Haslam Photography

Salt Lake City

2011-02-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

I had a coworker in town from New York and he wanted to head out to get some shots of the mountains and downtown. We went up to Ensign Peak for the sunset and got a few OK shots, but then went to Temple Square. It was great to have downtown to ourselves as I only go down for Christmas.

Here is the link to his Flickr portfolio:

Michael Young

And here are few from me:

Please Vote for Me

2011-01-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am wishing to attend a workshop put on by Julie Parker. She is giving away one free spot for the photographer with the most votes by February 5. I have never attended a workshop and would love to try one out.

Would you please vote for me? Follow the link and my name is near the bottom of the list.

http://bit.ly/Vote4BenHaslam

Thank you,
Ben

2nd Grade Basketball

2011-01-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

Below are a few shots from Monday's night 2nd grade Boys and Girls Club basketball. The gyms is very small and the lighting is awful on the best nights. The gym is also very noisy so the goal is to get in and get out. All photos are at 500 f/2.8 ISO 3200 processed in Lightroom.

Basket with Flashes

2011-01-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

It has been a little too long since the last post. In December I spent two Saturdays doing family and individual portraits for second annual Help-Portrait. That was a great experience I plan on doing each year. I would like to thank Pixels Foto and Frame for donating the 8x10 prints.

Basketball season has started and this year I am going to try to use my flashes to get better results. Since this was my first go at it the first photos turned out a little dark and harsh, but I was happier with the results from later in the game. I set-up a SB800 flash in each corner about 12 feet high (only two to focus on the offensive end) and set them at a 1/4 power. I ended up shooting about 320 f/3.2 ISO 640. Some fine tuning is needed.

I also only used my 70-200 f/2.8 from the corners instead of my usual basketball set-up of my 50 f/1.8 from under the basket. Next game I will go back to the 50 under the basket.

Pheasants and Trap Shooting

2010-11-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

My father and I headed up to the Logan Utah area with some friends for a little pheasant hunting. Most the photos are of us messing around shooting some clay pigeons after the hunt.

The place was called Muddy Road Outfitters Game Farm and the road to the farm house was truly muddy. A truck was needed to get to the fields.

Real Salt Lake vs Cruz Azul

2010-10-22T11:14:00.000-06:00

Tuesday night I was able to cover the Real Salt Lake vs Cruz Azul in a CONCACAF group game. A stadium attendance record was announced with fans from each team making up half the crowd.

It was my first major soccer event I have ever covered and was amazed how fast the game was played.

More photos can be viewed on my website Haslam Photography.

Spencer

2010-10-15T14:22:00.000-06:00

Spencer came over to have his portrait taken for his missionary plaque. I picked up "Thunder Gray" seemless paper from Pictureline to make the image formal. I then had two shoot through umbrellas on each side of him with the fill set 2 stops less then the main. The hair light is a SB800 fired optically from above.

After we did the formal shots, we went outside with a SB800 in a small Photoflex softbox.

These are some of the proofs and all proofs can be seen on my website Haslam Photography.

8U Baseball - Blast

2010-10-06T09:04:00.001-06:00

We spent Saturday at the baseball diamond for a weekend 8U tournament. The last game started late due to the earlier games so we had over an hour of warm-ups. Then we had a six inning game with no time limit. In all it turned out to be over four hours of shooting. I have not shot little kids baseball since mid-spring, but the rust finally came off.

Neighborhood Dogs

2010-08-25T14:42:00.001-06:00

The other night my kids got free dog treats at Petco to give to our neighbors' dogs. All three neighbors' six dogs ended up outside together. I grabbed my camera and took a few shots before it went dark.

Thorpe Family

2010-08-02T22:26:00.000-06:00

Last week I was able to spend time with the Thorpe family at Murray Park for a few photos. The complete set can be seen on my website at: The Thorpe Family

Amber and Chris - Utah Wedding at Log Haven

2010-07-26T18:24:00.001-06:00

Below are a few photographs from Amber and Chris' Wedding. The complete galleries are on my website:

Amber and Chris

All Star Baseball - Foothill

2010-07-07T10:49:00.000-06:00

I have been shooting some of the twelve years old all star baseball this past week. Here are a few and all photos can be seen on my website:

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Baseball

Amber Bridals

2010-07-03T09:00:00.014-06:00

This past Sunday I shot Amber's bridals with the other photographer covering her wedding with me. His photos can be seen on his website. We shot at Log Haven then went to the state capitol. He mainly stayed with his 50mm so for variety I kept my 70-200mm on the whole time. It was a good team effort.

