Gymcats miss the bird

Another evening at Mchale for womens gymnastics. This time I was determined to stop the action of this very dynamic sport. Photographing almost any indoor sport is an extreme challange, but gymnastics is especially so.

Low light levels, fast action, cluttered relatively close-in backgrounds, prohibited use of flash, limited angles from which capture atheletes - make this a "target rich" yet photographer unfriendly environment.

So - to better my chances of "getting the shot" I brought my fastest lenses (85mm F/1.2; 70-200 F/2.8 and 300 F/2.8), my fastest camera (Canon 1D Mark II capable of 8 frames per second) and my highest ISO/ Low Noise camera (Canon 5D Mark II) all in the hopes of negating the handicaps previously elaborated.

Here are some of the results - pretty noisy due to the use of ISO 3200 and ISO 6400. DOF was extremely shallow (@ F/1.6 and F/2.8) and focusing was very difficult, and many shots were lost due to the lack of sharp fcous. Shutter speeds varied from 1/800th to 1/2500th of a second.

And while I'm at it - if there are any Canon engineers reading this - please put me down as first on the list for the new Canon 1D Mark V - the 21+ MP full frame camera with low noise ISO 12,800 operation; 10 frames/sec with 40 frame RAW buffer and a 1/500 sec sync speed . . .

BTW- the Cats lost to the Cardinals. Sigh.

Wildcats put out Chicago Flames

Last night got to witness the University of Chicago women's gymnastics team the "Flames" get doused by the University of Arizona "Wildcats". Final score was 195.4 to 193.45.

A complete recap of the compettion can be found here. Here are a few of my shots from the games . . .

Moonrise over Tucson

Tonight's Wolf moon rising over Tucson. It's called the Wolf Moon in folklore: northern Native Americans named it after packs of singing wolves they once heard during the winter month of January.

I predicted this scene using TheSky and Google Earth software and positioned my camera just so. Shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a 300mm lens. Enjoy.