Shot on the Canon 5D mkII at the Blackhawk Ski Club near Madison.

Last weekend Chris and I spent the afternoon photographing a regional youth ski jumping meet here in Madison (Middleton actually). Wasn’t for a job–a friend of mine is on ski patrol at this area and let us know about it.  It was quite exiting, and we made some nice contacts so maybe something more will come of it.

It was very impressive to watch (and hear, as there is an astonishing rush of air as they fly by). Both men and women competed form teens down to grade schoolers. One 11 year old even ‘flies’ from the 60 meter jump, though most of the smaller kids stick to the 30m or 15m. Apparently, Wisconsin and Minnesota are a bit of a hot bed for the sport. Turns out it’s safer than snowboarding.

We also met and talked to Karla Keck (photo),  who is leading the charge to get women’s ski jumping reinstated in the Olympics (NYT article), as its been drop from the Vancouver games.

Anyway, it was a real challenge to shoot–try charging up a very steep ski hill and then trying to hold a heavy camera steady–, but a lot of fun too. Thought you might like to see the photos.

More images in the Archive

USSR embassy in East Berlin, 1990

Russian embassy in Berlin, 1995

I took these two photos of the Soviet/Russian embassy in Berlin five years part. The first, featuring the head of Lenin, was in the summer or 1990. The embassy is located on the famous Unter den Linden boulevard in, at the time, East Berlin. Five years later in 1995 I found myself again in Berlin and spent a few days wondering around. The city was now just “Berlin,” no east or west. Indeed, it was difficult sometimes to tell by sight if one was in the “former east” on not. Much of the spectacular new architecture and renovations that Berlin is now known for were just starting to take shape in a jungle of scaffolding and forest of cranes. Change was in the air. By this time not only did the GDR not exist but the USSR had begun to divide up into its constituent parts. As I walked down the embassy lined, linden tree covered Unter den Linden again, I was curious what would become of the Soviet embassy, obviously a change of flags, but to what – Russia? The Commonwealth of Independent States? And surely the Lenin head must be gone.

Thanks to the wrought iron fence in front of the building I was able to take my second photo from almost the exact same potion as before. But know my only question was “Is Lenin’s head under the box? Just in case??” Next time I’m in Berlin,  I have a mission.

It’s been twenty years this November since the the Berlin Wall ceased to be the barrier between the “East” and the “West.” I was in Berlin, as well as, other parts of  East Germany, Hungary and Yugoslavia that first summer. The East German currency, the Ost Mark was still around but on the verge of being dropped for the West’s Deutche Mark – a looming event that made for a nation wide game of “hot potato” as everyone tried not to get stuck with Ost Marks. What used to be the eastern ‘city limits’ of  West Berlin was now ground zero for the ‘New World Order.’ All the trappings of the Cold War were still there: long segments of the wall, guard houses and watchtowers. But crowds of West Germans, East Germans and tourists took what would have been fatal walks along the Wall, crossing on a whim from the one side to the other though gaping breaches in the 28 year old concrete. In essence, No-man’s Land had turned into public space.

A short video cobbled together from very few clips i managed to shoot with the Canon G9 while racing the “Mac” on Intuition (S2 9.2a). We took second place in the Cruising 2 Div.

Didn’t bother working with FCE, just used iMove which worked quite well once I got the hang of it. Although I’m still relativity new to editing video, I’ve normally used AfterEffects and Final Cut. I can see how the iMove interface could make editing easier to the casual user it’s marketed to. Hoverer, if you already have a foot (or more) in the more standard way of working, it’s actually a little frustrating at first. I have the same problem with point-and-shoot cameras. When people say “Hey, you’re a photographer, can you take our picture with my camera,” I usually have to ask them how it works.

It’s also curious that iMove has a nice anti-camera-shake filter that is missing from FCE (but returns in FCP). I’m not sure why they’d do that when the price jump to move from FCE to FCP is $800 while iMove is just $79.

More about my experience in the 2009 Race to Mackinac.

Zlahatina is in the foreground

43°1’14.17″ N 16°10’19.9″ E

This is a narrow, fjord-like, cove on the south shore of Vis Island. Near the end of the cove the cliffs don’t quite come together and through this gap is a second, hidden cove! This second cove is like a large pool with small waves lapping up on a steep, pebble shore and a couple little fishing shacks.  A little, wooden row-boat is left anchored to the beach. The terrain in back of the beach runs back a bit then becomes steep and rocky with thickets of small pine trees and yucca plants.

The cliffs in the main cove pictured here plunge into the water quite a ways, making anchoring here a bit tricky. I thinks we paid out 35 meters of chain off the bow while our stern was only in a couple meters. It was necessary to take a stern line ashore and wrap it around whatever knobs of rock we could take advantage of. After lunch we rested and swam around.

This was shot with my underwater-camera-on-a-floatable-stick device. Comprised of a Bogen monopod mounted with an articulated head, and an empty plastic water bottle duck-taped to the upper end of the monopod shaft for extra buoyancy. Mounted on the head is a Canon G9 in a rigid waterproof housing. The camera itself is set to a custom self-timer that shoots 3 shots in rapid succession 10 seconds after the shutter button is pushed.

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