Ski Town Shoot Out 2010 - Park City, Utah

2010-07-01T11:25:00.000-06:00

The largest lacrosse event in Utah is the Ski Town Shoot Out. I made last minute arrangements with the director to cover the boys’ event at the Ecker School between Park City and Jeremy Ranch. There were five fields hosting one hour games. Games are twenty minute halves with a running clock. It was amazing how well the event was run. All game 29 galleries can be seen on my website.

Here are a few pics from the weekend:

MCLA Championships

2010-05-17T15:45:00.001-06:00

This past weekend I went to Denver to cover the MCLA Division I and II semifinals and finals. The championships were held inside the Dicks Sporting Goods Park, home of the Colorado Rapids of the MLS.

The Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) is a national organization of non-NCAA, college lacrosse programs. The MCLA currently operates in the US and Canada with 213 teams in two divisions, across ten conferences.

This year Utah Valley University made it to the finals after beating Westminster in the semifinals. UVU lost to St. Thomas in the finals.

BYU advanced the quarterfinals and lost to the eventual champions, Michigan.

Michigan - 2010 Division I Champions

St. Thomas - 2010 & 2009 Division II Champions

Complete game galleries are on my website:

www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Lacrosse

Eagle Scout

2010-05-11T09:18:00.000-06:00

My neighbor asked if I would take his picture as he needed an 8x10 to display at his court of honor. His tuff of hair sticking up I thought about taking out, but left it in as it is just a part of him. There was not a lot of time to spend with him as any teenager in their scout uniform isn't trilled to get their picture taken.

Popular Sport Images

2010-05-07T10:40:00.000-06:00

Here are some of my recent sport stock photos:

Acoustic Ipod

2010-04-16T14:44:00.001-06:00

The other night I was looking for something new to shoot for stock and saw my son's guitar sitting in his room. There has to be millions of stock guitar pictures so I was still looking for inspiration. I then started surfing the stock sites and most guitar pictures were of people playing the guitar with focus on their fingers. My son was listening to his Ipod and started think how to mix the two, then the idea hit me to have the Ipod play the quitar. I'm not sure about it, but the end result is odd, different and unlike anything I have seen on stock sites.

To see these or any other images, click here.

MCLA Cover Shot - April 2010 Issue

2010-04-09T16:43:00.000-06:00

I just got my copy of the April 2010 (volume 3, issue 4) of the MCLA Magazine which has one of my photos from the UVU Westminster game as the cover. As you can see the snow was coming down pretty hard.

Also in the issue there is a half page shot with the University of Utah and Westminster again.

US Lacrosse Visa Platinum Card from U.S. Bank

2010-04-05T11:05:00.000-06:00

My most popular lacrosse image was found in use as the background picture on US Bank's US Lacrosse affinity card.

Since I am a customer of US Bank for over 10 years (and they are one of my former employers), maybe they can cut me a break on the interest rate. I wonder how many of there cards have been issued?

Finally a Post - Hockey, Lacrosse, Basketball

2010-03-16T11:18:00.002-06:00

It was a slow February, but March, with warmer weather and some seasons coming to a close while other starting, brought on many games that I am finally getting around to posting.

My neighbors have two boys in hockey and asked me to come shoot their games before the season ended. Having never shot hockey before, let alone little league, I had no idea what to expect. Needless to say I had a great time. Both games were at Steiner near the UofU. It was brighter than anticipated and I tried shooting through the glass around the rink. I was amazed I didn't lose more light through it and the angle was pretty cool. Links to the galleries are below:

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Hockey/EaglesM - The Mite Division Game

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Hockey/Eagles - The Squirt Division Game

My oldest son's basketball season ended with them winning the last two games. Those games were played back to back in a very dark gym. The old Nikon 50mm f/1.8 is a must for anyone shooting basketball. I would like to try the 35mm f1/.8 DX for under the basket and the 85mm f/1.8 for the baseline/corner. Of course a f/1.4 would be better.

