CMR photography

U10 Girls

2011-09-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well I am photographing another season of soccer. And looks as though I have not been very active with my blog sorry about that. Well I should be sharing alot now that all three of my children are now playing soccer. This is U10 girls soccer game 2 yes a bit behind on games as well we recently vacationed in South Dakota don't worry photos soon to come I promise. Well any way here are a few from tonights game enjoy! And yes my daughters team "Orange Crush" won 3-0.

Girls U8 game 7

2010-09-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well they did it again. These girls are very determined they had another victory
1-2. bringing their season to 6-0-1 and remaining undefeated. It surely is a joy having the opportunity to photograph such an energetic team of girls.

Girls U8 game 6

2010-09-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

I know what happened to game 4 and 5 ? Well one was cancelled due to rain and the other well their are no excuses for that other than I had a long day and was just lazy and wanted to see the game without looking thru the eye piece on my camera. Well enough about my poor excuses here is game six. And my daughter's team remains undefeated.

Girls U8 Soccer Game 3

2010-08-31T18:57:00.001-07:00

Here is game three of my daughter's U8 team. They remain undefeated and continue to impress with their hard work and determination.

Girls U8 Soccer Game 2

2010-08-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today was game two of Girls U8 Soccer. These girls gave it there all for this game and impressed everyone watching the game as you will see in these group of photos.

Girls U8 Soccer 2010

2010-08-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Another season of soccer has officially started. My Daughter is playing this year and I of course have to bring my camera and capture every moment. And now for your viewing pleasure I give you U8 girls soccer 2010.

Guests Galore

2010-04-03T16:57:00.000-07:00

I was able to spend a little more time in my blind and photograph some more in my backyard bird habitat with a few new visitors as well as a surprise guest. In the first photo I took a photo of the full view of my setup.

Here is our state bird none other than the robin

These next two birds I do not know looks like I have some research to do.

Here is the surprise guest he decided to get a drink from the pond unfortunately the stick I place in the pond for the birds to perch on got in the way.

And here he/she is again and was a great joy to work with so willing to pose and work it for the camera LOL.

And here is a gold finch enjoying the pond I am really having luck with the pond it is proving to be a great addition to the bird habitat.

First try with the backyard habitat

2010-04-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well I was able to get out today and sit in the blind. I may move it a bit closer as I don't have a lens with substantial reach nor do I have an extender so moving closer is my only option for now. I was hoping to get a shot of the cardinal that was around yesterday but he was a no show oh well perhaps next time. Here are a few photos of what did pay a visit. Now I tried finding the bird species for each photo to the best of my ability so if you see any that I have wrong please do not hesitate to correct me.

1. Sparrow

2. House Finch or Pine Grosbeak (not quite sure)

3. Thinking this may be the female

4. Unknown

5. Mourning Dove

Making my backyard bird habitat

2010-03-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

I said in a recent blog that a backyard bird habitat was going to be one of my future projects. I decided that it would be a good idea to include photos of this from start to finish.

So in this series of photos I will walk you all through what was involved. I decided the best place to set this habitat was at the corner of our yard by one of our lilac trees for a few different reasons they are I needed an area of the yard that tends to go udisturbed by our dog and children.

This area of the yard is off limits due to the garden being there so it should be safe. Another reason is as the sun sets I felt this was a fairly well lit part of the yard in the afternoon.

And of course we do have a frequent visitor that I know the song birds will appreciate the lilac tree as shelter from if he/she decides to pay a visit and that would be a hawk that I have seen from time to time.

In the first three photos you see I dug a shallow hole "I sure wish I was in a part of the state that had sandy soil rather than clay" this did not seem to be as difficult when I was a child digging holes all over my parents lawn. Well what this hole is going to be is a shallow pond for the birds to bath and drink. I could just use a store bought bird bath but what I hope to acheive is as natural looking photos as possible so the birds appear to be in the wild with no enticement.

In this next photo you see the lilac which I hope that the song birds see as a great perching area I think it would be a great prop in my photos but I will have to see. I am also going to do some much needed pruning.

