Kurt Pankopf Photography

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Another Night at the Rink

Back to the Flint Arena for another try at some hockey action photography. This time my seat was in the third row, right behind the home goal. This had some benefits and some challenges.
My plan was to take some shots from my seat for the first two periods. That would allow a change of ice for the teams. For the third period, I'd go back above the sets and to center ice. Shots with no obstructions.
In the end, these were different shots. And that is what I'm going for.
First the funny stuff. No photograph ever improves because you put an obstacle between the camera and the subject. Filters or Plexiglas. I've ready read from some posters on the UHH that low level rink shots are tough because of the Plexiglas that surrounds the rink for protection of the fan, or to keep the puck in play. The Plexiglas will scratch and scar. Maybe the light will bend? I didn't even think of a possible distortion aspect.

Now that was one issue. Here is the other. The panels are only so wide and depending on where your seat is they can be close together. Holding each pane is a non-clear support.

Still, the angles of the game from here were just too good to give up. One of the things I had to work on was to capture a good auto focus target through all this. Fortunately I could easily tell when the AF caught the wrong target, such as a blemish on the Plexiglas. And just as fortunate I could lose the AF lock and reacquire within a few seconds. And the AF would also keep lock while passing over the false targets. This is not to say that were not a few misses, all I said is I had the chance to work on it.
All the shots were at ISO 800 and 1/1000 sec. I've been experimenting with the Anti-Vibration turned off when shooting over 1/600 but not this time out. I may not have needed it for the photograph, but I needed it for my eyesight through the viewer. The shots out of the camera were on the dark side, but not by much. Fixable, but I will say the pictures on the blog are darker than what I have at home. Not sure what happened there.
I did a lot of this for the night, I would play a guessing game - guess where the action would be. Focus on the goalie for example, and hit the shutter when I thought something was going to happen. I tried not to take 'portrait' shots, but looking for more action shots. And the definition of action is a bit on the loose side. A puck in the shot added value. A defender or two close by would help as well.

This shot was one I was thinking about. Lots of stop action. Ice snow flying. The blemishes on the Plexiglas do get lost in the shot, thankfully. And if the linesman standing on the line were not there, this would be pretty good.

Stop on a Dime

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

123 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

This was sort of a fun shot. Some action, puck rolling. What allowed this to be a keeper is all four players are total, that is they have heads and feet. I do not mind with some referee being a percentage, this case headless. But the players need to be total.

One through Two

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

105 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

Well most of the players are whole, but there are a lot of them so there are exceptions to the rules. The puck is there. Not too many Flint players though.

Net Front Congestion

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

105 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

From eye level, this is the type of shot I wanted to get. As an unexpected surprise, not only is the primary subject moving between two defenders and the puck is in play, but the bench for both teams is awesome. Everyone is looking at the play. No one is yawning.

To the Net

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

142 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

This was taken along the same view line. The bench isn't showing the same amount of excitement. But the defenseman on the left is just about to hit the ice. That has to be worth something.

Cross Net Pass

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

135 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

When I think of the night's hockey shots this is the one. Problem is, it is too close. As we can see, the closer the shot, the more the defects show up in the shots. If I was going to do anything more with this picture, I'd try to remove some of the blemishes. Might involve a bit of time. Although I don't have a total defenseman, I do have his stick is a not normal position. In fact, this would be evidence of hooking or even a penalty shot. No penalty called. #NotSurprised It was fun watching this sequence unfold through the viewfinder.

Alone in Front

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

127 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

By this time I had moved out of my seat behind the goal, so this was taken at an elevated position. Nice, clear, no spots. This was a clear breakaway and the shot. And actually the interesting thing is the puck is a bit off the ice. I'm looking too close to these shots.

Between the Dots

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

150 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

This is the second favorite shot from the night. All the requisite elements are present. Puck, players, snow ice and a (almost) goal. Just wide. But who is counting. It's a good shot. Both hockey and photo. And truth in photography, I had to remove a defense stick from the right of the image. Artistic license.

