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Fishing at night

As a photographer, when I think of ideas for an audio slideshow, I usually think of what pictures I might be able to get to go with a particular story, and then I back up the pictures with audio from the event. A few weeks ago I went out to Lake Hefner and hatched an idea for a new slideshow by doing the opposite. I listened to the sounds of the lake and how peaceful it was late at night, the animals, the water,  the creaking of the docks, and decided to take pictures that would back up the sounds of the lake. On three trips to the lake, mostly late at night, I met people who fish off the docks at Lake Hefner. Some people said they spend all day at the lake. They’ll start fishing at 2 pm and keep fishing until atfter 10 pm. Another group said they usually show up after work at 10 pm and sometimes fish until 3 or 4 in the morning.

For pictures of the fishermen and the fish, I used 50mm and 35mm lenses. The Canon 5d markII takes pictures very well at high ISO, so I usually set it at 5000 ISO. Just last night I took a tripod out to the lake and used a 24-70mm lens and a really long shutter speed to photograph the docks. I did almost no color correction to the pictures in the slideshow. There are so many sources of light that are mixing together in the pictures, that I wanted them to look as natural as possible. There’s the moonlight, the yellow lights inside the dock and on the streetlights, and the white and green lights above the dock, lighting up the water. I almost never use a tripod for still photographs. I can’t remember the last time I did, but before I knew it last night, an hour and a half had melted away while I took pictures. When I sat on the rocks on the shore long enough for a spider to crawl up my leg, I knew it was time to leave. You can see the final slideshow by clicking here.

-John Clanton

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The Fair, Football and Rain

Usually the start of the Oklahoma State Fair brings rain to Oklahoma City. This year the rain showed up a week or so early. I managed to get soaked at the Mustang at Edmond North football game last week. It took about two days to get my equipment dried out properly (even with protective gear) just in time for the OSU vs. Houston game.  And since the fair began yesterday, something tells me we may have to deal with more weather on the sidelines the next two weekends.

Here’s a few pictures I like that we didn’t have space to put in the paper that are of the State Fair, football and rain.

-Nate Billings

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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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Just a lightning strike away…

Hugh Scott doesn’t get many bylines in the paper because most of his work is for the advertising and marketing departments at OPUBCO. But he has a collection of lightning photos that is insane! Here are a few from an early August storm. Seems like we’ve had more than normal for this time of the year.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

Lightning strikes over the OPUBCO Communications building late Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, night as storms rolled across central Oklahoma. Photo by Hugh Scott, The Oklahoman.

-Doug Hoke

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Fourth of July wrap-up

The photographers of The Oklahoman were out in force to cover Independence Day. The weather shifted from nice to muggy and then rain in the evening. I’m glad we got the rain, but just wish it had happened either the day before or the day after. The RedHawks didn’t play their baseball game, but did have fireworks. Other fireworks shows were postponed. Here are some of the photos from the day.

To see a gallery from events around the metro area, click here.

For former President George W. Bush’s Independence Day visit to Woodward, click here.

A gallery of photos from Edmond’s LibertyFest parade is here.

And Bryan Terry did a cool time-lapse video from the LibertyFest parade that we highlighted in this blog entry.

-Nate Billings

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Hey, take my picture, drag boat edition

I spent part of the weekend taking photos at the Oklahoma City Nationals drag boat races. For much of the time I was at the river, racing was stopped because the wind had made the water too choppy. Eventually, the water calmed down and racing got going. Because of the delay, I spent a lot time just talking to fans. Here’s a fan shot, a cool helmet and a pic for our on-going feature “Hey, take my picture!”

-Nate Billings

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Bring On Summer

Well it is here, the unofficial first day of Summer has finally arrived for us here in Oklahoma. To kick off the season I had an assignment to go take pictures of 1400 third and fourth grade Oklahoma City Public School students taking a water safety class at White Water Bay. The result was this photo that ran on page 1 Friday.

After it ran in the paper I received a number of inquires about how I took the photo. So, I thought I would take a few minutes and give a run down on how it was taken.

Overall, it was not very different from most other assignments that I go out on each day. The only difference was the equipment used to take the photo. Instead of the normal cameras I use from day to day, I used a Canon G9 point and shoot camera and an underwater housing that allows me to take the camera up to 140 feet under water. Luckily I did not have to go diving that deep in order to get the photo.
The next step was just trying to get a photo that I liked. As any of you who have been around a lot of kids playing and have a great time at a swimming pool know, it is chaotic to say the least. Knowing this, I settled in to be patient, and wait and shoot and wait and shoot……well you get the idea, till I got the photo that would work. I set the camera to a wide angle setting, and put the camera half way into the water with half the lens above the water and half under. From there I hoped to capture kids swimming above and below the surface. It took me about 45 shots or so till I got the one I wanted, which I believe was the 43 photo I took. As they say patience is a virtue.

–Chris Landsberger

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Storm Clouds Build

-Chris Landsberger

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VORTEX2 Day 4 Back to Oklahoma

After four days trying to shoot researchers deploying a research pod in the path of a storm, my safety minded driver drove past the deployment of the distrometer (laser rain guage) and by the time we turned around and I had jumped out of the car, the pod was out and on the ground.  I got off three frames with a flash on camera.  Two minutes and a mile later, the rain came in sheets, hail made the researchers put on bicycle helmets, and the light dropped to nothing.  My flash shorted out after a coouple shots of the outside of the van.  With my second camera maxed out at 3200 ISO I had to shoot at 1/15 second at f2.8.  One shot was somewhat sharp.

–Steve Sisney

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VORTEX2 Gathers in Texas to Wait

We left Clinton in half panic mode to get to the target area in the Texas panhandle.  I’m beginning to think this was just a trial run to see how fast you can muster over 100 people and 40 vehicles.  The drive was cold and damp till we got half way into the panhandle (the scientists don’t want the media to disclose the exact location because of safety concerns).   We went from temperatures in the 50’s to temps in the 80’s after traveling about 150 miles.  We also went from fog to sunshine.  The meteorology community had on their shorts and flip flops and I was sweating in  jeans and a long-sleeve shirt.  I wish they had a clothing forecast.

For a gallery of Tuesday’s photos click here.

-Steve Sisney

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