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Basketball/RvsSE

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Basketball/RvsAT

College lacrosse has started and the UofU played Boise State and two weeks later Montana in the ever dark field house. For the Montana game I tried using a slow shutter speed then panned a player moving. If done right, the player being tracked is in focus while everything else is in blurred. The best result is the one below and there are a few more in the gallery.

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Lacrosse/UUBS - Utah vs Boise State

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Lacrosse/UUvM - Utah vs Montana

Last Saturday the snow came down hard at the first outdoor lacrosse game of the season for me, Westminster vs Utah Valley. I had fun, but the flu bug in me disagreed. I only lasted for the first half and missed an exciting overtime victory by Westminster.

http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/Lacrosse/UVUvsW - Westminster vs Utah Valley

Baseball and soccer are starting along with high school lacrosse. Hopefully I won't wait so long before posting again.

Sundance 2010 – Park City

2010-01-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

While I did not secure a press pass for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, I managed through Shutterstock to get access to two events. Friday night there was the GenArt 7 Fresh Faces of Film and Sunday night the “HIGH school” movie premiere party.

Friday night I first went up to shoot the US Snowboarding Grand Prix which was from 7:00pm until 9:30pm. Shawn White was there to qualify for the Olympic team. After watching the same participants last week at the Dew Tour, then again Friday night, I waited to see Shawn White for the first time live as he missed the Dew Tour and was the last to go. He was amazing and definitely stood out as being the number one snowboarder. His air on each hit was at least ten feet higher than the rest of the field and the tricks were ones no one else was even trying. His run was nearly perfect at 49.50. He came right over me on the first run and I missed him as he was higher than I expected.

The second run I was more prepared and was able to get some good shots and at the awards ceremonies as well.

While the snow was gently falling for snowboarding, it started to dump around 10:00pm, right in time for the GenArt party. The red carpet was under a balcony while the press was not covered. It was hard to get around town and everyone was coated in snow. Here are few photos from that event:

It was interesting for me to see the press and actors work the red carpet. Being the first red carpet I have covered, it was quite the learning experience on the process, priority to certain photographers, the tracking of names to caption correctly later and getting the actors to look into my camera. Knowing their name helped a lot to get their attention. While none of them were big names they made sure everyone in the press got their name and the correct spelling of their name.

Sunday was the “HIGH school” premiere party before the premiere as the movie started at 11:30pm. The red carpet itself was not impressive. This time the photo area was in a hallway not more then five feet wide. I got a lot of close-ups. There were no lights so they temporally installed a fluorescent light box with four tubes pointed at the background. It was an awful light almost like a flickering spot light. The color was always changing and the fall out was huge. The bigger the star the more they posed and slower moving they were. Slower moving was a good thing. They also made sure each photographer got a good image of them.

Winter Dew Tour

2010-01-19T15:13:00.005-07:00

I was up at Snowbasin this past weekend as the Winter Dew Tour stopped by Utah. The halfpipe, also called the Superpipe by the marketing group, is where I spent my time. Click on each of the images below to be taken to the full gallery on my website:

Mens Snowboard:

Womens Snowboard:

Womens Ski:

My latest images for sale at
Shutterstock:

Help-Portrait - Wrap-up

2009-12-15T11:08:00.006-07:00

Saturday turned out to a great day of helping 40 individuals/families get their picture taken. Processing was finished last night and now off to the printer. Thanks to Pixels Photo for the printing. While we hoped for more participants, all the counselors from the Housing Authority said we had a great turn out. Everyone measures success differently. The counselors expect more to come out next year.

This morning the organizers of Help Portrait released some numbers:

36,000 portraits given by 3,002 photographers and 4,422 volunteers in 511 locations in 41 countries.

Help-Portrait - CBS Evening News

2009-12-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

The organizers of Help-Portrait posted on their twitter account today that the CBS Evening News will show a story about them Sunday, December 13. Check out their website at http://www.help-portrait.com/.

Pictureline is also sponsoring our group. If you have never visited their stores, do so. They are a great local company with two locations, one downtown and the other in Draper.

Help-Portrait - Dec 12, 2009

2009-12-02T13:14:00.002-07:00

I am going to take part in the world wide Help-Portrait on December 12. The group of photographers I am working with are teaming up with the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City. We have a few sponsors, including Pixel's Photo and Frame who will provide the printing. Hopefully we will be able to provide a photograph to over 60 families and individuals. I'll definity post more after the event.

