I had a look at Lichtfaktor.eu again – there are some fantastic basketball shots using techniques we will learn this weekend at the Night Light photo workshop. The photographer at Lichtfactor has some advanced night light techniques!

Some last photos from our pro hockey photo workshop at the Ottawa 67s game. ‘S’ is shooting beside the 67s bench:

‘P’ is ctaching the action close to the goal:

H

My pro hockey workshop students are meeting tomorrow for their critique session. Feed back of their session at the Ottawa 67s game has been good so far. In the next few days I will highlight some photos and links to some student photos.

First up a snapshot with my new point & shoot – at these workshops my job is to support the students, not take photos – my P&S comes in handy for the quick snaps:

Even on auto mode with a good understanding of fundamentals I can create quick silhouettes of a student shooting from the box or media centre in the rafters. I shot this at 28mm – wider than most P&S cameras will allow – see previous blog entries to investigate my criteria for this camera purchase.

In other news – a busy week with other work and my house is leaking a bit with the huge amounts of snow starting to melt – I have a big job tomorrow to fix it!

H

This weekend I taught the practical part of the Pro Hockey Workshop. The Ottawa 67s hosted our group and, unfortantely, lost to the Kingston Frontencs.

On Saturday the photo students met at Ottawa’s Headshots Rentals for a tutorial from Louis on fine equipment and were offered some loaners (fast lenses, etc.) as part of the course – thanks Headshots!

On Sunday we met at Lansdowne Park. Students were issued Media Passes and given a “backstage” tour of the facilities. Thanks 67s! After some theory, ideas and practical tips students were tested by the lightning on the ice. Three periods shooting from the media centre in the rafters and at ice level left students with plenty of editing homework for the critique session later this week.

More hockey updates and photos as they come. Coming up this week:

• a day off
• prep-ing a stock submission
• a Working Creatives meeting
• some long term idea planning
• evaluating a potential new photo job
• admin

What was whacky? Ottawa got hit with a massive snow storm Saturday night. Our long, country drive is normally cleared by a contractor but he did not make it before I had to leave for the workshop. Consequently we cleared the drive twice (1am and 8:30am). There was no way I could have driven through it. I had no choice but to dig – the show must go on for the students! I even picked up a stranded student on the way to the stadium.

I have never seen this much snow around here! We’ll be skiing till June – that’s a good thing for Harry!

Hockey photos later this week,

H

So I wanted a P&S camera to help with this blog – I didn’t want to take my main camera gear everywhere I went. Her was my want list:

1. small and simple – fits in a shirt pocket
2. wide angle capability at least 28mm equivalent
3. relatively low cost
4. manual capabilities

1. Small and simple – for obvious reasons.

2. Wide angle – this was the toughest restriction – most P&S start at ~35mm. Wide angle is essential for how I like to shoot. Many cameras have add-on gizmos that will provide wider perspectives – this makes the camera more complicated than I wanted (see #1 above.)

3. Low cost – the camera is for simple web use. If I want a fancy camera I have fancy cameras! I’d rather spend the $ on other equipment.

4. Auto mode can handle many simple shots if you understand the shortfalls of auto functions (see Creative Fundamentals!) However there will be instances I want the creative control of manual settings.

I was not concerned with megapixels for this camera – it will be used almost solely for the web. Many new P&S cameras are offering 8 and 12 megapixels which are fantastic for semi large prints – not a big concern for this camera.

The verdict? A Nikon P50:

* Under $200
* 28mm equivalent
* manual control
* small, light, simple – no added gadgets
* 8 megapixels – plenty for my intended use

It was tough to find a camera that met all my needs – the sticky point was the wide angle capability. The Canon G7 kept coming up as a stellar performer but it has no immediate wide angle capability, more features than I needed at 2 and a half times the price of the one I bought.

A good resource for any digital camera gear is DPReview. Check their “buying guide” to help find the camera for you!

Thanks for looking,

H

Way back I talked about getting a new Point & Shoot camera to support this blog. I bought one from Frank (below) at Ottawa’s Vistek. It’s fun and easy to use The photo’s today are from the new toy! What did I get? – details and review later this week.

I also walked by the Camera Trading Company – they didn’t have what I needed in p&s but my jaw dropped when I saw this Wisner custom built 16″x20″ view camera for sale! It was built relatively recently and the jaw dropping part was the film size – 16 inches by 20 inches!!!! Most view cameras will be 4×5 or 8×10. This one is enormous!!!

I did get Exposed! sent out – I’ll post a link to it here tomorrow if I can!