Salvage

 So today I was supposed to go to an archery competition to photograph the event. It was quite a drive away and I confirmed the prior night that it was still on...

This this morning I make the drive only to find out it had been canceled at the last minute. Shucks, rats and other rated G comments.

I did, however, find this pair of deer skulls and decided to make a series of shots from different angles to explore their detail.

All shot with my Nikon D2x, 50mm lens set at f/2.8.

Risk

 These guys (and girls, there were at least two) got close, really close, and yet there were no accidents. A testimony to their prowess on two wheels.

I switched up to my 50mm for a few shots but was unsatisfied with the results, so I stuck with the 80-200mm. Most shots were taken at either the 80mm range, or 200, rarely in between. My camera now needs a good cleaning with a dust remover.

Dust

Ten to fifteen bikes on the track, and kicking up rocks, dust and debris. Half the fun of shooting the event was ducking the flying rocks.

This was from the final turn, the guys in the back of the pack eating everyone else's dust.

Serious Action

So this weekend I get invited to shoot the AMA Motorcycle race at a nearby track. The weather, which has been rainy all week long, instantly turns nice for Saturday, fluffy white clouds, mid 80s, sunny, perfect day for shooting.

I get an all access media pass, allowing me on the track, off the track, behind the scenes, everywhere. I've got my Nikon d2x, 80-200mm f/2.8 and a big handful of memory cards. At wide open, f/2.8, I've got 1/5000th of a second shutter speed. Perfect for capturing action. I set up at the corners and wait for the roar of the two stroke bikes. Despite the week's worth of rain, the track was dry and dusty, as you can see here.

At 100+ mph (I overheard 125 on the straights) it's very difficult to get shots in focus. Of the 1000 shots I took, 25 percent I missed the focus on. But of the shots where I nailed it, they came out great.

Here are some shots for your approval.

Old Boat

False Infrared old boat from Belize. It was a Black and White image with the colours reversed to simulate IR. One day I'll have a dedicated dSLR converted to shoot only IR, but in the meantime I deal with LightRoom and PhotoShop

Too Much Rain

 It's raining again here, and I'm tired of it It's typically a desert in the summertime but this year we are flooding. Very droll.
So here are some nice pics of the private island I stayed at in Belize earlier in the year.

Messy

And here is where things got to be really messy. Between the fading light and full on night, the venue had powerful klieg lights running but they did little other than fight with the dusk. Those pics I took I will not post here.

Once full night fell the kliegs took over and gave me enough light to work with. Of course I had to go and run the improper settings, not using a fast enough shutter speed. I was using 1/200 figuring that would be enough and in the LCD screen of the camera it looked sharp enough, it was only when I got home and viewed them on the big screen of my PC did I realize I should have pushed it one or two more stops. Oh well, live and learn.

Background Noise

Even with the f/2.8 there was only so much I could do to isolate the busy background. I feel the shot could be better with more light to make the bucking bronco stand out more, but I worked with what I had.

Midair

Naturally, the light fell behind the venue, giving me enough to shoot by to capture action, but not enough to really make the images stand out.

Here is a prime example, cowboy in air, horse going wild. The histogram is as flat as a board even though there was enough light for 1/800sec shutter speed at 400ISO.

Back for more

So I managed to get an invite to shoot a rodeo for a large venue. I was anxious to try out my 80-200mm f/2.8 on something other than concerts, and this seemed to be the perfect place. As I was to discover later, this was the only lens I would use that night. So much for hauling around all my gear.

But that's okay, as you can see from this shot to the left, the bokeh was superbly rendered and the cowboy really stands out from the busy background.

Unfortunately the rodeo didn't start until 7pm so the fading twilight allowed me only a handful of really good shots before I had to crank up the ISO.