. I just made a 1.5 mile walk around town, and I climbed 15 flights of stairs according to my phone. Everything that you did was based on walking up or down a hill. It was a great workout to start my morning, but it was tiring as well.

The Week In Photos

Last week was a slower week for me. Maybe it was the fact that I was in between two massive road trips. I was trying to save space as the week was going on. Less to transfer over to my Drobo before I go or something like that. Most of this weeks favorite photos were made in Lynchburg. You can see my collection of favorite photos from last week here.

Posted by on September 20, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 24-105mm f/4, Canon 5D Mark IV, Lynchburg and tagged , .

Leave a comment

September 19, 2017

Indiana State Football At Liberty

Indiana State Football Takes On Liberty

For the second straight week I was out on the road with the Indiana State Football team. This time the trip took us to Lynchburg, Virginia and the campus of Liberty University. I will be honest and say that before my planning for this trip I was not very familiar with Liberty University. It is amazing to see what they have built up in a short time. For an FCS school they really have some amazing facilities. Most of them would stack up at the level of or above the Big Ten facilities that I have seen around the league. It is really impressive. This was a game that I was not sure about when the schedule came out, but I was glad that I made the trip.

The Luck Of The Draw

This was the fourth college game that I have shot this season. In the previous three I really felt that luck was on my side. I was picking the right place to be quite often. When I went behind the play I was rewarded, and when I went in front of the play I was rewarded too. Saturday night I seemed to make up for all of that good luck. I seemed to just keep guessing wrong. Some of that was a much more wide open Indiana State playbook. When your team is running the ball or throwing short passes behind behind the line can work out very well for you. Every time that I tried that Saturday night I missed a great deep ball. I still made some good photos, but watching the recap I knew that I left a lot on the table as well. Games like this help motivate me to do better next time. I still have a long way to go as a photographer, and sometimes you have to get knocked down a little for that to sink in.

The Liberty Fans

This really is an amazing fan base. They were out in force and painted up early on. I don’t know how you build a football program out of nothing, but if you want to know the people at Liberty are a good group to ask. They have really excited the fanbase, and they are doubling the size of the stadium to accommodate new fans that want to hop on the band wagon. They were tough on the players, but they were also good fans. I chatted with several groups of them about what they were wearing, and they were very nice to me. You can’t ask for much more than that on the road.

Have A Game Bob

Indiana State receiver Bob Pugh had a game Saturday night. He caught eight balls for 260 yards and two touchdowns. He was the guy running the wrong way on many of those deep ball shots that I missed. Now that I know what you are up to Bob I will prepare better when you play Illinois State. Continue reading →

Posted by on September 19, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 11-24mm f/4, Canon 1Dx, Canon 24-105mm f/4, Canon 400mm f/2.8 II, Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 1.4x II, College Football, Lynchburg and tagged , , .

Leave a comment

September 18, 2017

Williams Stadium at Liberty University

Blue Hour at Williams Stadium

Williams Stadium at Blue Hour

During the game against Indiana State I had a couple of chances to make an interesting photo of the stadium. Just before I made the photo above a nice color was tipping each of the clouds. I had the idea to run up and make this photo, but Indiana State was on the opposite end of the stadium driving. My job of course is it capture that action. A few minutes later when Liberty had the ball and the odds were in my favor to not miss anything I ran up into the stands to make this photo. This is a unique stadium that is always changing. It was cool to capture it at this moment in time. I moved quickly back down to the field to watch ISU kneel down to end the first half. It was the perfect time to make this image. This will be the only image from the game that I post today. Tomorrow I will have my full recap post up with images from the game.

The Bill Before the Game

If you follow this blog then you know that I always make a few stadium shots before shooting a game. I am there before the fans are so I always get an empty stadium shot. The goal of course is to make a full stadium shot later, but in case that does not pan out I have this to fall back on. When shooting for a team it is a cool way to get some content out early as well. Here the team was still a couple of hours from arriving at the stadium so it may have been their first look at Williams Stadium as well. I did a little something different here. I was using my 24-105mm lens to make the photo. I could have brought out the 11-24mm lens that I had with me, but I decided to try a panoramic. I held my camera vertical and made seven three shot exposures moving from right to left. My camera was set in manual so all of the exposures would be the same. Once in Lightroom I combined all of the three shot images into HDR photos and edited one with the field and sky to get it how I wanted it. I then copied those settings to the other six photos. From there it was just a matter of letting Lightroom stitch the photos together. I like how this turned out. It only took 21 images to make, but it was worth it. One thing that I like about the pano is the detail you can keep in the photo. You can zoom into the top of the mountains and see the LU for Liberty University at the top of one, and a ski hill with skiers on it on another.

The Week In Photos

Each week I put together an Exposure page with some of my favorite photos from the previous week. Here is the post for last week. This is a fun exercise for me, and a great way to put some of my photos out there that normally would not be out.

Posted by on September 18, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 11-24mm f/4, Canon 24-105mm f/4, Canon 5D Mark IV, College Football, Lynchburg, Panoramic and tagged , , .

Leave a comment

September 17, 2017

Gameday In Knoxville

Re-Visiting Gameday In Knoxville Tennessee

Last week I had a great time in Knoxville photographing in Neyland Stadium. During the downtimes that happen when you arrive over six hours before kick you can make some images. I usually tag the images for me with a different tag so that they don’t get in the way of my editing later in the day. In the heat of getting the images out and to the team I often overlook these images for my game day post. Last week was no exception. I was making my final pass on the photos before archiving them, and I found a few that I had not yet edited. I thought that today would be the perfect day to post those images.

