The hockey season is over. Quite a bit faster than hoped. The local hockey team Rodovre Mighty Bulls was knocked out of the first round of the playoffs, loosing 4 straight games.This has both upsides and downsides. Upside is, I don’t have to go on the road Friday which equals being home no earlier than 1 AM. Downside is I really enjoy shooting hockey and now my 300mm wont really be used until in about a month or so. I do get a chance to use it Sunday for a preseason soccer game.Anyway here are a few shots from yesterday’s game.Rodovre Mighty Bulls players not looking too excited after the season is cut short. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO1600)A SonderjyskE player is getting hit by a high stick during the fourth playoff game between Rodovre Mighty Bulls and SonderjyskE. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO1600)Martin Skygge from the Mighty Bulls with stitches in this chin after taking a high stick to the face early in the game.. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO1600)SonderjyskE goaltender Mike Ayers was the highlight of the first round of the playoffs allowing just 5 goals in 4 games. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO1600)

I did it .. I went out and bought the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM. It’s amazing!!I shoot quite a bit of soccer (not the season right now though) and the 70-200 just doesn’t have the reach.I brought the lens to the hockey game today to test it out and what a blast that was…Here’s a shot from today’s game.Jiri Podesva gets just enough of the puck with his glove to keep it from going into the net. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 300mm, f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO1600)This photo deserves to be seen in a higher resolution. Click image for larger version.

A minor snow storm hit the country yesterday. I was assigned to shoot some photos around the city. My fingers were cold as hell.Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/800sec, f/4, ISO320 (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/500sec, f/4, ISO320 (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/20sec, f/18, ISO100 (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 35mm, 1/640sec, f/4, ISO320 (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Today the Chinese New Year was celebrated and I was assigned to cover the event. I was pretty excited about it, shooting photos of the big dragons and stuff like that.I arrive like 5 minutes before the event was scheduled to start (according to the journalist) and see the city square completely empty. There’s a guy with a video camera and a couple of photographers.So I’m asking if this is where the event is, and I get the response “They just finished.”I’m like what the fuck!!The journalist gave me a wrong time, so I was forced to only shoot the speeches and other indoor activity. This is unfortunately not a first. I have experienced arriving at an appointed destination only to walk again minutes later because I was given a wrong time or date. Or it was cancelled and I wasn’t told. I guess it’s part of the job.I did get my dragon shot though!Today in Frederiksberg City Hall, the Chinese New Year was celebrated, with visits from various ambassadors and other important people.(Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/60sec, f/4, ISO800, flash fired)

I local boxer won the regional championship today. I was assigned to shoot a photo of him. I wasn’t quite sure where I would meet him.It turned out to be at the gym so I was thinking maybe one of those sandbags would do. When I walked in I saw the end wall was mirrors from floor to ceiling and thought that maybe bouncing the flash into the mirror would give me some better and more dramatic lighting.Once I had dialed in the flash and camera settings for the correct exposure, I would still see the ceiling lights and the wall behind him was still visible. So I walked backwards having the mirrors to the left of me, creating distance to the wall behind the boxer.The ceiling lighting was killed and the aperture dialed up a bit and iso down along with a faster shutter speed. That would make the background go away.For the first couple of shots, the boxer had his gold medal around his neck. His right glove and arm (left from my view) was blocking the medal leaving the area it was in pitch black. That’s a no go. So I thought, “Hey, why not let it hang over his glove”?A little adjusting and it was right on.Mevaip Sabani won the regional Amateur Boxing Championships Sunday. He had only boxed 10 matches prior to entering the tournament. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/250sec, f/6.3, ISO100, Speedlite 580ex bounced into a mirror to the left)

A local kid is pretty close to being footballer/soccer star Ronaldinho’s double. This kid is 12 years old and can juggle and do tricks like you’ve never seen.He has been in commercials and has been in the major newspapers around the country.Being a local kid we ran a story on him, so I was assigned to shoot some photos of him. It was a potential cover story but was run somewhere inside the newspaper.Alexander, a 12 year old kid from Rodovre, Denmark is a pure Ronaldinho look-a-like and a big Barcelona/Ronaldinho fan. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 37mm, 1/125sec, f/4, ISO640, flash fired)

January 31st has been named “National lice day”. It’s basically just an effort to get rid of lice in schools and daycare centers. So on January 31st combs are handed out to the kids.I was assigned to shoot a photo of the kids getting these combs and thought the result seen further down was the right call. Parents and grandparents enjoy seeing their kids or grandkids in the paper. So besides not leaving anybody out, it’s also a great way to get a few extra readers.January 31st has been made into a national lice day. Kids in the smaller classes and daycare centers are given special combs to comb out lice. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)(Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/200sec, f/4, ISO500, flash fired)

I went shooting pictures at the 45th Copenhagen Six Day Race yesterday. After getting a couple of “clean” shots in the bank I decided it was time to play. Long shutter speeds and using the stroboscopic function on the flash was on one of the things on my agenda.Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 38mm, 1/250sec, f/4, ISO500, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/250sec, f/4, ISO500, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 17mm, 1/20sec, f/4, ISO125, flash fired three times in one frame using stroboscopic flash firing (speedlite 580ex). (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/20sec, f/4, ISO125, flash fired three times in one frame using stroboscopic flash firing (speedlite 580ex). (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 27mm, 1/60sec, f/4, ISO200, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/250sec, f/4, ISO500, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/25sec, f/4, ISO250, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 17-40mm @ 40mm, 1/25sec, f/4, ISO250, flash fired. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Yesterday I went to Sweden to shoot a hockey game between two teams with danish players on them. The home side has a player, who played for the local team where I work, last year, so when I got a chance to go up there and shoot photos I accepted the offer right away.It’s alway good fun to go to our neighboring country to shoot hockey.click image to launch.

In the previous post I talked about the problems one can encounter with random gyms or arenas.A couple of hours ago I was out shooting handball. Walking into the field I thought something was wrong. This couldn’t be true. Never in my life have I seen as yellow light as this.Usually it’s just a little yellow and a custom white balance can fix this quite easily.This was the yellow hell I walked into.This is what the auto white balance came up with and it’s pretty close to what the light actually looked like.When the light is that yellow it’s quite difficult to find something that is supposed to be white and make a custom white balance from. This was what I came up with.Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, 70-200mm @ 98mm, 1/320sec, f/2.8, ISO1250. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)Whites here aren’t even really white.