Duck, Duck...Goose!

Today was snowy, cold, windy, and perfect for fun photos! I love the cold and the snow and when you add kids to winter weather it can more often than not equal good images.
I was a bit disappointed with the last winter storm we had here. Sure Denver got two feet of snow, but Pueblo was spared and didn't get much more than a couple of inches. This is not nearly enough snow if your plans include hitting your little brother in the head with a snowball.
When I started my search for a weather photo today there still wasn't much snow on the ground, but as the day progressed the amount of snow increased and so did my chances of finding a photo. I drove past a lot of the hills I have on my mental checklist of places to find sledders. Unfortunately I didn't find a single kid on a sled at the first few locations I drove by. Then I drove through City Park and came to the top of a hill just as I saw a sled disappear over the horizon. I parked, got out of my truck, grabbed my cameras and headed toward the hill just in time to watch four young figures walking away from the hill pulling their sled. I thought I had missed my opportunity. I climbed back in my truck and took another trip through the park.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the foursome that I had seen walking away from the sledding hill had stopped near the small lake to bury each other in snow. I had seen this done with sand on a beach but I had never seen someone lay still on the ground as others piled more and more snow on top of them covering them completely. Yet here it was happening right in front of me.
I grabbed my camera bag and camera and walked toward the group. I found that of the four, three were girls and the youngest, the lone boy, was the one being buried in the snow. I talked with them as I photographed them and they continued to go about their business as I talked and make pictures of them.
Then something happened that I wasn't expecting. A large number of geese started honking and walking toward us. They must have thought that we had food for them. I realized that here was an opportunity that I should try to take advantage of. I got the 14mm lens on the camera, kneeled down and starting photographing the parade of water fowl as they marched up to us and then changed course just before getting to the young boy in the pile of snow. The circumstances combined to make for some pretty fun photos, but it wouldn't have been nearly the fun image without the look on the boy's face. It was priceless. Luck smiled on me today and this time I just happened to be ready for it.

A little later I had my camera trained on the same boy when he was hit in the head by a snowball launched at him by one of his older sisters. I am not sure who had the luckier shot, me or the youngster's sister.
Let it snow, let it snow.
Happy New Year!
-Bryan

Havin' a ball!

At the conclusion of each of the three high school sports seasons The Pueblo Chieftain newspaper (where I am a staff photographer) honors one athlete from each sport in a feature we call “Playmakers”.

The kids chosen for this honor aren’t necessarily the top athlete in their sport, but are chosen for their role model qualities, ie: sportsmanship, leadership, and dedication to their teammates and fellow students. All in all, these are the kids you would want YOUR kids to look up to, or even become.

Originally this assignment was put together to be a group photo of all the athletes at once. For the fall seasons that is a group of nine kids. Kind of tough to shoot in a small studio at the paper.

After that first season I suggested that maybe we could shoot individual portraits of each kid for the “Playmakers” feature. So, since it was my idea (and I was the one to open my big mouth) I was given the assignment to do these portraits.

At first I thought it was going to be a bit more than I was willing to tackle, but as it has turned out, I have thoroughly enjoyed the assignment each time I have gotten it. I get a chance to meet some very cool kids and do some pretty fun stuff as far as portraits go.

This past season boys tennis was on the list of sports and I got to do one of the things I enjoy most, to bury my subject. I buried this local tennis player in hundreds of tennis balls and I think he may have had just as much fun as I did. His dad was a great help as well. He helped me dump basket after basket of tennis balls on his son.

I built a round container from the end of a roll of newsprint that I found near the pressroom at the paper. I used some gaffers tape to reattach the sides leaving an opening for my subject’s legs. I got lucky and picked something that was just the right size to bury the kid, but we did have to use every practice tennis ball available in the local country club to do it!

After burying him I placed a chair next to him stood on it and held my camera out over him to shoot straight down on him. It was hit and miss at first, then I was able to get him to move ever-so-slightly allowing me to get the image I wanted without any of the edge of the container visible in the frame.





