Picture of the Week 25 – Turkey Stampede

Posted on June 30, 2012 by wolfgangbluhmphotography

Canon EOS 60D ,Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
1/800s f/11.0 at 55.0mm iso400

More fair fun. How much sillier can you get than the pig races? A lot, I think. Try the turkey stampede!

This hilarious husband and wife show features several races in which turkeys chase after a remote control truck (driven by the husband, of course!) with turkey food on the truck bed.

Of course, in shots like this, a lot is left to chance. So, what can you do to improve your chances of a good image? Anticipate where the action will look interesting and find yourself a good spot to capture it there. Here the truck is close to turning a corner, which adds visual interest as it’s leaning and the wheels are throwing up mulch. Otherwise, just like I said at the pig races, use high speed burst mode and take a lot of photos, but do know the limit of your buffer, so that the camera doesn’t slow down just as it gets interesting.

I like the composition. The four elements (truck and three turkeys) are pretty evenly distributed across the frame. One minor complaint would be that one foot of the blue colored turkey is covered. (By the way, they use food coloring.) Overexposing in camera (by 2/3 of a stop, I think), and a little post processing helped overcome the backlighting and brought out detail in the shadows.

Posted in Event Photography, Picture of the Week | Leave a comment

Picture of the Week 24 – Wedding Candid

Posted on June 17, 2012 by wolfgangbluhmphotography

Canon EOS 60D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
1/1600s f/8.0 at 200.0mm iso400

On our walks along the ocean in La Jolla we usually walk past a spot that almost always has an outdoor wedding going on. I often can’t resist snapping a few candids myself. It goes without saying that I always do this from a respectful distance, and never, ever interfere.

This shot really has a lot going for it. First of all, the color of the bridesmaids’ dresses is really striking, and works well against the green grass. More importantly, however, there is a lot of interesting action happening: the bride and groom posing for a portrait from one of the bridesmaids, the couple to the left watching them, and another bridesmaid turning around and saying, or reacting to, something.

The main technical challenge of this photo is the strong contrast due to the direct sunlight, the black tuxedos and the white dress. Had I been the hired photographer, I would have used a fill in flash. However, since I always shoot raw, I can compensate a lot in post processing to help rein in highlights, and to make sure the shadows are not too dark (e.g. the face of the bridesmaid to the left).

I like this shot quite a bit. It tells a story, everyone’s pose is graceful, and with the strong colors and a bit of motion being suggested, it’s visually very interesting.

Posted in Event Photography, Picture of the Week | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Picture of the Week 23 – Pig Races

Posted on June 14, 2012 by wolfgangbluhmphotography

Canon EOS 60D ,Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
1/2000s f/5.6 at 55.0mm iso200

Pig Races

It’s time for the annual San Diego County Fair. We went for the first time last Saturday, and intend to go at least a couple more times.

One of the rather silly, but fun, things we enjoy is the pig races. After barely getting a seat last year, we went to the arena a half hour early. We simply enjoyed a bag of kettle corn while we were waiting for the race. That fact would hardly be worth sharing, but it does contain the first lesson about this photo: location, location, location.

We got there early enough that we had a full choice of seats. So, we picked the best seat in the house for looking down the long stretch of the race, which gave me the best vantage point to get a good shot of the pigs.

What’s the other lesson? When the action happens really fast, and you only have a few chances to get a good shot, don’t be afraid to use the high speed burst mode of your camera. For each of three races, I got roughly a half dozen shots over the course of about one second, and this was perhaps the only shot where I could see all four pigs’ faces.

Posted in Picture of the Week | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Picture of the Week 22 – Crochet Pattern

Posted on June 8, 2012 by wolfgangbluhmphotography

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
with Canon 500D close-up filter
1/15s f/5.6 at 155.0mm iso1600

This is a close up photo of a crocheted table cover in our living room. We were watching a movie, when my eye wandered and I suddenly saw this composition.

Macro photography is a good way to add some variety into ones pictures. What equipment does one need? Many compact cameras allow you to focus very closely, giving them good macro capabilities. On an SLR, a dedicated macro lens would be the best solution. Less expensive options are extension tubes or close up lenses, such as the Canon 500D I used for this photo. Close up lenses screw into the filters threads of a regular lens, allowing it to focus more closely.

Posted in Photographic Equipment, Picture of the Week | 1 Comment

Venus Transit

Posted on June 5, 2012 by wolfgangbluhmphotography

The Venus transit, projected through one half of a binocular. I had all but 10 minutes to improvise this, so considering that, I’ll say this turned out well. The biggest dark spot is Venus crossing the sun, the fainter ones are sun spots.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted in Event Photography | Tagged , , | 1 Comment