Kid Soccer

Grand kids Brayden and Sophia have been playing youth soccer.  The season has progressed through 9 games.  I have been to most of the games and taken lots of photos.  I'll show you some of the photos a bit later but here are some things I have learned about getting good photographs.

Day Games:  In one sense day games are easier to shoot.  There is a lot more light which means you can use higher shutter speeds to "freeze" motion and still use a fairly low ISO setting.  A low ISO setting means you can avoid noise in your photo that ends up looking like "grain" from high speed film.  You can use almost any lens in the day.  I like a fairly long focal length so you can keep the point of action (the ball) at a large enough size on the frame to recognize what is going on.  I have used a prime lens and the size of the action varies as the ball moves up and down the field.  

Night Games:  The park where the soccer is played in Mesa, AZ has nice lighting.  Here I do use a 85mm f/1.8 lens because of its light gathering power.  In order to come close to freezing action at night, I have had to adjust the ISO up into the noisy range.  I found that setting ISO at 3200 or 5000 will give me a shutter speed of 160th to 200th of a second.  Those shutter speeds freeze most action but sometimes feet or hands will exhibit motion blur. 

The Players:  Sophia is 5 years old.  She aggressively follows the ball and dukes it out with the other team to take possession.  Brayden  is 6 years old.  He is very athletic and enjoys running up and down the field. 

Sophia Goes For The Goal

Sophia moves the ball.

Sophia and her team mates.

Brayden.

 Brayden on goal.

Brayden after the ball.

One other thing:  Crop your photos.  Sometimes the action gets lost in the clutter of the full frame.  Crop the full frame to isolate the action. 

Barrel Racing August 2011

Last Saturday we took the grand kids to see a Barrel Racing event.  Suzanne Barnes, a friend of Eileen's was the organizer.  The event was held at the Goodyear, AZ equestrian center.  It was a warm night; the temperature was in the 90's when the event started at 7 p. m..  For those of you unfamiliar with Barrel Racing, it is a timed event where horse and rider cross a starting line, ride as hard as they can to 3- 55gal barrels,  go around each barrel as fast as they can and then race back to the starting line.  A typical time for a circuit was on the order of 18 seconds.

I was using my Canon 60D to take photographs of the event.  I was using my EF 85mm, f1.8 lens.  The arena was covered but had lighting.  I ended up shooting at iso 3200 and 6400.  I was shooting on the highest 60D cycle speed which is a little over 5 frames a second.  Images were somewhat noisy and I had some autofocus problems.

Below are some of my shots.  Enjoy.

2011 World's Cutest Grandkids

We all think that, don't we?  Our grandkids are cuter than any other grandkids.  Here are some shots to prove my point.  Luke is 10, Brayden is 6, and Sophia is 4.

2011 Summer Hummers

We have two hummingbird feeders under the patio.  A Costa's hummingbird (we call him The Sentinel)  perches on a dried bush arrangement near the feeders.  He spends most of his time chasing the other hummingbirds away.  He lives in a lemon tree when he is not on guard duty.  These photos were shot through window panes in the master-bedroom patio door.

Flowers and Things

Flowers are just so darn pretty.  That is why I take photos of them.  A telephoto lens cranked out to maximum focal length or a macro lens will give you the best opportunity to get a good shot of a flower.  Pay attention to the aperture you are using when taking the photo.  Using a small aperture will give you a large depth of field in focus.  The down side of this is that you may end up with very slow shutter speeds that are prone to giving you camera shake.  Using a tripod would be best but many times flowers are "grab" shots that you just happen upon.

Here are some of my best recent shots.

A passion flower on its vine.

A hibiscus.

 Riniculus.

 Pansies.

 Dasies.

 Roses.

Black and White Photos

Although any color digital photograph can be turned into a BW photo through the magic of software, I still like to take photos with black and white film.  I shoot the photos, have the film processed and then scan the photos into digital format.  Currently I am using a Pentax P3 with a 50mm f/1.4 manual focus lens and a Minolta 3xi with a 28-85mm auto-focus lens.


