Death in the family has kept my mind on anything else but this blog. Now that everything is back to normal (as normal as it can get) I figured it was time to give a little update on what I’ve been doing..

A couple of concerts, a couple of soccer games, some handball, a demonstration and other stuff is among what I’ve been pointing my camera at.

I made a small gallery with captions in it with some of the most recent stuff I’ve been doing.

Click image to launch.

I don’t shoot handball that much. I enjoy it a lot but it doesn’t have as high a priority on the paper as soccer and hockey. Plus the facility they play in is darker than hell.

Wednesday night I was assigned to cover two games in a row. First the Men’s game and then the Women’s game. Apparently it took me half the men’s game to get into the groove again. Here’s a few shot from the Women’s game.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 190mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 140mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM @ 170mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Here’s a sport where I wish I had two Canon 1D Mark II N’s and not a Mark II N and a Canon 1D. The facility is too dark to even attempt to push my old 1D. So I have to swap lenses every now and then. The 300mm gives me blurred backgrounds and some
nice up close photos. Plus I can shoot the action in both ends.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Here’s one of the up close moments I mentioned. Unfortunately there is no ball in the picture.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Shooting with the 300 does give you a lot of this because they jump when they shoot:

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

A apologize to the few who actually visit this blog, for lack of updates. Work has been shit busy lately. I haven’t forgotten you but I’ve had my hands full of other things. Here’s eight photos of recent assignments without much explanation. No explanation actually.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2,8 1/200sec, ISO1000. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2,8 1/2500sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f4L USM @ 35mm, f/4 1/60sec, ISO200. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f4L USM @ 40mm, f/4 1/160sec, ISO640. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/2500sec, ISO200. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 17-40mm f4L USM @ 29mm, f/22 1/125sec, ISO100. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

Canon EOS-1D Mark II n, EF 300mm f2.8L IS USM @ 300mm, f/2.8 1/320sec, ISO1600. (Photo: Brian Poulsen)

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.

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.