Family Photos

2009-11-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to do a family shoot for some long time family friends. The weather could of been better so we moved indoors for the group photograph.

Xtreme Combat Weekend

2009-10-20T10:02:00.004-06:00

This past weekend was Randy Couture's (UFC Champion) Xtreme Combat Weekend fundraiser for his Xtreme Couture GI Foundation. I went down with some friends who played in the paintball games while I shot for the event. On Saturday night there was an amateur MMA (mixed martial arts) event of fifteen bouts. We were late to the fights due to being at the paintball field; however, I was able to shoot five bouts. This was the first time I had shot any MMA and found it quite interesting. Getting to stand and lean on the ring was great to get up close up. The emotions were great on all the fighters' faces. It took a little while to dial in my settings as it was held in a dark temporary arena with some odd lighting. The new digital cameras of today are amazing in low light. Check out the photos from the event at:

Paintball: http://www.haslamphotography.com/Paintball/Xtreme-Combat-Weekend

MMA: http://www.haslamphotography.com/Sports/MMA

7 Beginners Tips for Shooting Sports and Action

2009-10-06T11:38:00.003-06:00

I read an article today at Photography Bay containing 7 Beginners Tips for Shooting Sports and Action and found it somewhat useful, but not really beginner tips. When shooting my kids' events other parents will ask me about their own camera and what is needed to capture their kids in the moment.

Here is my list of 7 beginners tips geared towards DSLR’s as point and shoot cameras will not capture much, if any action:

1. On your camera change your dial to sports, usually the running man icon. Why? It opens the aperture and increases the shutter speed. Start here. It should work with any lens you have in daylight and still get pretty good results when it is overcast.

Slightly more advanced tip: You can increase your ISO to get a faster shutter speed, but be careful as you increase the ISO grain and noise are likely.

Why do pros use huge lenses? These lenses have a lot of glass to provide a large aperture which means a lot more light coming into the lens. More light means faster shutter speed. When you pay a ton of money for “fast” glass, the quality of the glass is normally better too. Another thing long, fast glass does is separate the subject from the background. People pay thousands and over ten thousand for long, fast glass. Get a gym membership if you own long, fast glass like a 600mm f/4 which weighs in over 11lbs. That weight does not include the camera.

This is the only tip that has to do with equipment. Use what you have to make great shots.

2. Faces. You need your subject’s face your picture. At any level the face makes the shot as the face shows emotion which helps tell a story. Think about the shot you are trying to get. Which leads to:

3. Get up and move!!! Many parents side near the middle of the field (soccer, football, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, any sport with the goal at the end of the field) and shoot away. This leads to great shots of the players on defense, but you will never capture the offense’s faces. Get behind the goal or the end of the sideline. Baseball seems to be the only sports where parents are willing to get up and move to get the shot.

4. Get low. Watch the photographers at a sporting event and most times they are kneeling on the ground, shooting up. Why? It gets you into a perspective not at eye level, gets you into the action and makes the players seem bigger. For little league, at least get to the players’ eye level.

5. Watch your background. Getting low also normally helps clean up the background. This is sometimes easier said then done. Take a break from shooting and look at the image as a whole on the back of your camera and take note what the background is doing. Don’t look at your camera after every shot asy ou’ll miss too much. This practice is frowned upon by the “pros” and maybe a blog post for another day of what you really should be looking at on the back of your camera.

6. Anticipate the next play. You have probably watched enough of the sport/player that you can anticipate what will happen next. Get ready for it and have the camera up to your eye, but I would add to Photography’s Bay tip and learn to keep both eyes open. Easier said then done. Practice it. It will help with family candids as well.

7. Don’t stop when the play stops. Look in any sports magazine and there are limited action shots. Why? It gets back to faces which show emotion and great action shots are hard to get. Get the picture of the teams in a huddle, coming off the field, the celebration of the goal, the coach talking to the players, and shaking hands with the other team. These are the scrapbook images and they are easier to get. It might be the only time you can get a shot with a face as the helmets come off.

Look at Reuter’s top 24 images each day and there is always a sports shot and 90% of the time it is a celebration or the agony of defeat. Rarely the photo is of the action in the game. I would say if it is action, it is a bunch of soccer players going for a header.

