Champion yo-yo master Jensen Kimmitt

Champion yo-yo master Jensen Kimmitt has returned to Edmonton after winning major the Clash 44 yo-yo competition in Japan. His Japanese fans have given him the nickname Hopusan, in admiration for his gravity-defying string “hop” tricks. He poses for a photo in downtown Edmonton on September 23, 2009.  Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

To make this photo I went up to the top level of a parkade down town. I used my DIY ring-flash with two Canon 550EX’s at full-power. I then placed a 580EX off to the side at full-power. I used the ring flash because I wanted the light to be even and also for the colors to POP! Jensen was very cooperative. It took forever to reset the yoyos after each jump because they would get tangled so we only did three tries. Photo by Jen Fong / Edmonton Journal

Tags: yo-yo, yoyo

Lewis Cardinal

Lewis Cardinal, failed municipal election candidate, is now running for the NDP in Edmonton-Centre as one of the federal party’s marquis candidates. Cardinal poses for a photo in in downtown Edmonton on September 4, 2009. Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Cardinal was a pleasure to photograph. When I first arrived I mentioned that I had photographed him back in May 2007 on my third day working at the Journal he remembered me and the photo which was nice.

I wanted the photo to say “downtown” so we decided to go outside for the shoot. It was a rainy day and very windy but luckily Cardinal had short hair and wasn’t afraid  of a few raindrops. We walked to a nearby parkade and climbed up to the top floor so I could fill the frame with buildings and not be shooting up his nose.

Since it was a cloudy day I decided to pull my favorite trick and colour my 550EX flash with an orange gel. I then set my white balance to Tungsten which makes the background go blue…. much nicer than boring gray rain clouds. The flash was bare-bulb, zoomed to 35mm and probably 45-degrees off to the left.   I shot this at 32mm, 1/1000s, f5, ISO200 with a 5D and Pocketwizard Flex5’s.

I shot over a hundred photos of him easily but I liked this one the best because it shows confidence which is important for someone running for election. You can read the Trish Audette‘s profile of Lewis Cardinal in the Edmonton Journal.

Overpowering the sun with Flex-5’s and Speedlights

Darcy Carter is one of the organizers for the 5th Annual Peter Schiemann Memorial Slo Pitch tournament which is running this weekend.  For the first time, oraganizers will have a full 16 teams, including two RCMP teams, playing. Over the last five years the tournament has raised about $20,000 which was donated to local charities, the biggest recipient being the local DARE program. Carter poses for a photo at Meridian Sports Park, north of Stony Plain, Alta on August 28, 2009.  (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal).

In both these photos I should have moved the umbrella down so that it would fill in his face rather than being blocked by his hat.

I had a little help today. Daniel is a student and is helping out our web team this month. Today he came with me for a shoot so that he could get out of the office so I put him to work!  I wanted to see how well the new Pocketwizard Flex5’s work with a Canon 580EX flash to overpower the sun when shot through an umbrella….. I shot these two photos at 1/4000sec, f1.4, ISO50.   The bare bulb flash to the left certainly overpowered the sun well but I don’t think I got enough fill from the umbrella.  Both flashes were at full power.  In both pictures the umbrella was as close as I could get it without it being in the photo.

I’m going to try and build a rig similar to the Lastolite TriFlash and see what three flashes can do to overpower the sun in bright sunlight.

Dragon Boats and Lighting Lacrosse

The Glenrose Gators paddle their hearts out during the 13th annual Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival in Edmonton on August 22, 2009. Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Lacrosse is a GREAT sport to shoot and probably the WORST sport to shoot because it is always sooooooo soooooo dark. It is always played in a hockey arena, which is dark enough to start, then they remove the ice which means there is no light being reflected up from the ground… you always have to shoot at the highest ISO possible and you still get a blurry 1/200sec if you’re lucky….. enter Speedlights!

