Sky effects

I'm not a winter person. I don't like the cold and I don't like that it's dark so much. However, evening skies in the winter and the lighting at sunset can be really interesting and beautiful. Here's a few seasonal examples. These are uploaded at 1920 by 1200 pixels, but substantially compressed. Feel free to download for your personal (non-business) use.

Notes:

Shot 1 (top) and 2( top right):  This is Carver Hall, the university's signature building. Bloomsburg's first president (before it was a university), Henry Carver, laid bricks for the building in 1866-67. These shots were taken several years ago with a Canon XTI (shot 1) ISO 400, 1/15th; Sigma 24-70 at f/2.8; (shot 2) ISO 800, 1/50th, f/4.

Shot 3 and 4 are of the extension to McCormick Center for Human Services. I think this is one of the most interesting pieces of architecture on campus. Every time I walk past the building, I stop and look. To my eye, it looks great from every angle, but that's a personal preference. Canon 7D (shot 3) ISO 800, 1/80th; Canon 50mm at f/4; (shot 4) ISO 500, 1/4000th; Tokina 16-50@41 mm, f/4.5 (didn't have time to switch ISO lower here).

Shot 5 (below): I know, this is a winter snow shot and not a sky shot. But it seems appropriate to the season. I took a similar one several years ago. Walking past the ornamental grasses (last year I think), I took it again. The shape of the reminds me of the famous Hokusai print. 7D, ISO 100, 1/800th; Tokina 16-50@35 mm, f/4.

Final instructions

I photograph commencement each spring and fall and this part of the ceremony I find particularly interesting.

The students line up in the wings of the stage, waiting to walk on and receive their diplomas. Just before they walk on, a faculty marshal, in this case Professor Gary Robson from accounting, gives some final instructions. His words of advice?  Leaning over he says (to many of the students), "Look at those people, dragging their feet," he jokes. Naturally, no one is really dragging their feet. "I want a quick walk and big smile."

Quick walk and big smile. Sage advice for more than a few situations.

Technical Data: Canon 7D, ISO 1600 at 1/40th. Tokina 11-16mm at 11 mm and f/2.8. Despite the wide aperture, the shortness of the focal length keeps the depth of field fairly deep. 

I think this shot really shows the usefulness of this particular lens. One thing I've noticed is that in the most extreme lighting situations, and it is very dark off stage, off-brand lens will not focus as reliably as a Canon lens. The Tokina 11-16 did just fine here; from experience I can say that the 16-50 would have difficulty locking focus. Note: The relaxing musicians in the right of the frame aren't noticiable to the audience in the hall.

The second photo is also with the 11-16 Tokina. The third shot was taken with the Canon 50mm f/1.4 at f/2.8. The 50mm is very sharp, but has a naturalness to the sharpness that I really like. Exposure on all the shots was manual.

Click on any photo to see it larger.

A joyful assignment

Among the photo shoots I do in a given year, Bloomsburg's Gospel Choir would consistently rank among my top five favorites. I simply love going to the shows. The choir is very good and the energy of the shows is very high.

Rev. Marwin Reeves from the community is the director, but there's a lot of leadership by the students in making arrangements and publicizing the concerts.

For this show, I really wanted to focus on the conductor, student Keywuan Caulk, who exemplifies the kind of poise and charisma the choir seems to develop.

The trickiest part, was picking which photo to lead with. I selected the top photo because I think it conveyed a sense of seriousness and purpose that Keywuan exudes. But I've included some others to give a sense of what happens when the choir really gets cooking.

Technical Notes: This was a tricky shoot to do because there was not a lot of light to work with in the Kehr Union Ballroom. Focusing on the conductor brought some additional challenges because he's lit from behind. This was my first shoot down with the Canon 70-200mm f/4. The lens is magnificent to use. However, there's no IS, so it was a matter of pushing the ISO (to 3200 for the top pic on 7D), keeping the aperture at f/4, and handholding at 1/100th in bursts at 70mm. Shooting in bursts is a bit of hedge against camera shake. If there's some hand vibration in a given frame, the next may not show it.

The compromises of those choices can be seen. There's noise and detail loss to noise reduction,  the depth of field is narrow, the edges aren't completely crisp. But it was still worth it.

 Click on any photo to see it larger.

Lab time

One of the most prominent researchers at Bloomsburg is chemistry professor Mark Tapsak, who has been granted two dozen patents, most for implantable medical devices. While he certainly could have continued  his career as a full-time researcher, he was drawn to teaching as well. He still researches, though now BU students and graduates get the benefit of his experience.

Chemistry labs are a lot of fun to photograph in general. Faculty are on hand to answer questions and moving from station to station, but students really have an opportunity to learn and explore on their own. There's often music playing during lab times, with different professors and groups of students bringing their own style. Metallica is a regular on the rotation for some labs.

Technical notes: The main photo was taken with the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 at 13mm. Exposure was ISO 1600, f4.5 at 1/64. The Tokina lens is fairly unique in it's constant fast aperture and sharpness across the frame.

Click on any image to see it larger.