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Saturday, January 25, 2014

And then were none..

Almost at the exact same time as I reached the gates of Sandy Point State Park for the 2014 Maryland State Police, Polar Bear Plunge it was announced on 98Rock that the plunge was being canceled due to the dangerous weather conditions .  

 

By this time the State Police were turning away the faithful so the only activity were crews starting to dismantle the Plunge infrastructure z

MSP_PBP   The

Well the no activity didn’t apply to the ‘Super Plungers” Tent..  Everyone in the tent were in shock that the event had been called off.  Every hour for the past 23 it was out into the cold, in and out of the water and back inside to warm up.. I think all this involvement, and with a end in site they would never be able have, was the reason. With slight exception I knew no one in the tent.  Well no one but my hero local TV news star Rob Roblin, He looked just plain tired.

    

 

and 98Rock Morning Show Host Justin Schlegel who I had photographed this summer at the Baltimore Grand Prix.  I didn’t shoot any images but he told me this was the hardest super plunge he was involved in. He showed me a movie he took of the shore line at 2AM  where the waves were washing in layers of fine slush ice.  It looked real nasty and they did postpone plunges until 4am.  At this time he wasn’t sure if they were done plunging too, or were going to continue to the end.  Turns out they did go in one last time but we were on the other side of the site when it went off,  so we missed it… 

 

We did see some of the regular attraction The Ravens Roost guys and Captain “D”.  All hard core Ravens Fans. 

MSP_PBP Roosters say hi before going home..MSP_PBP   Captan

Wondered over to the fest tent for a cup-0-joe and ran into this really nice guy with a utterly fantastic beard. 

MSP_PBP   Smiling Vendor

MSP_PBP  WBALTV Camera setup

whats left cold and windy empty beaches and time for the ever vivacious Ms Tina Miles and mineself to head to our respective homes.  Smile for Tina.. 

By!

DMPLogo New

 

"Hot Day in January"

 In one of his songs, Cajun fiddle man, Doug Kershaw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Kershaw sang  “It’ll be a hot day in January when she'd ever leave me”.  I guess they were talking about today.  I’m showing 18° as I get ready for my 5th Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge. (Media) While not one of the brave plungers, braving the outdoor’s 0800 to 1600 has been a challenge at time.  Most of my family and friends think I’m nutz, and would rather spend the day bundled up, inside.  Thankfully I’m not at that stage yet..  And why, may your ask? That’s easy, I spend the day trying to chronicle the nobel efforts of the thousand of folks, plungers, staff, whoever,  who do this each year to support the  Maryland Special Olympics.  Plus I get to hang around with one of the best media pros I knew Tina Miles.  With maybe a bit of Rob Roblin thrown in.  Who know what this year will bring? Cold, yes. Snow, maybe, In the meantime here’s some shots from the past to pass the time..    

Plunge ZoneMD MSP Polar Bear Plunge  5….4…..3…..2…..1……Plunge!29:365  2012 MD MSP Polar Bear Plunge

 

Over the years Beauty Queens,  Swimming Chickens, Ravens QB Joe Flacco , and even my man “Brittany Girl Dale” have all fallen prey to my camera..   

 

MSPPBP     Don't be a chicken, jump right in!MSPPBP --   Joe Flacko

Off shortly, hope to see you on the other side 

029:365   Polar Bear Plunge   -  Aftermath

 

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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Choices Choices.

Or maybe this. 

DMPLogo New

What's New With You?

Nothing much as of now.  Did visit the past in Ilkchester MD, The ruins of “St Mary’s Monastery” and Simkins Paper Mill will warrant a revisit as will the Old B&O rail infrastructure.     

Later on in the week it was a visit to the Providence Cemetery in Gamber MD.  

 

 

 

And then it was up to Abbottsville PA. for some local color. 

And that is what was the week that was. Oh yea, just one more thing before signing off, I did change my watermark logo… 

DMP project 010414 50DMP project 010414 50

Friday, January 17, 2014

Like a Fish out of water .

OK I’m almost a week over due… Old ways return quickly. 