As you can see in the setup photo, I used two Lumedyne 400w/s heads on stands with umbrellas to give me balanced light and good depth of field. This was one time when I WANTED everything in the frame to be in focus. I triggered the strobes with two Pocket Wizard receivers and a PW transmitter on the camera. My camera for this one was a Nikon D2H with a 20-35mm f2.8 lens. It is a good workhorse camera for daily newspaper work. If I had been shooting this for any other type of publication I would have used a camera with a bigger CCD.

All in all the set up did what I wanted it to and I got a fun photo. I always see things that I may have done a little better or just a shade differently to make for a stronger image and I will make some mental notes (maybe a few paper ones too) and if I decide to bury someone in something again I will be more prepared.

It may have been a cliché image, but that is okay. Sometimes the subject matter calls for it. And if it calls again, I may just answer....Til next time.

My Composite Panorama

(The view from Hoosier Pass on Highway 9 just south of Breckenridge, Colorado)

I have always enjoyed panoramic images. I have never put a lot of effort in to making panoramic images myself as I found that the cameras were a specialized piece of photographic gear that I may only use every-so-often.

However, recently I have seen more and more panoramic images that have been done with standard SLR-type cameras. The photographer shoots a series of images and them puts them together to create a composite panorama in Photoshop.

I have made a composite or two in the past with photoshop, but nothing where there was a complex image involved. I am still very impressed by photographers who make this type of image on a regular basis and can pull it off in such a way that no one is the wiser.

This past Saturday I was on the road taking my two sons to Vail for a youth hockey tournament. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we were way ahead of schedule, so when I neared the top of Hoosier Pass on Highway 9 I started thinking about getting out and shooting a photo or four.

I drove past two of the pull-offs where people regularly stop to take photos of friends and family with a spectacular background west of the pass. I got to the top of the pass and realized that I needed to turn around and head back to one of the lower spots. My turnaround and drive in the opposite direction was met with questions from the back seat “What are we doing daddy?”.

I just told my boys that I wanted to go back to a spot we had passed to take a photo and that we would still get to the hockey tournament in plenty of time. The response was, “Oh, okay.” It is always good to get permission from your kids before stopping to shoot photos...Ha!

I parked, got out, and at first tried to get the photo that I wanted in one frame. It was okay, but the whole scene wasn’t going to fit into one 28mm frame. I also figured that it wouldn’t look the way I wanted it to if I used my 10.5mm lens. I don’t like to have the trees on the edge of the frame bending over like they are blowing in a hurricane when I am trying to shoot a scenic image.

It occurred to me that I could shoot several images of the scene and when I got home I would drop them into Photoshop and see what I could do to put them together into a decent composite.

I ended up using four images that I shot from left to right of the scene. I overlapped them so as to have a good choice of connection points. I shot the photos at a 320th of a second at f/8 using a film speed rating of 100ASA with my 20-35mm lens zoomed to 28mm.

I still have a lot to learn about doing this, but after spending about 90 minutes playing with the images I was able to come up with an image that did what I wanted it to.

If you have any suggestions on panoramic methods I would love to hear them. In the meantime I will continue to research the technique. Til next time...

Picturing Halloween

(©2006 The Pueblo Chieftain/Bryan Kelsen)

I realize that Halloween is over and I apologize for the delay on my blog posting. I won’t give any excuses except to say that there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get everything I want to crossed off my list of “Things To Do”.

I got to do something that I had always wanted to do. I tried my hand at light painting. I did it for an assignment where I had to photograph a group of jack-o-lanterns prior to Halloween. The Lifestyle department decided to get some local artists to carve up some pumpkins and then we’d photograph them for a cover page.

I was given the assignment and saw my chance to give light painting a try. I am still learning, and have by no means become an expert by experimenting the one time on a few pumpkins. I am a big fan of photographer, Dave Black, who has done some pretty amazing things with light painting. I go to his website (www.daveblackphotography.com) often to get ideas and see what he has been up to. I have gotten some great information there. I would recommend his site to photographers at any level.

