u/Big_Network_2570

These photos are from a hunter/jumper and dressage show. I am posting ones that were purchased, and that brings me to another point: despite the show being open to males and females of all ages, it is the young girls that purchase the lion's share of images. (80-85% of the sales were females under 19, and of the rest 10% were males. This means only 7% of my sales were from the adult riders) The good news is that knowing this, we can basically take it easy when the older riders are up

And they're off! The starting post at a bicycle race.

Well, this is one of the RARE occasions where I actually did edit the images. Some teams have me do a portrait of them. Any tips?

This is a followup of the images I posted in the "3rd gym" post. The other images were of the JV match, and this is Varsity. The chances of net battle shots are better as the older girls jump higher. I still think each gym provides different challenges, but the difference between JV and Varsity present their own challenges

This gym is one of the darkest I have to shoot in. ISOs were at 12800 and 16000. It makes the images a bit noisy and odd looking. (First shot of opening prayer is taken with a flash at a much lower ISO)

I had a contract job this weekend where the images are paid for by the competition who give away the photos to the runners. It was kind of assembly line work, and they get the images at the end of the event (so no editing or culling), but if anyone has any SOOC tips, I'd be happy to hear them

This gymnasium didn't present the same challenges as the last one. But the access wasn't quite as good. I hope I got the best angles for my shots, but I feel I could have done something differently

This gym has even greater challenges in some aspects than the last one. The lighting is darker, and the older style lights. However, overall the lighting is a lot more even than the first gym (I mean the light, while dark, is more uniform throughout the gym

These are images from this season's first volleyball event. This gym is well lit, but has weird colour balance issues (lighting is a mix of exterior and the LCD lights). This school in particular really likes net battle shots, so I am trying to get more of those. I think the hardest to get the colour for are the serves as they are on the edge of the gym (not the centre) where the two light sources vie the most for dominance

Not all images need to be action shots. Those bonding and candid moments showing the team members interact is golden to the parents and players

I've had someone ask me what lenses I use for volleyball photography. Now, I primarily use my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. I use it almost exclusively for action photos, and just use my 50mm for huddles, and my 16mm for opening ceremonies (handshakes, coin tosses, lineups, etc) But back in the day (in the 90s with film, and in the 00s with digital DSLRs that didn't have good high ISO capabilities and some of these were also crop sensor bodies), I used a combination of 50 1.4, 100 f/2 (or 85 1.8), 135 f/2 and 200 f/2.8 lenses! I wore baggy cargo pants that allowed me to fit those lenses in the thigh pockets. Here are some shots with this assortment of lenses (Oh, and please note: as I said before most shots are SOOC, but for some reason there was a craze for selective colour in the non-action shots. The teams would pay more for me or my staff to do a selective colour edit for the huddle and lineup shots

So, here we begin a new era! After a 3 or 4 month break, Action comics started up again in 1987 with post-Crisis stories! Unlike the standalone stories before the Crisis, they all connect here.

I HATE when franchise are rebooted, so I stopped reading Action Comics in the 80s when this happened. It wasn't until 2002 that I decided to collect the Superman comics published from the Crisis up until that time (the end of the triangle years) I had a LOT of comics to catch up on, because the stories were all intertwined making Superman essentially a weekly comic (with the 4 titles per month published, and then finally even publishing a 5th for those months with 5 Wednesdays (the release date)

As for this comic, it's actually pretty good! I'll give away the plot if you want me to in the comments, but it was enjoyable. Oh, and until issue #600 (when there was an anniversary issue, and then Action went to a weekly anthology comic), Action comics featured Teamups with Superman and other DC characters. Some of the stories I didn't buy because I don't like the characters Supes teams up with, but overall, the comic was ok, but I miss the flavour of the Silver and Bronze ages. Anybody else out there have thoughts on the big Crisis reboot?

This is the last pre-Crisis Action comics issue! It's a two parter with that month's Superman issue (I hate when they do that!), and it was years until I read the companion issue. I HATE when franchise are rebooted, and back in 1986, this was the last Action comics I bought and read for a LONG time. It wasn't until 2002 that I decided to collect the Superman comics published from the Crisis up until that time (the end of the triangle years) I had a LOT of comics to catch up on, because the stories were all intertwined making Superman essentially a weekly comic (with the 4 titles per month published, and then finally even publishing a 5th for those months with 5 Wednesdays (the release date)

Anyway, as far as this issue (and storyline which includes the Superman comic connected to this) is concerned, they wrapped everything up definitively, even killing off characters and taking away Supes powers!

This is the Action Comic I am currently reading as I reread my collection. The main story is more a holdover from Silver Age in its tone over being a Bronze Age issue, but I personally like the zany Silver Age stories!

Another happy memory for this Gen Xer are those dance gatherings were you got to dance with your favourite girl, get to know her better, and hopefully see if you are compatible. Hard to believe that all of this seems to have faded away with the turn of the new century, the invention of the internet, and completely different courtship rituals!

When I think of my fun days as a Gen Xer, I think of my good friends and my old car. My 2nd car was a 1988 Honda Civic, and my friends and I took many a roadtrip across the US and Canada in it! Those were fun carefree times (My first car was a 1985 Ford Tempo, and the less said about it, the better!)

These are the Colouring Books, Storybooks and Junior Readers that I have handy of the Transformers and Gobots from 1984-1986. Junior Readers were slightly more advanced (think the tween ages instead of ages 7-10). The American ones are "Find Your Fate" (Kind of like the old Choose Your Own Adventure) books, and the British are storybooks from the beloved Ladybird line (British kids my age and older will know what I mean) Canada is a Commonwealth country, so we can get UK media, and being so geographically close to the States, we could get American stuff as well. I think it was the only place where a kid can buy both the US and UK comic books in the 80s. I loved that, but it put a serious drain on my allowance since that was 5 comics a month (UK comics are weeklies) Anyway, does anyone remember any of these books I am posting? Which ones? Tell me your memories of them. I have more, but they are buried somewhere

Anyone remember the Tripods? As a kid in the 80s, I LOVED this show! I was in Canada, so I didn't understand that the BBC decided to cancel it before the 3rd series was made. Poor fans from the States though-the local PBS (Public Broadcasting Systems) in one of their fundraisers were claiming that if only the viewers donated a bit more, the 3rd series might happen! I'm not sure if that was an outright lie for more money, or if the Americans really thought this!

Anyway, my Mom bought me the trilogy of books for me to read along with the show (I still have my copies of them!) I also remember having kind of a crush on Henry's main friend among the vineyard girls from the family who took them in towards the end of the first season (an addition the show made-this wasn't in the books)

We were fortunate to get quite a few shows from "across the pond" in Canada: the Tripods, Dr Who, the Famous Five (the 70s version), selected Blue Peter episodes (the one where the Tripods actors were featured, and the one where Marc Hamill and Carrie Fisher were featured are among some that come to mind), and much more!

I know Battlestar Galactica is a 70s franchise, but the comic series ran until the early 1980s. This is one of the 80s issues. I always love a good space battle, and this story arc has the best one. The Galactica takes on 3 baseships with the help of some unlikely friends. Anybody into this franchise? I have the novels and the comics. I read the Richard Hatch novels, but they got too weird. The tv show was great as well-it ended far too soon! (The less said about the remake show, the better!)