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Faerie Sightings

Last Saturday, Sept. 24, seems like everywhere I went I saw “Faeries”.  Around noon I was in Edmond for the Krazy Kids Dog Show and there were lots of “Faerie Dogs”. Then in the evening I went to The Paseo for the Faerie Ball put on by StarDanceSwan Studio.

To see a photo gallery from the Krazy Kids Dog show click here.

To see a photo gallery from the Faerie Ball in Paseo click here.

In all, it was a magical day taking photos.

-Doug Hoke

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So you think you can dance…

I had a fun assignment Wednesday night in Edmond. Hundreds of Thunder fans gathered together for a “flash mob dance” tribute for Ellen DeGeneres. In case you didn’t know, the Thunder have been trying to get Ellen to commit to supporting the Thunder for the playoffs and get her court side for a game. Oklahoman Kristin Chenoweth was on her show and brought along Rumble to load Ellen up with Thunder gear.

The mob dance was organized by the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City to post on the “Let’s Make Ellen our #1 Thunder Girl” Facebook page. Thunder Girls taught the crowd a dance routine that goes with a Thunder song. If I hadn’t been there and seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have thought you could teach several hundred fans of all shapes and sizes a dance routine in 30 minutes, but they did. I was amazed at how in synch everyone became in such a short time. Great team work!

A lot of energy and fun! To see more photos click here.

To watch video of the mob dance click here.

Go Thunder!

-Doug Hoke

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Energy and Enthusiasm are Contagious!

Saturdays are normally my day to sleep late, laze around the house and generally relax and recharge from the work week. But this last Saturday I worked to fill a void in the schedule. I’m not a coffee drinker, so getting my motor up to speed in the morning is a slow process. This last Saturday though, I had some help from the Metropolitan School of Dance, an inner city dance program for young girls. If you have ever been around 5 year-olds in a dance class, you know that what they lack in skills, they more than make up for in energy and enthusiasm! Being around those young girls and picking up on their excitement carried me through the day.

Thanks girls!!!

To see more photos click here.

To watch a video click here.

-Doug Hoke

 

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Lunar eclipse on the winter solstice

Tuesday’s lunar eclipse was the first time that it has coincided with winter’s solstice since 1638, 372 years! A once in a lifetime occurrence, so I decided to stay up and take photos. First thing was look up the times that the eclipse would occur and hope that there were no clouds. I gathered my equipment and then took a nap for an hour, setting my alarm for 12:40 am., which was the start time. After waking and going outside to see if it was clear, I grabbed my camera gear.

To shoot the moon you need a long lens, 300mm minimum, the longer the better. I used a 300mm f2.8 Canon L lens and added a 2X extender to create a 600 f 5.6 lens. I then used a 50D body which has a 1.6 crop factor for the chip, which basically gave me a 960mm f 5.6 lens. Next thing to grab was the sturdiest tripod I had which had a Slik Pro Ball head on it. The eclipse was almost straight up, so the ball head worked well.

Not having a remote cord handy, I set the self timer to the 2 sec. delay. That allows the camera to settle down after the shutter button is pushed. Next thing is to determine exposure. Because of the 2X extender, I knew I wanted to use f8 so that the lens would be stopped down one f-stop from wide open to improve sharpness. I started with iso 800. While the sun was still on the moon that gave me a shutter speed somewhere around 1/500. There were light clouds that cut the exposure down some.

I used the camera in manual mode and proofed the exposure on the camera monitor. Automatic will not work in a situation like this because of all of the black surrounding a bright white object. If your camera has a “spot” meter setting, this is the time to use it!

Once the earth’s shadow had completely covered the moon, about 1:40 am, I had to move my iso to 2500 and slow the shutter down to about 1/2 sec. to expose the red glow of the moon. I was really  glad the Oklahoma wind was still, or everything would have been shaking at those slow shutter speeds. Next time there is a lunar eclipse, plan ahead and give it your best shot!

-Doug Hoke

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For the Love of Cars

Make no mistake, being a photographer for a newspaper is a great job, but most of the time we take photos for stories that, while interesting and challenging, are not by choice. Oct. 27 was different. There was an assignment I wanted to do. I mean REALLY wanted to do. The oldest Porsche sold in America, a 1952 Porsche Cabriolet.

As a life-long car enthusiast, there are few things I would rather do than photograph cars or talk about cars. I got the bug from my Dad. During my middle and high school years he bought, worked on and traded sports cars and I went along for the ride. At one point Dad had a yellow 1956 Porsche 356a with a sunroof, so that piqued my interest in Dr. Robert Wilson’s Porsche.