Posting On A Road Trip

Last week we had a seven hour drive after the game back to Terre Haute, and then I had a two hour drive home after that. I arrived home at six in the morning on Sunday after getting up nearly 24 hours earlier. I made the post that you all saw Sunday while still in the stadium waiting for our group to finish. I made a quick post with a photo of the stadium so that I had something on the blog the next day. This week will be much like that. Yesterday I had my travel blog with some photos from the trip to Virginia. Knowing how it works getting on the plane I decided to stick this post in here to give myself some time to post. Usually we leave shortly after the game. I have enough time to get my gallery up, and get to the bus leaving for the airport. Traveling with the team puts you on their schedule. Tomorrow I will have my game post up when I have time to sit down and do it right. I could rush one out during breaks in travel, but it will keep until tomorrow. As I write this I can’t help but hope that it is a recap of a great win.

Posted by on September 17, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 11-24mm f/4, Canon 1Dx, Canon 400mm f/2.8 II, Canon 5D Mark IV, College Football, Knoxville and tagged , .

Leave a comment

September 16, 2017

Road Trip With The Indiana State Sycamore Football Team

Hitting the Road Again With Indiana State Football

Last weekend I photographed the Indiana State football team in Knoxville. I travelled separately than the team so I really didn’t see them until they arrived at the stadium. This week I am traveling with them the entire way. It would have been cool to have the photo story last week at the SEC stadium, but this week I will be able to document a road trip with the team. Yesterday was mainly getting to Lynchburg for the game. Today the real work begins as the team prepares to face Liberty. Because of the late start for the game I will have my game post on Monday.

Posted by on September 16, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 24-105mm f/4, Canon 5D Mark IV, College Football, Lynchburg, Virginia and tagged , , .

Leave a comment

September 15, 2017

The Chicago Skyline At Sunset From Indiana

Photographing the Sunset Behind the Chicago Skyline

Part of the fun of photography is going back and tweaking photos that you thought had potential at the time, but were missing something. This was one of those photos. I had the idea on the scene to make this a vertical frame to have the sunlight lead you right into the city. At the time I should have slowed down my shutter speed to blur out the water. I didn’t, and the crisp water was a bit too much for me.

A Quick Fix

I don’t spend a lot of time in Photoshop. In fact for a photographer I feel that my Photoshop skills are lacking. At times though it is a valuable tool to make the photo that you had in mind on the scene. Here I used the motion blur tool to smooth out the water like I should have in camera. I think that the simple fix makes this a better photo, and it was finally time to share it.

Posted by on September 15, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Adobe Photoshop CC 2015, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 1.4x II, Chicago, Indiana, Sunrise/Sunset and tagged , .

Leave a comment

September 14, 2017

My Ten Favorite Images From the 2017 Minor League Baseball Season

My 10 Favorite Images From the 2017 Minor League Baseball Season

This year I really did not cover the MiLB season like I thought that I would. I had a long road trip down south planned, but paying jobs got in the way. That is a great thing for me, but bad for my baseball photography. For some reason baseball photos are like a dime a dozen. I still enjoy photographing the sport, and I would love to do it again next year. This list comes from the two games that I shot when the White Sox Triple A team came to town this past May. Normally picking ten images from two games means that I will have a couple iffy shots at nine and ten. I was pretty inspired both games though, and everything seemed to work for me. I seemed to constantly be in the right place at the right time. I had not thought about putting a list like this together, but while putting some images together for a MiLB season in review it seemed like a good idea. Here are my favorite ten images from the 2017 MiLB season.

10. I always will have a soft spot for a good bucket on the player shot. Here Joey Terdoslavich gets the treatment after a good game against the Charlotte Knights. My career took off a bit after my shot of Josh Bell getting an ice bath won the MiLB photo of the year award so I will always make this photo. The key in the future is to do something different with it.

9. I love photographing catchers. They have all of the extra gear, and they just look cool. Here is a tight shot of Indianapolis Indians catcher Elias Diaz in the dugout after an inning. I love the tight nature of the photo, and I really need to do more of this.

8. In the first MiLB game that I shot this season both Jose Vinicio and Austin Meadows kept popping up in my photos. Sometimes one player can really take over a gallery for some reason. Here they both appeared in the same photo during the game. The early afternoon light really helped make the dirt flying pop, and probably is the reason this photo made the countdown. Continue reading →

Posted by on September 14, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Best of 2017, Canon 17-40mm f/4, Canon 1Dx, Canon 24-105mm f/4, Canon 400mm f/2.8 II, Canon 5D Mark IV, Indianapolis, MiLB and tagged , .

Leave a comment

September 14, 2017

My Kind of Windmills

Windmills Of All Shapes And Sizes

If you have followed this blog since the beginning then you know that I love windmills. Usually what I end up photographing are actually wind turbines, but I still like to call them windmills. More often than not when driving down the road I see a good old fashioned windmills. I am usually on my way to a job or somewhere else. I always want to stop, but by the time I ask permission to go back and shoot the windmills and shoot it I will have lost too much time. Sometimes the windmills are in a great spot at just the right time though.

Perfect Timing At Cedar Creek

I made the above photo one night at Cedar Creek in Martinsville, Indiana. As we were leaving the light was fantastic, and the moon was even making an appearance. I am a sucker for this time of night so the fact that I had a windmill in my foreground was icing on the cake. Sometimes you really get lucky when you are out on the road. This was one of those times.

Posted by on September 14, 2017 in Adobe Lightroom 6 (CC), Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L, Canon 5D Mark IV, Martinsville, Sunrise/Sunset, Windmills and tagged , .

Leave a comment