Powered By Blogger

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Redwood Rebels vs Organic Panic 14 March 2015


some photo highlights.

I placed remotes at turns 3 and 4 and also a new one at turn 2 above the audience... I think I need to dial it up to 1/4 power next time.

remotes at turns 3 and 4

remotes at turns 2 and 3

rebels_vs_panic_L3401883 1


rebels_vs_panic_L3401875 1

rebels_vs_panic_L3402040 1

Tara vs Queen!

rock and roll

merged horns

rock and roll!

rebels_vs_panic_L3402288 1

rebels_vs_panic_L3402262 1

rebels_vs_panic_L3402251 1

passing the star

all the points!






the full flickr set is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157649065787753/
prints at zenfolio: http://nocklebeast.zenfolio.com/redwood_rebels_vs_organic_panic_20150314

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Santa Cruz Homecoming

Santa Cruz is skating at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium again, and they have three teams: 

The Steamer Janes.

scdg_L3400667 1

The Redwood Rebels.

 scdg_L3400704 1

And The Organic Panic.

organic panic skateout

The last time I shot at the Civic was in October 2012, and I was just trying out shooting with a remote flash and balancing it with an on-camera flash.


scdg_bombshells_vs_SoCalDerby_L7025813
Santa Cruz vs SoCal, 27 October 2012.

I have two remote flashes super-clamped to little platforms on each side of the main stage, and then I can use a bit of on-camera flash if I wander to far away from them. 

scdg_L1045826 1

The venue is a bit smaller than the KP Arena.  Teams and coaches sit in the middle and ref-lanes used by the audience between jams to get another beer or find their way to the bathrooms.

Here's some photo highlights of the three mini bouts introducing the new home teams.

scdg_L3400664 1

scdg_L3400730 1

scdg_L3400814 1

scdg_L3400860 1

scdg_L3400908 1

scdg_L3400915 1

scdg_L3400963 1

scdg_L3401030 1

scdg_L3401041 1

pippi and raven

scdg_L3400723 1

scdg_L3400845 1

scdg_L3400960 1

scdg_L3400996 1

scdg_L3401044 1

scdg_L3401094 1

scdg_L3401128 1

scdg_L3401116 1

Another night of good derby comes to an end.

another night of good derby comes to an end



The full flickr site is here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157650557536058/.
And prints are at zenfolio here:  http://nocklebeast.zenfolio.com/scdg_homecoming



the olden days, Santa Cruz Roller Girls

A long time ago, Santa Cruz skated under the name of Santa Cruz Roller Girls.  They skated at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium and had THREE home teams, The Beach Flat Betties, The Fistfull Dollies, and The Lost Girls.

I believe there remain five skaters from those 2008 teams skating.  Two of them skating elsewhere.

reminiscing_L1002237


This was my rookie year.  I believe I used the "A" setting on the shutter speed dial and then attempted to estimate how many f-stops darker the background was to set the "EV" setting.

go!

I've pretty much abandoned the "A" setting for roller derby, shooting manual exposure and manual flash power when using flash.

flying the pink flag

It appears that focusing (with the center focus patch) had a higher priority than framing

 vampires suck

 smiley Shammy

 And I wasn't into cropping so much back then either.

Sheila puttin' the hurt on Lulu

bettie hangin' by a string?






Sunday, March 8, 2015

the Kaiser Permanente Arena as a venue for roller derby

For two years the Santa Cruz Derby Girls skated at the Kaiser Permanente Arena, and this is a little something about what it was like to shoot there.

SantaCruz_vs_SinCity_L7028271

The place is lit.  


The KP Arena is not a dimly lit roller rink (with weirdly colored walls or ceilings) or a dimly lit warehouse.

It's lit for television, but the lighting is fine for still photography of what is at times a fast moving sport.

Pippi Hardsocking #45 breaks out of the pack wearing skull kneepads

Setting the exposure at the KP Arena was wonderful because all the thinking about it was thought and finished with long ago.  The only thing left to do was the doing.  Set the ISO to 1250, aperture at f2.8, shutter speed at 1/750.  The shutter speed could of been set to 1/1000th, but I wanted to make sure that faces were lit, and I could always burn the highlights in post.  Exposure was just that easy.

2bombshells_vs_badapples_L3408743 1

1SCDG_SugarSkulls_vs_Hollister_L3013033

2scdg_bombshells_vs_treasurevalley_L3016024 (1)

2groms_vs_bakersfield_L3400750 (1)

Often times with the black and white camera I'd stop it down to f4 and double the ISO

1SCDG_SugarSkulls_vs_Hollister_L1038625

Every once in a while I'd shoot wide open and set the shutter dial to "A" if I didn't want to think too hard doing the f-stop math.

1sirens_vs_drivers_L3401242 (1)

 I always had to adjust the color balance a little bit.  Perhaps it was the light, perhaps it was the light reflected off of the blue track, or maybe it was my camera's quirky sense of color.  Sometimes the Undead Betties purple uniforms were a bit too blue

2sirens_vs_bettys_L3018278 
(1)

and sometimes skin tones, especially in the shadows were a bit too red or purple,

some times it pays off to get a sneak 
preview of the halftime show before the doors open.

but these are minor quibbles.  Nothing like dealing with mixing flash and green flourescents or the glorious oompa-loompa skin tones made from shooting under sodium lamps.


It was a roomy enough venue; you could shoot from the inside,

1scdg_hellcats_vs_ccad_L2082338

including action shots of the referees on the inside of the track.

killahertz is not lead jammer. he's not even pointing at the lead jammer!

 I could always get some nice shots of the referees conferring on the inside,

1shells_vs_belles_L3032918 (1)

shells_vs_belles_L3032858 (1)

and I often could get some fun shots of warmups within the ref lane on the inside before the general audience was let in the door.

scdg_hellcats_vs_ccad_L2082259

dancing

sigh.

Just trying to get over reminiscing about the old days.