Tap In

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20 /70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

247 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

Good night at the rink. I may have to go more often.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

A Night at the Rink - Flint Firebirds

In a hockey sense, it's been a great week. Last Monday night I was in Pittsburgh to take in a Pen's game against the Ottawa Senators at the PPG arena. Last night, it was the Flint Firebirds going against the London Knights in Flint.
The Pen's are NHL. I watch most every Pen's game via the NHL on line app. The Flint Firebirds are OHL, Ontario Hockey League. The Firebirds play in an arena that can accommodate just over 4k people, plus a few extra SRO if necessary. The Flint rink is 15 feet shy of a NHL size rink, and just as wide. There are rinks in the league that are the NHL size.
The OHL is a league of twenty teams, mostly for ages 16 to 21. Seventeen teams are Canadian, three teams are south of the northern border. I thought last night's game was fun to watch. The players can play.
That was from the hockey fan in me. Now the photographer take.
Back to an indoor arena. Crappy light (no offense, pretty good for watching, not so good for photography.), high ISO and speed. Stuff I live for.
I only shot about 300 images. For ISO I stayed mostly at 800. I did a few at 1000 and 640. For speed I used 1/1000 of a second. I could live with 1/800 sec, but not 1/640 sec. I was also at f/5.6 for all shots, as open as the lens would go. There were very few DOF issues, I was far from the action. Most of this I learned from shooting the indoor horse photographs.
On the D500, it works. On the D7200, to keep 1/1000 sec, I'd probably have to bump up the ISO to 1000 or slightly higher.
For frame speed, I used 7 FPS. Shooting only 300 for the night would indicate I had much better control of the shutter. Yes, I did miss a few shots by not keeping the sequence going. I will learn from this.
As far as the missed shots for the night, there were a few. I seem to have a consistent issue with trying to get the shot so tight that I 'miss' the top of the head of the subject. The action is fast. It's a learning thing. The other 'misses' were focus issues, but not what you would think. My seat was center ice for most shots. At some point during the game, I moved to one end of the ice, behind the goalie to get another perspective. Good idea, bad move. There is protective netting that sort of gets in the way of the auto-focus. In hind sight, I could have altered the AF settings to play around and the might be the next project. But what I did try was turning off the AF, and going manual. Action is way too fast for that. The best way to get those shots would be front row seating, just past the goals. And hope the Plexiglas in front isn't too scarred up. Again, another reason to go to another game. In a different seat.
Other techniques used that I learned elsewhere. The action was fast enough I couldn't follow the puck through the viewfinder. So I would watch the goalie - and press the trigger when I expected something to happen. That is taken from air shows following one subject (jet) until you think something is going to happen (crossing opposing jet). Sometimes it worked. The other technique was to shoot with both eyes open. I have the right eye in the viewfinder, but if I can keep the left eye open I can still see a bigger picture. After a while, it is not that difficult to see a larger environment.

And to the game:
Within the first few minutes of the game start, there was a group photo meeting behind the London goal. The team introductions could have been at that point, everyone but the Flint goalie was there. Refs as well.

Post Scuffle

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

262 mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6. ISO 1000

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX

In most of the shots, I tried to crop out the fans in the seats as much as possible.

Net Front Traffic

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

270 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX

It always amazes me how goalies can track the puck with all that is going on front of them. This just happened to line up with my seat.

Locked In

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

270 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX

For as much as I tried, I have very few shots with shots. It was usually because I didn't keep the shutter button pressed long enough. I'll go with rookie mistake on this one. Room for improvement. The puck can be seen in this shot however, just to the right of the goalie's mask on on the shoulder. Yep, I planned it that way.

High Blocked Shot

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

232 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX

Again back to the goalies. A position not for the faint of heart.

Traffic

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

262 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX

Yep I followed the puck all night and planned this shot. But when you think about it, the puck has to be somewhere.

Busy Front

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

247 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX

Of all my shots for the night, my favorite is not actually a hockey shot. It involves players, but the puck is long gone from these two. There is a lot going on with this shot. First, I would like to get a shot of the Flint player on the giving side of this disagreement, not the receiver but you have to take what you can get. Next, it is a lousy place to take a hit, the bench door is slightly ajar. Lots of times this scenario does not end well. Next, two of the bench players with completely different looks. #28 has the grimace and #74 has the another day at the office look. And the non-player just turning away. And yep, both feet are off the ice. Just great.

