Rock The Shores

The largest concert in Greater Victoria history was headlined by the Tragically Hip, a legendary Kingston, Ontario rock group.

The crowd passes time as the Rock the Shores concert is stopped due to thunder storms

Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie.

Sam Roberts band.

Sam Roberts

Roller Derby~ Eves Of Destruction

Nothing like a little roller derby action on a Saturday night. Shot these with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV and a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM Lens. Played around with Alien Skin Exposure 4 for light leaks, scratches and LOMO effects.

Doomsday Bunnies Ivonna Masterskate goes flying after trying to get around Belles Brawl Rage

Doomsday Bunnies Ivonna Masterskate (second from right) tries to get around Belles Brawl defenders

Belles Brawl Rage falls trying to get around Doomsday Bunnies Simba Storm

6 Ways To Improve Your Sports Photography

Sports photography. If you can master it, you’ll improve every aspect of your shooting. Much of your success will depend on what you do before you release the trigger.

1~ Pay attention to the background

More than anything else, this will take your action pictures to the next level. I can tell if a photographer knows what they’re doing just by looking at where they position themselves to shoot. Any busyness in the background will camouflage the action.

2~ Use fast telephoto lenses wide open

Shooting wide open helps to clean up the background and isolates your subject with shallow depth of field. Sports photographers generally do not use a lens slower than f 2.8.

3~ Keep alert

Expect the unexpected. You never know what’s going to happen at a sporting event. Avoid chimping! (editing your photos in camera)

4~ Practice

Great shots don’t happen all the time. When they do, you not only have to be there to capture it, your camera skill has to be impeccable so you don’t miss it. It takes thousands of hours to build a portfolio.

5~ Try a wide angle

Any chance you get. Most sports pictures are telephoto. They all begin to look the same. Ask any picture editor. Stay low to the ground to clean up the background.

6~ Look for something different.

Quirky is what you want. Strange things happen when you freeze action. When shooting and editing, look for unique images that still show both teams and include the puck or ball.

Susan Jacks

I photographed Susan Jacks of The Poppy Family for the paper this morning.  The Poppy Family, with Susan as lead vocalist, had a number of hits like “Which Way You Go’in Billy?” ,”That’s Where I Went Wrong” and “Where Evil Grows”  from 1968 through the early 1970s. Susan is in Victoria  to perform a benefit concert for the Kidney Foundation of Canada to raise awareness of the need for organ donation. She received a kidney transplant when her brother Billy donated a kidney to her. Yes, it’s Billy from the song.  I took this photo with the iPhone 4s, Hipstamitic app, using the Lucifer VI lens and Alfred Infrared film.

David Lennam

I decided to branch out a bit from straight fashion and use what I have learned in the studio with portraiture. I take hundreds of portraits for the newspaper  every year, but mostly environmental portraits without the studio setup. I made a lighting set up when I had a few people over the other night for a party. I instructed the subjects to give me  a “badass or crazy” look. My friend David Lennam, a Canadian writer,  was one of the guests who posed. This is Dave’s “badass” look. It was great and weird that Dave showed up to the party in his blue bathrobe for the “Blue Theme” party. So I guess Dave kind of covered “badass and crazy” all in one look. I set up a quick backdrop with paper and used a White Lighting X1600 shot through a  beauty dish directly in front and above the sunbject. You can see the lighting diagram below. I used the Alien Skin Exposure  CS5 plug-in Polapan film emulation to add some grain and the blue/pink tones.  Camera was the Canon 5D Mark 2 with a Canon  EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L  lens.