Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 4

Not much to say about today’s photo—I was going for color and contrast. 

The only tricky thing about today’s photo was the fact that I got the idea as other dancers were “doing their thing” and so I set my camera to take five bracketed shots (-1EV to -6EV) since I was not sure that I knew how dark I wanted the image.  This shot is at -3EV.   

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 125mm, ISO 6400, f/4.8 at 1/500^th of a second on a tripod. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance, cropped image and adjusted the red in the image (saturation and luminance).

Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 3

 

A couple comments about my blog:  I have been hacked.  The last two posting have had lots of comments from a travel site.  I do not know how this happened but it did and to date I have not learned how it can be stopped. 

Next, I was asked if I used any noise reduction for the photo that was taken at ISO 6400.  No.  I did no noise reduction for the posting that I used.  If I were to print that photo, I would probably do a little noise reduction in Lightroom 4. 

Today’s photo to me is about lighting.  I like the way that the stage lighting was selectively on parts of the dancers.  To me, it did a great job showing of the power of the dancer. 

Enjoy 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 125mm, ISO 6400, f/4.8 at 1/125^th of a second on a tripod. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.

Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 2

 

It always amazes me the different perspective that people have on photographs.
When I was reviewing all the photos with Amy a few days after the recital, I noticed how she constantly commented on how this girl’s hands were in the wrong place, or her angle was not correct or her spacing was not what it should be. A mother of a girl in today’s photograph just noted how beautiful her daughter look—irrespective of the hands being in the wrong place, etc.

Me, I mainly notice the forms, the color and the contrast within the photo.  I believe that the ladies’ posture adds a dynamic element to the photo and red/black color scheme adds a great deal of contrast and visual impact.  Finally, each of the girls seems to have a different expression on the face that seems to suggest that they each had their own interpretation of what the dance represents.
What do you see when you look at this photograph?
Enjoy 
Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 125mm, ISO 6400, f/5.6 at 1/180^th of a second on a tripod. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.

Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital—No 1

A few weeks ago, I photographed Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance Recital that was held at San Jacinto Junior Collage.  I was more than blown away by both the quality of the dance and the theatre.

Let me put a plug-in for Amy Blake’s Academy of Dance.  Amy and her instructors are top notch people—the type of people that you want to teach your daughter. 

This was a true learning experience.  At the beginning of the performance, I had my camera set on aperture priority, ISO in auto adjusting mode and auto white balance.  I quickly learned that these setting would produce little more than bad photos.  I played around with the settings and finally settled on ISO 3200-6400, manual mode, f/4, 1/250^th of a second and white balance set to 3850.  These setting generally got me in the ballpark!  I did get too much blur on some of the dancer’s jumps, but that is one of the problems photographing fast moving subjects in low light.

A big problem photographing something like a dance recital is the changing light—both color and intensity.  It took me a while to make sure that I shot when the dancers entered various lighted areas.  This did limit some of the shots that I got, but it did improve my success rate.

Today’s photo is totally about the dancer’s movement.  Overall, there is very little blur—virtually none in her upper body, but some in her lower legs.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 135mm, ISO 5000, f/2.8 at 1/250^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.

The Mighty EARTHQUAKES

For today’s post, I am not a photographer; I am a proud grandfather.

Chloe’s team, the Earthquakes, lost a heartbreak first game in the playoff.  They just did not play-up to their abilities.  Luckily the tournament was double-elimination.

They stormed back and won the remaining four games to win the consolation bracket.

Although I was impressed with the softball skills the girls showed in the final four games, I was more impressed with the determination anf focus.

Congratulations, Earthquakes!

Enjoy.

REAL Baseball

Cameron Julio Patrick who will be four in June is a baseball player.  He plays for the New York Yankees.  He is a very proud Yankee.  He wears his baseball hat constantly and on game days he is ready and standing at the door, ready to go at least 30 minutes before it is time to go.

His biggest disappointment so far this season:  he has not caught all the balls hit by the opposing team—even though he will chase down every ball.

Today’s photo is all about how a three/four year old T-ball game looks.  You will note that each player has his own personal coach standing beside him in the infield.  Also, some of the players take a slightly more relaxed stance than the major leaguers. 

As far as I am concerned, this is REAL BASEBALL!

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 200, f/13 at 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and cropped image.