Flint Firebird Hit

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

277 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6. ISO 800

EV 0, MANUAL Mode, DX

It was a fun night. Happy you can take a camera in for this.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

PSA - Change your © Copyright Information

With the new year, time to change your copyright year.
I try to remember these things.
For what it is worth, I set up the Author field in the camera and a basic copyright statement. When processing images, if necessary I put in a usage statement for the specific shoot.
There is lots of copyright information on the web. At my level, I just want a statement. If I was to start really getting into the field, I might consult a copyright/photography attorney.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Original Camera Kit - 1980's

My interest of photography began with my father. (I seem to remember that he was a Canon person initially, then he converted to Nikon. That may explain a lot.) Over the years, he led me to the stage that there is more to photography than a point and shoot. There is artistry. There are colors. Instead of taking something, there is creation. Then I drifted away. For a while. The lost years.
I picked up the interest again when I had time and some limited disposable income. The time was the early 80's and I had just been shipped off to the island of Okinawa for at least 18 months. Aside from learning a new job (fixing broken jet engines on KC-135s), a new life style (USAF/SAC) and trying to survive on my limited personal food menu in a foreign land, I did have some extra time on my hands. I found after a few 'small' paychecks that I could afford either a stereo or camera. Seemed that most of the enlisted chose one or the other. I went down the middle, little stereo and little film camera.
I went with Minolta at the time, and the XG-1. I was so happy! It was the first 'exposure' to me of the relationship between ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture. My first computer and I didn't know it. The ISO was set mechanically on a dial, and depending on the shutter speed set there as a 'meter' on the right side of the viewfinder that let you know what the aperture should be. Very educational. And basic.
Self learning in those days was expensive as in film developing costs. And, more than that, you had either 12, 24 or 36 shots per roll to fill up prior to developing. And. And more than that there were days between the shot and looking at the final product to see if it could be better. Ah, the good ol' days.
These days, if you want to learn more, you have videos, software and instant feedback. Ah, good ol' technology.
So, back to the original kit. The kit has survive all my moves since 1992 - due in part to spending years with my sister. And now we are re-united.

This kit had it all. The XG-1, with a film winder attached to the bottom. The Sunpak flash, the 16 mm fisheye, the 600 mm handheld and a 100-200 zoom. Later additions is a Vivitar 35 to 105 macro and Vivitar nifty 50 from my maternal grandfather. (Yea, he was into photography in a big way as well.) I have no doubt I've already shot my last roll of film. If the Sunpak still works, I'd be surprised.
The story for this is the 16 mm and 600 mm Sigma lenses. Can they be used with the Nikons? Glass is glass, it never goes bad on its own.

I found a lens mount converter for a Nikon F mount to a Minolta M mount lens. There's no electronics involved, purely a manual attachment operation. So I successfully mounted the 600 lens on the D90 and D7200.
The good news is both will focus. On the D90, there is no help for metering at all. On the D7200, in Live View I have a light meter configured and that is a help.

The meter is on the right. And it worked with the non-CPU lens. (This is indicated by the F0 in the display.) And that is the good news. The other part of this is while the reach is incredible, the 1980s technology shows. The shot is hazy and about 90% sharp. There is a window pane between the subject and me. That might have some effect. When the weather warms up a bit, I'll head out somewhere and get a better idea.
Thankfully the software that is available today can help that image.

This is from my house, through a window, across the street to neighbor's holiday porch decoration. Pretty strong. Needed tripod though. Again will have to wait for outdoor testing.
Not sure this will be an air show lens, but could be nature lens.
I didn't try out the 16 mm lens yet. Still lots of crappy weather weekends to go yet this winter.
Happy to have the kit back. Lots of good memories.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Hello 2020 - and 2019 memories

2019 was a fun year for me.
For something new, I added horse events to my 'likes'. What a neat world. Lots of room to get more involved in 2020. I now know some equine events and sites to look for dates of activity. I also had a few shots of animals in captivity for the first time. We'll see what happens in 2020 for these subjects.
For subjects missed in 2019, no lighthouses and no freighters. Not sure what happened. There needs to be more day trips in 2020.
On the improvement side, two words - prop blur. That was the improvement goal for 2019, and it worked. The prop driven aircraft pictures were so much better each subsequent time out, at least to me, than last year. There were fewer shots overall, but much better quality. Still lots of room to improve. This 'art' is going to take time and practice. The 2020 airshow schedule is coming together nicely.
The 2019 airshow schedule included MCAS Beaufort, Wings over Northern Michigan, Traverse City Air Show and the Reno Air Races. The 2020 schedule will include the Charleston (SC) airshow, MCAS Cherry Point, Traverse City, Thunder over Michigan, London (Ontario) Airshow and the Reno shows. That's a lot. Fun. The Thunder over Michigan event will include a Photographer's Package for the weekend.
I didn't get out to the Nature Reserve as much in 2019. But the times I did get out I didn't leave empty handed. I did get a few good photos of an Osprey on two trips. That was fun. I added some photos of local Pelicans this year, which was new. And a few good Eagle shots. The growing year for the Reserve was 2018. However, I have a new ally to help with far off shots in 2020 - and that may change the perspective.
Although I added the D500 camera at the end of 2018 to the kit, I consider 2019 was the first year of use. It did not disappoint. The camera would handle a wider range of light that the D7200 or D90. I used the 10 FPS at Reno. Awesome performance. The D7200 was still put to great use in most outings. My usual day set up was the D500 with the 70-300 lens and the D7200 with the 18-200 lens. For 2020 I added Nikon's 200-500 f/5/6 lens to the kit. For air shows, there will be an additional challenge with this new lens. At a fixed f/5.6 I will have to use light (ND) filtering to get the slow prop shots I want. A three stop ND filter is on it's way. For the jets though, this should be a lot of fun. And the big lens will really help out at the Refuge.
And now: The year in review, 2019: The envelopes please.... (A lot of the judging is based on how it looks on PC 27 inch monitors.)
In no particular order other than the best of the year will be last, of course.

