I covered the Longmont Windsor 4A Football semifinal today. Windsor upset Longmont 12-6 to advance to the state finals next weekend. Three consecutive crazy plays decided the outcome in the fourth quarter. Longmont threw an interception, Windsor fumbled on the next play, and then Longmont fumbled in its end zone. What a game!
I photographed the Colorado High School Boy’s Soccer Finals for 3A and 4A this past Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver. The weather was beautiful and there were some great soccer shots to be had. Kent Denver defeated Fountain Valley to take the 3A crown and Evergreen nipped The Classical Academy, 1-0, to take the 4A title.
I spent the past three days photographing the Colorado high school track and field championships. Athletes from all over the state of Colorado participated. As far as I know, it is the only sport where finals form all five levels are held at the same venue.
Although it was the first time I had shot the track finals, it was a rewarding experience. Photographing track can be a challenge. It requires creativity to photograph a track event from a different perspective than other photographers. I experimented with panning to blur the background and give a sense of motion to some of the photographs. This worked particularly well with the 1oo meter dash. I also tried to focus on capturing the emotion of the event. I looked at the aftereffects of the race to see what the athletes were experiencing. Sometimes it was joy. Sometimes it was pain. Mostly I was just amazed at how fast the athletes could run or jump.
Derek Regensburger is a Denver sports photographer who shoots college and high school sports. His high school photography is published on Maxpreps.com. Call 303 478-7586 to have him cover your event.
Colorado men’s basketball kicked off the New Year right with a win over UCLA at the Coors Events Center last night. The game was filled with exciting action. There were some great moments to photograph including Xavier Johnson’s emotional reaction after a game changing dunk got the Buffs rolling at the end of the game. I even experimented with some motion blur shots. One came out very well. I used a shutter speed of 1/30 of a second and panned with the action to capture a player driving past a defender. It looks like COlorado will be playing a lot of close, low scoring games this year. I’m looking forward to the 2015 Pac-12 season.
Engagement photos are quite common. Couples want to get fun, relaxed photos of themselves before the stress and formality of the wedding day. They’re a great way for the photographer and couple to feel each other out before the wedding day as well. But what about capturing the joy of the proposal itself. This is a unique moment. The emotion of the bride-to-be reacting to the proposal is spontaneous and joyful. This magical moment can’t be recreated. So why not record it on camera? It’s something that isn’t done that often, however.
I have been lucky enough to witness two proposals in public places in the past year. One occurred at Hidden Lake Pass in Glacier National Park. The other occurred on the steamboat at Magic Kingdom in Disney World. I just so happened to have my camera out during the second one to take pictures of my family, so I snapped a few of the proposal while it played out in front of me. So before you propose, think about how the memory of this great moment could be preserved. YOu could even hire a photographer to capture it if it’s going to be done in a public place.
I just got back from a week at Disney World with my family. Whew! Disney is an interesting and challenging place to photograph. One of the biggest issues is of course crowds. People are everywhere. Another challenge is trying to find good locations to take pictures without (a) people blocking your view or (b) a Disney photographer taking your spot. Disney’s memory maker program posts photographers in many of the prime locations throughout the park which means you have to work around them. But in the end, I had fun and more importantly came away with some interesting photographs of the parks.
Unlike when I was a kid, there are now 4 Disney theme parks at Disney World. Each one has its unique personality and photographic offerings.
The obvious thing to photograph in Magic Kingdom is the castle. It dominates the landscape so why not photograph it. The challenge of course is to come away with an interesting photograph of the castle. I liked the way it looked near sunset so I set up on a bridge to capture a side view of the castle and and also get a reflection of it in the stream. This was certainly a good view but an even more interesting effect came at night. During the holidays, the castle is “Frozen.” It is coated in white light like the snow castle in the movie. It is a very cool effect.
Of course, everyone needs a good fireworks shot at Disney. There are a number of good places to watch the fireworks but very few good ones to photograph them, at least in a crowd. I set up on the balcony of the railroad station so I could look down Main Street. I got a front on view of the castle and the fireworks, albeit a somewhat distant one. I might’ve preferred my 70-200 rather than my 24-70, but I went a little wider to make sure I got the fireworks in the shot. I used a 7X neutral density filter to lengthen the stream of fireworks. I was shooting at f 5.6 at ISO 1250 for 15 seconds. Other good spots to view fireworks are near Tomorrowland and from the bridges ringing the castle. Right up front loses the perspective on the fireworks but would be a fun place to watch the light show.
There are other things to photograph at Magic Kingdom including the seemingly endless array of parades that come throughout the day. One had floats, a second had dancers, while a third had floats lit up at night. Getting a good view without people proves to be a challenge if you haven’t staked out a location. Even standing on a bridge didm;t provide me good looks. This is one thing I will have to plan for next time.
Another interesting thing to photograph is the resorts around the Magic Kingdom. The Contemporary had an especially good view of the sunset form the monorail stop but unfortunately we were rushing to dinner and I couldn’t get out and shoot it. The reflections on the lake looking toward the park from the Polynesian would be another shot I want to get a some point. I did get a nice shot of the sunset form the monorail station, however.
The main attraction of Epcot is of course the Spaceship Earth dome. Its purple color at night is a sight to behold. A good photograph can be had from near the entrance. I was able to frame the moon in the shot as well. From the back, some reflections of the dome are got in some of the lagoons that surround the dome. Unfortunately, a monorail track cuts across the dome from these vantage points. At night, the track is silhouetted so a more interesting shot can be had.
