Mount Mat Madness V

January 22, 2008 | Filed Under off-camera flash, wrestling | Leave a Comment 

Saturday I spent the entire day at the 5th annual Mount Mat Madness tournament. This is one of the toughest high school wrestling tournaments on the east coast. For anyone who loves the sport of wrestling, this is a must-see event.

I was on-hand to shoot some key semi-finals matches as well as all of the championship finals matches.

The lighting inside of the athletic center at CCBC is nothing spectacular, so I brought my trusty speedlight setup with me.

A very nice balcony along one side of the building provided a great location for me to mount my two speedlights. Using superclamps, I could easily mount them to the railing on the balcony.

I set my two Canon 580EXs at 1/4 +0.3 power; 105mm zoom and pointed the lights slightly inward towards the center of the mat and aiming at the far end of the mat. You can see a view from the balcony as they were setting up the mat for the finals. Once the lights were in place, it was time to head down matside to get my camera settings worked out.

I snapped a few shots of people walking across the mat and by checking my histogram on the camera, determined ISO 400; f/5.0; 1/250s was pretty close. I set my WB to daylight and was ready to go.

The finals did not disappoint — there was some fantastic wrestling and I was able to watch it on my belly at the edge of the mat. I’m already looking forward to MMM-VI!

First Bridal Shoot

January 5, 2008 | Filed Under bridal, off-camera flash | Leave a Comment 

Today I was on location in Germantown, MD to photograph my first Bridal Shoot. The morning started out in front of the Black Rock Center for the Arts building. With the temperatures in the upper 30’s, not much time was spent outdoors. We quickly ran across the street to continue the shoot inside the Germantown library.

The fine folks at the library allowed us to setup and shoot in the beautiful rotunda area that they have.

Emily, the bride, was married back in May but never had a bridal session, so she was excited to put back on the wedding dress and have a couple hours of once again being the center of attention.

Many of the library patrons would come over and watch with much interest. So, if you ever want to not be noticed, don’t put on a wedding dress.