Saturday, July 24th was the third annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. While there were three walks taking place in Phoenix, and one in Tucson, it was the walk in Flagstaff that caught my attention. Who wants to walk around Phoenix taking pictures in July, it’s 108 friggin’ degrees? Not that I need a reason to go up North to the mountains and pine trees, but walking around downtown Flagstaff in 70 degree weather taking pictures with other photographers makes for a great one.
The people and the equipment were diverse as expected. It was great talking with everyone about style, technique and gear. Chris, the organizer seemed to be a gear-head like me and while he looked longingly at my Canon EOS 7D, I coveted his Canon EF 70-200mm F4 IS USM zoom lens. The other payback is viewing everyone’s results. While many of us took similar paths and photos of similar subjects, everyone saw things a little differently. In some cases folks captured images of subjects I didn’t even notice. There were definitely a few photos that generated an “I wish I had seen that” or “I wish I’d have taken that photo”.
The photos I took from this walk also gave me more opportunities to experiment with HDR. I enjoy the look of HDR and believe in some cases it is a legitimate method of expression. Not all images, and subjects, benefit from HDR but as they say “art is in the eye of the beholder”. I have discovered that the HDR Toning Adjustment within Adobe Photoshop CS5 offers impressive creative control over single image HDR which can produce subtle results or ‘over the top’ effects. However, I usually choose Photomatix Pro from HDRSoft when I want to exaggerate HDR. I’m happy with many of the final results.
It has occurred to me that I have been ignoring this blog since the Fall youth sports season began. So it seems fitting that this current posting “Youth Soccer Ends” follows the last one; “Youth Sports Begins.”
Over the last few months I’ve been able to capture some wonderful moments of these kids improving their skills while learning valuable lessons about teamwork. I hope I have successfully portrayed their high level of effort within these images. I’ve put together a small gallery of images taken over the course of the Fall 2008 soccer season.
My wife and I recently spent a few days at Venice Beach in California, without the kids. Now that is what I call a real vacation. 
With the summer sizzle finally ending here in the Sonoran Desert, I can go outside without the fear of spontaneous combustion. I ventured out to a nearby park and found this little guy also enjoying the cooler weather. Image was taken with the Sony A100 DSLR and the classic Minolta Maxxum 70-210mm f4 “beer can” with a setting of f16@1/160. Focal length was 210mm with the camera set to ISO 400. 
Summer is finally over here in the valley of the sunstroke. As we say goodbye to 100+ degree afternoons youth sports have kicked off. Although the first youth soccer game I captured back in September took place under a 105 degree, cloudless sky. I have to give those kids credit for giving 100 percent on the field under those conditions, and still managing to have fun. Luckily the following weekend was significantly cooler.
Here are a couple of images taken from recent youth soccer and flag football games. My standard equipment is the Sony Alpha 100 with the classic Minolta Maxxum 70-210mm f4 lens, also known as the ‘beer can.’ The camera is usually set to ISO 400 and focus mode at Continuous Focus.
Parents are happy to have the kids outside, without bursting into flames, and the kids have been playing with unbridled enthusiasm. Hopefully I can capture some of these moments to ensure lasting memories of these brief events in their young lives. I think the hardest part of these types of shoots is to keep focused on the action through the lens and not get caught up in the game itself. Occasionally I find myself pulling away from the viewfinder to watch the action, or reaction, and might miss a good shot. Luckily this doesn’t happen very often.
I’m definitely looking forward to the upcoming new DSLR cameras from Sony. I will probably wait until the ‘pro’ model is released next year to decide to either invest in that model or the upcoming A700 ‘prosumer’ model. Once I get the chance to compare specs and prices. For now the A100 does everything I need it to do in these youth sports situations. 
Photographers Jim Richardson and J. Henry Fair provide some insight into their individual approach to landscape photography on the Popular Photography and Imaging website.
