Another fine round of racing this past Sunday.  It started out pretty rainy and wet, and the dirt  mud section looked pretty interesting but it all dried out pretty much around noon.  Don’t be fooled though, the guys were racing in the wet stuff, because they sure ain’t made of suger!  Enjoy the pics!

Baby girl couldn’t stop playing with momma’s earrings and this is one of the few shots I got.

After a while we decided to get some shots of the baby.

First shots we did were by this kinda quiet area of the park. There was tons of people around so I kept getting shots of random people in the background. Thank god for digital photography and you can shoot to your hearts content… or till your memory cards fill up.

Really wish the water was cleaner. I don’t remember it being this dirty. I guess because it’s near the fall season, and stuff is falling into the water. That or the groundskeepers are slacking off.

Next we moved over to this tree that has some nice bushes near it. I was kinda worried about security but I see people doing this all the times, and as always, I was careful not to harm the environment. I was using the sun for a hairlight/rim light and trying to get my whittle 430ex speedlight to overpower the flash but I didn’t push it too far. It produced a little hazy picture that I thought was kinda nice. Plus I was trying to go for some sunflare but it wasn’t happening.

Had her sit down on the ground a bit to use the two bushes to sorta frame her in a shot. It was hard to not get that bush to cast a shadow on her face, so I did my best to minumize it. Couldn’t raise the flash up too high because of an overhanging tree.

Probbaly the coolest spot here is the two waterfalls. First I started out at the smaller one. It was a hard shot to do and pull off because I had to slow down the shutter speed to about 1/6 second. So with the combonation of my camera shake, and Caitlin shivering from the cold water behind her, it was hard to get a shot where everything was sharp, minus the water of course. The whole purpose of using a slow shutter speed is to get the water to look smooth and flowing.

Best shot(of the waterfall) for last!

This shot I was super rushed. About this time(the perfect time of day in the evening for pics) a bunch of photographers started to show up. I’m assuming they were better than me and working on better stuff, since they showed up right as the perfect time of day happened, so I hurried. Behind me was one photographer that looked like he wanted my spot. Down the hill from us was another photographer and I was afraid I was in his way. I took a few shots, making minor adjustments to my camera and her, and got out.

For the following shots, I had her laying down in the grass, looking like she was just chilling. I had my huge 40″ish umbrella with a 430ex speed light about a foot or two above her head. I’m pretty sure if she looked up, that’s all she would see is the umbrella.

Flower!

I guess the flower farted.

After wrapping up the shooting, we decided to do a little family portrait. This is Cailin and her family! I really like how the picture came out. I did a no-no and shot into the sun but used mom’s head to block it. It still was strong enough to give a little golden liner around everybody. Then I used my 430ex and huge umbrella to light the family up for an awesome shot!

Happy family! Had a blast shooting Caitlin, and the little family pic at the end made it extra nice.

Did a quick little shoot with my sister so she would have some senior pictures. She barrel races and her next door neighbor happened to have some real nice country stuff to use for scenery so we worked with it.

Time for family pictures! We sorta combined the family pics and “2 month” pictures of the baby into one shoot which worked out nice. The location is a garden that they actually got married in, and it was recently their 1 year anniversary so that made it even more special. I hope I can do more shoots at the location, because it seems everywhere you turn there is something to use for a couple quick shots.

The majority of the shots are a simple one light setup using a huge shoot thru umbrella. I think it worked out real nice. It’s actually the first time I got to use the umbrella and it throws some pretty nice light.

This was a shot as I was getting my settings dialed in, and wish it was more in focus. Would have been a nice “goofy” shot.

I always like the behind the scenes shots, and since this is a blog and not a portfolio per say, i decided to post this one.

Also at the open house was the mobile dyno. You could bring your bike out and get a few pulls in to see what kind of numbers your bike made, and see about getting a custom tune.

The “spot”

I probably shouldn’t have sat where he comes in and out of the area.

I figured I’d try a few wider than normal shots. Most of my stunt shots are tight crops of him but it’s kinda nice to show the crowd a little bit.

Went out to take some more pics of Eric at the spot in Midwest City. It looked like it was going to rain us out but I managed to get a couple good shots.

Notice the front and back wheel are off the ground. Basically Eric does an endo and spins the back end around 180degree and as the wheel comes down, I’m not sure what he does, but some how he pops up the front wheel. I think it’s due to the momentum, but hey I’m a photographer, not a stunt bike rider.

Another stunter I haven’t saw out there showed up.

Eric calls this trick “licking the pavement”

Eric showing the incorrect way to ride a motorcycle

Eric made a post on Facebook that he was out practicing and the spot he was at was right down the street from me. It was a nice day out and I havn’t shot some action stuff(my favorite) in a while, so I had no reason not to go. Hopped on my motorcycle so I could fit in, threw on my backpack with camera gear, and headed out to the spot

After getting some warmup shots, and realize I was shooting into the sun and getting a nasty shadow, I moved to the other side of the parking lot to get some good pics. I used AV mode and shot at f/5.6 to make sure all of the bike was in focus.

Eric’s friend Kyle showed up to do some stunting too.

My bike got in the way :\

For some reason I like to get crowd reactions in some action shots.

Decided to get wild and drop the aperature down to f/4. They say that is the sharpest most wide open aperature to use for the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L

Decided to go all out and drop aperature to f/2.8 and the next few shots will assure me that it was a good idea

Eric doing his can crushing stunt. I didn’t get the gore of the can being crushed, or there was nothing in it, so this is the pic I chose to post. Normally there is a flurry of liquid content coming out when he crushes it. He normally does it to a Monster can(he’s sponsored by them) too during public stunt shows.

Too bad I don’t have any wider lens than my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. And good thing my dept perception is thrown off while looking through the camera or I might have flinched when he did a wheelie around me.

I don’t think that’s the right way to ride a motorcycle, but what do I know.

Laterrrrrrrrr!

asdf

This was the first shot I took. It took me like 3 shots to get the lens flare, but I think it’s a bit harsh for my taste.

The 2nd waterfall you’ll find along the river(if you start over where the horse and wagons are. That 30sec exposure smooths out the water quite nicely! Later on I see another photographer taking pics of a couple sitting next to the waterfall. I’ll keep that in mind.