Hopefully these few tips can help you get a better action shot of your player. Shooting action gets you into the action. Enjoy doing it and I think it sure beats just sitting on the sideline.

Duck Hunting - Opening Day

2009-10-05T12:31:00.002-06:00

Saturday at 8:00am (well, we heard shoots a little earlier than that) the 2009-2010 Duck Hunt was open. We saw a lot of ducks, but without any rain or wind, those ducks got up before 7:30am and out of range quickly. I got a few photos in before the start. You can see how still the air was that morning.

Dew Tour 2009 - BMX Vert Finals

2009-09-23T12:36:00.004-06:00

Here is the last event (BMX Vert) from this weekend's Dew Tour stop in Salt Lake City. The photographs turned out better than I had hoped. A bunch of photogs, including me, were down on the floor the whole event, never up on the deck. I did not have access to the arena's lighting system and this event was not covered by MTV2 or NBC, so no TV lighting. Needless to say it was dark in there and to add to it, the black curtain and the riders wearing black. I cranked up the ISO to 1250 to 1600 with f/2.8 on my 70-200 and got some good shots, but the grain and noise still made it into my shots. My 18-200 was too slow and a SB800 did not throw enough light to make it work.

Dew Tour 2009 - FMX Jam

2009-09-22T19:52:00.003-06:00

Here is slide show from the FMX Jam. The photographers were originally placed in an awful spot behind the podium and shooting into the sun. With a little persuasion by the best photogs in the world, the officials got a bunch of us got access to an empty scissor lift that gave us a much better angle and the sun to our back. I wish someone took a picture of us crammed onto the lift, the photog geek hang out. Enjoy.

Dew Tour 2009 - BMX Park

2009-09-21T15:09:00.004-06:00

I got a press pass to shoot the 2009 Dew Tour Toyota Challenge this weekend through Shutterstock. Below is a sideshow mainly of the BMX Park and a few BMX dirt as well. I am working on getting the FMX Jam together then the BMX Vert. There was not enough time to get the skate park or vert, maybe next year.

2009-09-16T19:57:00.003-06:00

Here is a short video created for free at Animoto. One has to pay to get a longer video (more pictures). There is also a service for professional photographers to create HD video to burn to DVD. It was amazing how fast the video was created, literally in minutes. They have linked with all the major photo sharing sites to get your images so your upload is also minimal. They have their own music library, or you can upload your own. In all, registration and created was under 10 minutes. One can get the html link to embed in a website or blog, send to YouTube or email. Enjoy

Impact Soccer - U7

2009-09-15T09:53:00.003-06:00

Here is a slideshow from this Saturday's game. Click on image to be taken to the gallery on my website.

Highland Mighty Mite Football - Slide Show

2009-09-14T14:22:00.005-06:00

My website host (SmugMug) has a new feature were one can create a slideshow of a gallery and they create the code that can simply be pasted into another application. The slideshow below only took a minute to create. If you click on the slideshow or image it will then take you to the gallery. Its something new. It might lead to some more blog posts.

Last week's game (Highland vs Alta Mighty Mite) can be seen here on my website.

Late Night Fly Fishing

2009-08-28T16:22:00.007-06:00

My father, brother and I were able to get out after work for the first fly fishing trip of the year. I dragged the camera along to see if I can fish and shoot at the same time. Short answer, no. I was able to get a few shots off and catch a fish after missing two pretty clean hits earlier. All shots were after the sun went down. Needless to say, all were handheld and a tripod would of been helpful.

The Tour of Utah - Stage 1

2009-08-20T12:34:00.008-06:00

The Tour of Utah finished their first stage yesterday at Research Park after coming down Emigration Canyon. I managed to get out of the office and run up to the mouth of the canyon to catch the racers. A few more photographs can be seen on my website. Also on my website is a lot of the support cars.
I slowed the shutter speed down to 1/250 and panned with the racers to create the blurred background and their spokes blurr out. It gives a nice feeling of speed. It is definitely harder to capture, however, I think it makes a better photograph.

The main pack coming out of the canyon.

Here are the eventual winner and second place finishers, Paco Mancebo (Rock Racing) and Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing). They of course came out of the canyon first. I wanted to make sure I captured them so I shot a shutter speed around 1/2000, thus you can see the spokes clearly.