The final photo is actually a composite of four images. I photographed each jack-o-lantern individually and then put them together in photoshop and added the text. Each time I put a battery-operated touch light inside the jack-o-lantern so that I would have a glow from the inside without using candles and burning down The Chieftain.

After placing the touch lights inside of the carved pumpkins I used a penlight to light paint each jack-o-lantern while the camera was set at an ASA of 200 for a 20 second exposure at f/8 or f/11. I learned a lot while light painting in the paper’s studio that afternoon. Trial and error are great teachers. The first thing I learned was that I should have had a bigger light source. The penlight is great if you are doing small subjects, but for anything bigger than a baseball a bigger light makes it a LOT easier. I also learned that it helps to have complete darkness while the shutter is open and that it is a good idea to avoid walking in front of the lens while the source of the light painting is turned on. It leaves nasty little streaks.

All in all it was a fun experiment that worked just fine. Unfortunately I didn’t get much in the way of a page design for the image. The text on the photo was something that I added, it never made it into the paper that way. But hey, I like it.


(©2006 The Pueblo Chieftain/Bryan Kelsen)

This second image was an idea that I borrowed from a photographer who shot portraits of finishers at the NYC marathon for Sports Illustrated. I really enjoyed taking them and I think the kids got a kick out of being photographed. Hopefully I will get to shoot the same sort of thing next Halloween. Stay tuned!

"Daddy, Daddy, come see!"

(The front yard leaf bug ©2006 Bryan Kelsen)

"Daddy, Daddy, come see!" is what my nine year-old son was yelling as he bounded in the front door of our home on a recent Sunday morning. "What is it?" I asked. "You'll see." was his reply. He took me by the hand, pulled me up from my chair in front of my laptop computer and lead me out the door. I asked again, "What is it?" He tugged harder on my arm and lead me down the sidewalk repeating, "You'll see, you'll see." as we went. When you are nine years old and you see something you think is cool you don't want to spoil the surprise by giving up too much information before you unveil the "cool thing". As it turned out, it WAS pretty cool.

My son had come across a (for lack of a better term) "leaf bug" in our front yard. I had never seen one myself and found that I was as amazed as my kids by an insect that resembled a walking leaf. So off I went to get my camera. It wasn't long before the coolness had worn off and my kids were back to skateboarding up and down the sidewalk. I, on the other hand, was on the ground, camera in hand, photographing a bug in my front yard.

Church-goers from across the street came over to see what I was taking picutures of. One woman though I was on my front sidewalk photographing my feet. I explained what I was doing, but I think she may have thought photographing my feet was more interesting than what I was actually doing.

My son's excitement over seeing something new, is exactly the "Hey, look what I got!" exuberance that got me into taking pictures in the first place and continues to keep me on the hook more that 20 years later. Every day I go to work is another day of exploring and adventure. No, I am not talking about bushwacking through rainforests, or climbing Mt. Everest, but the kind of thing where you see your surroundings in a new light, or get introduced to something (or someone) that was right under your nose all the time but had missed.

To be honest, I am addicted to this sense of discovery. It motivates me. I am constantly looking for newness around me. It may be something that has always been there like a bug in my yard, but I am still amazed by this world we live in and all that there is to explore. Even if it is just outside my front door.

Till next time...

Whitewater Camera Housing

(Matt Ogburn, of Colorado Springs does his thing in hole number 3 in the Pueblo Whitewater Park during the Pueblo Chile & Frijole Festival recently)

I finally got the chance to get my Ewa-Marine underwater housing out during the Pueblo Chile & Frijole Festival held recently here in Pueblo. I have used it a few times in swimming pools once briefly at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail and once in the ocean during a vacation to Pensacola Beach, Florida.

I am still perfecting my skills for using it. The housing is basically a $500 Ziplock bag on steriods that I slide either my Nikon D200 or D2H into before sealing it closed with a clamp system. I have to admit that more often than not I work on the fly. I grab cameras, lenses, batteries and disks out of my bag as I walk or run from my truck to an assignment. This isn't a good way to work if I need to get my camera into a housing such as my Ewa-Marine. It takes a while to get everything "just so" and set up before I can start shooting with it. So if I am going to use it I need to be a bit better at planning for it.