Last Friday and Saturday I was inside the 53 year old Baltimore Arena to capture all the packaged action of “AMSOIL Arenacross”  Never done this exact kind of shooting so I did some pre event scouting on the internet as to “the best way”. Thusly armed on Friday afternoon I headed down into the inner city for some high adventure.  And then things started to go bad.  First rule of anything is know your destination. Not being the most knowledgeable person about things Baltimore i went to the Downtown Convention Center, which I found out was not hosting a Arenacross event that night, or ever. I was advised to perhaps try the Baltimore Arena which was having some kind of motorcycle thing. So back out into the rain and city hustle and bustle went I, feeling a little stupid for the mistake. Finding the Arena (which turned out to be right across from my choice of parking garages.) my next challenge was to locate the “Promoters Will Call” which turned out to be “Go up to the next black awning, ticket booth is there” to “Go to the little Black Awning in there”, gurrr right back where I started. And a reminder that all this meandering was taking place lugging full gear, in some heavy cold wet rain.  But once found, picking up my media package was quick and painless, the promoters had it down to a tee.  Now the real business starts.  Part of my pre-event routine is a pit walk through followed by reconnoitering of the racing surface, in this case, involved 4 levels. Previously I had set the flash up for second curtain sync. to add some “spoke blur” to the shots. I was very surprised to find the lighting in the Arena was great. No flash was really needed. Happily I kitted up and started shooting. 

Because of the abundance of light high speed capture of the racing action were pretty easy to net. As I was after more of the unusual capture I quickly hit on a technique to use the flash set at 3 stops over power to override the ambient light and under-light the airborne bike and rider.   

 

 

And that being accomplished is anyone shocked that soon playful Photoshop, Alien Skin Eye Candy 7, versions started surfacing in short order.. 

 

And then the camera died.. I’m still not sure what exactly happened but my 5DMIII shut down. I put in a fresh battery and it to shortly shut down.  As a result Fridays captures of the actual show were mostly make with my iPhone.  Dejected I went home to process and recover what I had capture and re-flash the camera’s firmware. My original intent was to shoot the Friday show only. Now I had to shuffle existing plans to allow a return Saturday engagement.  

And return we did, everything worked as expected, the camera gremlin didn’t return.  Now that I sort of knew the ropes, things went pretty good, with a good percentage of keepers to put on Speed Vision of MD.  Most of the night I shot at f:5.6  around 1/250th ISO 850/1000. The Second-Sync flash worked a little to good,  A few high speed pans didn’t benifit from the dragging flash.  

Over all I had a great time, the event staff was more then accommodating, the Baltimore Arena staff were helpful and more then wiling to share their “tails of the road”, of course, of which I found fascinating.   

Addressing the “Fish out of Water” title.  This is a young mans sport, no real place for “silverbacks”.  But if I could turn back the hands of time….  How fun would that be?

Arenacross 006

 

 

Saturday, January 4, 2014

What's in my Kit?

I promised a new post a week and a post a week ye shall get. 

This weeks saga will touch on those items of kit that I currently use. 

Canera’s

Canon EOS 5DMIII
Canon EOS 5DMII  (W/Magic Lantern  2.3 firmware Mod)
Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 30D  

Lens

Canon 17-40mm f/4L
Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake
Canon 50mm f/1.2L
Canon 70-200 f/4L
Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro
Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS
Canon EF Extender  2X I 

Flashes and Triggers 

Canon 600 EX-RT 
Canon  580 EX II
Canon ST-E2 Speedlight Transmitter

Of course this is part of a list for my use I  developed.  Tripods Heads and brackets will be addressed next week 

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

2014 Off and Running

Look how fast this year is already going, it seems only short time ago I was waiting at Liberty Reservoir for the first Sunrise of the New Year. 

And now day 1 is almost history..    One of my New Year’s resolutons is to spend time updating the Doug Miller Photography website, I’ve  been a sadly remiss in that area..   Second New Years Resolution is to post to this blog at least once a week. If for nothing else then getting back on the NSA tracking list..    

I would like to wish all a Happy and Prosperous 2014. 

See you soon. 

DD