I’ve shot some handball (?) a couple of times for one of the newspapers I shoot for. Today I was assigned to shoot women’s volleyball for another paper (freelance gig).Going into an arena, or in most cases a gym, the light is straight out horrible. Sometimes I can’t believe just how bad the lighting is. Maybe we (as photographers) should do some kind of strike or lockout and refuse to shoot sports in gyms or arenas that doesn’t have some agreed minimum lux-value.In the end the pictures will be MUCH better which in my mind will also benefit the teams we cover.The pictures below are from today and are all shot around 1/320 sec, ISO1600 at f/2.8. And they are even brightened quite a bit in ACR.Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/320sec, f/2.8, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/320sec, f/2.8, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/250sec, f/2.8, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/320sec, f/2.8, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)With basketball hoops all the way around the court and no way to shoot from above the net, getting a clean background is equal to impossible.

Tuesday I covered a hockey game. A boring hockey game. I can’t remember the last time I was at a hockey game as boring as the one Tuesday. Usually I’ll get somewhere between 10-15 useful photos from a hockey game. From the home team only. I don’t really focus on the opponents since we are a local paper, focusing on the local team and not the visiting team.Anyway. Tuesday I got like 5 usable shots. Nothing extraordinary, except for a bloody nose..Canadian Derek Hahn skates back to the box while blood comes from his nose, as a result of taking a high stick to the face. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 108mm, 1/320sec, f/2.8, ISO1600)Also… In some games the linesman closest to where I shoot from has this incredible skill to always block the view. Here’s a couple of outtakes to display my frustration.Here I would like to know what the hell the autofocus had found interesting to focus on.

I’m currently working on a story about the local firemen. Monday which is actually my usual days off, I spent with the local fire department. It’s my plan to go there at least two more times, or until I have enough pictures.I’m not quite sure what I want to do with the pictures. So far plans are in progress to run a double spread photo essay in the paper.I’m thinking of maybe trying to see if the local library will host a gallery of the photos. So far I have a handful of photos from the first day that are gallery material.. We’ll see.. I might do a multimedia production on them as well for my website. Until then, here’s a small teaser.The firemen’s boots and flame resistant pants stand ready next to the fire truck. The on-duty fire fighters have to be in the truck and on the streets within 60 seconds of receiving the alarm. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/100sec, f/4, ISO500)

Here are nine of my favorite shots from 2006 that didn’t find its way onto this blog.(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/160sec, f/4, ISO250, flash fired)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/125sec, f/4, ISO400)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/125sec, f/2.8, ISO1600)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 22mm, 1/250sec, f/4, ISO200)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/200sec, f/2.8, ISO1600)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/1600sec, f/4, ISO100)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/640sec, f/2.8, ISO100)

(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/3200sec, f/2.8, ISO1000)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/8000sec, f/2.8, ISO640)

I was assigned to shoot a reception right after New Year. A new local court is opening and by danish tradition a reception is held, and hotdogs and beverages are served.Receptions aren’t really all that interesting to shoot. Just people standing around eating hotdogs but upon my arrival to the building, I saw camera crews from Denmarks two nationwide TV stations there. Apparently the Minister of Justice was there to give a speech about the new police jurisdiction.I thought that would probably make a good picture for the story since she’s the Minister of Justice. Unfortunately the camera crew vans blocked the view, so all I could do was shoot her from the side.The Minister of Justice, Lene Espersen, is being interviewed by Danish nationwide TV. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/800sec, f/2.8, ISO400)

I’ve been optimizing my workflow to make processing faster and easier. The number one key is photoshop actions.Usually I resize the photos down to the size of a single page width. We rarely (read: basically never) spread photos across two pages, and since I email most of my photos in to the papers, resizing the photos a bit makes it faster and I send fewer emails this way to get my photos in.This is a process I repeat and photoshop actions comes in handy. However, making a photoshop action that resizes the photos to a certain length or height is not straight out of the box. If you use the regular image size tool in photoshop, you can only set the height or the width of the photo which creates problems if you want to resize both portrait or landscape style photos with your action.However - instead of using:Image -> image Size (or command+i on a mac, or ctrl+i on windows)go to:File -> Automate -> Fit imageHere you can set the minimum height or width. Say you want your photos to be either 750px wide or 750px in height, you put 750 in each box. Pretty simple.This function works inside a photoshop action.