The housing gives me the best results when I use my 20-35mm zoom. It fits that lens like a glove. I have used my 14mm lens, I just need to adjust for it when I do. The lens doesn't snap into place like the 20-35mm does so I have to press the lens housing back against the camera as I shoot to get the best possible results. I am also hoping to give my 10.5mm lens a try too. I will post those results here when I get the chance.

At some point in the future I would like to get my hands on the same kind of housing that surf photographers use while shooting from the water. Unfortunately I can't justify the expense for the limited amount of usage I would have for such a piece of equipment. The housings cost more than the cameras they protect. So for now I will just continue to "zip" mine up and get into the water that way.

With water levels in the river receeding I may get the chance to try it again if we continue to have favorable temperatures and people will come out to surf.

Til next time...

WET & WILD...

(©2006 Bryan Kelsen for Paddler Magazine)

Whitewater season is coming to a close in Colorado. The water is receeding and with a few exceptions the paddling season is all but over. I have to say though that it was a great spring and summer of boater images for me. I was able to get to several different venues to record images of some of the best athletes in the sport of whitewater kayaking

I am learning more and more with each passing season as to new ways to get the images that I am after. And I already have an entire list of things I want to try as soon as the snow starts to melt in the spring and the flows start to rise again.

Whitewater kayaking is one of the most interesting sports that I have ever come across. I would also say that I have never run across a sport where more of the athletes carry cameras and document competitions and river outings. Part of it is because professional kayaking isn't a sport where very many of the athletes can actually make a living. So they supliment their income by shooting pictures of each other doing the latest trick or hucking off of the biggest drop.

I beleive that the other reason why there is a history of self-coverage by the boaters is that the hoards of media that cover such things as the NFL or the NBA haven't been flocking to kayaking competitions to get cover images for SI or ESPN The Magazine. There are some athletes who have become as adept behind the camera as they have on the water. A very good example of this is professional kayaker Tanya Shuman. Her images appear in a large number of publications either as editorial content or advertisment.

I have spent a great deal of time looking at her work and others to refine my skills in the world of whitewater kayaking. I have to admit that the one thing that they have over me is the great amount of traveling that they do to. I on the other hand work a 40-hour a week job as a newspaper photojournalist here in Southern Colorado. So I am pretty much limited to this region. But my intent is to learn the region, its rivers, creeks and dainages so that I have a knowledge base to draw from when I go out to photograph boaters.

The season may be over around here for this year, but I am already excited about all the possibilities for photos in the spring of 2007.

Stay tuned.

I was framed!

(Local ballet dancer, Misty Allenback, poses for a portrait in the studios at The Pueblo Chieftain.)

The assignment was to make a portrait of a local girl who had been selected to go to a prominant school of dance in Philadelphia. She showed up with a smile, her toe-shoes and leotard. From there it was up to me. I wanted to do something simple yet unique. I know that the whole "photo in a photo" thing has been done over and over, but luckily not here. I was able to talk fellow photographer, Mike Sweeney, into giving me a hand in the studio. He was the one holding the frame upright. I managed to scrounge up some wire from the custodians and we attached it to the frame at one end and the small end of a monopod on the other. Mike did a great job of holding the frame in place while I shot through it.

I used three lights on my subject and one on the frame. Three of the four lights had softboxes with grids on them and the fourth I used as hair light. Our newly renovated studio was almost too small to be able to shoot this photo. I had to use a wide angle lens and scoot all the way to the back wall to get things framed as I wanted them. I was happy with how things turned out because the lighting and the gray backdrop gave the image a 3D effect making it look almost like a window box. I have since thought that it would be kind of fun to do the same kind of image and instead of having the frame surrounded by black, that it would be neat to use a photo of an actual wall in someone's home. Then it would look like a photo hanging in the family's livingroom or tv room. Maybe next to a black velvet painting of four dogs playing poker.

