Faultline Derby Devilz vs Tulare Kings at Bolado Park

The Faultline Derby Devilz out of Hollister, California played there first bout against Tulare Kings Roller Derby at Bolado Park, a little south of Hollister. 

This was my first outdoor derby bout.  Bout time was 1pm, in February in California with a bunch of fluffy clouds occassionally passing by to create some momentary shade.



I shot most of the bout at f8, instead of f2.8.  Yeah, that's right, roller derby and "f8 and be there."



I just couldn't get over the depth of field of the photos when editing them. 



I mean Jesus Feist! That depth of field is crazy!



Even with the contrasty light there seemed to be a bit of a haze to the photos... so I added a touch of constast or stomped on the lower part of the level curve for many of them.  Oh, and check out these blue shadows.







The bout was played on a concrete outdoor patio.  The concrete had to be swept extra clean for the second layer of tape to hold down the lines defining the track.



Also the track was a little smaller than standard. I was a little leery about shooting from the center but it worked out okay.





Now the really crazy thing was the occasional IR contamination in the photos in spite of having a UV/IR cut filter on the lens because the sun was so bright.  Now, you can't see it in this photo, because I converted it to black and white (and played around with the color mixing and level curves), but this black Monterey Bay hoodie is actually slightly purple in the out-of-the-camera digital negative.



Okay, just a few more photo highlights.

 




























The full flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157632846057805/

SVRG Dot.Kamikazes vs V-Town Derby Dames (16 February 2013)

some photo highlights!

















 

 



the full flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157632802236324/

SVRG KillaBytes vs San Fernando Valley "like OMGs" at San Jose Skate

some photo highlights

















the full flickr set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157632795333704/

SCDG Harbor Hellcats vs SVRG Killabytes warehouse scrimmage

some photo highlights





















When this photo came up on the computer screen while editing, I thought, "Look at that air! But I've chopped off their heads."  "But wait! this is a framed in the camera five on five cover! This is brilliant!"


the full flickr set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157632759151800/

Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells vs B.A.D. Girls Oakland Outlaws warehouse scrimmage

Ah! First derby since last October.  Gotta break the rust on the focus rings of my lenses free.

some photo highlights.











gotta love the mattress is the back ground huh?













the full flickr set is here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157632681096947/

our delusions are powerful

I suppose I should speak for myself.

My delusions are powerful.

I suppose that's another one of my delusions.

This week I was reminiscing about the photos from my first bout I took a camera to.  I remember this one photo in particular.  Back then, after I uploaded the photos to flickr, I went to the old Santa Cruz Roller Girls website/discussion board to create an account so I could announce, "hey y'all! photos!"  But before I could finish the account creation process (username? how about "nocklebeast"  password? "chickenwings!"), Robin YoLife cropped one of my photos and made it the banner photo on the website.

I recently made another "digital print" from that five-year-old digital negative.



Now Robin's choice of photo pleased and amused me because this was the photo I convinced myself that shooting derby with a rangefinder could work.

Yeah, a little deluded, huh?

It's a little like how last spring I convinced myself that I needed a 24mm lens.



Now, did I really really need a 24mm lens?

Well, I bought it didn't I?



And I still shoot derby with a rangefinder.

found derby photographs 2012

During a typical bout, I might shoot 650 photos.  And since my camera's "burst rate" is two photos a second, I don't bother to shoot in "continuous" mode.  Each photo corresponds to it's own press of the shutter button.



I typically post about 20% of the photos from each bout.  About 25% of those photos I'd rate between "marginal" and "brilliant." Which means 75% of the photos are crap. One Hundrend Percent Pure Crap! This isn't false modesty to say that 70-75% of what I shoot is crap (believe me I have an ego).  When I say it's crap, it's crap!



A defect of my current workflow is that I don't delete the 80% of all the roller derby photos that "don't make the team" in the first round of editing.



Now, since I don't shoot with a "full frame" camera (raw files are only 10 megapixels large), I have a certain "license to be lazy."   Taking this license was just fine when I shot about 6-7 bouts a year.



But I shot whole or parts of over 70 bouts in 2012... and those photos that didn't make the team need to be deleted to free up hard-drive space.



For the moment, that means deleting those photos by hand in Capture One.  But that also means I get to review (quickly) all those photos that didn't make the team the first time... and every once in a while I'll find a photo that for whatever reason I find compelling.

In the end,  I "found" 61 photos from that 80%.


mistress doom

I just really like the idea of mollusks and mammals trying to get along with each other.

The full "found" photographs of 2012 set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157630596924456/