Irene Barrantes diving catch

Most of my photomerges are in the three-to-five photo range. Sometimes they are just two photos. However, I like to try new things. So at last Saturday’s SOU softball game I set my D600 to “Ch” for continuous high speed shooting. The sky was overcast so I went with 1/4000, f/8, ISO-2000. If it was sunnier I would have went with something like 1/4000, f/11, ISO-800. Next time if it is overcast I think I will try something more along the lines of 1/1000, f/10, ISO-1600.

Anyway, I then focused on the batter at 70mm from behind first base. When she connected I immediately began firing as I turned my camera toward right field. Twenty eight photos (and about four seconds) later I was done shooting. The photomerged result can be seen above. After the photomerge my file size was almost 3 GB for what had become a single photo! I resized it and did a bit of editing to get it down to about the 1 MB image I uploaded. Click on the photo for the more detailed 1 MB version and to have it fill your screen.

Posted on April 8th, 2013 under only in ashland, people, places. Tags: grizzly peak, Nikkor 70-300mm VR, Nikon D600, photoshop photomerge, softball, Southern Oregon University, sports photography. Comments Off on 28 photo photomerge

Nic Temple performing on 4/4/13 in the SOU Music Recital Hall

Posted on April 7th, 2013 under only in ashland, people, places. Tags: campus, music, Nic Temple, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D600, Southern Oregon University. Comments Off on Nic Temple Honors Piano Recital

SOU campus between storms

The return of students to campus after spring break doesn’t have quite the mystique of the start of the school year in fall, but the campus today still has a bit more excitement in the air than normal.

Posted on April 1st, 2013 under only in ashland, places. Tags: campus, clouds, Nikon D600, Nikon Nikkor Wide-angle lens 24 mm F/2.8 D AF, photoshop photomerge, Southern Oregon University. Comments Off on Back to school day

Medford, Oregon’s Higher Education Center (SOU/RCC campus)

Posted on March 25th, 2013 under outside of ashland, places. Tags: buildings, campus, medford, Nikon 20mm f/2.8 NIKKOR AI-s lens, Nikon D600, Southern Oregon University. Comments Off on RCC/SOU HEC

SOU softball field with Grizzly Peak in the background

Major League Baseball begins regular season play in just over a week. Today’s photo is the view between games of a softball doubleheader last weekend in Ashland. The Lady Raiders won both games.

Normally I’d need to take three or four photos and photomerge them together for a shot like this. However, I used my new (to me, it’s a used lens actually) Nikon 20mm f/2.8 prime lens and was able to capture foul pole to foul pole in a single image. I love this lens for its optics, size, and weight, but I only purchased it because it was part of a package deal with a 50mm f/1.2 lens. I also have a 24mm f/2.8 (and a 14-24mm f/2.8) so I don’t really need both (or all three). Therefore, if you are interested in the 20mm f/2.8 manual focus lens, make me an offer I can’t refuse, and it will be yours. Oh yeah, and if you shoot with a Canon, it also came with a Fotodiox Lens Mount Adapter which allows you to use this, or any, Nikon lens on a Canon DSLR. I’ll toss this in at no extra charge.

Posted on March 24th, 2013 under only in ashland, places. Tags: grizzly peak, Nikon 20mm f/2.8 NIKKOR AI-s lens, Nikon D600, softball, Southern Oregon University. Comments: 2

One of my reasons for shooting yesterday’s softball game was to see if I could get away with taking only my Nikon 70-300mm VR to Japan and Korea this summer where I plan to attend several professional baseball games. My other option is to take my 70-200mm f/2.8 and a 1.7X teleconverter. The problem is those two combined weigh more than twice as much as my 70-300mm and they take up more space in my luggage.

The 70-300mm passed the test in sunny conditions. Unfortunately, most of the games I will go to in Korea and Japan will probably be at night and/or indoors. I’m still leaning towards the 70-300mm though.

Irene Barrantes – SOU softball

Posted on March 16th, 2013 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Nikkor 70-300mm VR, Nikon D600, softball, Southern Oregon University, sports photography. Comments Off on More photos from yesterday’s Southern Oregon University softball victory

Karlie Stephens

… en route to a game one victory over Northwest Christian University yesterday. The Raiders went on to win both games of the doubleheader to improve their record to 5-1 in the conference. Today SOU faces Concordia in another doubleheader. The first game begins at 11 a.m. in Ashland.

Posted on March 16th, 2013 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Nikkor 70-300mm VR, Nikon D600, softball, Southern Oregon University, sports photography. Comments Off on Karlie Stephens gives up just 1 earned run in 7 innings…

For the next few days you can head to the parking lot between Cox Hall and Omar’s and take a sledge hammer to a car.

keying of the car before the smashing began

Posted on March 12th, 2013 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Car Smash, funky cars, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Lens, Nikon D600, Southern Oregon University. Comments Off on Alpha Kappa Psi’s “Car Smash 2013” at SOU

Eric Thompson – Southern Oregon University Men’s Basketball

Eric Thompson scored 30 points today to lead the Raiders to a first round win in the NAIA tournament over Madonna. ET made five of his six three-point attempts in addition to pulling down nine rebounds. The Raiders will play again on Friday night.

Posted on March 6th, 2013 under only in ashland, people. Tags: basketball, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography. Comments Off on SOU Raiders Men’s Basketball advance to the Sweet 16