Haven’t shown one of these in a while. Here’s they the thing: Play it in high def and blow it up to full screen, then but a bigger monitor and enjoy it again and again. I love any clip with the Washington Monument in it, but the one at the minute mark is awesome:
This was a tough act to photograph, taking place in very low light, with a black and silver costume in mostly blue lighting. He rarely faced my direction, so I have lots of shots from behind, which aren’t very exciting. And the balls are moving so fast that it’s tough to freeze them in such low light.
In the end, the closest I could come to a clear picture needed to be in black and white to show as much detail as possible. Even at that, I have this picture taken at the widest open aperture I could use, at the widest focal length of my Tamron 28-75mm lens, and as far as I feel comfortable pushing the ISO, at 4000. That got me to 1/320th of a second, which was enough to freeze the balls in mid-air.
Here’s how it came out:
28mm, f/2.8, ISO 4000, 1/320th second
I’m so happy with how well these pictures came out. There was something about the lighting that’s just perfect — dark blacks, bright blues and purples, good spotlighting, and the right manual settings on the camera. Pardon me while I pat myself on the back.
I like the puff of dust from the rosin on their hands visible here as they join up...
At the end of the concert, Rick Springfield took a drink. I knew what was coming next. He was SO going to spit that water out. I just didn’t know in which direction, or how far it would go, or exactly when he’d choose to do it. And that’s why the picture I took at that moment was ultimately unsatisfying, though I like the thought of it.
In other words, it’s a perfect Near Miss.
85mm, f/2.5, ISO 2500, 1/160th second
Haviland opened for Rick Springfield last month at the Bergen Performing Arts Center. I didn’t walk away with too many great pictures from that set, but I thought this one turned out nice. It’s been added to my portfolio, which I updated tonight, as well. Check that out if you have a spare minute.
300MM, F/5.6, ISO 2500, 1/160th second
Last week, we had a bit of a freak snowstorm here in the northeast U.S. on the weekend before Halloween. The craziest stuff I saw I didn’t get to photograph (downed trees and power lines across empty roads), but here’s how it looked as the sun came up the morning after.
28mm, f/13, ISO 800, 1/250th second and a lot of Lightroom to make it look right
This from early in the shoot. I wish I had cranked the ISO up to 3500 or 4000 so I could have gotten the shutter speed to 1/250th or so. There was a lot of blur in a lot of the shots from the quick moves of the acrobats. In some cases, that worked, but it still annoyed me.
28mm, f/4.0, ISO 2500, 1/125
Grandma is retiring after this season. After many long years in the circus, it’s time for Grandma to hang up the clown shoes. So I made sure to get a few decent shots of her. Er, ‘him,’ really. . .
The last shot is one of my favorites of the day, period.
35mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 1/320th second
75mm, f/2.8, ISO3200, 1/500th second
28mm, f/2.8, ISO 2500, 1/400th second
28mm, f/3.2, ISO 4000, 1/320th second
The Big Apple Circus is in town at Lincoln Center in (of course) New York City. Went there with the family this weekend, and got a lot of amazing pictures. Here’s a quick one to get you started:
44mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 1/320th second
