Seagull Photo Shoot 1/4/09

Jerry has come up with a great idea for a photo shoot on Sunday Jan 4, 2009. Here's the info from Jerry:

I have heard that the gulls are back in FORCE on Lake Erie. Right at the east 72nd st exit of I-90.
I'm going to head up on Sunday this weekend (Jan 4th).
If others have interest let me know. We could car pool up or meet there.

Here is a link to abstract images I shot back in Feb 2008:

Jerry's Gull Photos

I'm hoping to catch even better abstract ideas this year. This is a great place to practice panning with birds in flight. You can practice all day long if you wish. The birds are literally non stop.

The weather forecast for Sunday morning looks to be cold (20 F ish). The lake can be very cold with wind. Also the ice in the parking lots can be brutal. I vividly recall in Feb nearly falling down just getting out of my car.

But if you want to go, let me know.

I'm thinking of trying to get to the lake shore around 10:30am. We should have overcast skies, so really any time is probably ok. I'm figuring by 10:30am we should have more light to shoot.

Hope to see you this weekend.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Jerry

If you plan on going Email Jerry

NOTE: Due to rainy weather predicted for Sunday, some of us are going to head down on Saturday January 3rd instead. Use your best judgement to decide what day you want to go. Check the weather forecasts on the right side of this blog for the latest weather updates.

When: Sunday January 4, 2009 10:30am  
Where: E 72 St.

GPS Coordinates:
Lat 41.53955
Long -81.63907


To get directions from your location click on the camera icon:

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Sled Dog Classic at Punderson State Park 1/10/09

January 10-11 Punderson
(NE) Sled Dog Classic
CANCELLED
Rescheduled Feb 21-22 Fun & Fitness Watch sled dog racers mush their teams through challenging race courses • Spectators are admitted free • Pre-registration and entry fee are required for racers •
For information call 440-564-2279




Hi Everyone a cool place to shoot this winter is the Sled Dog Classic at Punderson State Park on 1/10/2009. The event is free for spectators. This should be a fun Photo Shoot, I've never photographed Sled Dog Races before and I'm really looking forward to it.

They are also racing on 1/11/2009 if you can't make it on the 10th. If the weather is bad on this weekend the rescheduled dates are 2/21 and 2/22

They have all different classes of races and even have a Kid n Mutt Fun Run

More information can be found here: Sled Dog Classic Race Info

Time : 8:30am Races are from 9am to 3PM
Place: Punderson State Park
Park Map: Punderson State Park Map
Directions: Click on the camera icon to get directions from your location. To view a larger map Click on "View Larger Map" below.

GPS Coordinates
latitude: 41.46118938889867
longitude: -81.21947765350342


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Sled Dog Photo Tips

This is my first time photographing Sled Dog races and I always like to be prepared when I photograph a new event. One way to do this is to study other photographers work, by doing this you can see what works and what doesn't work. A good place to find photos of the event you are going to photograph is on the photo sharing sites. Since I have my photos on Smugmug, I figured that would be a good place to start, so I searched Smugmug for "Sled Dogs" and lots of galleries popped up with photos of Sled Dog races. Some photos were good, some more like snapshots and some were outstanding. Go here to see the Sled Dog Galleries

So what did I learn?

1. The best shots are taken with the Sled Dogs running toward you. Shots from the side are not as dramatic

2. Get down low at the dogs eye level.

3. Try and take some human interest shots of the dogs and their owners

4. Sled Dogs are cool, try and get some good portrait shots of them.

5. Try to capture the peak action.

6. Try to show how strong these animals are as they pull the sleds.

Well those are some of my tips, if anyone else has any tips to share, just click on "comments" below and leave your tips, comments and suggestions.

If you are going on the Sled Dog Classic Shoot or any cold weather shoot you want to keep your hands warm but still be able to use the controls on your camera so what do you do? You might want to try a pair of Glommitts, Glommitts are a combination of a glove and a mitten.

Glommitts will keep your hands warm when you're not using your camera and the top mitten part folds back to expose your fingers when you are taking a shot.

There are a lot of different makes and models. Just Goggle glommitts to find out where you can purchase them.

Glommitts can be found at most sporting good stores. I get a lot of my stuff at Cabela's online. Click on the Cabela's link and enter glommitts in the search field. Mine are a couple of years old so they may not carry the brand above anymore, but they probably have new and improved models.