BAD Girls: SF ShEvil Dead vs Richmond Wrecking Belles

The full flickr set is here:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157626157695700/

I braved the great Bay Area snowmageddon of 2011 to make it to the Craneway Pavillion in Richmond for a Bay Area Derby Girls interleague bout: San Francisco ShEvil Dead vs the Richmond Wrecking Belles.

I got there a little later than usual, so I parked my self in the suicide zone at turn 3 instead of turn 1. 

The light is a little different at turn 3 than at turn 1.  There might be a bit more light at turn 1, but I still have used flash there.... hoping to add a little bit of light with the flash.  Now my camera has a lot of manual controls, but it does have a light meter and it's own little brain, and the fancy flash on top of it has it's own little brain, and they talk to each other. But many times during the Bay Area vs. Cincy bout last year, they would conspire to set off an atomic bomb, like this one:



I'd see the bomb go off in the view finder, but I don't know if anyone else experienced this as an atomic bomb or not.

But this time around, at turn 3, the scene is fairly strongly back lit, which can result in some low-contrasty lens flare, but the fancy flash seemed to handle itself fairly well at turn 3 (just like the manufacturer's glossy brochures says it should). No atomic bombs, this time around.

I got some nice shadows from the back light


and you can still see an example of lens flare (upper right) in this photo



I'm just going to make some cryptic notes about the secret sauce here (w/ flash: camera ISO 1250, EV -2/3. flash: TTL (f2.8) EV -2).

And a few more photos














The full flickr set is here:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157626157695700/

Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells vs Bay Area's Berkeley Resistance (January 29, 2011)

Bout photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157625935507902/ 

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells host Bay Area's Berkeley Resistance in a closed scrimmage at a westside warehouse.



As you can see, the middle of the track is not occupied with seating for the teams, and so I was able to shoot from the middle of the track for the first time. 

As you may already know, I shoot with a camera that is a little unconventional in that there is no auto focus, only manual focus.  When I shoot from the outside of the track, usually the roller girls will skate into focus and then out of focus (I very rarely try to chase after the roller girls with the focus ring of the lens).  Last weekend I discovered that the roller girls can skate around and around the track, and if they skate far on the outside the whole time, they may never skate into focus.  But I did manage to get a few good shots from the inside.







The Berkeley Resistance is a new league team for Bay Area (joining the existing BADG league teams, the Oakland Outlaws, the SF ShEvil Dead, and the Richmond Wrecking Belles). Maybe half of Berkeley's roster are new skaters and half are from the other league teams.

Berkeley's team roster can be found here: www.facebook.com/pages/TheBerkeleyResistance/108727882529761.  

Santa Cruz's roster can be found here: http://www.santacruzderbygirls.org/teams/boardwalk-bombshells).