Canon 40D, 85.0mm, 1/50s, f/2.5, ISO: 320
And the rest (146)...
[I've had a comment that I'm only taking photos of Aucklanders. It's not true. I've just spent two hours going through the last few day's images (several thousand I may add) picking the best out to feature in the "Pick of the Pix" above so I know the images I'm capturing pretty well. During the training sessions I prefer to photograph those giving the most intensity, have good technique and that photographically look the best. So if someone turns up in an old grey or light blue T shirt or singlet top with some ugly graphics on them then I'm not going to chase after a good photo of them because I won't get one that I'd be happy with. Yesterday I took 750 photos of the two training sessions over three hours and then took another hour and a half to go through them and select the ones that appealed to me as being good shots worth publishing. I finished working around mid-night. I'm trying to get great photos of everyone but I'm afraid that some people don't photograph well, are a bit shy or self-concious in front fo the camera, and despite my best efforts I can't help how they look when photographed. So, when I choose lots of images of some people (eg Mark Trotter featured a lot yesterday) it's because of their intensity, technique, choice of clothing, look, comfort at being photographed, time out there on the floor training and then on top of that random chance that I actually capture some good images of them that are exposed correctly, well composed, and in focus etc. Also, anyone not on the floor a lot working really hard isn't going to get featured either. I hope no one's offended by these comments - there's certainly no offence intended - I'm just explaining how I work - how I choose what to "chase" and what I regard makes as a good image when I pick them out of the hundreds taken.]
Looking forward to the start of the competition on Thursday (Thursday's images and results will be on-line when you wake up on Friday morning as midnight here is 4am in NZ and we'll be tweeting wins as they happen).... it feels a bit like the calm before the storm!
Thursday is individual and team pattersn... reminds me I must find and check out the programme.
Cheers for now.
Doug
