Graduation for Central Georgia Technical College was held on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at the Macon Coliseum.

I took candid photos of the rehearsal on Monday, May 7 and they can be viewed on my photo website – CGTC Graduation Rehearsal 2012.

Photos from the graduation ceremony can be viewed at CGTC Graduation 2012.

Here are some of my favorites.

Waiting for rehearsal to begin.

I will be taking candid photos of Central Georgia Technical College’s graduation ceremony on Tuesday, May 8.  Check back here for the link to view these photos.

Coach Jones getting his players attention.

It was a great pleasure to attend last night.  The slideshow Lee Perkins put together was great.

Here is a link to some of the best pictures of Jones County Greyhound football by game from last season.

If you would like me to post pictures of your son from last year’s team so that you can view and purchase them, please email me or leave me a comment with his name and number and I will search through the 3500 photos I took at last year’s games and post them for you.

Thanks!

Click on any image for a larger view.

If you or members of your family would like to order pictures or other products, go to my Jones County Recreation portfolio and click on the team your child plays for to see his/her picture.

You will need a password. Email me for your child’s team password.

Here is the Jones County Youth Recreation Basketball order form if you need to download and print it.

There are many other items to choose from including mugs and glasses, aprons, sweatshirts, t-shirts, bags, mouse pads, and more.

If you wish to order an additional Memory Mate, please email me for more information.

If you have downloaded the new Lightroom 4 Beta and need some help in learning how to use it, NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) has a special web site to show you what’s new and how to use it.

Go to the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Beta 4 web site and take a look.

I have downloaded the new Lightroom 4 Beta and if you are looking for a program to help you catalog, adjust, and print your photos you should download it and take a look.

I have used Lightroom since trying version 1 and found it to be everything I needed to help me get the most out of my photos.

You can use the Beta until the new version is released and use all of its features for free until then.

Download the Lightroom 4 Beta and try it out.

I’ll post more information about Lightroom 4 and Lightroom in general in my next post.

Here are descriptions of the different picture packages for the Jones County Youth Recreation Basketball pictures.

Example of a Memory Mate

Bronze Package    $15
1 – Memory Mate
1 – 4 x 6

Silver Package       $25
1 – Memory Mate
1 – 5 x 7
2 – 4 x 6
4 – wallets

Gold Package         $35
1 – Memory Mate
1 – 8 x 10
1 – 5 x 7
4 – 4 x 6
8 – wallets

Platinum Package     $50
1 – Memory Mate
1 – 11 x 14
1 – 8 x 10
1 – 5 x 7
6 – 4 x 6
8 – wallets

Additional Items
Button             8.00
Calendar      10.00
Key Chain      8.00
Tickets          15.00

CGTC Lady Cougar's Basketball

I have been taking photos at basketball games the past two years using available light. That was made possible by the fact that my Canon 7D has a 6400 ISO setting.  That and having constant aperture 2.8 lenses allows shutter speeds faster than 1/500th second, necessary to stop the action.

A big drawback to 6400 on the Canon 7D is the amount of grain in the images. Although acceptable for most uses, it still could be better.

The last games I shot for CGTC, I took my Elinchrom D-Lite 4 it To Go set. I placed the two strobes high in the stands on either side of the baseline on one side of the court. In case you were not aware, these Elichrom strobes come with a built-in Skyport receiver and a transmitter for the camera. This allows me to fire the strobes from anywhere in the gym.

Using these strobes helped in several areas. First, I was able to shoot at a much lower ISO so that grain is now essentially non-existent. I was shooting at ISO 400 and f/5.0 at 1/200th second.

Of course the natural question is why am I using 1/200th second shutter speed. The short answer is because I am using flash. Every camera has a maximum flash sync speed so that the shutter is completely open when the flash fires. The way action is stopped is by the speed of the flash, which is faster than 1/1000th second.

The other big advantage is getting a consistent color of light. In a lot of gyms, the type of lights used cycle rapidly through many colors and this can cause every frame shot to look a little different. Using a flash with a constant, known, color temperature helps tremendously when processing a game’s photos.

The drawback to using strobes, at least ones I can afford, is that I can only take one picture at a time until the strobes recharge.  This is only about 2-3 seconds, but it keeps me from using the high-speed continuous mode (7 frames a second) that the 7D has.

But that does keep down the number of images I have to go through by a very large amount.

Here is a Flickr slideshow showing photos taken with the strobes.

Basketball season is already here and CGTC is beginning its second season.  CGTC also is playing in a wonderful new facility on Rocky Creek Road.

The Lady Cougars played last Wednesday night and won over Southern Union.

View the CGTC Lady Cougars vs Southern Union Gallery or the CGTC Lady Cougars vs Southern Union Slideshow.

A defining win for the Jones County Greyhounds on October 28, 2011 over Union Grove on the road 31-28.

Click here for the Jones County vs Union Grove slideshow or here for the Jones County vs Union Grove gallery. There you can view all the pictures and purchase your favorites.

I have been trying to come up with better ways to take sports photos and have learned a lot over the past two years.

This was the first time I have taken pictures in a steady rain and I am glad I looked at the weather forecast and purchased a rain sleeve to cover my camera and lens. They both stayed dry as I got soaking wet.  (Click on each image to see it larger.)

Jerry Wells (#29) getting the handoff from Alex Knight (#7) at the beginning of the second half as the rain started to come down.

I knew that Chuck Thompson from the Jones County News was on the Greyhound’s sideline and would get a good picture of Wade Carr, the Greyhound’s freshman place kicker, attempting his first ever field goal and winning kick.

I decided to go around to the other side where I could see the Greyhound bench and the Jones County fans in the background. If Wade was successful, I knew having the Jones County team and faithful fans in the picture would add a lot.

Here’s how it looked during the time out just before the kick.

The Greyhonds and their fans waiting in the rain for the final play of the game, a field goal attempt by Wade Carr (#99).

I did not get a good shot of the actual kick, but I knew Chuck would get that. I was hoping for the reaction of the players on the field and the bench.

Here is the picture I like best. It shows the kicker being lifted up as the head coach, with a BIG smile on his face, is running in from the right as time runs out. You can even see the fan’s jubilation in the stands.

Wade Carr being lifted up by his teammates after kicking the winning field goal with no time left on the clock