Friday Night Lights Got Brighter

 

I shot my first football game of the year last Friday night here in Fort Valley. It was Peach County and Warner Robins. It was actually the first football game I have shot in two years. Partly due to my work schedule, and partly due to what I was shooting with. I had been using my D90 and it was a bit too slow, plus the stadium is so dark I was having problems stopping the action.

 

I had two cameras die recently, so I bought another camera, a D600(Nikon, of course)

It is a wonderful little box, quite fast and has enough ISO to shoot in the darkest stadiums. 

Since it is full frame, I loose the extra magnification, so the 300f2.8 is actually 300mm, but no worries.

 

 The first ten minutes were pretty dismal as I worked on my timing and figuring out where to stand. The timing came back fairly quick, but after 40+ years of football, I still stand in the wrong spot half the time. 

Joe Holloway always said shooting football was half luck and half knowing where to stand. He was a wise man.  Anyway, not too bad for an old man.  The originals were color, and turned in to the Telegraph as color. I decided I wanted to see them as black and whites. 

All those Friday nights of Tri-X and Accufine developer have stuck with me, the way I still see football.

A Little Bokeh, If You Please....

 

The top bloom has been by our back porch for a couple of days. This morning I grabbed the D600 and my old Nikkor 300f4 along with a couple of lenses, deciding it was time for a photo.  The 300mmf4 is a great old lens, really sharp and quite hand hold able..... even for an old guy like me.  

I saw the cool leaves in a window box after shooting the first flower and had to try it.  It was shot with the 300 as well.  The minimum focus distance and the fact that it was shot at f8 gave great detail while dumping the background.

 The background colors made for good contrast with the color of the plant.