Today was the last day of school for the seniors at the public school (high school). By tradition, in Denmark the students who finish school and goes on to higher educations, celebrate their final day at school, dressing up, tossing caramels out to the younger students, and throwing shaving foam on each other, and anybody who gets too close along with water and what not.

I was assigned to cover the event at one of the schools.

For quite a while I’ve wanted to try to shoot golf. Watching various golf photos from some of the leading sports photographers in the business have made me interested in trying to shoot it, instead of the usual sporting events I shoot.

Today I got a short and very limited opportunity. Short as I only had like 10 minutes, And limited in having ONE swing to shoot the photo. Talk about having to nail it in the first attempt. It was a tournament so there was no “hey could you please blast another ball sir?” here.

Most of the sports I shoot noise is no issue, but shooting wide angle and right behind the golfer, I couldn’t just fire my 1D like a machine gun and hope for the best.

Anyway, here’s the best I got.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 40mm, f/4, 1/400sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

One thing is shooting straight out action sports shots. Trying to catch that peak action or storytelling shot from some event. Another is trying to create something artistic.

I shot a Super League Soccer game Sunday. The stadium stands threw a shade on the pitch around the goal. going from bright sun where I was shooting 1/3200 sec at ISO 100 at f/2.8 and into the shade, it would be heavily underexposed. A correct exposure in the shade was something like 1/640 sec at ISO 100 at f/2.8.

This particular shot the goaltender was running out from his goal to clear the ball and I anticipated he would meet the ball around the edge of the shade on the pitch.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8, 1/3200sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Photo is converted to black and white, vignetting is added and contrast was bumped up a bit.

Yesterday was supposed to be an easy day with just a 10am and 11am assignment. I ended up having 10 assignments the last one at 9.30pm giving me a work day from 9am to 11pm with a one hour break around 8pm. And that’s without including time to process the images.

Positive thing about yesterday’s work day is that some of the assignments were freelance stuff giving me extra cash which will help to get a new mac laptop as soon as the new OS X is out.

Yesterday ended with a Tango festival. I could have shot it tonight or waited for Sunday afternoon, but I don’t have any other assignments Sunday so I thought I would just get it over with.

Here’s a shot from the tango festival:

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 200mm, f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO1000, flash fired (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

I’m back from Russia. It was a pretty cool and exiting trip. But the last couple of days in Moscow was all about getting it over and heading home. I’m not quite sure what the reason was, but I was really looking forward to going home.

From a business side of view it wasn’t all too bad either. I’ve sold something like 10 photos from the hockey games which is better than I had hoped for. The wire service I made a deal with, subscribe to AP’s wire service (Associated Press) and this year they delivered quite well. Usually they give a poor selection of photos from Denmarks’ games.

I had photos published in three of the biggest nationwide newspapers in Denmark which I’m really excited about. I was sure I could deliver photos that was of high enough quality that the big papers would use them, so it was really nice to get it confirmed. I might try to see if I can get a better deal next year for the World Championships in Canada.

A view of the Khodynka Ice Arena where Denmark played all their games. This photo was taken during the Russia - Sweden game. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, f/4, 1/400sec, ISO500

It was quite hard to pick up work again here at home. I was home from the airport Tuesday around 5:30pm, and was back on the job the next morning. My luck it has been a pretty quiet week, so the first two days had only a few assignments.

Here’s a slideshow with pictures from Denmark’s games at the 2007 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships in Moscow Russia.

click image to launch.

Yesterday Denmark played a middle round game against Switzerland. If Denmark won it, they would have a good chance of making the quarter finals, but that didn’t happen. Switzerland won 4-1. Here’s a few photos from the game.

Denmarks Daniel Nielsen (white shirt) shoots the puck down the ice in the game between Switzerland and Denmark. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO640

Denmarks forward Peter Regin flies through the air in the game between Switzerland and Denmark. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO640

Denmarks forward Kim Staal (left) and goaltender Michael Madsen in action in the game between Switzerland and Denmark. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8, 1/800sec, ISO640

Swiss player Julien Sprunger scores in the game between Switzerland and Denmark. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO640

Here’s a little update on things in Russia. The food is not too great at the hotel and really shitty at the media center. We went something like three days before we had a good meal. We found the Hard Rock in Moscow and their burgers were pretty dang good.

Me in the arena in Moscow.

My hat’s off for the metro system here. It just works so no delay what so ever. The hockey rink is pretty far away from the nearest metro station so I get to walk a few miles a day which is ok.

Security at the hockey rink and hotel is good. But not consistent. Sometimes you walk through metal detectors and even though it beeps they just let you walk right on.

Yesterday Russia played Finland. It was the last game of the preliminary round and that game would decide the winner of our group (Denmark is in the same group as Russia and Finland). It was nuts. The crowd was as loud as I’ve ever heard so that was pretty fucking awesome to experience.

However.

Russia being the host nation it wasn’t just the stands that was filled up to the edge. No.. People with daypasses was crowding the media center for some reason and they were filling up the press seats as well.

It wasn’t a problem for me as we (the photographers) were seated lower than the press seats. But it’s a problem and it’s the same thing every year unfortunately.

Beer is pretty cheap here so I’ve had a hangover the last couple of days. I have no idea what’s going on but I can’t drink anymore without getting a hangover.

The hotel lobby is swamped with prostitutes. I get “Sex massage maybe?” at least once a day.

Today is a day off as Denmark played yesterday and beat Ukraine which means we’re going to Canada next year.. So today might be the day I get to see some of Moscow and not just the same path to and from the rink.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO640 (Photo: Brian Poulsen)