My First Night Football Game!

Hey Everyone!

I really wanted to blog today about shooting my first night time football game (7pm start) mostly because of how impressed my Canon 60D performed at such high ISO. And for you non-photographers out there, shooting at a high ISO is something many photographers avoid like the plague! This is mostly because the higher you raise your ISO, the more "noise" you introduce into your picture. So the lower, the better, that usually means ISO 100 or, for Nikon users, ISO 200. Well, for the Heidelberg at Otterbein game, I shot all my frames at ISO 6400 which scared me at first because I had no idea how my images were going to come out!

But, on Sunday morning when I went to go import my images into Lightroom I was pleasently surprised at the quality of my images. I was so excited to know that I didn't waste 3 hours of shooting the football game in the cold/rainy weather!

Here are some of my images from the game:
Comment below and let me know what you think!
I'm not sure about the shutter speed. But, as far as settings go, I was probably right around 200-300mm at f/5.6 at ISO 6400.

I think the shot directly above was shot at about ISO 3200, but still a very high ISO! And I love this image!!

This is one of the ones I would like your feedback on because this is another one of those images that I fell in love with as soon as I shot it. I saw the shadow on the ground and I composed the frame to have him on the right hand side and the shadow on the left hand side. Now, in my opinion, if this was shot at a clean ISO 100 and there were no noise in this image, I don't think it would be as dramatic as it is right now. I think with the noise in the image it makes it look more "grundgy" and definitely a lot more dramatic. It tells the story of the game. It was a dark, rainy, and muddy game. And I think this image proves that. I love it!

Let me know what you think! Does the "noise" bother any of you?

My Lighting Set-Up!

Hey Everybody!

I wasn't feeling too well today so I left work early and decided to go to the local photo store and picked up my shoot-through umbrella and light stand! And yes, it did make me feel better haha!

Check out my new lighting set up in my "studio" aka my office and I think it woks perfectly as a studio. I have my computer right near by so I can quickly put my pictures up into Lightroom and see quickly if my shots came out right. Very easy!

So there's my lighting set up. As you can see I have a Yongnuo YN-560-II on a Manfrotto umbrella bracket mounted to a Promaster LS-1 umbrella stand which is actually a very good inexpensive sturdy light stand all while shooting through a Promaster umbrella! Very Simple and cheap!

And I am practicing on my very patient model. My bobble head Coach Geyer (my high school football coach). He helps me with my portrait shoot because he has all the facial characteristics of a person without having all the discomfort of me practicing for hours on end lol

Thanks Coach Geyer!!

What a gorgeous weekend!

You couldn't have asked for a great weekend to be outside! Friday was great once I was able to leave work! I finally was able to get my lighting setup that I am going to try to use for my portrait sessions, a single speedlite and a couple wireless triggers, now I just need to get a shoot-through umbrella so I can get to practicing! And then at the end of the night, I was able to spend some quality time with my wife and her family. On Saturday, I had to watch my godchildren (4 and 7 year old) and I was able to photograph the Heidelberg Homecoming game that turned out to be an annihilation against the Capital Crusaders (73-17), who in past has had a very high scoring offense, but not that day! Then, on Sunday, another gorgeous day to enjoy a whole day of NFL football. I even squeezed in helping a coworker with her tie rods! She came over and I helped her replace both the driver and passenger side tie rods in just an hour. I always like an excuse to pull out my Craftsman tools. If there's one thing you'll learn about me is that I am a big proponent of "Made In USA". I love Fall! :) Thanks for reading!

My new Facebook Page

Hello Everybody! I have created a Facebook Page for myself to host all of my photography! I will be posting photos as they come up at the end of my shoots. I will try to be as quick as possible to get all my images up fast! Let me know if you like any of them by liking the photo on my page! Don't forget, if you would like your portrait taken or if you would like me to go to a sporting event to take pictures I can do that as well. Never hurts to ask! All my contact info can be found on my Blog or just send me a Facebook message! Thanks for reading! -Mike

My First Post!

Hello Everybody!
This is my first blog and I think I'm going to give this whole blog thing a try. I recently got more seriously involved with photography and I'd like to take it to the next level. I've been photographing the Heidelberg University football games and I've been having a lot of fun with that! I love watching football and since my days of playing football are over, I like being back on the field watching the games instead of being up in the stands! I've come back with some really cool images and I like taking them into Lightroom and really having fun with them and turning the images that I took during the game and really making them my own! To go a long with that, I've also learned that one of my photos will be used as the front cover on their program for the game against Capital which will be this coming Saturday (October 12, 2013). I'm really excited to go to the game and check out the program. This will be my first photo that will actually be used by someone other than family. Very honoring. 
Now ow that I'm getting more involved with photography. I am also trying to explore other genres of photography such as portraits. I do like taking portraits and making people look good in front of the camera. I've done a couple people so far and I like it! I'm not so good at the posing part but I do like experimenting and trying to make it work on the fly. 
As as far as gear goes, I am shooting with a Canon 60D with a 50mm f/1.8 and a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 and I am able to do just about everything with those 2 lenses. I am working on purchasing my lighting set up. I am going to try to keep it simple and do a one speedlight set up. I am going with a Yonguou 560-II with Cactus V5 triggers and a shoot through umbrella. I think that will be the extent of my gear for a while until I get really good with those. 
Its interesting, I didn't think I would have much to say on my first post but I actually do have a lot to say. Like I said I have just recently gotten more heavily involved in photography and I have been reading a lot of blogs and watching loads of videos online trying to figure all this stuff out. From the very basics of the exposure triangle to posing and lighting techniques. Now all I need to do is practice. I am always looking for models and people for me to practice on. I have 2 great dogs who let me photograph them whenever I want to and they just sit there and let me take hours on end trying to figure out what I'm doing. 
Thanks for reading, if anyone is reading this... Haha