I setup two 550EX’s with CP-E3 battery packs and pocket wizards.  I put light green gels over the flashes to balance the blue flash light with the green fluorescent ambient light. I only lit half the arena since I only had two lights with me. I set one up at the blue line, zoomed to 50mm and pointed about 20 ft in front of the net. The other one was zoomed to 35mm and placed in line with the net, pointed about 10 ft in front of the net. They were both set to 1/2 power on manual mode.

I used the Journal’s old Canon 200mm f1.8 lens which comes in damn handy for sports like this. I shot everything at f2.0 which gave me a full stop advantage over my other f2.8 lenses. This allowed me to keep my ISO at 800 and made for some beautifully clean and sharp Lacrosse images.

The only thing I love as much as the quality of strobed images is the fact that it makes you slow down. When you are shooting at 1/2 power you can’t just burst-mode everthing at 8fps. You could maybe take one picture every second but even then you risk pissing off players with the constant flashing.

Strobes make you slow down and anticipate the action. Rather than busting off 1000 frames and feverishly hunting for a sharp image, I may only shoot 150 frames in an entire game and the majority of them are sharp and clean.

Calgary Mountaineers goalie Jake Dietrich blocks a shot with Clarington Green Gaels Chad Tutton in front during the gold medal final game for the Junior ‘B’ Lacrosse National Championship in Beaumont, Alta. on August 22, 2009. Calgary won 8-4.  Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Calgary Mountaineers Mike Tyrell attempts a shot on Clarington Green Gaels goalie Zack Higgins during the gold medal final game for the Junior ‘B’ Lacrosse National Championship in Beaumont, Alta. on August 22, 2009. Calgary won 8-4.  Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Clarington Green Gaels Shayne Jackson, who had been voted MVP for the entire championship is dejected as the Calgary Mountaineers celebrate winning the gold medal final game for the Junior ‘B’ Lacrosse National Championship in Beaumont, Alta. on August 22, 2009. Calgary won 8-4.  Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Tamara Brown – Ever Green Ecological Services

Tamara Brown, the Woman of Vision for August, is the founder and owner of Ever Green Ecological Services. Fresh out of university, she and a friend started a little recycling subscription route with a pickup truck and trailer and quickly signed up 400 customers. Five years later, they have a staff of 50 and 40 full-size garbage trucks servicing 19 municipalities around Edmonton and are updating their processing plant to rival the City of Edmonton’s. She poses for a photo at the company office, 808 78 Ave. in Edmonton on July 13, 2009. Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

To light these images I used a 48-inch umbrella on the left with a 580EX and I had a 550ex hidden in the background with a light green gel on it. I normally use the green gel for balancing my flash with fluorescent lights but in this case it worked well for making the light green background “pop” even greener.

There was a large translucent garage door off to the right bringing in nice soft daylight. The umbrella acted more as a fill light for her left side.

The image in front of the garbage truck was an accidental winner. I took a whole bunch of photos of her with flashes and the ONE image where my flashes didn’t go off turned out the best. Sometimes mistakes are better than intentions.

Knights of the Northern Realm

Knights of the Northern Realm, (left to right) Tom Yohemas, Judith Ann Dlouhy, Johnny X’e and Troy Dolan pose for a photo at the Old Strathcona Community Centre in Edmonton on July 10, 2009.  (Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal).

To light this photo I used a 550EX zoomed to 50mm set behind and a 580EX zoomed to 24mm in front to the left. I triggered them with Pocketwizard Flex5’s and just shot E-TTL with +1/3 Flash EV.

Canon 1D Mark-II N. 24mm f1.4. Exposure at 1/1600. f3.2, ISO100. High-Speed Sync flash.

Tags: knights, lighting

Kyle MacNamara

Kyle MacNamara, Scotiabank’s Managing Director and Head of Small Business poses for a photo outside Scotiabank Place in Edmonton on June 25, 2009. He has written the book Get Growing: Keys to unlocking the potential of your small business.

Shot with a Canon 5D, 24mm f1.4 , 1/2500sec, ISO50 and two Canon 550EX’s with Pocketwizard Flex5’s and a Lastolite EzBox softbox.