There’s a story here. My friend Geoff has absolutely fantastic best-you-can-get seats for the Seattle Mariner’s game. He invited me to a game last night and it took me a whole 11 seconds to reply — of course! It was an awesome game, a little slow up front, but the end was exciting and the M’s pulled out for a win. I rarely shoot sports, so it was quite the experience. Also, I’ve moving to the DC/Baltimore area, and I almost had a bit of trouble figuring out who to cheer for (not really). =]

More on my Flickr.

Marcus Eaton Trio at Nectar 10 Apr 08. Jim on bass, Kevin on drums. Awesome show, over in Fremont. It was an eclectic line up with Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears, followed by Marcus, then Kris Orlowski closing out the night.

A few words about low-light

Shooting musicians in clubs presents some of the most challenging conditions for capturing images. Photography is about capturing light, and in these settings there is no (well, very little) light! Your options: slow your shutter speed (more time lets in more light), open the aperture (let light in through a bigger hole), boost the signal (raise your ISO). Each of these three options comes with its own individual caveats. Slowing your shutter speed too much will result in motion blur, either from you moving while hand-holding the camera, or more likely from the musicians fast hands. The quick rule of 1 / focal length (i.e. 1/50 sec or faster for a focal length of 50-mm) helps, but I’d recommend faster if possible to stop motion: say 1/125 sec.

Available apertures will depend on your lens; faster than F/2.8 is helpful for low light. Prime lenses are much better suited (and they’re available down to F/1.2 [F/1.0 to be technically correct and included lenses no longer in production for Canon EOS]). A good bang-for-the-buck lens that would go a long ways in this environment is the EF 50 MM F/1.8 II… better still is the F/1.4 version.

ISO is the equivalent of ASA, or film speed. In digital photography it is a way to boost your sensor’s sensitivity (more signal = appearance or more captured light). The downside to raising the ISO is that gaining any signal simultaneously results in higher background (i.e. noise). Digital cameras these days are getting better, especially DSLRs. Most CMOS based sensors have very little problems getting up to ISO 1000 and even to 1600, some go 3200 and higher. Be carful, you’ll definitely run into a noise wall at those upper limits where you are introducing more background than true signal and you will lose detail.

The above photos were shot in Manual mode at 1/60-1/80, F/2.8-F/3.2, and ISO 3200. In the end, do what works for you. =] Continue Reading »

A family wedding! Chris is my mother’s-brother’s-son, my cousin. =] This past weekend I was down in Ashland, OR for Chris & Jennifer’s wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful setting, at a place called Buckhorn Springs. I can’t imagine a more perfect day, or a more perfect wedding. Gotta love family; it was the best weekend I have had in recent memory. More photos on my Flickr!

What a fun day and beautiful couple!! Richelle and I grew up together in SE Idaho, and old friends were in town. It started with an early morning for coffee & breakfast followed by setup for the reception, the church, Richelle’s hair appointment, the Groom & Groomsmen, the ceremony, photos!, and the reception until late in the evening. Awesome day, with my best wishes to Seth & Richelle. Wedding was 8 September 2007 in Seattle. More photos on my Flickr.

As mentioned, I spent Labor Day weekend down at the Gorge photographing Marcus Eaton. He played the side stage at the Dave Matthews concert Fri-Sun, three hours each day. It was a crazy-cool weekend, with beautiful weather and lots of sites. Marcus & Jim put on a great show… oh, and so did Dave Matthews. A few photos from the weekend, more on my Flickr & Marcus’ MySpace.