Category Archives: sport

Our Local Rodeo

Once a year, a rodeo is held a short distance from our house. I have never been to a rodeo before. Anyone who knows me would not think of me as a western kind of guy. Despite all of that, I was quite interested to see what it was like. I had missed the previous two events so thought I should make the effort this time. It was on over a Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday. I went on the Friday because it was less disruptive to the weekend and it included bull riding which I thought would be dramatic to see.

I got there a little early to have a look around. It turns out that I left more time than needed to check everything out so I found a seat in the bleachers to wait for things to start. I got a visit from the management since I obviously looked a little out of place. They guy asked me a few questions but I think he was struggling with my accent and gradually got bored. I thought it was rather empty but, just as the riding started, tons of people showed up and it was pretty full.

More posts will follow with some of the action shots.

Kiteboarding in the Bay

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If the wind is up, there are usually a lot of people out kiteboarding in San Francisco Bay. While I was a Coyote Point I could see a few people out in the water. Some were a little further up the shore, one was very close to the marina near me and a few more were down towards the San Mateo Bridge. They may not have been that far down but it looked that way from where I was.

Surfs Up Again

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There was a decent swell coming in of the Pacific while we were in Santa Cruz. People were surfing at a number of locations. The majority were off the headland by the lighthouse. A lot of the waves were carrying the surfers a long distance but they weren’t getting a lot of action in during their runs. Every once in a while, though, someone was able to really get things moving. These are some of the shots I got during the day.

When Paddling Out is Too Difficult

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Surfing off the headland at Santa Cruz involves getting into the water a distance away and then paddling across. If that seems like too much hard work, you can climb the fence and walk out onto the headland with your board before jumping off the cliff. We saw a couple of guys doing that while we were there. There was little hesitation so I guess they had done this before.

They weren’t alone! I saw one guy jump off quite a high area. He was followed by a friend of his and I was ready when she jumped. A burst of shots means I can animate the jumps! I did two versions of this. One that doesn’t move the background and results in some white space moving around. The other tracks the subject. Not sure which I prefer.

Leap Frogs

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The Leap Frogs are a parachute display team from the Seals. I have seen them a few times at shows in the Midwest – sometimes working with the Golden Knights of the US Army. During Fleet Week the Leap Frogs jumped to open the main part of the air show. On the day I went, they jumped from Fat Albert, the C-130 of the Blue Angels. Apparently, they also used an Air National Guard C-130 over the weekend.

Their jump routine is pretty cool. They do a lot of coordinated work once under canopies. They make a cool four canopy stack which takes a while to form up but, when formed, looks neat. I just wish they would hold it until they were a bit lower. They also do a nice pairs arrangement where two jumpers hook legs and end up plummeting downwards breaking just in time to land. Always a good way to get the crowd on edge!

My shots of parachute teams have tended to get a bit samey over time but I still like getting some shots of them as you never know whether you will get a slightly different angle on something or that the lighting will show something special.

Surf is Up Again

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If you have a nice Sunday morning with nothing planned, heading to Santa Cruz is worth it. The shore on the north side of the bay is a great place to hang out. Everything is so laid back. I guess people don’t go there if they are up tight. It always seems that everyone is having a nice time. That includes the regular contingent of surfers.

The conditions on our last visit were mixed for surfing. Occasionally a good swell would come ashore and everyone would jump on the opportunity. Most of the time things were calmer and the surfers would sit on their boards waiting patiently. There is a line close to the rocks that offers more but seems to be the territory of the more capable surfers.

To get pictures needs as much patience as the surfers have. Of course, it is Sunday morning so I am not in any hurry. I am happy to wait and see what happens. Every once in a while, someone comes in so close to the rocks that you don’t realize that they are there until they are past. In that case, you miss the shot and instead appreciate the skill.

Chicago Marathon

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I have had a few sporting themed posts recently and here is another one. This time it is the Chicago Marathon. When we lived in the city, we were right in the heart of the marathon route. On several occasions, my brother-in-law took part in the marathon and we would then go out and experience more of the course as we tried to pick him up at various points around the whole route. The way the route is designed means the spectators can cut across easily between sections and be ready when someone comes by again.

For several years, the route was changed where it came past our place. Some rebuilding of one of the stations meant it wasn’t practical for the runners to use that intersection so they diverted down a street and along another to pick up the original route. This meant they came right by us. A couple of times I went down to the street to watch them come through (provided I was more interested in being in bed on a Sunday morning!).

One of my favorite shots was taken from this location and it is the one at the top. I went with a slow shutter speed just to see what would happen. It turns out that the only thing that stays still for any period of time is a foot while it is on the ground so the shot has lots of feet clearly visible while everything else is blurred out.

This year my niece is going to be running the race. Sadly I won’t be there but I hope she has a good time. The support the crowds provide all around the course is supposed to be very good for the runners so let’s hope her first full marathon is an enjoyable one.

Chicago Fire

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Another throwback sports event today. The Chicago Fire MLS team opened their stadium at Toyota Park shortly after we moved to the city. We only went to watch one game so I don’t have a whole bunch of pictures of them playing. I did not know what their policy was for cameras being allowed in to the stadium so I took a long zoom in case they didn’t object. It turned out they really didn’t care at all!

I was watching the game rather than trying to cover it so I didn’t take a lot of shots. However, I did happen to have the camera up a couple of times when the play got exciting and these shots were the best that I got.

Skydiving

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Part of the entertainment at the Sonoma Skypark Family Fun Day was some skydiving. Some lines were marked out on the grass and Joey jumped from the Cessna flown by Trevor and targeted the landing zone. People could guess which line he would hit with a prize for the closest guess each time. Skydiving looks so cool to me so getting some shots of Joey seemed like a good plan.

He was great fun to hang out with as were the rest of the guys. His first jump came in a bit hot and he landed a little long compared to the marked area. That was not a competition jump, though, so no-one lost out. After that, he was on target for the remaining jumps. I started out staying well back but, as I built confidence in him and he knew I wasn’t going to do anything stupid, I was able to get in a better position to show him coming in. It is a quick transition from a long lens for the aerial shots to a wide one for the touchdown. He is coming in pretty fast. With a few jumps, you can try a different approach each time.

Once on the ground, Joey certainly knew how to keep the crowd happy. He stopped off to chat with people on his way back to repacking the chute and the kids seemed to love talking to him. I need to get more shots of these guys. They were fun and they look cool too. A couple of the group are also in to paragliding so now I have something else I want to check out. I also created a few animations of Joey’s departure from the Cessna so they are included below.

Chicago Criterium

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My friend Ben Kristy is a keen cyclist and his son has been competing well in various cycling events. As a result, Ben has been to a number of races and has shared a bunch of pictures of racers competing. This all triggered in my mind some cycling shots that I got quite a while back. Chicago held a criterium race series once a year for a number of years. I have no idea whether it is still taking place but I did go and watch it one year.

The races were held in Grant Park and made use of the roads around the park including Michigan Avenue. There were different classes or race and various age groups. Plenty of people came out to watch things but it wasn’t too crowded so it was possible to move around to see things from different locations. I had only shot cycling a couple of times before and never had I previously thought about what shots I wanted. Then I had just taken pictures of whatever was going on from where I was standing.

This time I tried various locations to get different perspectives on the riders. I tried getting low down and being both inside and outside the turns. Getting something that conveyed the speed at which they were going was what I was interested in. This is now quite a few years ago. If I were to do it again, I suspect I would have tried a bunch of other things but these shots I what I came out with on that day.