STADIUM LIGHTING ISSUES

Friday I went to a football game at a new high school stadium. I say new, but it is five years old. Maybe “newer” would be a better description. The stadium lights were lower than the ones I see at Tuscarora High School and caused a lot of glare on the artificial turf. I suppose a polarizing filter would help, but the loss of a f-stop could be overcome. But I didn’t have it with me. Oh well.

Glare wasn’t the big problem – it was white balance. My camera was set for auto white balance. One shot would be okay, and the next couple would be too warm. I tried different settings, but they were worse. At times it looked like the camera was adjusting the white balance so that it went warm when the focal point was on the blue jerseys and okay when it was on white jerseys. But even that was inconsistent. My only option was to continue and hope for the best.

One of the professionals told me the problem was the stadium lights had a flicker to them and the color was changing. Not that you could see it with the naked eye. It was only when the pictures were taken. His camera had a flicker correction that would slightly delay the shot based on the flicker. Mine does not. The situation got better as the game went on and the stadium lights got hotter and slightly more consistent. But the flicker never went away.

Back to back shots on fast burst mode.

IT ALMOST GOT AWAY!

This pretty butterfly fluttered by me and landed on deck the other day. I quickly dashed inside and up the stairs to the office to get my camera. Fortunately, the butterfly was still there, slowly opening and closing its wings in the bright sunlight. Glancing at the LCD screen after the first shot showed that the exposure was good. Click, click, click. Several shots later the butterfly took off. I clicked the preview button anxious to see how the shots came out. “NO CARD” “NO CARD” flashed at my unbelieving eyes. Darn (or something a little harsher). The card was in the computer to download pictures from the previous night’s football game!

I was upset with myself for missing out on the pictures. But redemption arrived about half an hour later. The butterfly came back and landed on the deck for another break. This time I had the camera WITH the SD card in place. A lesson learned. 

SETTLING FOR A SQUIRREL

Blue Jays are beautiful as I posted back on April 29. The different blue hues combined with splashes of white and black make an interesting patchwork of colors. So you can imagine by joy the other day when I saw a Blue Jay perched on the arm of a chair on my deck no more than 10 feet away. As it quickly flew away, a second one flew by going in the other direction. 

Of course, my camera was in another room.  I got it and put out some sunflower seeds on the deck rail hoping that it would attract them back.  No such luck. But a squirrel sure enjoyed them! So, I settled for taking pictures of the little ham.