Liberty vs Tracy track on February 23, 2012 at Liberty.  This was the first meet of the 2012 season with lots of participants from both schools.  The weather, temperature wise was good, but wow, the wind was really blowing hard.  I'm sure this made it tough for all of the athletes but, as they say, the show must go on.

I was asked to shoot video for the 800 meter race, which I did, and posted it on our site.  This was my first attempt at shooting HD with my Canon 5d2 so it was a bit of a learning experience.  I used my monopod to hold the camera steady, but found that as I tracked the runners from a vantage point where I could see the entire track, it would jump and jerk more that I expected.  I will have a proper video head mounted to my stationary tripod during the next meet.  You can see the video and a few other photo's of the track meet by clicking this link http://www.motionphotographyonline.com/Sports/Track/21665220_Ftq4HQ#!i=1728264066&k=VThFf6Z

Excelsior played O'Hara Park on the 22nd of February at Timber Point.  If you are looking for some intense sports, come watch these middle school basketball games.  These guys play hard from start to finish.

To see the entire batch of photo's click on this link http://www.motionphotographyonline.com/Sports/ExcelsiorOHara-Basketball/21610276_jntN9g#!i=1723346986&k=8FrjgDM

Excelsior middle school played Adams on February 6, 2012.  Another tough game.  Both teams were aggressive and fought hard throughout the entire game.

On another note, I finally figured out how to best shoot an indoor basketball game.  Lighting in the gym is weak at best, requiring a flash for assistance. I'm not saying I perfected it, but I finally figured out the settings needed to give enough light to stop the action and not produce ghosts.  Flash photography definitely presents more challenges than shooting outdoors.  I'm anxious to try my new skills on the next game to see if it was just blind luck or I'm really getting the hang of it.  Please click on this link to see all the photos from the game http://www.motionphotographyonline.com/Sports/ExcelsiorAdams-Basketball/21364827_TTxPBz#!i=1701934563&k=smw5bhS

Snow Creek (Paul's annual Birthday backpack trip)

Well, I got a little behind updating this blog, but February proved to be pretty darn busy.  Please forgive me.

The photo's in this blog are from our Yosemite Snow Creek backpack trip hosted by Paul (annual birthday hike). The top photo is where we set up base camp, with our tent nestled in the trees. It is at the top of the Snow Creek trail, just before the bridge that crosses over the creek at about 6,700 foot elevation.

The middle photo shows the outlet from Mirror Lake and was such a beautiful green reflection we couldn't pass up the opportunity to capture the moment.  Lastly, our bottom photo is the iconic Half Dome, which just happens to be the view as we come out of our tent in the morning. Absolutely breathtaking!  Not much snow this year, but it was cold (brrrr).


As we were sitting around the campfire this year, we realized this is our first trip with just the three of us, Paul, Christian, and Bill.  In addition, we began our hike from the backpackers parking lot just below Glacier Point at an uncustomary time of 10:00pm.  We took advantage of the 3/4 moon, which aided us during the treeless portion of the trail, and flipped on our headlamps as we hiked through the trees  We made it to our base camp just after 2:00am, a bit tired and cold, but found it all worthwhile when we woke up looking at Half Dome. You can see all the pictures from this trip, including a movie/slide show by visiting http://www.motionphotographyonline.com/Family/Backpacking-Snow-Creek/21340760_BBsNCp#!i=1708715000&k=wVT6VX4