The weekends are the busiest times in local malls! The Tysons Corner Center has been having a lot of events especially for kids with the Christmas holiday coming up. They asked me to come by to take some photos for some of these events including the National Geographic Kids Club play area that was setup with face painting, sliders from BGR – The Burger Joint, and hosted by Tommy McFly from 94.7 Fresh FM.
There were lots of activities for kids to work on with their parents. It must have been a nice distraction for parents that needed to get some shopping finished! There was a nice crowd that participated, and everyone took advantage of all the activities.
I do have to say being in the mall this much at the holidays has been fun! They have had a lot of good parking assistants in all of the lots around the mall, so it has not been too much trouble to get in and out of the place. They are schedule to have a German Christmas Market this upcoming weekend, and I will be there to get more holiday photos. For the next post from the mall, I’ll share some of the photos from the Santa breakfast that was held on a snowy morning. I am still editing these as well as other events that I have in the queue. I am not behind in working, but the power outages on Monday has delayed me just a bit!
It is less than a week until we get back to ballroom dancing! This upcoming Friday and Saturday is the DC Area Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles event being held at the Sheraton Premiere in Tysons Corner, VA. Overall, we are excited to get back to the dance floor after the summer break. There has been a lot of dancing during that time, and we want to make more of our photos to go along with the dancing. When we first stepped into the ballroom world, the Fall Freestyles was the first ballroom dance event we attended. Of course, it can be intimidating if you have never been a part of the scene! There are sparkling, beautiful dresses around the hotel; ladies have makeup and jewels to catch the lights and eyes of the judges; and the loud music gets the audience to cheer on their fellow students and instructors.
We are also going back to a venue that we used to frequent more often. Although it is familiar, the Sheraton in Tysons Corner has undergone a lot of renovations. Not only the guestroom, but the ballroom and reception areas have also changed. We will try to take advantage of the nice balcony that they still have to get overhead views of the event. If you have friends or would like to come to view the event from the mezzanine balcony, contact one of the DC Area Studios. They will gladly give you details on the availability and cost for a seat up there. Not only will you be able to cheer on your friends, but you will have a nice vantage of this fun event. See you next weekend!
This was my first attempt at shooting a hare scramble. This is a motorcycle race that took place on a course through a farm changing from open fields to woods. Because it was a bright day, there was no problem finding light to photograph racers. It was plentiful out in the open which made the technique easy – auto mode would have probably worked out there! But the dust and heat was just too much to stay for the entire race. So we moved to the woods to track the racers as they followed the windy course through the trees. This made the photos much more challenging, but the results were more interesting to view!
The action was very fast and close! The course was marked out through the trees, but it was possible for spectators to get right next to the trails as the riders went by. With this opportunity, I went with the wider zoom – 24-70mm lens and found a spot as close to the trail that I could safely stay. As with all racing, panning the camera is a good idea. This means tracking with the racers with your camera and body as they go passed.
Put the camera into a continuous shooting mode so that multiple images are made as you hold down the shutter button. As you follow a moving target as is goes across you, at least a couple of the photos will keep the subject in focus while blurring the background. This does two things – it conveys the motion of the fast racing action, and it also cleans up the background by blurring any details back there.
The other added element in the photos is the addition of flash. I zoomed out the flash head to 200mm which is the farthest that it will go. This creates a tight beam of light right out of the flash. The light was aimed right at the riders since the flash was attached to the camera. All the light falls on the riders and their colorful gear, then falls off, and becomes darker everywhere else because of the zoomed head. The flash also freezes some of the dirt coming off the tires, and usually will freeze the faces of the riders while the panning will blur much of the background. Here is a closeup of the above image:
I really like how these turned out. Not everything is in focus, and viewers can get an idea of the speed that the racers take through these courses. It takes a lot of work especially on these warm days just to finish one of these long races. I am impressed with the effort to be competitive and pass others while trying to keep upright and away from the trees!