I used to shoot a manual focus Pentax Spotmatic.  I had forgotten how much longer it takes to set up a shot with a manual camera.  The shutter speed and aperture must be adjusted to acquire the proper exposure.  Then the lens must be focused on the desired spot.  Then you press the shutter button.  Then you advance the film with the lever.  If your subject is a young child, they tend to get figity and lose focus while you are focusing.

Below are a couple of shots taken with the Minolta.

 Yucca and Puffy White Clouds

 Red Cactus Flower

 Red Cactus Flower

Yellow Desert Daisy.

The next set of photos was taken with the Pentax.  In all of the photos seen I had to "erase" scratches and dust spots that appeared on the negative.

 Lauren and Jocelyn goofing off.

 Jim Watson with Lauren and Jocelyn.

Jim Watson in his wood workshop.

Birds

Eileen and I really like taking photos of birds.  She uses a Canon XT and a Canon 70-300 IS lens.  I use a Canon 50D and a Canon L 100-300 lens.  Lately we have been attracting birds to the yard with hummingbird feeders and seed boxes.  Sometimes we get volunteers who set up housekeeping in strange locations.

Here are some shots of Hummingbirds at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park.  These shots are hand held.  The bird is a  Broad-billed Hummingbird whose usual range is Mexico. 

I was very lucky with Mr. Broad-bill because he was sitting in the sun showing off his pretty colors.

Our feeder at home is in the shade.  We get lots of activity, especially when two hummers get into a territorial battle over the feeder.  I've never been able to photograph birds fighting but here are some single bird shots.

Here is a photo of one of our volunteers, a Mourning Dove.  She built the nest on top of my metal fire pit.  I had left a rug and a spiral of sprinkler control wire on top of the pit and she added other nest material. 

One more comment about photographing hummingbirds.  In flight it takes a pretty fast shutter speed to stop the motion of their wings.  The flying hummer above was shot at 1/500th of a second and the wings are still blurred.

42nd Anniversary Trip to the Grand Canyon

Eileen and I have been taking anniversary trips to the Grand Canyon since February, 1970.  When we moved to Phoenix, AZ in 1987 we began going almost every year.  Our anniversary month is February.  That is a great month to visit the Canyon!  Cheaper room rates are available and you have the ability to drive yourself to more locations along the south rim.

This year I was toting a new wide-angle lens designed to be used on my crop-sensor camera the Canon EOS 50D.  The lens, a Tokina 11-16mm, f2.8, provides the same field of view as a 17 to 26mm lens would provide on a full-frame sensor camera.  This lens is very sharp and is also a great lens to use indoors with a flash.

At the Canyon I was interested to see how the difference in viewpoint would affect my photos.  I purposely shot the same scene at different focal lengths in order to test this idea.  I'll start with a comparison of the focal lengths and then move on to more general scenic photos with explanations.

Here is a photo taken with my Canon 28-70  lens set at 28mm.

Here is a photo of the same area taken with the Tokina set at 11mm.

Finally, here is the same area taken with the Tokina set at 16mm.

Verkamps was a merchandising icon at the Canyon for nearly 100 years.  Last year the family owners sold the building to the National Park Service.  It is now a combined Visitor Center and gift shop.  The family left behind a very large painting of the Canyon and it still graces its wall.

El Tovar is the queen of the Rim hotels at the Canyon.  Over 100 years old, the hotel is famed for its gingerbread architecture and world famous dining room.  Its not a cheap place to stay.  I was quoted a room rate of $250.00 for one night. 

For years Santa Fe railroad served the Grand Canyon from Williams, AZ.  That service was abandoned for several decades but 20 or so years ago service was re-opened by the Grand Canyon Railroad.  Trains leave Williams at about 9am and reach the Grand Canyon before noon.  The train returns to Williams at 3:30.  A simple round-trip ticket costs about $50.00.  Each car has a cabin attendant to watch after your needs.  Some cars are domed, affording excellent views.  There is a snack bar car.  Western entertainment is included along the rails.

Here is an interesting highway sign we saw in the park.  Not only are mountain lions present in the park but they also carry the plague virus.

The view from Hopi Point.

A view of Pre-Cambrian sediments from Moran Point.

I call this view 2 Trees.

The snowy mountains around Flagstaff, AZ.