Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012

Hey Gang,

One of my resolutions for 2012 is to blog regularly.  I want to post on a variety of topics, so, if you have anything in mind, let me know in the comments, or send me an email.

I'm going to start off the year with something fun.  At the end of last year, I shot the Grey Cup.  For you non-Canadians, it's like the Superbowl, but a much bigger deal.  Now, I don't shoot a lot of football, as matter of fact I turned down an assignment from a very cool magazine, because I didn't feel like I was the right photographer for the job.  But, more about that in another post.

I was shooting for Corbis.  One of the agencies that I contribute to regularly, and the agency that I will be working with during the London 2012 summer Olympic games.  That's right, I'm going to London, BOO-YAH!  But more about that in another post too.  You see, I've got lots to talk about this year.

More after the jump...

But, back to the Grey Cup.  Like I said, I haven't shot much football recently, about 20 years ago was the last time I shot a game, and even then, I didn't shoot it much  I'm not really sure why I haven't shot more football.  I have probably shot more than 500 professional baseball games, and close to that many pro hockey games.  Not so much with the football.  Regardless, it was a blast.  The home team won, and nobody rioted.  Win-win.

As well as shooting from field level with a couple of cameras, I also set-up two remotes.  Remote number 1, was hooked up to a Pocket Wizard and I fired it with a transmitter, when I saw something interesting.

Remote #1

View from remote #1

The second remote was set-up a bit differently.  I used the Nikon D700's built-in intervalometer.  This allowed me to program the time that I wanted the camera to start shooting (45 mins. before game time) and how often (once every 20 seconds).  I let the camera run until about an hour and a half after the game ended.  That worked out to be be one frame every 20 seconds for about 5 hours and 20 mins, for a total of 959 frames.  I then put them together in Quicktime Pro to make a movie which shows the entire Grey Cup in 1 minute and 20 seconds, including the half time show.  Which is probably the best way to see a Nickelback show, in 10 seconds or less.

Remote #2

 
Time lapse sequence

The embedded video is fairly small, so if you would like to see a larger version, go to my website and follow the link to the Grey Cup gallery, when prompted, enter the password "GreyCup".  Be patient, it's big.


Here are a few more from the game...


Pre-game introductions

Game action

Trophy presentation

Partying with the cheerleaders

Winning quarterback

Losing quarterback




6 comments:

Marc Koegel said...

Nice blog Christopher - Welcome back to the blogosphere! I share the same resolution, so let's keep an eye on each other to make sure we follow through! Looking forward to reading what you'll be up to this year!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back!

Get into London early is my advice. I'm in the uk at the moment and it's very interesting....people clearly headed towards significant financial problems, unemployment (ESP in under 25's and amongst minorities) is not good and I see almost a perfect storm for civil unrest ahead and maybe during the Olympics. The current security budget is £550m but no way is that gonna be enough - Vancouver spent more than that at the winter games. There's plenty of good shooting to be had outside the venues let alone inside.

Now if only I had a pass.....

Desi said...

LONDON! SO JEALOUS!!!

moni said...

Great shots, love the time lapse. I shot some amateur football a while back. It's tough because the play can end up anywhere on the field. Especially difficult trying catch a pass completion.

belle ancell said...

Welcome back Christopher. The Time Lapse is very cool.

Admin said...

Welcome back Christ!

Nice shots and good thinking of the time lapse. I saw you from the TV when I was watching the game at CBC.

Good luck for your London trip.