Shots from the 2018 Gainesville Classic are up on the site.
As always a fun and inspiring show, this year had some great quality competitors and resulted in a nice donation to cancer research.
The LED lighting was pretty blue; I was able to compensate by compressing the blue midrange a bit and adding a touch of red in the post-processing. However the trophy platform was way back in the shadows; I did what I could with those shots.
Enjoy!
Shots from the 2017 Gainesville finals are up on the site.
As usual promoter Tony Curtis put on a great show and the proceeds went to help cancer research.
As popular as LED lighting is becoming these days, I’m really surprised that the camera manufacturers haven’t included a generic (tunable?) white-balance preset for them.
I shot auto-white-balance for the prejudging, which I suspected was a mistake– sure enough, the balance changed depending on the athlete’s position on the stage. One day I may get around to rebalancing those, but it will be a chore. Might just convert all to B/W and load ’em up. :)
For the night show I managed to set a pretty good custom WB using the letters on one of the stage signs, so I’m pretty happy with both the color and consistency of these shots.
Enjoy the shots.
Shots from the 2017 Galaxy, held on April 15 in St Augustine, are up on the site. Smaller turnout than usual but as always an enjoyable and well-run show. Next up: 2017 Monsta Classic in Lake City. Enjoy!
Shots from the 2016 Ocala Cup are (finally) up on the site.
I could bore you with the details, but it gets down to lighting. There was a dark pool in the center of the stage, so people standing at the ends of the stage, or who came in a little less tan, actually photographed better. I salvaged what I could in post-processing (should have shot raw rather than JPG), but it took a lot of work.
Next up for the site is 2016 All South and it’s going to have some issues as well, but should not take nearly as long to bring up. After that is the 2017 Galaxy, which turned out much better. Enjoy!
Shots from the 2016 Gainesville Classic, both prejudging and finals, are up on the LP site.
As usual Tony Curtis put on a wonderful show, and if you didn’t know the special thing about the Gainesville Classic, it’s that all the proceeds are donated to cancer research. Thanks to the extraordinary skill of the crew in the lighting booth (that’s tongue-in-cheek, it was me), I was able to get excellent shots of both events.
I saw some old friends, met a couple of nice people, and I think everyone had a wonderful time. Gainesville is kind of remote to the rest of the state, but if you get a chance to come out next year, you should do it.
Unless one of the three (!) shows on August 27 needs coverage, the next show I’m shooting is the Lakeland Classic on September 3. That’s moved to the Lakeland Center, incidentally, which is a really nice and well-lit venue, though I’ll miss the funky deco charm of the Lakeland Community Theater.
Long before that, though, I’ll have some new shots of Sherry Bubeck up. I think you’ll like.
Enjoy the shots!
At long last, shots from the 2016 Central District are up on the site.
I arrived late again, but it was actually not my fault for a change; I had vehicle issues that required some roadside engineering and a GPS that kept trying to drive me to Lakeland via the Douglas spread (wave to Zsa Zsa and Arnold!)
That meant I had to scramble to get the first class comparisons and never did find time to set up the tether– unlike the old days, one the prejudging gets started it has very few breaks.
Lakeland Center being a very well-lit venue, though, I was able to get decent shots nonetheless– just don’t like the risk of shooting with only the viewfinder anymore, the tether is starting to spoil me. :)
More delays getting the shots processed followed as I was out of town for a week immediately afterwards– hope you saw the Arizona and Grand Canyon shots on Facebook— but over the Independence Day holiday I was finally able to carve out the time for the post-processing.
As usual Deb Callahan put on a great show. Next up is the Ancient City in St Augustine, including some new shots planned with Sherry, then the Gainesville Classic a couple of weeks after that. Enjoy the photos and happy Independence Day!
Shots from the 2016 Monsta Classic, held waaaaay back on April 23, are finally up on the LP site.
I was coming down with some internal crud or other and the early shots reflect that; I apologize.
Moving slowly all morning, I got there far later than planned, and had little chance to pick a good spot or get everything set up before the show started.
Throw in the dark spot on the left side of the stage that required extra love and attention all morning, and I think I missed as many shots as I got in the first two classes.
(For what it’s worth, it was almost three weeks before I got over whatever that crud was.)
Arno was shooting the official shots, you can purchase them from his site.
I’ve been doing fewer shows each year; gas is still expensive, and the shows themselves are charging more.
Expenses aside, though, the main reason I’m shooting less is simply that I don’t have nearly the available time I used to have to dedicate to this.
That said, here’s the list of shows I’m planning to shoot the remainder this year: