Yet more soccer

I hit more of the Gazette Cup soccer tournament on Saturday. I'm still shaking off the rust, but starting to get my groove back for shooting sports. Soccer is a great sports event for working out the kinks. Its got a lot of action, but it's not too hard to shoot. I also tried shooting some video with my new, little Canon camcorder. The video quality was OK, but the shakiness of the camera is hard to overcome even with stabilization. This kind of video is best done with a pro camera that is shoulder mounted and has an eyepiece. Shooting video essentially from the hip by using the camera's fold out monitor is just not very easy.

Moonscape from my front porch

Here's a bit of fun from my front porch in south Gastonia. This is a moonscape about two days after a full moon. I've been eyeballing the light from a street lamp that pushes through my trees. It makes some great shadows on the lawn. But the picture has needed some extra kick.

I was on the phone talking outside late Wednesday night and noticed the full moon intermingling with the clouds and thought this might be a good time to knock off a few frames.

I noticed on the initial exposures how the moon was a little hot when I exposed for the lawn shadows. Instead of shooting a set of images for a high dynamic range composite, I decided to go old school. During the 15-second exposure, I used my hand to dodge out the corner of the frame where the moon was illuminating the sky. This effectively cut that part of the exposure to about 8 or 10 seconds, giving me a fairly well exposed single frame.

Soccer in Gastonia

After a brief hiatus, I'm back shooting. I visited a soccer match between Forest View and Highland Technical on Wednesday to work out the kinks and check out my new Nikkor 300 f/2.8.

The lens performed flawlessly but I feel the need to add the Nikon battery grip to my D700 to increase my motor drive speed.

I had a ball shooting for the brief time I was there. The light in Poston Park is beautiful and it's accentuated by a gorgeous landscape that provides a great, clean background for sports action.

I didn't shoot any prize winners for sure. I'm still rusty and I've got to shake off some cobwebs, but I'm excited to be out and shooting again.

Visit to New Bern

Visiting a new city is always exciting. And getting a chance to stroll a historic downtown like New Bern, NC is a thrill, especially in that magic hour when the sun is low in the sky and creating all kinds of wonderful visual effects.

There's a wonderful old church in the heart of downtown New Bern (First Episcopal Church). Old head stones poke out randomly in the lawn surrounding the church. I was toting my 7- and 2-year-old so the opportunity to really create images was brief for me.

But I did have a moment to watch the sun move in and out of the clouds just long enough to see some light sifting through the trees. I shot two frames--one with very flat, even light and this one with the rays of light tickling the shadows. The flat-light image was too blue and dull. The sprinkling of sunlight added just a touch of warmth and depth to the scene.

Shot at ISO 200 with my 17 - 35 f/2.8 Nikkor at f/4 @ 1/160.

First in line

This is the inaugural blog on "carlosblog". We just relocated to Gastonia in time to escape the blazing hot Arizona summer. And don't believe this nonsense of "...but it's a dry heat." Arizona has a fair amount of humidity and when the temps reach 115 with just a tad of humidity, believe me...it STINGS outside.

This blog is primarily concerned with promoting good photography practices in addition to Photoshop tips and tricks. I'll be offering photo tips beyond your basic "keep sun behind you" and "use force flash outdoors".

Hopefully some of my friends will chime in and correct me and/or offer their own perspective or just tell me I'm full of it.

Along the way I'll post my musings about things related to media and pop culture just to keep it interesting. Look for photos and even the occasional video clip as well.

Thanks for visiting.