Baylor Bears' corner back Clifton Odom dives unsuccessfully for Missouri Tigers' wide receiver Danario Alexander at Faurot Field in the third quarter of the game on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. / Canon 7D and 400mm f/4 DO IS lens; exposed 1/3200 sec. @ f/4, ISO 500.

I have not yet formed a clear idea in mind of what I think of the performance of the new Canon EOS 7D dSLR.  I purchased it specifically for action photography–sports and wildlife–to accompany my aging 1D Mark IIn, and I photographed the college football game between Missouri and Baylor with these two bodies this past Saturday.  I made about 800 frames on the 7D (about 700 too many), and was happy with the focus on several, but certainly not all of the frames.  I will be photographing another football game this weekend, Missouri Vs. Kansas State, to be held in the “Little Apple.”  I will go into further detail about what settings I am using in a future posting, but I will make a few remarks about the camera here.

Missouri Tigers' quarterback Blaine Gabbert attempts a pass while the Baylor Bears' Jason Lamb dives after him during the second quarter of the game. / Canon 7D and 70-200mm f/4 L IS lens @ 183mm; exposed 1/3200 sec. @ f/4, ISO 400.

Handing

Without question, I think that this camera feels better in-hand than any other, with the exception of the 1D series.  The grip is, for once, contoured for a person’s hand.  It is very well constructed, and the buttons are easy to find and also “stick out” a bit more so that a gloved hand can actually manipulate them.  As a native of the Midwest, this is particularly important, as our winters seem to last about six months!  Strangely, while virtually every button is improved over the xxD series, the depth-of-field preview button has taken a turn for the worse.  It is almost flush with the camera body, and does not push in very far.  Disappointing.

The viewfinder is a joy to look through with this camera.  Not quite as nice as the 5D II (which, frankly, is not as nice as Sony’s Alpha 900 viewfinder), but worlds beyond the 40D or 50D.

So far I am unimpressed with the RAW/JPEG button, which enables whichever format you are not using by default, but only for one frame.  Nevertheless, it is better than the “direct print” button than it was in the original 5D, and I suppose I should be thankful because it could well have returned to that state of stupidity when Canon moved the “Live View” button from that position, where it is on the 5D II, to a spot above the joystick controller.

What I will also state, to a great deal of dismay, is that this camera feels worlds better in-hand than does my 5D Mark II, which carries a $1,000 premium over the 7D.

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Tags: Canon, EOS 7D, equipment, football, sports
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This weekend I attended the Seventh Midwest Bike Polo Champeenships hosted for the first time in Columbia, Mo. by COMOPOLO and wrote a story and crafted a multimedia slideshow for the Missourian, which published the video and the accompanying story online earlier today.

Tags: Bike Polo, Boone Life, Columbia Missourian, multimedia, sports, sports feature, stories, story
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I really haven’t photographed food before–not in any serious fashion–so when I found myself confronted with a silver platter of chocolate-covered potato chips yesterday at the Candy Factory in Columbia, Mo., I was thrown for a loop.

There was no chance I would use existing light: it was a mix of daylight and tungsten, and exposing for the chips coated in which chocolate would have meant underexposing the others significantly.  So I set up two lights bouncing into umbrellas at either end of the silver tray.  It took me a while for all that I learned about photographing metal–and look how little of it wound up in the final frame!–and its family of angles to come back to me (about 50 chimped frames) but once the reflections were under control, it just became a matter of the ratio between the key and the fill lights.

Ultimately, the SB-80-DX, on camera left, was fired at a third stop under 1/2 power, and the 550EX on camera right was fired at 1/16 power.  Could I have balanced those a bit?  Probably.  The shadows cast by the milk chocolate potato chips bother me a bit.  I’ll file that in the “next time” category.

Canon 5D II and 70-200mm f/4 L IS lens @100mm with 25mm extension tube; exposed 1/160 sec. @ f/11, ISO 200.

Tags: food, light, lighting, lit, strobe, Strobist, studio
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Memorial Stadium in the pouring rain. The Nebraska Huskers beat the Missouri Tigers in a last-minute comeback in the 4th quarter to win 27-12 on Thursday, October 8, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. / Canon 1D II N and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 42mm; Exposed 1/60 sec. @ f/5.6, ISO 1600

This evening I spent a solid two hours in the pouring rain to photograph fans outside of Memorial Stadium before tonight’s football game.  In particular, my editors wanted a photo for Vox Magazine that would illustrate the tremendous amount of refuse and recycling generated by the tailgaters to football games.  Too bad that the assignment seems to have killed my 50mm f/1.4′s autofocus, and possibly my cell phone!

