The best-laid plans …

I spent most of today doing research for Handshake Magazine (the MNO capstone project) on the federal seizure of seven–no, six–no, nine–websites accused of illegally streaming first-run Hollywood movies and other copyrighted content. I had three Firefox and two Safari windows open, with about 30 tabs each–don’t ask why I used two different browsers at once, I don’t know–tracking down warrants, domain registrations, news items, blog posts and all manner of public record. We called the U.S. Attorney for Southern New York, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, VeriSign and the owner of a new site cloned from one of the sites that got confiscated.

The end result? About 400 words.

My colleague, and fellow “breaking news powerhouse*,” Ana Yanni has all the sordid details over at Adventures of a News Duck.

*Credit for the “breaking news powerhouse” title goes to Matt Doxstad, editor of Handshake.

D300, 300mm f/2.8 VR
1/40s, f/8 @ ISO400

This was one of my early attempts, I took the Syracuse v. Villanova game, and decided to shoot the second quarter with all slow speeds. That way I had plenty of time to shoot more typical stuff, but I had a lot of time to experiment as well.

This was manual exposure mode. I metered the scene and chimped on the histogram, then dialed in my shutter speed and aperture to match. It seems like speeds between 1/20 and 1/60 work best, at least for Lacrosse. If you get any faster than 1/60s, then the blur starts to look unintentional, and you get too much background detail. Slower than 1/20s makes it difficult to get a lock on your subject, so everything is just a blurry mess.

I should also note, this was also shot with a monopod. Hand-holding a 300/2.8 is kind of a pain to begin with, let alone when you’re panning.

D700, 300mm f/2.8 VR
1/40s, f/7.1 @ ISO200

Similar arrangement as before, slightly sharper.

Here’s what 1/25s looks like:

D700, 300mm f/2.8 VR
1/25s, f/9 @ ISO200

I also discovered a nice little AE lock trick to lock in an exposure value, while allowing shutter and aperture to move around.

It requires a little menu punching, but it makes this sort of thing a lot quicker.

I don’t trust the meter a whole bunch in this situation. I like to set my exposure manually, and leave it there. The problem is that turning both dials in opposite directions at the same time is hard.

First, set the meter off delay to infinite. Yes, it’ll eat into your battery life, but if you’re like me, your finger is always on the shutter anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

Next, set the AE-L/AF-L button to AE lock hold. This removes the meter from the equation entirely, while giving you single-dial control over both shutter and aperture.

Flip the camera to shutter priority. Set your exposure and hit the AE-L. It’ll stay locked until you press it again to unlock. Now, when you turn the shutter speed dial, the aperture dial will move the same amount in the opposite direction to maintain your locked exposure. For example: your exposure is 1/60s, f/8. If you turn the dial to 1/40s, the aperture will shift to f/10. No meter to get confused, it’ll do that every time until you unlock it.

Now it’s just a matter of finding your shutter speed/panning comfort zone, and trying to anticipate the action. Even with an 8 or 9 fps motor drive, this technique reduces your chances for capturing the exact moment, so you really have to be on top of it.

You may want to set this up as a custom preset, apart from your normal settings. That way you can just flip it on and off with one click, and you won’t be running around with your meter constantly running when you don’t want it to be.

Shooting memorial services is never easy. You try to stay out of the way, while still getting what you need. I was fortunate enough to get this one as the pall bearers were bringing the casket from the hearse to the chapel. As you can see from the uniforms, officers from several different departments came to the memorial.

Medeski Martin and Wood formed in New York City in 1991. Their music is rooted in jazz and blues, but the musicians pull material from a wide variety of musical styles including hip-hop. Copyright 2009 Jamie De Pould/TheNewsHouse.com

MMW bassist Chris Wood plucks the strings on his 1920s upright. Throughout the show, Wood traded between the upright and various acoustic and electric bass guitars. Copyright 2009 Jamie De Pould/TheNewsHouse.com

One of the hardest things about shooting live music is the lighting. The rapidly changing, often colored lights can sometimes throw the meter for a loop. This was especially true for Phish. Their light shows tend to be more extravagant than just about anyone out there, and their lighting guy Chris Kuroda improvises right along with the band, so you never quite know what to expect. For Medeski Martin and Wood, I shot aperture priority, auto-ISO with center-weighted metering at -2.0 exposure compensation. I had the ISO set up for a minimum shutter speed around 1/80s, but I often hit the ISO ceiling first. Most of the pictures turned out well, and I was able to get a wide variety of images. We ended up running an overall and a cropped version of the upright bass above. See the article here.

For Phish, I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew it was going to be hectic. I used roughly the same settings, but only set for -1.0 exposure compensation. When I got back to edit down the pictures, I was surprised to see how many frames I shot at ISO 200. There were several frames that were either completely white or completely black, because the lights were changing so quickly, but technically, most of my images were dead-on. A little toning, dodging, burning and they’re ready to publish.

One of the big (HUGE) things I forgot on the MMW show was ear protection. I normally keep a good set of earplugs in my kit, but between switching bags back and forth, and going to Sierra Leone, I apparently lost mine. I have a tendency to stand in front of the stacks when I shoot. My only saving grace was that the main speakers were elevated above the crowd, so I wasn’t getting directly blasted. But my ears were still ringing when I woke up the next morning. There was no way I was going to make the same mistake for Phish, so I ran up to guitar center Sunday afternoon and picked up a new pair. It was still loud, but manageable.

I’ve been back from Africa for about two weeks, just getting situated with classes starting last week. The return trip from Sierra Leone was eventful. I missed my original flight. With a little luck (and a lot of help from American Express), I got on the next flight out. Spent the night in Chicago, and was back home in Syracuse the next day.

The trip itself was pretty good, at times frustrating, but I think I got what I needed. No pictures on the web yet, they’re embargoed until February.

You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with a blue Subaru. Well, nothing. I shot the SCCA rallycross at Black Rock Speedway in Dundee, N.Y. the day after I got back. I was testing a Nikkor 500mm f/4 VR for Jared at prophotorental.com. Unfortunately, monsoon season in West Africa killed my D700, so all I had was my D300. The 500mm lens on a crop sensor was actually too long at times. There was a Toyota Tacoma that I could barely fit in the frame. Image quality is typical for a long Nikkor prime. Sometimes I think I’m spoiled, because I’ve become accustomed to spectacular image quality every time.

Images shot on Nikon, audio recorded on Sound Devices. Edited with Pro Tools LE and Final Cut Pro.

View it in HD

Funk N Waffles, Syracuse, N.Y. from Jamie De Pould on Vimeo.