Cochrane Alberta Labour Day Weekend Rodeo

I spent two hours hanging out at the Cochrane Rodeo on Saturday. The great thing about small town rodeos is you can get really close to the action and try different angles because you have the freedom to go almost anywhere you want. So I took my EOS-1ds Mark III and my Canon 300mm F4L lens and tried my hand at rodeo photography. Well, it is much harder than it looks! The most difficult aspect is getting clean shots without tons of clutter in the background — I hate busy and distracting backgrounds so you can imagine my frustration with all the fences, banners, vehicles and buildings competing for attention with the main subject (the rodeo riders). My hats off to the pro rodeo photographers for making this gig look easy and for getting great shots without clutter. Anyway here are my favorite 12 shots from the afternoon — like anything to get better requires practice. So next summer I will try to get to more than one rodeo and click away to refine my rodeo shooting.  From a photo gear point of view I am finally happy with the auto-focus on my Mark III. It only took numerous firmware upgrades and many focus micro adjustments using Lens Align to finally get the expensive machine to actually work. Hey, don’t get me started about Canon’s numerous auto-focusing problems with a significant number of their camera releases! On a happier note check out Wayne Simpson’s shots from the same afternoon — what a fun way to hang out with a fellow photographer — and we did not even end up in the beer garden!

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

©Darwin Wiggett

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Travel Photo Contest – Peter Bonev

Peter Bonev

©Peter Bonev

This photo was taken in late December 2008 in Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida. We were visiting Florida and decided to see the ice skating show being held at the park. Even though I was not expecting a truly spectacular show, it proved to be one of the best shows that we have seen, in spite of the very small ice surface and location. During the show, the couple shown in the photo had just completed their phenomenal dance and as they skated to a stop right in front of us and did the dip, I took the photo with my Canon G9. Given the low light in the venue, I was extremely pleased to have captured such an image, it truly is a testament to the capability of the G9.

The Daily Snap – July 28

©Darwin Wiggett - Canon G11

A simple snap of the netting hanging over a batting cage at a baseball diamond. Who says there are no shots to be had at mid-day in harsh light?

Travel Photo Contest – Tom Stephens

Tom Stephens

©Tom Stephens

This is my impression of kids at play on a late summer evening in Riverside Park, New York City. The young soccer players were totally absorbed in their game — and apparently oblivious to the gorgeous light! The sun setting across the Hudson River and the high vantage point above the playground made an irresistible combination. The solidly planted coach in the foreground contrasts with the players, who seem almost airborne thanks to the long shadows.

Technical stuff: Pentax *ist DS, f6.3, 1/200 sec, ISO 200.

Travel Photo Contest – Jeff Lewis

Jeff Lewis

©Jeff Lewis

This image was taken at Playa Guiones, the local surf beach in Nosara, Costa Rica. This is one of my favorite images from my two week stay in Nosara, Costa Rica. The locals would get up at sunrise to surf, chill out all day, and then head back down to the beach just before sunset, as these are the best waves of the day.

Much like a photographer who gets up early for sunrise, and stays out late for sunset, I felt we had a common goal, to capture that special moment, that only happens at certain times of the day. In this image I feel that our two worlds crossed, as I photographed the last light of the day, and the surfer headed in from her last wave of the day.

I plan to head back to Nosara this winter, hopefully to sharpen my surf skills, and capture more images of the local talent in this little known town in Costa Rica.

Year End Contest – Ian Harding

Ian Harding

©Ian Harding

 

This was taken at the 2009 Paskapoo Downhill Rodeo in Calgary, Alberta which took place July 24-26 at Canada Olympic Park. I was eager to practice shooting fast moving athletes and jumped at the opportunity when I found out about the longboarding competition. I had never really done any kind of panning photography before, but knew that skateboarding would offer plenty of opportunity to practice and learn. It took some practice, but I quickly started to get the hang of it. This one kid was coming down the hill at lightning speed and was probably the smallest to come down the course all day. The red suit made for great contrast against the background of straw bails and grass, and as soon he passed and I viewed the shot on my camera viewer, I knew I had panned a good one. When I got home and viewed it full size on my computer, I was floored. The focus is almost spot on and I was extremely excited by that, since solid focus was the hardest for me to obtain when panning. It was my best shot of the day and it instantly became a top favourite among any photo I had ever taken. So much so, that I plan to get it printed in large format sometime in the future.