Super Heroes, Monsters and Gangsters

Another fun day out at the Danville Bed & Breakfast in Geneva shooting all types of costumed characters. Thanks to Barry Kirsch for setting up another fun event shooting everyone from Batman and Superman to Mr. & Mrs. Frankenstein. It started out as a hot summer afternoon but became ideal as the sun dipped down. The occaisonal cloud cover helped with the contrast. Many of the shots will be ideal for some composites when time permits. I used flash with a Gary Fong diffuser to fill in some light. I'm still a novice at using the flash but learning more each time I have the opportunity to use it.

 

Summertime at the Ball Park

The Florida Collegiate Summer Baseball League is in full swing. Last year I only heard about it at the end of the season. It has been challenging to get the games in with the abundance of rain we are having.  Two of the games I attended were completely rained out. One had a long rain delay before it resumed. Weather aside, this is my chance to work on shooting sports. Even more challenging this year is also getting familiar with a new camera. I learned a new technique from Scott Kelby's "Sports Shooting for Beginners" class on his Kelby Training site. The technique is to use the back button to focus on the action. I have to tell you, the first time using it was great. I could pre focus on first base and just wait for some action and shoot whenever I needed to. What makes this work even better for baseball is that there is a netting in front of the seats. The lens sometimes picks up the net in the foreground instead of focusing past it to the field. The Orlando Monarchs play at the vintage Tinker Field stadium. It is much larger and there are seats on both sides without the netting. The only problem here is that there games start at 4 PM. Except on the weekends, I am still at work! I have another month and a half to work on shooting baseball, and I hope to improve each time out.