D44: Master Your Craft…On Ice

Some serious skills on ice tonight in downtown Atlanta. Disney on Ice came to town and thanks to Mom Central and Feld Entertainment, we got VIP treatment for opening night.

Going into it, I was prepared. I had my long lens, battery fully charged, and the Flip to capture some video. Our seats were in a great position and the show was set up so that any seat in the arena had a great view.

Absolutely stunning to watch the skill and talent of the entire group of individuals on the ice. Not only were they in costume and fully performing right down to their facial expressions, but they many had heavy costumes, makeup, and masks to deal with as well. Can you imagine doing your job, whatever it is, in full costume, makeup or a mask? Many of them were also numerous characters throughout the performance. The sheer stamina required would leave most of the general population in a hospital bed for weeks!

There were a few misses here and there. I saw the effort etched on some of their faces. But overall, the performance was impressive. It made me miss my days of performing as a dancer. It also reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell’s notion in Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything. I can only presume that ever single one of these skaters tonight has well over 10,000 hours under their belt. Makes me wonder how committed I am to anything after seeing what they do night after night across the country.

Seeing the women fly through the air with only cold, hard, unforgiving ice beneath them requires a level of commitment that I don’t think I’ve achieved or experienced for quite a while. Would be interesting to see what it takes to get that back. What do you think? Is there anything in your life that you are committed to with that kind of determination and grit? I’d love to hear about it.

Manual: Page 11—Insert Memory Cards. Think I’ve got that figured out by now.

Images: Looked at Cliff Mautner’s images online today after I saw a tweet about a recent post he wrote about a new Nikon lens. Award-winning photographer. You should check out his work if you haven’t. Some unbelievable images. He is a true artist.

9 Comments October 14, 2009

John

would you be able to share more of your EXIF info on each shot you post? Thanks! Great images!
http://tasra365.com tasra

Hey John – I'd be happy to if you have a suggestion for how to do it easily. I tried to get the blog to pull it automatically from each image, but for some reason it's not working correctly. Open to suggestions (that don't require too much extra time .
kvoth

Great pics! I like how you froze the action! Did you try any pics at a lower shutter speed to get a little blur to show the motion?

For your EXIF data, have you upgraded your Autofocus theme to 1.0.1? That should support it by default I think. If it doesn't work, what lens did you use and did you do any post-processing?
brianpalmer

Wow Tasra, for low light and fast pace skating those shots are very sharp! I really love the main image for the days post, excellent capture.
Trianglehead

The jumping Jack Skellington shot is great! Love it!
http://tasra365.com tasra

Thanks! I was pretty thrilled when I saw it on the computer. Almost looks like he's just sitting in the air, so nonchalant!
http://tasra365.com tasra

Thanks Brian. I agree and was surprised at how crisp and sharp some of them were. I think because the spotlights on the ice were so intense, I was able to bump up the shutter speed and capture the action.
http://tasra365.com tasra

I think I originally loaded the latest version, but took off the EXIF data option. When I tried to add it back, that's when I ran into trouble. I didn't think anyone would want to see it initially which is why I took it off. I'll have to look into it again.

For most of these shots, I used my 70 – 200 lens, ISO 1600. Post processed in Lightroom to sharpen and increase blacks.
http://tasramar.com/2010/01/fix-it-in-post-or-not-d149/ Fix it in Post… Or Not (D149) : tasra mar | transform — your images, your albums, your life ™

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