Well I must admit when I got going on this project there was no stopping. So unfortunately I did not photograph as much of the details that I hoped to. I will explain it as best I can. After I had dug the hole I went to the local hardware store and picked up a roll of 10' x 25' 4 mil black plastic ( didn't have shorter length rolls ) it came to just under $20. I then cut it about twice the length of the hole and lined it with the plastic. Then in the last three photos it shows how I placed rocks, logs, branches, and other natural materials along the edges of the pond. Then filled it with water I would say not much more than 6-8 inches deep. Sadly I have been unable to get out in my ground blind to photograph the many birds that have given their approval of this water feature I have built. I hope to get out in the near future and post photos of these birds soon.

A few things on the horizon

2010-03-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been a very long time since I have posted anything. Well spring is well on it's way and I have a few things going on right now.
I am attempting to start flowers and veggies by seed this year for gardening so I hope to photograph the progress of that and share as the season progresses.
Also I have gained inspiration from a fellow wildlife photographer thanks Mike for your very informative blog on your backyard wildlife set up
I am going to be working on my own setup in our backyard to photograph birds that decide to make an appearance. It should be lots of fun and challenging again with this I plan on photographing and sharing on setup and hopefully possitive results as well wish me luck and hope to get blogging again real soon.

My niece's first game of 2009

2009-08-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well I am very excited to be shooting soccer again. Hard to believe it has been a whole year already. Well my son unfortunately did not want to play this year however my niece decided to play and of course I agreed to shoot her games as photographing sports I have found is becoming very addictive.

This is one of my favorites from the game although it is the back of my niece. Her oponents facial expression displaying her determination is priceless.

And this is also a favorite of mine alot of action in this shot and the intensity on the faces says it all.

And had to get in a sportrait as well

I have been fortunate enough to get a few of her face but she plays defense and her back was to me alot more than not. ( if I only had that 300mm or 400mm with an extender for when she is on the other end of the field) OH Well all in good time

Thanks for looking

Chad

Thousand Islands Enviromental Center

2009-08-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well I met up with three other photographers at Thousand Islands Enviromental Center. I really enjoyed spending time with them and seeing just how much work a portrait photographer has to do. Well I did not take part in trying to get a handle on portrait photography although this seemed to be a place that offered great scenes for it. I instead stuck with my comfort zone and photographed wildlife.

Here I took a shot of some of the terrain Mike and myself had endured to get much closer to the wildlife than the board walk would allow.

I must say out of the entire day this is my most favorite I just love how the sun is shining in and highlighting the tree and the outline of this doe.

And here is another doe she was accompanied by her two fawn which you will see in the other three photos after this one.

I honestly can say I have never been this close to deer before it was unbelievable how they just accepted the fact that we were there and just went about there buisiness as if we were not even there.

Thanks for looking

Chad

Softball

2009-06-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

This week I had the pleasure of photographing my first softball game. I made a few mistakes but over all I am very happy with the way my pictures tuned out. In the first three images only the first one was taken during the game. The other two were taken in between innings while they were warming up.

And here is where my mistakes took place. One of the most important things in sports photography is capturing the faces showing the intensity of the athelete. And as you can see I did not do this in these last two shots. She was playing first base when playing the field so I positioned myself just passed the dugout on the third base side. Now I read MANY times that for shooting batters if they are right handed you should be in the same area as I was for shooting her in the field only I should have been on the first base side of the field. Now I will definately remember this for the next time.

Thanks for looking

Chad

Another Attempt Out Of My Element

2009-05-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Well This past weekend I tried another part of photography that is not my normal everyday stuff. I tried a little portrait style work that I once did in the begining of my interest in photography but then didn't really like it or the results so much. But here I go again trying it once more though I would not want to do this all the time. These are my two nieces and I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. The first image obviously is posed. But in the second shot it is completely candid she was looking the other way and I just called out her name and when she swung around I took the shot that is my all time favorite.

Motion Blur

2009-05-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

This week another photographer challenged everyone on the photo forum I am a member of to try something new. To read up on a new part of photography that we have never tried b-4. I recently read in the June issue of Pop Photo about creating motion blur with your camera. These images are all straight out of camera (SOOC) other than resizing for the web and the frame and signature on them. This has proven to be alot of fun and I am definately going to contiue experimenting with this.

