It's fun being published!

Lots and lots of pictures for you today, so I'll keep the words down to a dull roar! Besides, I'm doing the Stars workshop in a couple of days and I'm still preparing the curriculum and materials, so I have to do this quick.

I'm posting this now because I posted the following picture and question on several social media sites, so perhaps I piqued some curiosity out there!

Here's what I wrote: "Why you should use "Pro" cameras and lenses. What was I shooting? Wait for it, I'll post it on the blog in a day or two... anticipaaatiiiooonnnn..".

The answer to that question is, "The Kin[sman] Club Truck Pull, show 'n shine and ATV Mud Bog" at the Minden Fairgrounds! The truck pull is photographically boring (grass growing is more exciting!), I missed the car show, but the Mud Bog was a ton of fun. Here are more pictures than I really should post, but it was hard to choose!

See why I got muddy? That trench is (guessing) 100' long and about 4' deep in water and mud. Fastest ATV in each class  wins.  This was my favorite shot, but the Minden Times didn't use this one. 

They printed this on the front page, 3 columns wide, above the fold!  

Jay Warner was the E-Class winner on his souped up Can-Am 1000. What you can't see in this picture is the Nitrous Oxide bottle which apparently he didn't use in this race because it isn't legal in that class. This bike has more  power than my car. And when he raced past me less than 10' away, well, I got muddy! 

Here's a shot of Vic Rizzo, F-Class winner in motion! I shot this with the 17mm wide angle lens so you get that I was only about 5 feet away when he whizzed by. Most of the others were at 200mm.

A similar shot of Jay. I think he pulled the Nitrous on this run. Also ultra-wide angle, up close and personal! Boy, did I get splashed.

Also at the event, they were doing training for kids, teaching them to be safe on ATV's. They were busy the whole day! Some of the things they did brought back my motorcycle instructor days (ATV training is also under the auspices of the Canada Safety Council).

The youngster on the red bike is Seth Waldensperger, son of one of the instructors, leading the group. See? I'm learning to take notes. This shot was also published in the Minden Times.

At the same time, I had another assignment from the Times, for a feature page called, "Minden Moments". They published 4 of my shots (almost the full page), including these two:

 

  

 

Kawartha Dairy gives you your money's worth when you buy a large ice cream cone! 

It doesn't get any better than this for kids! 

Lens is sold

My Sigma 120-400mm lens is sold. I'm picking up a TC-17e teleconverter for the 70-200 f/2.8 which will extend it out to 340mm at f/4.8. It was too much to carry around. Now I can be almost equipped with a shoulder bag.

And finally, one more photo

A little street photography in Minden the other day.

I'm proud of myself. I actually engaged Dave in conversation then asked permission to take his picture. Note the teardrop tattoo below his left eye. I thought I knew what that meant, but I could be wrong: I'll leave it to you to Google it. He had other tats, somewhat crude so you know where they were done. Interesting character, though.

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