Amami Superman Photography

A Place to Share My Photos

Jun 21, 2011

So That's Why I Suck?

Posted by Amami Superman


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Jade's First Basketball Game of the School Year

Our daughter, Jade, started basketball last year and has been having a blast. I've going to see most of all her games and I've taken plenty of photos, but I've only posted a handful. The reason for this is, they all sucked. I don't get too angry with myself if I take a bad photo that's not framed well, lacks contrast or is just plain bland photo. I do get angry with myself, however, when I screw up the camera settings when I know better. Every single time I've gone to take photos of Jade playing basketball, the exposure always turned out inconsistent. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I'd use manual exposure settings and even turn of auto white balance, take several photos from one spot only to have them all come out like I took each photo with different settings. I was pretty discouraged after looking at these photos I took from 2 Sundays ago.



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Half Time

Well, I won't go into details, but they got their butts kicked. They have 2 teams at Jade's school, an A team and a B team. The A team is for the 5th and 6th graders and the B team is for the younger classes, kind of like varsity and junior varsity. Although Jade is only in 4th grade, she is on the A team. This is because they don't have enough players in the 5th and 6th grades this year. So this year the A team has a lot of inexperienced players as well as a lack of height.



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Second Half Pointers

In these next photos, most of them were taken from the same spot facing the same direction all with the same exact exposure settings. I couldn't figure out why they all seemed to have different lighting. The lights weren't being turned on and off, or were they?



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Rebound



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Going for the Shot!



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
And Fouled!



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Shooting Two



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
1 for 2 at the Line



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
And a Field Goal for 2!

Jade made several shots in this game. I believe she made 50% of the points made for her team. Not that she's a ball hog or anything, lol, she was just in the right spot.

As you can see, the lighting is very inconsistent despite using the same exposure settings for each photo. Some of these photos were even taken using continuous shooting and are less than a second apart. Looking at these photos I noticed this and wondered how one part of the floor is lighter than another when the photos were taken within a second of each other. It then dawned on me that the lights were fluorescent and probably had something to do with cycles.

I then went and searched the interwebz for shooting photos in gyms and found a few articles about this. I found that fluorescent lights change color and even flicker when shooting at faster speeds like the photos I took causing these kinds of inconsistencies. So when I read that, I was all, "OH! So that's why I suck!"

comments (1)

TOP

Oct 12, 2010

Field Day in Amuro

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Competition Underway

September 26 was the set day for the schools in Uken to hold their field days. Amuro Elementary/Junior High is the furthest away for me to commute to and it takes me about an hour and twenty minutes to get to. Two of the schools I visit only have a handful of students and Amuro is one of them.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
The Entire Student Population Minus One


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 20mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Doing Their Best to Pose for the Camera

There are three junior high school students and four elementary students. Recently they had a family move to the village from Okinawa and the elementary numbers were boosted by two.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Amuro Nursery School

Since there are only a handful of students they have the whole village community join the event. Even the littlest ones get a chance to do their thing.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 24mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Ecstatic Cheer


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 22mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Not Rambo, But Tough None the Less

This is Shutaro. He's in 9th grade and is a great young man. His father isn't around and his mother does her best to support him. They've recently been working on speeches for an English speech competition they're going to have next month in Uken. His is about his mom and how appreciative he is of her. I was very impressed with him when I heard him read his speech to me for the first time. How many teenage boys you do you know that are thankful for their parents?


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Jump Rope Competition


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 34mm, 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
All In


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 26mm, 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
The Students

I teach at all 5 schools they have in Uken and since they all have their field days on the same day, I couldn't stay long at each school in order to visit them all. So these are some of the shots I took while I was there. My next post will be of Nagara Elementary/Junior High.

I'm still going through photos from this day and also my daughter's field day. It's taking some time. I took a lot of photos. On a happy note, Halloween is coming! I'm thinking up some sort of backdrop to use to take photos this year. I'm thinking of going with something simpler than last. We'll see. I also came across a bit of information that I thought was kind of cool. This October 2010 has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays all in 1 month. This only happens once in 823 years. Not sure how true this information is, but it seemed kind of cool. I would have expected it to happen a little more often. January this year also had the same as October and July this year had 5 Thursdays, 5 Fridays and 5 Saturdays so I guess they're only talking about October and just the weekends. I don't know.

comments (0)

TOP

Aug 22, 2010

Jade's First Basketball Tournament

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Getting Ready for the Opening Ceremonies

This was Jade's first basketball tournament. It was held in June on the 20th. I'm not very good at taking sports shots, especially inside a gymnasium, so I took a few practice shots and decided on an average setting and pretty much stuck with that setting until her second game.

