New Stock Site

I have been accepted and posted 26 images to Stockxpert. The link is: http://www.stockxpert.com/browse_image/profile/bhas and it is to the right along with the other two stock sites I submit to, Shutterstock and Bigstockphoto.

There are a few new pictures I only have on Stockxpert:

These are blurred Christmas lights. These types of pictures were very popular this year. They were mainly used as backgrounds and if you look for them, you see them everywhere. It will be interesting if they are as popular next year.

This was taken along with a hopscotch image at Beacon Heights playground. The hopscotch image is one of my best sellers, so hopefully this will do well. You never know what will sell.

Recent Reads

I thought I should include what I have been reading lately to my blog, so on the lower right hand side a new section has been added, "Recent Reads". Any suggestions or comments would be gladly accepted.

Fire

My son and a few other scouts earned their Arrow of Light for cub scouts. The pack hired a long time scouter, Clay Crowley, to perform the ceremony. The highlight is when asked if the boys have done their best, all the boys say, "Yes!", well some are not that sure. In order to prove their honesty, Clay takes their neckerchief and places in eagle's blood, then lights the neckerchief on fire. If the neckerchief burns, the boys have lied, or if the neckerchief survives the fire, they have told the truth.

I shot some with a flash, which doesn't capture the mood of the fire being the sole light in the room. The best one was with the lights and flash off. Shot at 3200 ISO f4.8 1/25, noise came through, but I don't mind.

Pheasant Hunt

Today my college friend Charles (friends call him Chuck, not Dr. Wall) and I, along with his father Ed, went out to Wasatch Wing & Clay for some pheasants and chukkar. We had a great hunt with Rick Clayton as our guide. We would all like to thank Rick for a wonderful November afternoon.

Chuck

Ed with Sadie

Our Guide Dog, Sadie

Our wonderful guide Rick Clayton

Rick and Sadie with Chuck's bird

Published

I had some of my paintball game photographs published in Paintball Sports Magazine. Follow the link below to the online version of the magazine:

http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?mid=wwqwgf&preview=1&_x=1#/page0/

Looking at it for the first time last night it appears I have about 15 pictures in the issue, including a good size one on pages 3 and 4. There is a lot in the story about the SPPL on pages 24 through 32. About three quarters of all those pictures are mine.

There are also some "snapshots" on page 56 & 57 of which three are mine.

Video Game Shots

I have been meaning to get some small shots up of the Greg Hastings video game player profiles up on this blog so everyone can see what I have been talking about the past few months.

Below are the four shots required for each player. A mug shot with their name and team so the programmers know who is in the picture, then a serious look, half smile and then a full smile.

I shot the players using to Photoflex small softboxes positioned on each side of the player. As we did not know the availability of electricity at each of the fields we opted to use the Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) with my Nikon D300 as the master then 2 SB800 within the softboxes. This worked really well for us as we were not reliant on the field owners.

Some people would come in and take snap shots of their players as I was shooting. The point and shoot flashes would throw of the system (they would not fire).

SPPL Finals

I got back late Monday night from the SPPL Finals held at Low Country Paintball in Georgia. The weather could of been better and given the thick canopy of the trees the lighting was dark on the fields. The Greg Hastings video game player profile shoot has finally wrapped up. I managed to get about 100 players at this event. I will get some samples up in a later post.

This player slipped into the bunker when I was not looking and began to fire my direction. I remained belly down for about three minutes until he moved on. Being hit is pretty common and hurts more than when playing as the hits are normally unexpected.

Normally the players are in some sort of camo outfit, but this player went with some color. The pink paint is made for the SPPL, but the paintball itself is pretty cool with its custom cover.

There are not a lot of girls that play. I would say about one per two teams (ten to fifteen players to a team, ten allowed on the field at one time). They do seem to get their picture taken more often then the boys.

Weekend Sports

I shot my sons' soccer and baseball games the past two weekends. We haven't had any of the games overlap, so four games each Saturday. Needless to say my time to shoot has been thin on Saturdays.

I am getting ready to go the SPPL finals over Columbus Day weekend. In an upcoming post I will show a few samples of the player profile I am doing for the Greg Hastings video game and will go through the set-up I use.

Antelope Island

We took a day trip to Antelope Island (the largest of the ten islands) in the Great Salt Lake. We broke down and bought an annual pass to the state parks since we seem to always be paying each excursion we take. We really saw antelope, allbeit they were a little far away:

We also saw some humming birds by the farm house:

And the highlight is the buffalo (American Bison):

I have been playing around with the Picture Controls in the D300 and took this set at VIVID +3 then boosted the colors in Photoshop some more.
We went during the middle of the day and the weather was wonderful; however, I really would like to go back in the morning or night for better light for the farm house items and landscape shots. Who knows, maybe some antelope and bufflo as well.

Redesigned Website

I have been redesigning my website to simplify and add a little color. Please take a look and let me know what you think. How is the layout? Is everything working?

