Bryce Canyon at Sunset - Sunset Overlook

Bryce Canyon at Sunset - Sunset Overlook, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

I'm in Utah for the next 10 days with Terry Watson, Ken Kennard and Bryan Woolum. We flew into Las Vegas and drove up to Bryce Canyon. We got to the overlook at 5:30 pm to scout out sites for sunrise and sunset pictures for 5/8.

Unfortunately, it is icing and raining this morning. Luckily, it clears up later and we're looking at where we want to shoot midday and evening.

Reflector Terry

Reflector Terry, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

Today, the Focus Photo Club did a Model Shoot geared at the Senior Portrait group. John Heckler gave a presentation to start the day with a discussion of fill and flash light in the day.

It was fun getting the kids together and watching the other photographers group around.

Terry Cavanaugh was a CHAMP! He didn't bring a camera to shoot, although he can teach everyone a thing or two, but he helped tremendously with reflectors and helped us with our lighting.

Thanks Terry!

Less than 1 week until Utah!

In less than a week, I'm off to Utah to see the Antelope Slot Canyons and Bryce Canyon, to name a few spots. Ken, Brian, Terry and I are off to Utah and Arizona for 10 days and it should be a blast.

I hope to post pictures here each day.

Winchester Speedway Sprint Car Races

Uh Ohhhh, Wreck time, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

Sunday, I checked out the Sprint Car Races in Winchester, IN with Terry Watson, Bob Coyle and Terry Cavanaugh.

It's the first time I've tried to shoot auto racing and I worked on my panning technique at slower shutter speeds. It's a little tough to get a sharp photo of the cars at a slow shutter speed to show active motion by blurring the background and showing tire rotation.

In this photo, these 2 cars were racing hard for the lead. I think 17 bumped the rear tire of 67, causing it to skid and resulted in 17 crashing into the side. This was on the exit to turn 4. #17's right front wheel was damaged but 67 was able to continue and won the race.

These guys were flying around this 1/2 mile track in 14 sec. and I was shooting at 1/320 sec in shutter priority mode.

Rolex Cross Country Event 4/26/2008

Tipperary Liadhnan, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

This past Saturday, I took the family down to the Kentucky Horse Park and watched a little of the Cross Country Jumping event. I only got to see 4 horses before they paused the event because of an accident.

During the day, there were 2 accidents that resulted in the euthanization of the horses. One accident was pretty severe as the rider had the horse going too fast and it's front legs hit the jump, causing it to flip over and land on it's back, fracturing it's skull and causing damage to a lung. The rider was air lifted out but was in stable condition. She had severe rib injuries and punctured both lungs. It is very sad as the horse was Frodo Baggins and starred in The Lord of the Rings before his jumping career. He and his rider were on the short list for the Olympics.

Goal!

_D3H6400, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

Saturday, my wife and I went to see the Dayton Bombers play for the first time. They were playing the Elmira Jackels. They lost 7-3 but it was a fun game and gave me a chance to practice some Hockey photography. I thought the front row would be good seats except for the glare of the glass. We went to sit with a few friends in the third period and got a slightly different angle.

I would say that the best spot is mid-court above the glass.

Lunar Eclipse

_DSC3730, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

I had a little fun last night and took some shots of the lunar eclipse. This photo kind of stood out to me. I discovered that if I shot too long, the movement of the moon would cause elongation of the moon.

This shot is interesting in that I had stars and a green lens flare going through the moon that reminds me of the Death Star when it blew up.