Birds Galore

2009-05-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today I again spent several hours out in the WLR I know big surprize. I am begining to wonder if maybe I should have my mail sent out there instead as it feels I am there much more than I am home. My main goal for today was to capture a shot of a new bird I have stumbled across in the marsh the other day when I did not have my camera along rule #1 always have your camera.Luckily this was not a lesson learned and I was able to spot one out again it is named the Sora (pictured below). My other challenge was to get as close as possible to the Pelican's which is a challenge in itself but I was able to get a half way decent shot with significant cropping to the image so getting closer still poses as a challeng to me.

1. Sora

2. This is either the Common Tern or the Forster's Tern not sure

3. American White Pelican

4. Yellow Goldfinch

5,6,and 7. Tree Swallow

8. Killdeer

Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed

Chad

Out Of My Rut

2009-05-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

Ever since my prairie chicken trip I have found myself in a rut. I took a large number of photos none of which I was even slightly happy with. Today I set out to get back into the swing of things so I loaded up my camera, two oldest children along with my two nieces and set out once again to the Horicon Marsh. As you can see I ended up with a few shots that I am pretty pleased with.

Here I photographed two Tern's one that is sitting on top of a muskrat den. I am unsure if this is a nesting spot or not I do know that the Canada geese nest on the tops of these dens so I will have to keep watching to see if the Tern does as well.
The other was flying around doing amazing dives into the water to retrieve tiny fish to eat I did photograph this but it was a bit out of focus so I did not include it in this series.

And as mentioned the Canada goose. Here is a pair that has had there goslins and boy are they cute but be warned don't get to close cause the parents are very protective of there young and they grab hold and twist I have not experienced this myself but have seen it happen.

And last but not least the barn swallow. This one was hanging around the floating bridge sitting on the rope railing so I took a shot. I was trying to get a shot of a tree swallow but this was just fine perhaps this weekend I will get to photograph one.

Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed

Chad

Prairie chickens

2009-04-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Today my wife and I joined up with friends of ours to watch the booming of prairie chickens. This species is threatened in Wisconsin. And it is in the efforts of the DNR to increase the population and bring back this once abundent bird. My good friend works for the DNR and provided access to one of the VIP blinds that the DNR has placed on the booming grounds of the Buena Vista Reserve. I can not begin to describe how amazing this opportunity was and that I hope I have this chance again in the near future. In these first group of photos depicts how the males defend there territories and if they cross into others boundries things can get quite physical.

What this photo shows is the booming call the males make they puff out their cheeks and make a very interesting sound.

Now in these next two photos you will see we had a surprise visitor hanging around trying to make a meal out of the males but was unsuccessful and flew off.

The shots didn't turn out to well but I felt the need to share. I believe this to be an owl after viewing the photo once I uploaded it to the pc.

And now things get very interesting as a hen (female) moves in and stood where three males territories met What a tease.

Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed

Chad

The Early Bird Catches The Worm

2009-03-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I decided to set out before sunrise. And much to my surprise it was well worth it. It is great to see that the marsh has regained life and my walks will now be full of photographic opportunities once again.

Now for these next two they are the same exact picture except for the first one is straight out of camera (sooc) other than cropping and framing for post and the second I played with exposure levels, colors, temps, and hue's I still am undecided as to which I like more. This is a problem as I really like the photo and would like to have this printed and framed.

The Marsh Has Life Again

2009-03-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my daughter and I set off to walk thru the marsh as temps. reached 70 degrees. And there was so much to see and photograph Unlike my walk a while back. Here are a few photos of wildlife we had observed along the trails.

Volleyball

2009-03-06T10:29:00.001-08:00

Well here is a sequence of shots I took at this weeks games. I must say other photographers were right this is a very tough sport to photograph as the action is very fast.

Trying out my new lens

2009-02-23T16:34:00.000-08:00

Well I went out today in hopes to capture some good wildlife shots with my new lens. That turned into a big disappointment as the only living thing that had seemed to be out in the wildlife refuge was me. So I had to find ways of entertaining myself on the 3½ mile hike.
Here are some results I know it doesn’t really give any indication on how well the lens is working for me but they are pictures all the same.

