Hockey at GM Place - but not the Canucks

My good friend Tom called me up today and asked if I could take some pictures of him and his teammates who were playing hockey. Of course I can never say no to taking pictures so I readily agreed. The really cool thing was that they had rented ice time at GM Place Stadium which is where the Vancouver Canucks normally play during the season. So not only was it an opportunity to practice photographing some fast action sports but it was also in a place where normally I would not get access to the places to take ice level shots. So here are a few of the over three hundred shots that I took today. Obviously I am not posting them all here in my blog but just a few that I personally like.

Getting your game faces on

Face off

Game play

Intensity

I really like how this one catches the reflection of the goalie in the glass anticipating the shot from the rushing player

Moments of action

A Study in Rust

I've been trying to keep up with my goal of getting out at least once a week and taking some pictures. So my assignment for myself this week was to answer a question that I get asked sometimes by people like my girlfriend, "Why do photographers love taking photos of rust?" My answer of course is because rust has interesting colors and textures to it. You can almost feel it with your eyes. Here are some shots I took this past weekend at an old lot containing what looks like huge cylinders from the back of cement trucks and also some abandoned old pieces of machinery.

Sunset at Terra Nova

This past weekend was one of the nicest ones we have had weather wise for awhile in Vancouver. There is this great area called Terra Nova in a suburb of Vancouver called Richmond and in it there is an area that is right along the water with a walking and biking trail all along it and is a great place to watch the sunset. It's also right across from the YVR Airport so you can watch the planes take off and land too. Here are some shots I took tonight of the sunset. A few of them are tweaked as HDR photos which combine about five bracketed shots to create the final output. I shot in manual and used f/22 for all of these shots and varied the shutter speeds so that I would have shots at one full stop intervals beginning with a -2 all the way to +2 exposure readings off the camera's meter.

Taking the Next Step

I signed up for the Intermediate Digital SLR Photography at Vancouver Photo Workshops and it will be starting April 24th. Really looking forward to it and trying to take my photography to the next step by learning more digital workflow and post processing techniques. I just really enjoy the group learning atmosphere and the sharing of images and having them reviewed and critique by the instructor and other students. Till then I'll continue to try my best at going out at least every weekend and shooting.