I love to explore the lines of the older cars that were built when the designers ruled, not the accountants and marketing teams. And this 356 is a jewel. Learning about the history of the car was exciting. To learn more, watch the video.

Hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as I did taking them. To see a gallery click here

-Doug Hoke

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Deja Vu

“Barry Sanders scores his third touchdown” is something I have not put in a photo caption for quite awhile, but I did last night. Not THE Barry Sanders from OSU and the NFL Hall of Famer, but his son, Barry Sanders, Jr., a running back at Heritage Hall. Heritage Hall played last night against NOAH, a school from Tulsa, and it was Senior Night. During the first half while I was there, Barry Sanders, Jr. scored four touchdowns on runs of 73, 72, 62 and 31. He added one more TD in the second half and finished with 313 total yards. Deja Vu!

One of the fun things about my long career at The Oklahoman (33 years) is photographing the children of the people I’ve photographed over the years. In the 80′s it was Barry Sanders at OSU and now it’s Barry Sanders, Jr. at Heritage Hall. Who knows, maybe I’ll be around long enough to photograph his children!

-Doug Hoke

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Thunder Quiz

Who are these members of the Thunder captured at practice today?

-Doug Hoke

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Smokin’ !!!

Last night I was at the Douglass/Weatherford football game and while switching ends of the field going through the Trojan bench area I saw something amazing. Of at one end of the bench stood Nicholas Nealy and it looked like he was on fire! I’ve seen players steam before, but never rising as high and as fast as it was coming off his head. It looked like he was on fire.  This photo didn’t make the paper, sp I thought I would share it with you here.

-Doug Hoke

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32 years and counting…

Recently I covered the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new Boone Pickens Stadium at OSU before the Georgia game. Not one to normally be nostalgic, I none-the-less started thinking back about the 32 years I’ve been covering football at OSU and OU too. Maybe it was wearing the 1970′s denim photo vest that staffer John Clanton and his wife Julie had dared me to wear. I accepted and then went full retro (except using digital cameras instead of film). See photo. I somehow convinced Epperson’s Photo of how smart it would be for them to give me the vest, since I was such an important photographer! LOL

When I started coming to Stillwater for The Oklahoman the stadium was not much more than rusty bleachers and now it is one of the finest facilities in the Big 12 if not the country. As I made my way through the press box and worked the sidelines there were only 5 faces I saw that had been around as long. Mike Holder who was golf coach back then is now the Athletic Director. Pat Quinn was the SID when I started, but long since retired. Dr. Cooper is still patrolling the sidelines as is Steve Ingram, an OSU campus police officer who I have seen just about every season. And John Biever with Sports Illustrated was at the game too.

Not many working peers left, but lots of athletes in front of the lens. A few stand out. The best receiver I ever covered was Hart Lee Dykes. The guy could catch anything thrown his direction. Speaking of throwing, another OSU player named Mike Gundy stands out. Don’t know if he’s the best, but I have covered him at MWC high school, OSU as a player and now a coach. That’s history.

Thurman Thomas and a guy named Barry Sanders are near the top of the running back list. But my favorite all time running back to photograph was Billy Sims. I just like the way he glided around the field. Add two other Heisman winners, Jason White and Sam Bradford and that’s four Heisman players I’ve covered.

A couple of others who stand out are Brian Bosworth and Adrian Peterson. Bosworth played with passion and Peterson is, well, AD. I’m horrible with names, so I’m sure there are others I should mention, especially members of OSU’s swarming defenses over the years that I made iconic images of.

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Great Ball of Fire!!

When I left the office tonight (Sept. 1) at Britton and Broadway Extension a little after 7:00, I noticed the sun was a big red ball in the sky. Knowing the conditions for this type of sunset are rare I kept an eye on it while looking for something to put in front of it during the drive home. As it fell lower and lower, it opened up a lot of opportunities. As I headed west on 33rd toward Coltrane I spotted the tall grass I put in the foreground, which luckily was right by a turn-off in the road. I whipped the car in and jumped out to get my Canon 40D and 300mm f2.8 lens and plopped on the ground and started shooting. For situations like this, I like to shoot in the jpeg + raw mode which allows quick editing for the newspaper deadlines, but also gives me more detail if I need it. The great thing about these type of sunsets is the exposure is so close to the ambient light, thereby maintaining detail in the sun. I varied the size the sun appeared by using different f-stops. The larger the aperture, the larger the sun. This frame was shot at iso 200 1/1600 at f2.8 to give the sun its maximum size. I think it was worth pulling over for and I hope you do to.

-Doug Hoke

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