Aircraft:
Best Prop in flight: This came from the Wings over Northern Michigan show, the Michigan based Yankee Lady B17.

The sky plays a big part on this shot. It is not flat blue. And to me that helps with an aluminum skin. And the prop blur. I'd like to have more blur, but the props might disappear all together? The yellow tips are too far away to be seen on a consistent basis and the shutter speed would be so slow. So the blur is where the blur is. And I'm OK with that. And the B17 outline is my favorite WWII bomber, not that this played a factor in my choice. Sorry B24s.

Best Prop Blur: This might be cheating, as the aircraft is on the ground so a much lower shutter speed can be used. So the bar for blur is much higher on this category.

To me the prop blur is almost perfectly symmetrical. You can see it has four props and the yellow tip. This photo had some work done, as there were a few people here who didn't belong. As an extra bonus, one blur shot that didn't make a post was a close up of Dreadnought. At some point I'll write the story, but here is a pre-view:

Very cool tip colors.

Best Jet: There were lots of good jet shots. Just up the shutter speed and you have a good shot. So, for this category there had to be something extra. A sense of timing. Sure, this one was luck. Didn't know I had a good shot until I got home. Yes, there was audible noise when I saw this one.

This was at the Wings over Northern Michigan show. As much as a jet can, it snuck up from behind the stands. Didn't hear it until it was right at my 10:00. Camera up, hit the shutter and hoped for the best. I didn't see the sonic cone until I got home. The cone is a lot more visible when you're not perpendicular, but I wasn't going to throw it away for that small detail. Plus, room to improve.

Best Thunderbird Shot: This is from the Reno Air Races. I got to see the T-Birds twice in 2019, Once at Traverse City and once at Reno. I got some awesome shots at Traverse City, but a lot were too far away. And while they were good enough for screen savers, they didn't make it for the Best of series. At Reno the show was much closer. And again, many of the maneuvers were 'common', so I needed something to be unique. And this is it. Our seats at Reno are so good, show center as high as you can get and still be in the stands. So this maneuver is coming right at us. Only place you can get this shot.

This is right on and squares up neatly. I like a bit more subject detail in my shots, but on the monitor this shows up nicely.

Best Blue Angles Shot: No offense to the Air Force Paint scheme, but the colors of the Blue Angles are my favorite. There actually is a name for this maneuver, the Fortus maneuver.

The blues, yellows, whites and even the tires are all good for me here. The wings, tail and the landing gear all make this a favorite of mine.

Best Air Race:

Right place, right time. This pass was right in front of our seats. The #8 Dreadnought moving at just over 400 MPH and is lapping Speedball Alice by over 150 MPH difference. Most passing in a bank doesn't happen near the stands - this was very cool moment.

Best Helicopter:
The most difficult subject to photograph at an air show - or out in the aero-wild is a helicopter. The blades move so slow. The aircraft moves. Coming at you it is OK, but going directly across your field of view is tough. I came away with two good, not technically excellent helicopter shots this year. One is of two USCG units flying in formation. Looks good on the small screen savers, but only OK on the big screen. But the one I'm going with here has a bit more action.

This was coming in for a landing as part of a Marine Corps demonstration. Fun to watch and just enough blur on the main and tail rotors to be believable. And the lettering is sharp. And it look good on the big monitors.

