Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Sled Dog Classic Postponed until March 7th


Hi Everyone, the Sled Dog Classic Photo Shoot at Punderson State Park is now scheduled for March 7th, 2009. I'm planning on going on the new date if you'd like to attend on March 7th please
Email Me

I just found out that the races will now start at 10:00am so we will meet at Punderson at 9:30am


March 7th & 8th Punderson
(NE) Sled Dog Classic
Fun & Fitness Watch sled dog racers mush their teams through challenging race courses
• Spectators are admitted free •
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 2/21/2009. 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 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 : 9:30am Races are from 10am 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


View Larger Map


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.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Seagull Shoot Slideshow



Thanks to the suggestion by Jerry Jelinek, about 7 or 8 photographers ventured down to Gordon Park (E 72nd St) to take photos of the gulls on Lake Erie on Saturday Jan 3rd. Jerry couldn't make it on Saturday but he was going down on Sunday to check it out for himself. It was a great day on Saturday, the sun was shining and the sky was blue and it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. There were hundreds of gulls flying around and floating on the Lake,if you like taking photos of birds this is the place to go. I haven't done much bird photography and a lot of shots didn't come out as I hoped they would, but I did get some shots I liked, you can check them out in the slide show above or go to my gallery Seagulls

We all had a great time and everyone wants to go back for another shoot, so in a couple of weeks we'll probably go back and do a late afternoon and sunset shoot of the Gulls. So if you're interested or have any comments Email Me