I've always been into basketball even before I was Jade's age. I lived on a reservation and spent a lot of time at my grandmother's place on my father's side of the family. They had a concrete section, probably where a small building used to be, and set up a basketball court to play on. I remember trying to shoot hoops, granny style, and having my cousins giving me pointers. My father also put up a hoop outside our house on a tree, we didn't have any concrete courts, and practicing a bunch on that. I joined the elementary school team when I was in 3rd grade and I still remember my mother taking me out to buy some basketball shoes. I don't want to say how hard my life was growing up, but it wasn't the best and I know how much effort my parents put in to helping us have a happy childhood and for which, I am thankful. I'll be the first to say that my basketball skills are sucktacular, but I have a passion for the game and I owe it to my family for the support they gave me.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Pre-game Peptalk

While living on the reservation, I had a few opportunities to go play at the reservation's gymnasium with the bigger kids. They always played "shirts & skins" to divide the teams up. Me being a chunky kid, I always had an issue with taking my shirt off. I still have memories of not wanting to take my shirt off and starting the game, me not taking my shirt off and being on "skins", and receiving a pass from the "shirts", only to pass it off to another "skins", and have people get angry at me for not taking my shirt off.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
The "Greetings" Before the Game

Japanese are pretty formal before and after games. They always bow before and after a game. This is just before Jade's first game. They played two games this day and they won the first.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Going for the Rebound

The students playing in this tournament, I think, were only 3rd and 4th graders. They didn't have enough players in this age bracket so they teamed up with another school to form a team. The kid wearing the "Itsubu" #7 uniform is from another school and joined our team to play, and although he's not wearing the same pink game jersey, he played with us.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Miho Taking a Free Throw

This is one of Jade's team mates. She's a very talented player and was very good at drawing the foul, if you get my drift... (ball hog! *cough*, not really though lol )


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Half Time Advice

Only having one sub on the team, Jade played the whole game. Coach Junpei is telling her to go sit down, take a drink and have a rest during half time.

Although I haven't played basketball in quite a few years here in Amami, I used to practice with coach Junpei before with several different teams. He is a very good ball player and has a great sense of the game. I've recently started play basketball again and he frequently comes to practice for the team I play on. I bring Jade to my practices often and when coach Junpei is there, she's always happy.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
After the First Game

As you can see by her rosy red cheeks, she was grateful to finally take a break after her first game. She mentioned that she ran so hard that she got dizzy for a bit and didn't know where the ball was.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Going for the Shot

This is her second game. Their team played an all boys team and it was pretty difficult for them. They lost this game, but it was close (if I remember correctly).


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Release!


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Perfect Bank Shot

Jade made quite a few points during this game, but as I said, I'm pretty sucktacular at taking sports shots and messing most of them up. It will come eventually with some more practice.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Jump Shot

I wish I had better framing on this shot, as you can see, the ball is just barely in the top portion of this photo. The D60 only has 3 focusing areas and it makes me wonder if I could do better having more focusing areas with a D300s. I've been giving some thought about my next camera and though there are a few Nikon users in Amami, most of my friends use Canon and have said they would be more than willing to lend me lenses. I'm still thinking about it, but I'm thinking of giving a good Canon body also a try...

comments (3)

TOP

May 2, 2010

Skateboard Competition

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 105mm, 1/640 sec, f/4.8, ISO 100 -- EXIF
1.

On the 18th of last month they held a skateboarding competition here in Amami. Most of all the skaters from around the island showed up and we had quite a big turn out. My daughter Jade wanted to enter into the competition despite the fact she knew the other skaters out leveled her, but she thought it would be fun so we let her.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
2.

There are different types of skateboarding competitions and this one was basically just street. All the photos I've shown here are photos of different people warming up and just screwing around.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 82mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
3.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 110mm, 1/500 sec, f/4.8, ISO 100 -- EXIF
4.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 110mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
5.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 92mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
6.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
7.

The guy in the above photo is one of my good friends. Most of the people you see in these photos are good friends of mine, but I think I've photographed this guy, Kotaro, more than anyone else. The board he is on was recently purchased the night before I believe. As you can see, this competition was held down at the ports. They have these large curbs that line the edge of the port painted yellow and black. There is just barely enough room for a skateboard to fit through the gaps between these curbs if it went through just perfectly. Unfortunately, Kotaro's board when zipping out from under him before the competition started and took a dive. It was some pretty rotten luck for him.