More after the jump

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Tags: football, photography, problems, rain, repairs, tailgating, wet
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A John Wayne American flag hangs on the back wall at Lucy's on September 24, 2009 in McBaine, Mo.

I’m presently working on a story for the “Boone Life” photo column in the Columbia Missourian.  While the story is not yet finished, I thought I would share a detail from the diner where I’m developing something to fit our new theme: beginnings.  In this case, how people begin their days in the small town of McBaine, Mo., population 12.  I’ll link to the story when it is finally completed.

Update:

The final story went online last Tuesday while I was at the Missouri Photo Workshop, and can be read on the Columbia Missourian’s Web site.  Also, this slideshow accompanies the story:

Tags: Beginnings, Boone Life, Columbia Missourian, photojournalism, video
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David Champlin of the "Big Mo" drum crew, who lead the MIZ-ZOU cheers at football games, celebrates the Missouri Tigers' victory over the Furman Paladins with the Golden Girls at the end zone of Faurot Field on Saturday, September 19, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. The Tigers defeated the Paladins 52-12. / Canon 1D Mark IIN and 16-35mm f/2.8 II L lens @ 16mm; exposed 1/400 sec. @ f/8, ISO 800.

This weekend I photographed a college football game–Missouri Tigers versus the Furman Paladins–along with John Schreiber, for the Columbia Missourian.  It was only my third or fourth time photographing football, and my first college game, so it was a little different.  I was also using a Canon 600mm f/4 L IS lens from CPS, which made things extra different.  But it was a lot of fun, and there’s a web gallery here.

While at the game, I was assigned to get a feature photo of the crew of “Big Mo,” an over-sized drum on a trike that is used to lead cheers of “MIZ–ZOU” at the games, as well as run up and down the end zone with the cheerleaders after a touch down.  At the end of the game, David Champlin started dancing with the Golden Girls, who are a more “sparkly” version of the cheerleaders.  The result was the photo above.  Sadly, it will never find its way into the Missourian, so I’m posting it here for all to see.  I suppose it’s better this way.

Secondly, I thought I would post this portrait of Anthony Fitzgerald and Arnold Cromwell, two custodians–one from Hickman High School, the other from Rock Bridge High School–to be featured in this week’s VOX Magazine in the “On-The-Job” section.  I was happy with the final select, but also felt that the image  below worked fairly well.  I do wish I had some more time with them to get a moment between the two, but at the very least I feel that this was a respectful presentation of the two men.

Anthony Fitzgerald, left, a Hickman High School custodian, and Arnold Cromwell, right, a custodian from Rock Bridge High School, stand in the hallways of Hickman High on Monday, September 21, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. Despite the two schools' athletic rivalries, neither Fitzgerald or Cromwell take it too seriously. / Canon 5D II and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens @ 75mm; exposed 1/160 sec. @ f/8, ISO 800.

Tags: Columbia Missourian, environmental portrait, outtakes, sports feature
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Tonight I photographed a blowout softball game: Rock Bridge High School: 4; Hickman High School: 0.  And while I was reasonably pleased with the results of my first attempt at softball in over three years (read: they were OK) one of the outtakes sticks in my mind, so I thought I would post it here.  It’s more of a graphic / dynamic image than a story-telling one:

Danielle Linneman, a junior on the Rock Bridge High School varsity softball team, heads off to bat on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at University Field in Columbia, Mo. The Rock Bridge Bruins defeated the Hickman Kewpies 4-0.

Tags: Columbia Missourian, softball, sports
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I have finally had a chance to go over all of my images from the Tour de Missouri, as well as my other shoots from the week, and found three images that I thought were particularly interesting but were unpublished–they did not find their way into the Columbia Missourian, or my Blog, for that matter–until now!

Old Courthouse reflection, St. Louis, Mo. Canon 5D II and 24-70mm f/2.8 L @ 70mm; exposed 1/500 sec. @ f/5.6, ISO 100

I saw this composition with the imperfect reflections of office buildings and the Old Court House as I was walking to the downtown Hilton to pick up my press credentials for the first stage of the Tour of Missouri.  This is cropped fairly heavily, so I do wish that I had switched lenses to the 70-200mm f/4 I L IS, but I was in a rush to get to the race before it started without me!

More after the jump!

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Tags: Columbia Missourian, lighting, outtakes, photography, photojournalism, portraits
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