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Photo technique

Warm up at soccer matches aren’t the most interesting of things to photograph. Here’s a go at doing something creative. Some slow shutter speed zoom and pan blurs:

We are firmly in the Twitter and Facebook era. Live blogging and tweeting has been with us for 2-3 years and it’s now an expected method for broadcasting a live event if it’s not shown live on TV. The challenge for photographers is how to provide images to live tweeters and bloggers in a timely […]

You can’t always shoot with a tilt-shift lens but you can now create the effect pretty convincingly with Photoshop CS6. Here are a few photos from last year with the effect applied:

UPDATE: Finally got this working – it was down to a setting in CrushFTP that was banning the static IP. I have no idea why the IP was banned but removing this config setting cleared everything up. UPDATE2: I’ve also ditched CrushFTP and am using the built in Mac OSX SFTP server. Full details on […]

Spent the day at a Joe McNally Capture the Light workshop on his Australian tour. Joe is a great presenter, running through lots of Nikon camera settings, speed lights and modifiers. I thought 20 people was a bit too many for Joe to spend any real time with. But enjoyable day nevertheless. Here are a […]

Here’s a TV screen grab of where my photos on Day 5 were taken from. It’s a stairwell that was blocked off and not used for the event. That’s yours truly highlighted below. There was another photographer and I in there for the evening session:

Here’s a behind the scenes look at the location of where turn 1 photos are taken. There’s a scaffold that’s about 2 stories high at the end of the main straight, after the sand trap. On race day, it gets filled with photographers who start arriving about an hour before the race starts to stake […]

After yesterday’s rain, qualification was in bright late afternoon sunshine. I’ve also worked out that the Nikon D4’s autofocus needs a shutter speed of at least 1/1000th to work best in AF-C or tracking autofocus mode. It struggles (with me anyway) at 1/500th, but bumping it up works a treat. Here are the photos of […]

It was a wet/dry day of F1 practise in both sessions. Here are my favourite shots. The panning shots are shot with a Nikon D3x with a 28-300mm lens and the other shots are with a Nikon D4 and a 400mm. First impressions of the Nikon D4 for sports is that the Auto Focus behaves […]

Had a chance to shoot this morning from the top of the Rialto tower. These were shot through a window with the 28-300mm lens at ISO between 6400 and 1600 with some Lightroom post processing. More photos here. and a car shot for good measure:

Just wrote about what exposure mode(s) I use for shooting sports over at Big Lens Fast Shutter. Have a read and let me know what you think! It’s how I get images like these:

Learn how and why you should use the AF-ON button to focus. Read my post on Big Lens Fast Shutter here: http://biglensfastshutter.com/2011/06/05/syd-use-a-different-button-to-focus/

I had a wonderful 5 days in NYC at the Jay Maisel Workshop. It’s hard to explain Jay’s magic but suffice to say that he is referred to by many of his contemporaries as “God”. Jay is a wonderful teacher and his philosophy is simple. The great photos have “Light, Colour and Gesture” and this […]

Followers of F1 will see many shots of the cars from the angle on the right of the image below. The left side of the image shows where the photographer is located for these shots. To get there you climb up a narrow ladder usually with a big heavy piece of glass like a 400mm […]

Accredited media had access to a car park opposite the media centre. But getting there is a journey in itself! Even if you live in the same city, it’s amazing what they’ve done to the place as the saying goes. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MuWmA-lCs]

For over a year now I’ve been wondering what shooting sport would be like with the D3x and the 24 megapixels it offers – twice the number of pixels of the D3 and the D3s. There are just times when you need more reach from a 400mm. If I had more pixels, then I don’t […]

For sports photographers, after you’ve mastered getting a sharp image, the next challenge is composing your shot. After deciding what you want your subject to be doing you’ll need to get yourself into a position where you can get the shot with a clean background. Picture editors and publications don’t want cluttered backgrounds so you’ll […]

Rob from NPS told me this tip. If you connect your camera to the Nikon Transfer (Windows and Mac) software there’s a simple 1-click way to sync the clock on your camera bodies. If you’re shooting with multiple bodies you’ll know how important this is for post processing! Here’s a screenshot of the magic button. […]

Time to do some more funky shots. Rod Laver Arena is bathed in bright sunlight until 4pm. The playing area is lit but the walls are in shade. There’s about a 3 stop difference so if you underexpose by 1-stop when the player is in line with the background in shade you get beautiful images. […]

Day 3 had bright, harsh, Aussie sun. Discovered how beautiful the harsh light at Rod Laver Arena can be. More images here.

While shooting on court you get the emotion and atmosphere, to get a tennis shot with a clean background this is where you have to be located to get a shot like this. That’s a Getty Images and a daily newspaper photographer waiting for the right moment. They are there for the whole match.

Inspired by AP photographer Morry Gash’s photo of the NBA match Heat vs Bucks shot with a remote camera I got the Pocketwizards out today. Most remotes are set behind the goal with a fish-eye lens or an ultrawide. But I decided to try something a bit different. Lens used was a 70-200mm at 190mm. […]

I wrote about this issue 3 years ago on Flickr when I first changed over from Canon to Nikon. The problem hit me on Monday when I was shooting the A-League Round 20 match and I was tracking Robbie Kruse with my D3 and the 70-200mm. Robbie weaved around for quite awhile and my D3 […]

Mesmerizing Photo of James and Wade and how it was taken.