Til' I feel like writing again...

Prep Football Kicks off!

(Pueblo South High School linebacker, Gio Zanotelli, sacks the quarterback for a loss during the season opener against Centennial High School.)

High school football season has started here in Colorado. I was assigned to shoot a game on Thursday night, and another one Friday night in Pueblo's Dutch Clark Stadium. It isn't a bad place for football unless you want to shoot pictures at a Friday night game. This time of year there is still decent light in the first quarter and actually up to about halftime when things begin to get really dark.

I have to admit that I would be one of the first people to sign a petition to have all high school football games played on Saturday afternoons. Unfortunately no such petition exists and would most likely only be signed by me and a couple of other photographers.

So I will work to do the best I can with the situation and the tools that I have. I have done some research and have a few ideas on what I may try. I have been shooting so far with my Nikon D2h, and 300mm f2.8 lens, and an SB-800. I have been using alkaline batteries, but that will change soon as I move to rechargable batteries or a battery pack for the flash. This will allow me to shoot a burst of several frames and have the full amount of light for each image.

I was originally worried that this wouldn't work due to the camera's slow sync shutter speed 1/250th. However, I found out (because I rarely read camera manuals, it is much easier to call Ron Taniwaki at Nikon Professional Services and say "How does this thing work?") that there is a way to get the camera to sync at all shutter speeds when using the SB-800. At which point I hit myself in the head with my monopod and said "DUH!"

So far I have been using the flash as more fill than main light. However, that will change soon as the sun begins to set earlier and earlier throughout the fall. I actually have several SB-800s and have been thinking that I will use all three of them to light the action on the field. Stay tuned for the results of my on-field photographic experiment.

In the midst of the fair

It is that time of year again. The time when I trade my street shoes and Levis for Ropers and Wranglers. That can only mean that the PRCA rodeo is at the Colorado State Fair. Over the years the rodeo, (and for that matter, the fair) has changed. There used to be matinee performances of the fair on weekends which I still long for. However, I don't think that they will return anytime soon due to higher attendance figures at night performances. So when I go to shoot rodeo at the fair now I have to go out to the grandstand a day or two before the rodeo and hang some sports strobes to light the action. Otherwise the entire grandstand and arena may as well be lit by one lightbulb hanging from a wire.

I use a couple of superclamps and three 100ft extension cords along with some gaffer's tape and Pocket Wizard radio remotes to trigger the lights while shooting in the roughstock arena. The lights are clamped to the rail of the seats in the second level of the grandstand and I cross light the arena by pointing them to the opposite end of the chutes. I also have learned through experience that one of the most important things to remember to take to the rodeo is a rain jacket and some trash bags to use to cover the strobes. The trash bags keep the rain and dirt out of the lights, for the most part.

I miss being able to shoot rodeo during daylight performances. I think I miss a lot of good images since in an 8-second ride I most likely get only two frames. It just takes too long for the lights to recycle for me to get any more than that. I just have to be ready and anticipate what is going to happen next. Hell, I don't always know what "I" am going to do next let alone a cowboy on a crazed animal!

Tonight is the last night of the rodeo but the fair continues for 6 more days. I could shoot rodeo every night if you'd let me. After tonight it will be back to the true excitement at the fair. Looking for the stand that sells the deep-fried TWINKIES!!!!

Til' next time...

Who am I?

Let me introduce myself.
My name is Bryan Kelsen. I am many things, a husband, a father, a hockey player, a comedian, a cyclist, a kayaker, and a photographer.

I am originally from Iowa and now live and work in Pueblo, Colorado. I graduated with a degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Iowa. I work for the daily newspaper here, The Pueblo Chieftain, which is a morning paper with a circulation of approximately 50,000. I have been working there for the past 19 years. I am also a freelance photographer specializing in editorial images, action sports and portraiture.

The reason that I decided to put this blog together is to give prospective clients, students and interested readers the opportuninty to get a "behind-the-scenes" look at my work as a newspaper and freelance photographer.

So buckle-up, hang on, and enjoy the ride.