One last honorable mention - the most visited page. I average maybe ten hits per post. This post got over 200 hits, and on the UHH over 1700 visits. The hits were for the subject, not the photos. And I wish I didn't have to post my thoughts. Earlier this year, the B17 Nine 'O Nine crashed with loss of life. There were some survivors. The aircraft was a total loss. Very sad story. I've been on the Nine 'O Nine when it visited Flint a few years ago, and this was the nose art.

A tragic loss all around.

Trains:
Best Model Train:

I was a bit off my game this year at the Detroit Model Railroad Club shoot. I walked away with a few good shots, but not like numbers in previous years. But this is a screen saver to me. First, I like just about anything orange. And orange and Black. And a little yellow for detail. This shot has some work in it, mostly layers to bring out the lights correctly, Most of my shots at the DMRRC are focus stacked. I don't have many with a depth of field element. And for this the DOF is OK. Good separation.

Best Train:

This choice was easy. I was only out once to chase the #1225 this year, We rode it twice! But the day I was able to chase, there was a little snow on the ground. I had to wait for the right moment on this one, had to get the steam release just prior to a move. There is some electrical wires and poles that need 'relocation'. Gone. There is a full parking lot to the left and building on the right. The steam release covers it all. This morning shot features a blue sky. Wonder what it would look like with total cloud cover. Enhance the steam cloud a bit, eh?

Now for a bit of a break to the not so serious. The best fun photo.

This was taken at the Genesee County Fair. This was a traveling wrestling group. What fun it was to watch. It certainly helps to know the move is coming. All those years of watching pro wrestling on TV was not wasted. These guys, and gals, put on a great show.
I do need to get out more often.

Best Wildlife:
Bird (Eagle): I have two favorites from the year, one a juvenile and one a mature. So, I can post two here. My Awards.....

Juvenile Eagle. Again, lucky. This was far away and aggressively cropped. Lucky it survived. I like the angle of the bank and the background. The off color under wings is pretty good as well. I like the feathers at the tip of the wing, and the odd symmetry they portray. As a screen saver, this one is hard to beat.

Again, something different sets this apart. This is aggressively cropped and shot at 1.3. This was 45 minutes of watching this play out. And wasn't easy to get to this place. But it came out OK. This one was squawking to its mate. Probably discussing what was for dinner, fresh fish or fresh fish.

Best Bird Local (Non-Eagle)

This was an early morning sunrise shot. And that's what makes this one good to me. The sunlight angle on the birds and the mist off the wetlands. This was tough choice as I have one shot of an Osprey in flight that I really like. But good Osprey photos involve some predatory action - and this one ain't it. And this is about as exciting as Pelicans get. This got the nod.

Best Bird (Non-Local):

This is a brown pelican from the Carolina coast. I like this shot because the bird in the foreground is very sharp and DOF takes care of the rest. Picture is easy to follow.

Best Critter:

This was a tough choice, I had a few shots from the WNCNC to choose from. The gray wolfs and the red pandas gave this one a run. But in the end, this fox got me. It was the clarity of the eye and the yellow an green background. If the far eye was not covered by the fence, would be a 10. Sharp.

Horse:
What fun I had with the horses this year. This was a tough one to choose. In the end, many of the my favorites were of a horse and rider doing the same thing. Having fun. Going back to what makes a shot unique. With that filter applied, the choice was easy. This shot tells the story.

The shots this day were challenging. Low light, fast action, high ISO. In the end, this picture tells more of a story than the others without the event banner. Yea, I'd like the main subject to occupy more of the image, but the banner helps sell the image.

Best Paint Job:

I didn't do/post too many paint images this year. I do like the paint program and effect, and if I were selling images I do believe there is a good market out there for genre. My usual criteria is a good view, but for some reason the focus was't right (happens more than you would think) or it just isn't working. neither was the case here, I saw this in paint when I took it. Farmland. Yellows and greens. Trees. Character sky.

We're down to the best photo of the year. This was a tough decision. I had one shot that was a favorite from early April, then had a late entry at the end of the year. These are two completely different subjects. Since this is my award show, I say it is a tie. The order was decided by a completely neutral coin flip.

This shot blew me away. If I had more appreciation for the horses, this might be a clear cut Best of the Year winner. But I'm new to this subject. I know I'll have a better appreciation with more time. But not only the horse drew my attention here, but the light from the window on the horse and in the stall.

For me, there is a lot going on here. Get the right prop blur, lots of white lettering that might show any out of focus errors. But it all worked. And the clincher for me is the yellow prop blur coming across the top of the cowling. Yea, I planned it.

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