Backyard Visitors

2009-08-10T17:34:00.007-06:00

In the past few weeks I have not been able to get out to shoot an event, so I have focused on my backyard. Here are few a visitors:
The bee is in a hosta flower. I was shooting the flowers until the bees came along.

We have a very large butterfly bush (about eight feet tall and six feet wide) and the name holds true. During the last two years we had a lot of humming birds come to it, but this year nothing.

This I found out through a Google search is an Asian Lady Bettle, thus the orange, yellow color instead of the native red. They were introduced on purpose in the west and are taking over the red ladybug.

Beauty Dish - DIY / Lightroom

2009-07-30T13:13:00.005-06:00

I followed the instructions of David Tejada (click on his name for the link to his blog) to create my own beauty dish fired by my SB800. The instructions are pretty simple and once one visits Home Depot for the parts, the pictures make more sense. I would not recommend painting the gray gutter part as it makes it harder to glue velco to it. The mirror I left out and used a CD instead. The impact of the mirror cannot be that great and David mentions that as well. For the velco I used some of our broken Hit-A-Way straps (we burn through one a season). Those are probably a little over kill. The first test shots were of my wife which she made me delete and deservedly so. My garden is always willing to model and never complain, so below is one of our many daylilies. Nikon D300, 70-200 2.8, SB800 through DIY beauty dish fired by Nikon's CLS. There is also a little sharpening and color bump in Adobe's Lightroom.

I received Lightroom for Father's Day and find it is the best thing about digital photography (aside from taking a ton of pictures). Wade Heninger was kind enough to do a free Lightroom for starters last week and it helped me really understand the basis of the software (we spoke techie/geek talk). It was made for photographer and is laid out the way a photographer thinks. Photoshop is not. You will see his name on the third line of developers when you open Lightroom.

He now works for SmugMug (another favorite of mine) and passed out new camera straps and hats (with the SmugMug Pro logo of course).

Newport Beach, California

2009-07-21T08:33:00.004-06:00

Our family vacation this year was a trip to see my sister then my whole family (21 in all) spent a week in Newport Beach. One day was just for Disneyland and the rest of the time was completely unscheduled.

At least one night is spent at the Balboa Pier and more importantly at the Fun Zone for the family competition of Skee Ball. I posted a 340 this year as I was in the zone. We skipped the Farris wheel this year as we were heading to Disneyland the next day.

My son has the form of his father, great Skee Ball genes.

This was taken off of Newport Pier after getting some ice cream and Hawaiian ice at the Pipeline. There is public parking by the pier so it is always crowded, but as you move away the beaches are pretty open.

I missed the 2009 Oregon Quailifer due to this vacation, but plan to get out to the New Jersey event.

SPPL Utah Qualifier

2009-06-29T14:03:00.007-06:00

For those of you who already follow the SPPL and paintball, below are a few pictures from this past weekend's event. Others of you will know the event from the passing of a player's daughter and nephew from CO poisoning. The KSL story link: click here.

The PAVI head and arm bands were for the Forest Demon's team mate who passed away a week earlier from injuries sustained from a truck hitting him while he was on his bike.

Rider Plastics Website Work Completed

2009-06-17T13:54:00.005-06:00

The Rider Plastics website designed by Code Greene is finally up and running. I was asked to do the photographs documenting the mold making process for the last few months as seen in the "Our Process" page. While the final product is not too exciting, a right angle tube used in an aircraft, the process itself is interesting since so many things around us are made through the plastic injection molding process. Shooting the aluminium mold is a little like shooting a mirror. The engineer made sure to polish the pieces before I came each time. We hope to add a few more product pictures to the first page as they become completed.

Sports Photographer: Copperhills Lacrosse

2009-06-05T12:31:00.004-06:00

I was able to get out and shoot some more junior lacrosse at Sugarhouse Park Thursday night for Copperhills. The weather was consistantly changing.

Junior Lacrosse - Highland High vs Park City

2009-05-18T10:29:00.004-06:00

Below are a few shots from the 7th and 8th grade Highland High vs Park City lacrosse match held May 16, 2009 in Park City. It is the first time I have shot a Junior High game and it was quite enjoyable. The complete gallery can be found on my website.
There were some good hits and scoring.

Park City's goalie was solid in the net despite losing. He had many great saves.

The emotions on the players' faces are great. Its hard to get to see their faces given the size of the field and their masks, but every now and again it gets captured.

