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News
Ryu shot figure skating and enjoyed the change, while he didn’t enjoy shooting Croatia vs Turkey due to boring play and cold weather. Matt went to Vegas to shoot the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo where he banged his head for ten days trying to find decent shooting positions.
We introduce… Grant Gunderson…
…& Jordan Manley
Ryu and Matt interview snow sports photographers Grant Gunderson & Jordan Manley about shooting, travelling, and the weather.
Master class
Ryu and Matt talk about how conduct yourself at your first major sporting event.
Training Ground
In Training Ground we critique pictures from listeners who bravely ask for it in our Flickr group.
You Win
Our November 2011 themed competition was “Parts”
The winner is Bashar Alshabi from Michigan with this baseball picture:
Second place is Serving Shade by Bernard Menettrier de Jollin
Third place is Me on the forest of Luosto by Jaakko Posti
The December themed competition is “Face(s)”. Goto our BLFS flickr group page for competition rules.
Training Ground
Post your images to our flickr group for constructive or destructive critique here.
Angry Matt
In our new segment, Matt shares a story that demonstrates the fact that he will leave no bridge un-burned.
Special thanks to…
Icon by Arvin Bautista
Audio Production/Editing: David Whittaker
*Please Read Below*
Big Lens Fast Shutter is funded solely from the pockets of Ryu Voelkel and Matt Cohen. If you think the information we give you about sports photography is making you a better sports photographer and as a result a well balanced human being, please show us your appreciation by supporting us on Patreon and send some of your hard earned dollars/euros/Brixton pounds our way. People who donate will be mentioned on our next show unless you want to remain anonymous. Thank you for supporting us and may the force of sports photography be with you, always.
Big Lens Fast Shutter 
Can’t wait to listen to the new podcast. Quick question about the contest, do the photos submitted have to be taken within a certain time frame before the contest ends? I always thought it was the period of 3 months before the contest ends. No big deal to me either way, but the winning photo was taken over 5 months before the competition ended. It’s a great photo though for sure. I’m not disputing the winner at all. I was just curious about the rules for the future contests.
Ben,
That was completely my fault. Yes, the rules say it’s 3 months and I stuck by it until this one. It’s an honest mistake on my part as this photo should not be eligible for the competition, but I realised it when the podcast was already recorded. But what’s been done is done and he is the winner.
And like you said, it’s also a great photo.
I apologize to anyone who is offended by this, but we’re all human so please let me have this one moment of royal screw up. :)
Ryu
Tut, tut!!! Ryu is human after all!
We forgive you!
(P.S. there wasn’t a prize that BenCK missed out on was there?)
I didn’t enter the contest. My subject of choice is baseball and the season was over more than 3 months before the contest. I’m sure I wouldn’t have won anyway, so I’m not concerned about it.
Dec Training Ground
Thanks for the feedback guys. You weren’t as harsh as I thought you could have been or as harsh as you were to others! So pleasantly surprised.
I know about the exposure issues etc (first real shoot with a DSLR and a Flash Gun etc – plus as Matt said TERRIBLE lighting).
I was torn on the composition. I originally thought it was better without the entire foot. But having had the feedback and looked at it again, I totally agree it would have been better with the full foot.
Just wish I had known Jan was going to be faces (they are killer eyes right!!!!).
Cheers
Elroyofderovers
I listened to the podcast last night. I loved the interview with Grant and Jordan, especially the part where they discussed needing passion to be good at what they do. Their passion for their skiing photography comes through enormously in their photos and I have no doubt that their photos would not be nearly as good without that passion.
I watched some of Jordan’s videos on his blog and they are incredible. Especially the one about Baffin Island. I mean him and 4 friends were dropped off by snow mobile like 130 miles from the closest town in the Arctic just so they could ski in a completely desolate area. Now that’s having passion for what you do.
Grant’s photos are incredible as well. I don’t ski at all, but his photos are beautiful. It was refreshing to see great action shots that really didn’t have anything to do with organized competition.
So great interview guys. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Matt and Ryu, thanks for the time. I need a little extra help with the exposure. I’m always afraid of blowing out the ice and losing the detail like the lines in the ice or the snow at the end of the period. I’m also worried about losing the detail in the white jerseys. Looking back, last months entry in training ground was way too dark, sorry about that. I’m trying again but any help you can provide on identifying the correct amount of brightness would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been trying to use the in camera meter and get it to zero or actually above/over exposed for most situations. Of course, lighting changes in corners and when you have white and dark jerseys in the picture. I try to shoot manual because otherwise my camera seems to vary settings widely on aperture or shutter priority mode. Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!
John,
That’s a really great question and I do wonder from time to time how metering can be done more effectively. The answer, in a nutshell, is that you can’t. It’s impossible to be perfect with metering as we are allowing the camera to do the thinking for us. So we are at the mercy of the machine.
On the other hand, let’s talk about manual exposure. The key here is to not get too hung up on trying to get all the shots perfectly exposed. But if you are aiming to get 80% of the shots correctly exposed, then the way you are metering the exposure is the best way to go. Manual. I do it as well for my football matches and what I expose it to is the grass. I don’t know if other people do it like I do, but that’s what I do. This is not a foolproof method, but you won’t at least get thrown off that much with sudden change in the background.
Hope this helps and let’s wait what Matt has to say about this.
Ryu
John-
In general, you want the players’ faces properly exposed. Lines in the ice and snow on the ice are nice details, and if you’re making a non-action picture or trying to get really creative with an action picture, then by all means drop the exposure and accentuate the ice. Otherwise, the players’ faces are the key part of the picture, so get that right and deal with the rest. I shoot hockey in RAW, and if I need to, I’ll recover the highlights.
As far as metering mode goes, I think the biggest mistake is to try to settle on one type. I use manual when I can, but there are times when things are changing too quickly. A or S with exposure compensation can help.
Matt and Ryu –
Thanks again for the advice. Lots of poorly lit hockey games for me to practice at here in northern Virginia! I’ll work on the faces and worry about trying to get fancy later.