I couldn't resisted the urge to help the guy out. I looked down into the water and wondered how deep it could be. Since it is the port, I figured it had to be at least 10 meters deep for the big boats to dock there. I decided to run home and grab my snorkeling gear and a lure rod. When I got back, I tied on some sinkers and dropped the fishing line into the water to get an idea of how deep it was. It was low tide and after pulling the line back up, I judged it was 7 or 8 meters deep. I decided it was worth a try and I strapped on my flippers and mask and jumped over the edge. As soon as I jumped over, everyone came to cheer me on. After taking a few deep breaths, I headed down. I got within about 2 meters of the bottom and looked around but couldn't see the board anywhere. There water here in Amami is very clear and just floating on the top, I could see the bottom pretty clearly. I figured it wouldn't be that hard to spot, but after diving down several times and having no luck spotting it, I decided to call it and told Kotaro I was sorry, but I couldn't find it. I gave my camera to my wife to hold and she took a shot of me at one of my attempts to dive down and try to spot the board. Here is the photo she took.

After giving up the search, I then had to swim all the way down and around the port to a boat launch where I could get out. Now before I jumped in, I looked for a place to get out and I felt the boat launch wasn't that far away, but even with flippers, it was much further to swim than I had anticipated. Before jumping in, my daughter Jade was afraid for me. Standing on the pier, you really couldn't see the bottom that clearly and that just kind of freaked her out. My wife was telling me she was about ready to bust out in tears when I jumped off the edge. I got a laugh out of that.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
8.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
9.

So after my long swim down the port to get out, I was soaking wet and didn't want to handle my camera and these are the only photos I was able to take. It was a fun little experience. I just wish I could have found the board and saved the day. That would have been really cool.

Here is an older post from last year when Jade came to skate with the others here at this port.


comments (1)

TOP

Feb 24, 2010

Skateboarding at Udonbama Park

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Kotaro

Every 3rd Sunday, they hold a skateboarding class for anyone who would like to learn how to skateboard. Jade got a skateboard for her birthday last year and she's been doing her best to learn how to skate. She has been going to these classes for a while now. I made a post last year of the first time she participated in Nagahama. Kotaro is always there to help out and give some pointers.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/640 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Ollie Tail Slide


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/500 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Front Side 50-50 Grind


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 26mm, 1/400 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Another Ollie Tail Slide


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/640 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
A Rolling Boneless


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 22mm, 1/640 sec, f/8.0, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Straight Up Ollie


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 24mm, 1/640 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Jade Practicing Manuals


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/200 sec, f/8.0, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Getting Better!


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Jade's First Ollie
Even though it's only about an inch.

Little by little, Jade has been getting better at skateboarding. She really enjoys it.

I started skateboarding when I was in elementary school. I was never any good but my younger brother Dan seemed to have a talent for it. In junior high, we build a half pipe in our backyard. I found I liked riding ramp more than street skating. I've tried to get Jade on a ramp a few times and she's getting the hang of pumping. It will be cool to see what she can do in a year or two.

comments (1)

TOP

Jan 26, 2010

Winter Camp

Posted by Amami Superman

Because Amami has a warmer climate than most places in Japan, it becomes home athletes during the winter. It's not an unlikely scene to see a herd of runners making their way through town to the local sports park. We occasionally have baseball teams that come for winter camp as well.

I like to swim at the pool and I always see runners running the cross country course around the park. I usually don't bring my camera to the pool because I don't like to leave it in the car and don't want to store it in the lockers at the pool. But today, I thought I would bring it and try to take some photos of some of the runners.

Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Blazing Fast


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Keeping Pace


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 105mm, 1/250 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Walking and Running


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/1600 sec, f/5.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Getting Ready to Bloom

I'm not sure what kind of tree this is but it looked like it may bloom some type of flower soon. I took this photo on the way back to my car and I kind of liked it so I threw it in.

As I was taking photos of these runners, I caught myself saying, "What I wouldn't give to be in shape like them..." Well, obviously I wouldn't give the time and effort they put in. lol But I'm working on that.

I didn't know if it was OK to take these runners' photos or not. I thought about getting my fat butt to run beside them and ask if it was OK, but I would have probably died of a heart attack before they could answer. One runner waved me off as I was taking photos of him so I didn't include them.

These shots let me get in some good practice. I was able to use the Continuous Focus feature on my camera which I don't have a lot of experience using. I felt these photos came out OK. I could have upped the ISO to 400 and used a faster shutter speed to lessen some of the motion blur so that's something I can think about in the future when deciding shutter speed.

Although I've had my camera over a year now, I'm still learning about its different features. 2 things that I really need to get busy and study up on are the Metering Modes and AF-Area Modes. I still don't have a good comprehension of these so that's something I'll be doing very soon.

I'm still trying out Zenfolio and these photos are all linked from there. I'll try a few more posts to decide weather or not I like it. If not I'll look elsewhere to upload my photos. If it doesn't work out, I have this same post copied and I used photos I uploaded to Photobucket.

comments (2)

TOP

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)