Weekend Soccer

2009-05-11T21:53:00.002-06:00

Here is some U6 & U5 Soccer from this past weekend:

This last one was a goal (1 of 3 for the day).

Highland High vs Skyline Lacrosse

2009-05-07T10:32:00.009-06:00

I was able to get out and shoot the Utah State High School Lacrosse Playoffs, Highland High vs. Skyline High. Highland High was the #1 seed and lost in double overtime on the following shot:I swung around to get the shot on the opposite end of the field. It happened pretty fast so the picture didn't quite make it in focus.

This shot I thought was a little funny. He almost lost his pants in the previous play.

It is the sideline spectators that make this image.

Good thing the ball went in to the net or I would have been hit. I really like sitting behind the goal, off to one side, as I get more faces in the shots; however, it is far riskier. At the last University of Utah game I was about a foot from getting nailed from a shot on goal.

Baseball

2009-05-01T10:48:00.004-06:00

We were lucky enough to finally have good weather for baseball. Below are a few from last night's game. The best of the game can be found on my website. Click here.

Twitter

2009-04-23T16:41:00.001-06:00

I took the step of signing up for Twitter. A link is on the right. Check it out at Twitter.com/bhaslam

Paintball X3 - Published

2009-04-10T10:30:00.003-06:00

My photos and article from the SPPL Nevada Qualifier were published in PaintballX3's digital magazine. I have a photo in the table of contents and the article is pages 94 - 96. More photos will be in the June Paintball Sports Magazine. An article was submitted to Action Pursuit Games ("APG"), but I have not heard back from them.

Many Games, No Posts

2009-03-27T09:34:00.003-06:00

I have shot a few University of Utah and Highland High games since my last post. Below are games and clicking on the game will link to the gallery on my webpage:

University of Utah vs UC Santa Barbara - March 25, 2009

University of Utah vs Colorado State - March 22, 2009

Highland High vs Skyline - March 17, 2009

I noticed I have gotten away from posting camera settings information for each event.

A new Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR found a home on my D300. The first copy did not connect with camera consistently so Nikon Support suggested I contact Amazon to ask for a replacement. Amazon customer service was amazing about it and had a new lens to me on Wednesday after I placed my call on Saturday.

Way do I tell you this? Because I used the new copy of the 70-200 in the Field House for the U vs UCSB game. This is a very dark indoor field and the 2.8 was slow, but I wanted to run the new copy hard to make sure it was working properly and the issue was with the old lens and not the camera. It worked great. What is interesting the new copy has a lower serial number than the old copy. I had to shoot with ISO 2500 to get a shutter speed of between 160 and 400. While I love to freeze action, a good blurred motion picture can be pretty cool and harder to come by. I think some of the better paintball shots have motion blur, but they are so hard to capture correctly (head in focus and other parts blurred). It definitely takes practice to capture. That said, I also love freezing paintballs mid flight or breaking open (shutter speed over 2,000 for best results).

For the prior games at the Field House I would shoot my 50 1.8 at one end of the field and gave up capturing action at the far end. I could get away with ISO 1600 to get good shutter speeds and then crop into the action later.

For shooting sports one of the best investments is a monopod. I purchased the Manfrotto 679B for around $50. Some of the best $50 I have spent. The stablity is great and it takes all weight off my neck and arms. To easy switch from landscape to portrait using my 50 1.8 I would mount my ballhead on my monopod. It is quite easy to switch between the two, but the stability in landscape suffers a little. I did not get a swivel tilt head to go with the monopod and have not felt the need for it. Maybe someday I will try it out.

Next paintball post I will though my set up and thoughts in a little more detail.

Highland High Lacrosse

2009-03-13T14:20:00.003-06:00

I was able to catch the second half of the Highland High Olympus Varsity Lacrosse last night. Here are three:

SPPL Nevada Quailifer

2009-03-10T16:40:00.005-06:00

Here are some pics from the SPPL Event in Mesquite:

Some of the best are being saved for magazine submissions.

PSM February Issue Online

2009-03-10T15:33:00.007-06:00

Finally the February issue of Paintball Sports Magazine is online at:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/44ce12a2#/44ce12a2/1

Check out pages 24 through 29 for all my pics. There are few more scattered throughout. Below is a snapshot pages 24 and 25:

I'll post a few from this past weekend shortly.