I’ll usually bounce a flash into the ceiling when possible. And usually behind me to avoid shades under the eyes and cheek.I was on an assignment to cover a discussion/forum thing where two politicians were talking about the future of our schools. It was open to the public who could ask questions and the politicians would respond.I was walking around the room which had a high ceiling and it was not white but still usable. Anyway I found myself standing next to a big whiteboard and. When facing the politicians the whiteboard was behind me to the left. So I turned my flash and bounced it into the whiteboard. I think the result is quite wonderful. The picture itself is not spectacular, but I think the light is pretty great.

Shot at 140mm, 1/250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 800 with speedlite 580ex.

Assignment: Shoot photos of essay contest winnerI was assigned to shoot photos of an essay contest winner. The essay thing as far as I recall it, was a nationwide contest, where students were to write an essay on what makes them laugh.The woman in the picture below has a business which is basically a laugh center or sorts. I believe it is some sort of laugh therapy. It is supposed to make people happier and feel better or something.Anyway she was at the school to hand over the award (a cash prize along with a diploma) and did a little demonstration before the winner was announced.You know how if one laughs you’ll more or less automatically start laughing as well? This woman has an amazing laugh-on-demand and all the students in the classroom was laughing so hard, some even cried because they laughed so much.I was laughing my ass off as well. Imagine how hard it is to shoot photos when your whole body is out of control with muscle spasms because you’re laughing?Anyway I think this photo is absolutely hilarious!

If you’re one of the few who visit this blog on a regular basis, you’ll probably have read about my January 1st assignment covering the evacuation of two buildings. If not you can read it here.Anyway a series of the photos were posted to the newspaper website on Wednesday morning (January 3rd). That same day around 8 PM I got a phone call from the photo editor of Berlingske Tidne which is among the biggest nationwide newspapers in the country.My first thought was “What the hell is she calling me for?” A job offer? Didn’t sound realistic to me at all. And I’ve never heard of a picture editor calling people at 8 pm to sell me a subscription to the paper. Quite amazing how much stuff went through my mind before she started her next sentence.Turns out she had visited the newspaper website and saw my photos from the evacuation. She was interested in buying one of the photos for their Sunday edition where they were doing a two page story on the whole deal in the newspaper section “The Magazine Sunday”. They were bringing a total of three photos for the story and wanted my photo for the story.15 minutes later I had mailed the photo to the photo editor.The photo they/she wanted, was of the old lady getting escorted/helped to a bus by a fireman. Here it is on print in the newspaper.This photo was posted in Berlingske Tidne on Sunday January 7th, 2007.I believe my boss had intentions of brining that exact photo in our own paper but ended up using a different photo. He was really cool about the paper wanting to buy the photo and all and congratulated me for selling it to a major nationwide newspaper.He ended up choosing the photo of the same old lady getting escorted by the fireman but where they are shot from the front with a telephoto lens.The paper I work for ran a center page double spread focus story on the evacuation including an interview with one of of the residence and other information regarding the buildings.A view of the two center pages with the story and photos.My newspaper also ran another photo I shot but hadn’t posted on this site.

Earlier today I was at an assignment to shoot pictures of a New Year’s concert which included a small speech by the mayor who later in the show handed over a music award which is basically a cash gift to somebody who has exceptional talent and is given the money to continue their hard work on music, without having to think about financial issues for a while.The lighting was not good. But surely not the worst I’ve seen. During the speech, the mayor was only lit by a stage light having almost right above him. I’ve seen light like this before, when shooting a dance show and I thought it would make a great portrait style shot of the Mayor which would most likely be a good photo for the archive for future use, instead of the same old boring desk pictures, or speech pictures.This was shot at ISO 1250, 1/320sec @ f/2.8.