SPPL Michigan Wrap Up & Pictures

It was another fun weekend shooting paintball pictures for the SPPL's Michigan Qualifier at Hell Survivors located in Pickney, MI (right next to Hell, MI, thus the name). I thought the picture below was pretty funny.



We had a cloud burst Friday night as we were setting up that had small rivers running everywhere, then Saturday the sun was out and hot. Sunday was great weather and the ability to get in the games to shoot was one of the most enjoyable to date.

The transition from the Nikon D40x to the D300 has been pretty smooth; however, the help I have received from Ken Rockwell's site on the fine tuning of the settings was noticeable to me in this last set of photographs. I would highly recommend his site, http://www.kenrockwell.com/.

I have posted all the pictures on my website, http://www.haslamphotography.com/. There you can see about 400 from the Michigan event, really the first 150 are the best.

Runner-up

I was called today by Kirkham's Outdoors and was told that my submitted photograph was a runner-up in their outdoor adventure contest. It was taken atop of Sundance last fall. The people are my family and our friends.

The photograph was taken with my Nikon D40x sitting on the camera bag and trigger by the self timer. The lens was my 18-55 (set at 18) and a polarizer. There was no intention to submit this photo for anything at the time I took it, but looking back on it I am glad I didn't zoom in to the faces which would of lost the sense of place.

Great Sports Shooter's Journal

I have not shot much this week as I have been watching the Olympics every night. Below is a link to the Chicago Tribune's sports photographer, Scott Strazzante:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-080804-olympics-strazzante-photogallery,0,3391161.photogallery

It is good insight into his working schedule and thoughts in capturing the Olympics. The first picture is the most recent post, with the last being before the games started.

I am off to Michigan this weekend for another SPPL qualifier and inidivdual/team shots for the new Grag Hastings paintball video game. New posts will follow.

Dream Assignment

Surfing the Shutterstock forums I found a post with the following link:

http://www.vincentlaforet.com/Gear/index.html

It is Vincent LaForet's webpage showing the equipment he is packing to cover the Olympics. Each picture has a caption under it talking about his trip and how to pack so much equipment.

It amazes me the amount coverage the Olympics get. Read his captions to each picture then think about the thousands of photographers. The logistics of the photography is only a small portion of the games. Image the planning and logistics for the games themselves.

The views of the photographers during Olympic coverage shows the inroads Nikon is making into to sports photography with the release of their D3. This market was dominated by Canon (all the big white lenses).

New Lens for My Favorite Subjects

I picked up the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 today and had to try it out. My models for the shoot are always willing although they never sit still. My black and white has gotten a little rusty, so it was time to try it again.

Neighorhood Parade

I shot this weekend our neighborhood parade. The children decorate their bikes (or scooters, or their strollers and wagons) while breakfast is being served. The local fire department then comes over to lead the children's parade around the block. At the end of the parade the firemen spray the kids from the water cannon atop of the truck. The water reaches 70 to 80 feet in the air. There were quite a few good shots of the kids in the water so I had to post one.

Another stock photo sold

Here is a picture I call "Big Money". I thought it would sell better, but I will take what it has earned so far. That's my club, now only if the money was real. The money was a gag gift from my brother-in-law's annual golf tournament. The fake money actually photographs quite well.

Stock Photography

I though I would post my most recent stock submission and it got downloaded (sold) today!

Oregon - Sample Pictures

Here are some more pictures of the Oregon Qualifier. All the pictures can be seen on my website: http://www.haslamphotography.com/gallery2008spplor.html

Oregon Wrap-up

I got back from Portland Monday morning (6:00am flight out). What a weekend. We got about four hours of sleep each night as we spent some long days at the field. The video game pictures got done, mostly on Saturday. Record heat on Saturday was unbearable, some of the refs got sick as they did not drink enough water. Sunday was better, then right as the awards ceremony finished that evening the clouds burst wide open and we had a total down pour for 20 minutes. I didn't get any good shots of it as I was getting the equipment for the video game shoot put away. I did not get out on the field as much as I hoped, but still have good pictures I will get up on the web shortly.

First Post - Portland OR Airport

Sitting at a high table by myself in the eating area of the airport I am eating Panda Express broccoli and beef with a chow mien side. No drink as my daily Coke quota has been met. There are a few guys from the SPPL coming in today as well for this weekend's qualifier. We will car pool out to the field (if they ever show up or find me or I find them - cellphones are wonderful) and hopefully this afternoon we can get most the individual shots for the Greg Hastings video game completed. Once the video game pictures are done I will then shoot the games this Saturday and Sunday (then real fun begins).

Flying into Portland (my first time here), it is what I expected. That being green, a ton of trees, and humidity over SLC's 15%. It is amazing to see how dry it is between Salt Lake City and the Olympic mountain range. I've have to research too make sure it is the Olympic range.

Ben