Published

2009-03-02T14:40:00.004-07:00

I have photographs from the SPPL Finals published in this month's issue of Paintball Sports Magazine. Ian Ebersole wrote the story and I look to cover a few events this year with him. I have been waiting for the online version to post so I could provide a link. Once it is available I will post it.

This weekend is the first event of the SPPL's 2009 season. While it is the "Vegas" event, the field is in Mesquite (on the border of Nevada and Arizona).

Website

2009-02-20T10:45:00.004-07:00

Please take a look at my webiste (http://www.haslamphotography.com/) as I have changed hosting to Smugmug. This allows me to easily post all the pictures I take at events and provide different view options. It also provides the ability to buy/sell prints and allow electronic download. I have set it up so anyone can download a picture for 99 cents. All types of print options are available as well as the coffee mugs, shirts, keychains, etc.

Please share your thoughts.

Jr Jazz Basketball

2009-02-16T08:50:00.008-07:00

Below are three pictures from this weekends fifth grade game. The faces are what make these shots.

The only way to stop his speed was to grab his undershirt.

I used my D300 with the 50mm f1.8 at f2.0 and 1/500 shutter speed. ISO was at 1000 most the day. There are some nice skylights in this gym. What has helped in basketball is taking my monopod and putting my full ballhead on it so I can shot portrait most the time and easily flip it up to landscape when needed. Sitting on the floor, just to the left or right of the basket gives a great angle for the fast breaks and inside play.

Bald Eagles

2009-02-07T20:00:00.009-07:00

My family went up to Farmington Bay for the State of Utah's Department of Wildlife Resources Bald Eagle Day. As we pulled in we saw two sitting in a tree.

Driving down further we came to see where most people stopped and were viewing approximately 20 on the ice.
We saw some in flight.
The last picture is probably my favorite. As we were leaving we noticed one in flight and it landed on the tree where the two we saw first were sitting. While it is hard to see on this small post, the two are looking at the one landing and they don't appear too happy to have a visitor.I was shooting my D300 with Nikon's 18-200, maxed at 200mm. The pictures posted are cropped quite a bit. There were quite a few 400mm and 500mm f/2.8 lens out there. We saw a few rental cars with some serious equipment and not all of it was Canon. There were a few Nikonians out there. It would be interesting to know who the pros were shooting for.

We only spent an hour; however, it was quite fun and very impressive. To see the eagles next to ducks, seagulls and geese you can appreciate the size of these big birds.

Basketball

2009-01-24T10:18:00.007-07:00

I shot one of my son's basketball games this Wednesday and captured this drive to the basket by one of his teammates. The face was great.

I used my Nikon 50MM f/1.8 on my D300, Aperture Priority at f/1.8, Shutter Auto (1/640) and ISO of 800. I shot landscape and cropped to portrait. I was right under the basket. The gym's lighting wasn't as bad as other gyms, but as seen in the background the walls are black with a dark red trim. This really darkens the gyms; however, provides a nice backdrop for this player's face.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T16:03:00.006-07:00

My family managed to make it out for some New Year's Day sledding. This picture is one of many good ones of the kids. We have my old Flexible Flyer which is perfect for morning runs when the hill is still icy.

New Stock Site

2008-12-31T09:56:00.005-07:00

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

2008-12-02T11:09:00.002-07:00

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

2008-11-27T09:45:00.006-07:00

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

2008-11-15T20:03:00.005-07:00

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

2008-11-05T12:24:00.004-07:00

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

2008-10-23T12:51:00.007-06:00

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

2008-10-15T19:51:00.010-06:00

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

2008-10-02T07:54:00.007-06:00

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

2008-09-14T18:57:00.007-06:00

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

2008-09-09T08:59:00.001-06:00

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

2008-08-28T07:56:00.015-06:00

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

2008-08-19T14:15:00.004-06:00

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

2008-08-18T09:42:00.003-06:00

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

2008-08-12T09:42:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-29T20:08:00.004-06:00

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

2008-07-27T20:30:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-27T20:19:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-25T16:26:00.003-06:00

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

Oregon - Sample Pictures

2008-07-08T15:16:00.007-06:00

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

2008-07-01T11:38:00.004-06:00

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

2008-06-27T13:59:00.002-06:00

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