On the 7th February the Hertfordshire Hurricanes started the second half of their season by hosting the Southampton Stags.

This was a bit of a tester for me as it was the first time I’d used the brand new Canon 1D MkIV, a camera I’d had less than a week.

It certainly was a different experience being able to fire off 10 shots a second rather than 3.9. But it does take some getting used to. I’ll do a better report when I get some time.

The Hurricanes won the game 26-0 continuing their winning season.

Just popped into the garden to test out the 600mm with a Canon 1.4 converter.

I was really pleased to get the Black Cap which is a rare visitor to our garden. The Blackbird shot isn;t cropped at all, it was a shame it only perched nexty to the green wire feeder as it would have been better looking like it was in a more ‘natural’ setting.

Back in November we celebrated the first birthday of our beloved Border Collie, Tess.

Invites were sent out to her dog-walking pals & the party took place on the local common. She had five friends attend her party.

It absolutely poured down at the start. We arrived at the common & I realised I’d left the camera batteries on charge so had to go back home to get them. By the time we got back the rain had died down.

Doggy gifts were received & party cake & treats were eaten, a fun time was had by all.

An overdue update as I seem to be getting behind with my orders, so to speak.

This one was from Sunday 22nd November 2009, when I travelled down to Greenwich via a very wet M25 to shoot the Hurricanes’ third match of the season. Driving conditions were atrocious & I was fully expecting a completely rain-soaked game, but by the time kickoff came round the sun was out.

The Hurricanes took their first defeat of the season losing a hard-fought battle 20 to 19, how close can you get?

You can see from the selection of shots the differing lighting conditions; bright sunlight, overcast sky & into twilight. Of for the 2010 summer season with brightness & blue skies all game!

I went for the first walk of the new year with my family a few days ago. We popped up to Therfield Heath near Royston. It was the first visit for our one-year-old Border Collie, Tess.

The skies were blue but the weather was very cold.

All shots taken with the 24-105 F4 L.

I was quite pleased with the last shot which is a self-portrait. Holding a 5D MkII with a battery grip & 24-105mm attached in one hand & getting such a perfect composition was probably more luck than judgement.

New Year’s Eve saw a ‘blue moon’. The name has nothing to do with the colour of the moon but is the origin of the phrase ‘one in a blue moon’ to mean a rare event because the blue moon only occurs once every 2 to 3 years & is the 13th full moon in a twelve month period.

Usually there are 12 full moons a year, but as the calendar year includes an extra 11 days over & above the usual 28-day cycle for full moons, these accumulate & mean an extra blue moon every few years.

The following shots were taken around 2.30am on the First of January 2010 & were done on the 5D MkII with the 600mm prime, additionally I stuck on the 2x & the 1.4x converters for a total focal length of 1680mm. The shots were processed slightly differently but are only slightly cropped from the originals.

A few weeks ago I was asked to take some graduation shots for a family friend. Sarah recently graduated but the photographer at the ceremony wouldn’t do the various family shots she wanted, so she hired the gown for another week & brought it home.

The shots were taken at Sarah’s home. I took my white muslin background & lit the subject with two Elinchrom BRXi 500s. The shots were all done with the 24-105mm F4 L lens

The muslin background needs a lot of post processing to make the background white so I decided to invest in some white vinyl which should make the job much easier. It arrived on Christmas Eve from Glasgow. Lastolite make a version & charge around £200 for 2.5m by 6m. I managed to get mine from a company which makes fabric for curtain-sided HGVs & got it for about £49 for 2.5m by 7m (plus postage).

The second match in the season saw the Hertfordshire Hurricanes take on the University of East Anglia Pirates at the Hurricanes home ground in Hatfield.

The Hurricanes have an all weather pitch with floodlighting, which is just as well since the game started in harsh afternoon winter sun & ended under the lights with a very dark sky.

The extreme lighting variations makes it quite difficult for the photographer who has to manage high shutter speeds with increased ISO as the light disappears. Consequently the later shots are all at very high ISOs up to 6400, these shots have been run through noise reduction software. I prefer Imagenomic Noiseware which does a great job at reducing noise in the shots.

The Hurricanes managed to keep their early season advantage by shutting out the Pirates 24 – 0.

Posted under Photo Shoots

The British University American Football League (BUAFL) began in November, which sees competition between 56 university teams split into 8 divisions in 4 conferences.

The Hertfordshire Hurricanes started their campaign away at Essex University in Colchester on 8th November.

The season started well for the ‘Canes as they ran out 20-0 winners. All shots were taken on either the 5D MkII with 600mm f4 prime or the 20D with 70-200 f2.8 L zoom.

Both teams have a group of cheerleaders who put on a show at half time. Unfortunately, as I didn’t know what to expect or how little time their displays took, I wasn’t really set up with the best equipment, but managed to get a few reasonable shots. The one below is of the Essex Cheerleaders, the “Flames”

Posted under Photo Shoots

We managed to get away for a week in October for the half-term break & returned to our little self-catering flat in Overstrand. The flat is in a large detached house just a few minutes walk from the beach, so we spent much time there with Tess. The weather was fantastic with sun on several of the days we were there. We even managed t-shirts on the beach on our last day, not bad for October.

All the shots here are HDR or High Dynamic Range, which means they are a combination of several shots taken at different exposures & combined in software.

All shots were handheld & made up of three photos taken at a stop apart. They were combined in Photomatix & then saved out & completed in Photoshop.