These are some of my favorite individual shots.....(by team and in no particular order)

The lighting for these were strictly ambient light. We shot with the kids in the shade and the poor photographer (ME!) in the unrelenting sun. Since we were on the gravel portion of the church campus - it acted like a GIGANTO light reflector and offered beautiful diffused light for the kids portraits. The flip side is that I had to stand in the middle of the reflector and tan myself.

The Behind the Scene's candids are at the bottom on this post. Onto the portraits!



























See - the kids were in the shade, and I stationed myself in the harsh sun.



I wasn't usually alone though - several parents also stood nearby. My setup.....

Dynatran Tripod, Nikon D90 with Sigma 70-200 HSM II f2.8 and a camping stool. 49er hat worn sideways to block the sun from my eyes so I could actually see into the viewfinder.



One of the parents and coaches (K. Lau) was a great help posing and fixing the kids. Check out this candid video of him "working".

http://bacbc.smugmug.com/gallery/8228834_K2d57/1/533295551_5Wx9p/Medium

Doing these were actually more challenging than I thought. Trying to focus for all those kids in a short period of time was hard. I found myself missing sharp focus opportunities and botching camera settings. In many of the shots above, you can probably tell which ones I accidentally used F9 and which I used F2.8. Also the sun kept shifting positions as the morning continued so the lighting quality really varied across the whole.

next post..... more candid action shots and the awards sessions.....

The challenge: How to take good outdoor group shots at BACBC. There aren't many good places to do this where you don't have cars, buses, or buildings cluttering up the background. So, when I was asked to take the team photos for T-ball/Baseball Ministry, this was the first question that I asked myself. My solution? My wife suggested that I go up high and just use the grass field as a background. It's pretty, and appropriate for the subject.

My set up:

The results:



 
 






In general, I think these turned out ok. I wish I had paid more attention to the details like positioning each kid, what they were doing, where they were standing, etc. Time was very short and we had lots of kids and teams to cycle thru - so something had to give.

Next Entry - The individual portraits......

Last September (2008), my new wife and I went to Reno, NV with her parents to watch the "Great Reno Hot Air Balloon Races".

This was a new experience for me, and definitely something I'd like to do again. We woke up from our hotel room just before dawn and drove over to the park which was hosting the event. We found parking and HIKED into the park with hundreds (thousands?) of other people. The sun still have not come up, so we all used flashlights to see the trail before us.

When we arrived they had the ceremonial "dawn patrol". A few balloons get to be the first ones to launch before he sun rises. This was pretty cool to watch cause the balloons REALLY light up in the dark!



This is pretty much a full access event. As long as you are safe and don't do anything stupid - you can walk up and talk to the pilots and even help by grabbing a rope and stuff.

 

Its really exciting to watch the buckets and balloons rise from the ground. I can't really explain it, there's just an energy there.... especially when it lifts off and the wind grabs it and it turns in an expected direction TOWARD your head - forcing you to scamper away. (Fun!)






The next big thing was the launching of the GIANT Eagle balloon and the playing of the national anthem. A few planes did a fly by during this time including the "lost pilot" formation. This eagle was HUGE and definitely not what you imagine when you think of a hot air balloon.





there were other shaped balloons too.







At this point, things starting getting crazy. all the other teams started to simultaneously launch. You really have to watch were you were walking cause you might walk into someone's cable or flaming blow torch! My wife said it looked like a bunch of "rising muffings in the oven". As one by one, each balloon filled with air and poofed into the sky.









I think this balloon was having problems, so people walking by took the time to help.











 
There are more photos here: http://kjdragon.smugmug.com/gallery/5921863_BfDsm

It's been a couple of years since I photographed T-Ball Ministry at my church. I went by there to scout out some angles for team photos and portraits and to get a feel for the lighting conditions.

All photos shown were taken with my new Nikon D90 with Sigma 70-200 HSM f2.8

While I was there, I took a few snaps of the kids playing.....















The rest of the gallery is here: http://bacbc.smugmug.com/gallery/8019958_myKWJ