Photographing Epcot is a bit like being a world tourist. The facades of buildings at Epcot are striking. The challenge is getting a picture without hundreds of people in it. I went for more closeup shots to work around this. I found the gardens in Canada to be very pretty as well as the fountains in Paris. The Japanese and Chinese exhibits are very colorful as well. My favorite country to photograph was Morocco. It has lots of hidden areas and corners where light reflects in. This would be a great place to photograph empty. But with a little creativity some good photos can be had.
Epcot has a number of fountains which can make for some interesting photos. The Fountain of Nations is located near the Spaceship Earth dome. It is small and low to the ground so it is hard to get an interesting shot unless you frame it with the dome as a backdrop. The Innoventions fountain is a dancing fountain that shoots spires of water high in the air at night accompanied by a musical soundtrack. This fountain is very hard to photograph, however, due to a fence that surrounds it and a stage that butts up against it. I was also hampered by the fact I had a short tripod. A taller tripod would have enabled me to get a better view of the fountain. The most unique fountain in Epcot is located near Imaginations. Here, you will find an upside fountain that flows backwards. It is ringed by a jumping fountain that groups of kids have fun trying to catch. I think it is best photographed from the front. At night, it is lit by red lights. In order to add interest to my photographs of the fountains, I often used a 7x neutral density filter. This allowed me to shoot at shutter speeds from 2-10 seconds and blur the water.
Illuminations is the laser light and fireworks show that Epcot puts on nightly. This was surprisingly harder to photograph than I anticipated. Location is everything with this show. Choose the wrong spot and something will likely be blocking your view. I found this out the hard way. I had heard that the decks in front of Italy had good viewing. The bridge has a particularly good, clear view. I choose a raised platform which I thought would be good because it had an unobstructed view of the dome. Excpet that the show takes place to the left of the dome from this vantage point and poles from the Ventian gondola were directly in my way. Oops. I did use them to my advantage in one shot, however. I was also hampered by my short tripod. A taller tripod would;ve allowed me to stand with a clearer view. Next time, I will know better. Another consideration is that there are three islands of trees that may block some of your viewpoint form vantage points near other countries. Scouting this one out ahead of time is a must.
The Epcot area of Disney features many spectacular hotels which offer some very cool photo opportunities. My favorite was the Dolphin. It is a large hotel with a reflecting pool out in front and a fountain in the shape of (you guessed it)–a dolphin (well, a fish actually, but who’s counting). I used a neutral density filter again on this fountain to blur the water. The fountain is good to photograph either in daylight or at night. The Dolphin is lit in the morning by the sun so get there early to get the best reflections.
Animal Kingdom is like photographing a zoo for the most part. Except that glass and wire fencing are missing at many of the pens which gives you an unobstructed view. I really enjoyed photographing the animals here. You can also take a short safari ride which gets you out into the open and into the actual animal enclosures. This was very cool and a good way to get close to some of the animals. I went early in the day, though, which meant I was forced to use higher ISOs and slower shutter speeds than I may have wanted to. I might advise riding this attraction twice to give yourself a chance to photograph the animals at different times of day. The centerpiece attraction of this park is the Tree of Life. Although fake, this tree has some intricate carvings and can make for some cool photographs.
You’ll notice I didn’t mention Hollywood Studios in this post. I found very little to photograph here during the day when I visited. The Muppet fountain is fun but otherwise this isn’t a photogenic park. During the holidays, the Streets of America is lit up in lights and I’m assuming this would be something to photograph but I didn’t visit the park at night so I can’t comment.
I had fun photographing some of the neighborhood kids in their Halloween costumes this past Friday. I had set up a background and a couple of lights earlier in the day so I decided to take advantage of the setup to do some Halloween portraits. The black backdrop is what I had set up. It worked pretty well except for a boy in a black wizard robe. I couldn’t get enough background separation. For everything else, I think it worked out well. Next year I will buy an orange pumpkin fleece background or something similar so I have an alternate backdrop handy. Because of time constraints, I couldn’t spend a lot of time with each child. I had to think of poses that would be easy for the kids to get into and shoot quickly. Then, I just let the the kids’ creativity take over.
I got the opportunity to photograph the Colorado high school softball tournament this weekend. The tournament featured a number of upsets and dramatic finishes. Grandview defeated Broomfield 3-2 in 10 innings and then advanced to the final to play the #1 seeded Fossil Ridge. Grandview scored 6 runs in the third inning to take the state title, 6-2. As always, the games highlighted the joy of sports.
I spent the better part of a day photographing fall color in the mountains near Denver earlier this week. I started at Guanella Pass, did a short hike on top of Kenosha Pass, and finished by driving over Boreas Pass near Breckenridge. The colors were about 40% turned. Today, the color should be at peak in these areas. I can’t wait to get out and look for fall color around Aspen and Crested Butte next weekend.
I just spent three days in northern Colorado hiking and taking photos. The wildflowers were good only in a couple of spots–Shrine Pass and Dumont Lake on Rabbit Ears Pass. But the scenery was great all around. After hiking to the summit of Shrine Pass, I spent a night at Steamboat Lake. I saw a beautiful rainbow and the winds calmed for a perfect reflection in the morning. Finally, I hiked to American Lakes near Cameron Pass. It was a great hike. The small lakes are located in a lush green valley near the western edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. The hike only took about 2.5 hours to go the 4.5 miles. A hike that everyone should do at some point.
