best of 2010

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157625665438316/



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

flash attack!

What are the chances I'll catch another photog's flash in my photo? Actually the chances are really really small.  But it does happen occasionally. 


jammin' by nocklebeast

Now the interesting thing about looking through the viewfinder of a rangefinder is that sometimes I actually see the flash go off (there is no moving mirror that blocks my view as in an SLR).   One of my favorite photographs isn't very good. But it's one of my favorites because of how I experienced taking the photograph.  I see Boss Hogg's flash go off in the viewfinder, and it all happens in slow motion, as I'm suddenly aware of him far far in the background.


Blinded by Boss Hogg by nocklebeast

Other times I won't see the flash in the viewfinder, but when the image pops up on the little TV screen on the back of the camera, I wonder if my camera's light meter is broken.

 
 what are the chances I'll catch another photog's flash in my photo? by nocklebeast

The photo above was particularly hard to try to "fix" in software as the camera (in auto-ISO mode) metered at ISO 2500, but really the ISO should have been about ISO 320 or 160, after the flash cannon went off. It has a very low contrast almost solarized sort of look.



I actually caught Adrian Valenzuela's "flash cannons" (I think they were "alien bees") several times that night (Santa Cruz plays Jet City's Pink Pistols).


Sheila skates in bright light by nocklebeast


again! by nocklebeast


bringing it home to Candieland by nocklebeast


lots of numbers on the 3-foul white board list  by nocklebeast

Ever since then sometimes other photographers helpfully supply some off camera flash for me (which makes me sometimes wonder...hmmm.... maybe there's something to this notion of off-camera flash).



flashed by nocklebeast

I think the off-camera flash at last year's Westerns (Derby on the Rocks in Denver) was helpfully supplied by Joe Rollerfan, but I can't be sure



Foul Bundy examines the line by nocklebeast


flashed by nocklebeast


flashed by nocklebeast

In this case the off-camera flash totally changed the nature of the color shift when shooting cross-processed slide film.



flash attack by nocklebeast

In fact, most of the time I'll convert the photos to black and white because in addition to confusing the camera's exposure, it will confuse the cameras auto-white balance.  And often I won't be able to get the correct color adjustment in software, but sometimes I'll get close.

 

Some more "flash attacks" by other photogs:


off camera flash by nocklebeast


flash attack by nocklebeast


catching another photog's flash by nocklebeast


Roxy flashed me. by nocklebeast

And really, it's probably just as well, that most of the photogs at Rollin' on the River were not told that flash wasn't allowed.



the ref has a halo by nocklebeast

my shameless confession

My name is Mark “nocklebeast” Nockleby and I’m a roller derby fan and photographer.

My interest in photography has waxed and waned and waxed again since junior high/high school when I shot with a Minolta XG-M.  I took a black and white photography course in college.

hydrant by nocklebeast (1989)
 

After a dry spell, I was seduced my “lomography” and plastic cameras.   

Walkin' the dog by nocklebeast (2007)

My experience with digital photography started with a couple of crappy point and shoots, which I mostly used to take photos of potholes. So I could more effectively complain about them.

Front Street pothole by nocklebeast (2007)

In the summer of 2007, I saw my first roller derby bout, the first round of the Rat City playoffs. It was epic.  I wrote a gushing fan boy account of the bout here: http://nocklebeast.blogspot.com/2010/03/it-only-takes-one-bout-to-get-hooked-on.html. 

For my choice of my first fancy digital camera, the seed was planted by a friend in Seattle, and in February 2008, I succumbed to Leica’s marketing and the notion of shooting with a digital camera with the least amount of computer in it.  One of the design goals of Leica’s first digital rangefinder was to use the same lenses as their film rangefinders, which meant lenses with manual aperture and manual focus. 

Does this lens work? by nocklebeast (2008)

In March 2008, I found a Santa Cruz Sentinel article about Santa Cruz Roller Girls’ first bout at the Civic. I kicked myself for missing it, and I immediately went online to buy tickets for the next bout.  The Civic’s website said that photography is forbidden for some of their events.  “Oh, I just got this fancy new camera! That would be a blast!”  (Never mind that rangefinders are supposedly not suited to sports photography).  I haven’t missed a Santa Cruz bout since (and I still occasionally shoot film at the bouts).

 Get the jammer  by nocklebeast (2008)

skating through trouble and green slime by nocklebeast (2010)


reaching by nocklebeast (2010)

I’ve also attended some Silicon Valley and Bay Area bouts, and some WFTDA tournaments, and I made it back to Seattle for one Rat City bout since my first bout there.

Pia with the star off by nocklebeast (2009)


Burlybot skates fast by nocklebeast (2010)


blowin' kisses to the crowd by nocklebeast (2008)

 
 Hambone, watching, waiting by nocklebeast (2009)


Dumptruck calls it by nocklebeast (2010)


jammin' by nocklebeast (2010)


Psycho Babble by nocklebeast (2010)


put me in Coach by nocklebeast (2009)