Pre Post Photography

Of late I have been concentrating on the technical aspects of photography, but I know in the back of my mind that whatever is worthwhile doing involves creating spirit and soul. In other words, you must have the contents of a great shot before you can record the details of it. Obviously, this is a truism. But I posit this simply because some times the contents of a great shot is captured with details that are not technically good or aesthetically captivating.

Such was the case when I attended the Championship AFC game in Foxboro, MA on January 22, 2017. The weather conditions were terrible (wind driven mist in the mid-30s) but I persisted to capture the emotions of the moment.

The two shot here posted are the pre-game (notice the different ways players/coaches deal with this anticipation) and the post game emotions of relief and thankfulness of a successful victory.

Winter Shelter

Again the Spirits of Winter (whether they be called Jack Frost, Old Man Winter, Father Frost, Snow Queen, Calleach Bheur, Frau Holle, or Boreas) have visited this New England Homeland of mine, and considering the times we live in, with the uncertainty of the future cast upon us with the Election of our current President, I have sought relief.

A musical refrain from the Rolling Stones, namely “Give Me Shelter,” has combined with the mood of this Darkest of Winters, to caption this title to this Post.

Luckily, one of the Guardians of my Psyche has provided some Salvation in the form of focusing on Relief. That Relief has taken the form of the New England Patriots whom I have found is a most unusual entity. The team/organization embodies many values which may be considered old-fashion (like work hard, unselfishness, loyalty, community-mindedness) but yet has allowed a team to be formed by a Zen-like coach (Belichick) to produce successful seasons that no other team can match. So, such a positive entity shines out in the gloom of this most dire of seasons. This is a blessings cast upon me which I cannot resist.

How does all of this relate to photography? Very simply. I attended the AFC Conference Championship Game in Foxboro, MA between the Patriots and the Steelers a few days ago. The game was at night in weather conditions which were challenging, to say the least (38°, 20 mph NE wind, drizzle). On top of that, I was located on the third most tier of the stadium. Fortunately, I was favorably angled at the 30-35 yard line.

I contemplated bringing my pro camera (Canon 5DS) but thought it might be rejected by stadium security. So, I relied on my Canon G3X, which, all things considered, proved adequate to the location and conditions.

While the speed of taking shots did not compare to the Canon 5DS, the G3X did respond well. The telephoto range (600mm) was reason enough (and in a compact profile easily carried in the craziness of a game crowd) to have it. But the G3X did provide enough responsiveness, sharpness, and ease of use to make it an essential tool in what may be called a “combat situation.”

The currently posted photo was taken in a series of separate shots with the Canon G3X, f/8 @ 394mm (35mm equivalent), 1/200″,  ISO 1600. Post processing was done with Color Efex Pro 4, Camera Raw, Photoshop CC (Photomerge).

 

Ignore the Noise

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This photo is of Patriot’s Training Camp at the beginning of August, 2015. It was taken with my new Canon Eos 5 Ds. I had set the Exposure Compensation to -1 to allow for the bright sun usually present during camp in the middle of summer. This was a mistake since I had a polarizer filter on and for some reason this made all of my shots under-exposed more than I would have liked. Nonetheless, I corrected for this error in Photoshop Camera Raw processing.

I had not had much opportunity for using my new 5 Ds since it was an extremely hot and humid summer, and there was not much opportunity to get to shoot in optimal conditions, or even conditions where shooting out doors would yield some success. I was in New Hampshire in mid August and would have liked to have taken some night photos of the galaxy, but unfortunately it was overcast.

The last several months living in New England was surreal, due to the so-called Deflategate imposed on the New England Patriots and Roger Goodell and the NFL. True to form and as everyone with an ounce of intelligence had know this whole affair against the Patriots and specifically Tom Brady was a witch hunt; and as expected was proven to be so after being brought before the Federal Judge on appeal.

So, this photo is an apt description of how not only to deal with real life but also the game of football. That is, Bill Belichick is fond of using the phrase of “Ignore the noise” to have his team focus on the true elements of the game and not superfluous creations (viz. Goodell and the NFL). I tried to describe this phenomenon photographically by showing how the football mind might see the game action unfold amid the chaos of the practice field. This was accomplished with Perfect Photo Suite 9, using their Black & White module (cyanotype, specifically) for the “background” and leaving the foreground subjects RGB.

Managing Chaos

IMG_6975(PPS)It’s that time of year that my thoughts turn to football. That’s not to say I do not follow it during the rest of the year, but I try to put it into perspective and try not to have it dominate all aspects of life as the NFL may seem to want at times.

This photo was taken in the middle of summer during Patriots training camp. Apart from the fact that I am amazed how anything as complex as professional football is and how completely chaotic it appears to a casual observer in the stands and then how the team comes together when one of the coaches blows the whistle, I enjoy the training camp venue simply because I can get probably as close to the team now than at any other time of year.  And we all know that for a photographer this proximity is important.

Even though I am close to the practice field during training camp I use my Canon 70-200mm L lens. There is a lot of motion but the summer daylight allows for a faster shutter speed at various aperture settings. Often I wish my angle could be different, but due to the restrictions placed on the fans in the seating area, I have to make do with straight on shots. One way I try to compensate is by depth of field manipulation or special effects in Photoshop. In this shot I again used Perfect Photo Suite 8 to bring out the fact that despite apparent chaos, there are controlling forces (Bill Belichick) and quarterback (Tom Brady) that bring order to everything.