Walchuk Photos

Peggy and I made a trip to Montgomery Saturday night for the Alabama National Fair. We started by grabbing some “fair food” and looking around, but soon we parted ways. She’s into the animals and competitions, i’m naturally into photography. It was very cold compared to the last fair we went to, the state fair in Pelham. We spent around two hours roaming around and then met and headed home. What can i say, i love the pretty lights. I don’t even start shooting till dark. I was using my D300 with the 18-200 VR lens again. The VR lets me use very slow shutter speeds so the stationary things stay sharp, but the moving parts blur. I played around with a couple of new techniques this time also. On fireworks shots before i have used a long shutter speed and moved the camera around during the shot. This causes all sorts of abstract effects. The other is to use the zoom, in or out, during the shot. Either way, i’m wandering around for a couple of hours, forgetting the time, like a kid in a candy store. Thanks for looking.

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What a great weekend of Bama hockey. Two games, two big wins. The Frozen Tide lit ‘em up big time. This team has improved every year since they started. They are very deep talent-wise. We’ve been beaten in previous years by Tennessee and Arkansas, but they have had programs much longer than the Tide. I’ll be surprised if we can’t stay with both of those teams now.

From a photography standpoint, this rink is a real challenge, as most hockey rinks are. The glass is always dirty from a constant banging of helmets, sticks, and pucks. You have to search around for a “hole” to shoot through and just hope all the lights are working where you’re shooting. I used my big lens, a 70-200 f2.8 VR most of the night. I used the 50mm f1.8 some also. It’s pretty easy to get shutter speeds around 800 to freeze the action without the ISO going too high. I always use auto-ISO for sports. This shot is Mark Wysock carrying the puck along the boards. Thanks for looking, use the links to the right to see the rest of the photos. If you would like a copy of any of these shots, just email me.

This was my first hockey game to shoot this season so i’m a little rusty. Hockey is a hard thing to shoot. It’s a very fast game and action all over the place. As the game progressed i got better shots. The evening started with a tribute to a player named Steve Fillo who lost his life recently while returning home after training camp. This touching tribute was delivered by Buddy Damare with members of the Fillo family present. The team will wear Steve’s number 83 on their helmet this season. His jersey hangs in the background on the bench. Another jersey will be displayed on the Alabama campus. A memorial fund was also set up and you can make donations at the game or Bama Hockey web site. As a real show of class the LSU team also wore #83 on their helmets.

Alabama got a big win with many different scorers and a solid performance in net by Luke Wikle. Use the link to the right to view the rest of the photos. If you would like any of these photos, please contact me via email. Thanks.