Good News This Week

2009-02-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

Well my wife always amazes me. Aside from getting her acceptance letter into one of the states top Grad Schools this week. She and another woman were talking about pictures. And it was brought up how interested I am in sports photography. Now this woman and her husband are interested in having me photograph there daughter playing girls middle school volleyball. After waiting nearly two weeks (seemed like forever) I now have the approval to photograph this, had to go thru the coach,principal,and school administrator. I could not believe all that just to take pictures with parents permission WOW! However I did bring this up with two other sports photographers that are already in the "Game" One of them did assure me that this is standard procedure as schools tend to be very cautious as far as liability issues are concearned. Which is why I of course do have rules to follow for one I cannot solicit my photos at the school while I am there (no biggy wasn't planning to) not my style. I sure hope though that I do spark the interest of other parents looking to break thru the more traditional posed sports portraits and rather get photos of their child(ren) in action playing the sport(s) they love.

Well thanks for your support

Chad

Birds

2009-01-31T16:14:00.000-08:00

Well today I set out with another photographer that I met on the photography forum I frequent. Our intentions were to get some good shots of the eagles that are there along the Fox river fishing often. We had no luck as the weather got warmer this past week and opened the river further giving them more area to fish. This pretty much ended our chances of getting close to them. So I wasn't about to go home after 2 hours of drive time round trip empty handed so here are a few photos I ended up with of birds that were cooperating.

And here is what we are thinking is a paper mill across the river My black and white conversions are little to be desired as I need to get better at those with practice.

Mourning The Morning Bitterness

2009-01-18T12:26:00.000-08:00

We had lots of visitors in one of our Ironwood trees today I could not even begin to count how many were actually there These are a few shots I took. I’m sure most of you know but for those that may not these are mourning doves

My next attempt

2009-01-11T17:17:00.000-08:00

Well here is my second attempt at lunar photo's. I am pleasantly pleased with these. As I made some adjustments on my camera settings proves to be just what was needed

Moon

2009-01-10T18:58:00.000-08:00

Well after several failed attempts of photographing the moon showing it's detail I finally got something that I am happy with although not completely satisfied I will be experimenting with this continuously.With help from fellow photographers in the forum I frequent and A website(Link below) I now better understand how I will beable to eventually gain better photos. So I grow impatient til the next time I get to try this again

Here is a link to the web site CLICK HERE

My Fish Tank

2008-11-23T22:08:00.000-08:00

As promissed here is the photos of my aquarium and some of the fish it holds. In the first photo is a full view of my 55 gallon aquarium.

Here is a photo of a female Baenshi peacock (sp)

And this is the male they are proven breeders so hopefully as time goes on I will have a growing population in my tank

And last but not least this is my OB Zebra

Chad>

Update

2008-11-14T16:58:00.000-08:00

Well I just realized that it has been over a month that I had done any posting on my blog. Though I had made changes to it colors,layout changes,etc. I was thinking although I haven't really had much time to photograph and post photos I should actually keep people updated on things that are going on considering I do have three followers YEAH!!!
Thanks Jim, Sara and Dave now I feel SPECIAL :) And for anyone else looking DEFINITELY check out Jim, Sara and Dave's blogs they are very talented photographers that offer me help whenever I ask and their blogs will show you just how lucky I am to have them coaching me in my learning photography. I also added a few other links to others that have helped me as well have a look trust me you will not be disappointed. You will also notice I have a link to an online Cichlid forum although I am not a member of this forum I do frequent it for Ideas and knowledge. I am a Cichlid enthusiast for those of you that don't know what a Cichlid is it is an aquarium fish there are over 1,200 species and I recently added to my 55 gallon aquarium now having a total of 13 two of which are a proven breeding pair and I believe the yellow labs that I have as well at least one is a female cause my males are getting very territorial which they had never done before but I will have to wait and see as the ones I had just acquired are to young to determine the sex. I am working on photographing my aquarium and fish I hope to have those posted shortly.

Thanks for looking

Chad

Shots of my son

2008-09-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Here are two shots of my son. I am going to have the second one made into a wall Cling for his bedroom. A wall cling is a life size sticker that can be put on the wall and removed and reapplied without leaving any marks.

Flowers

2008-09-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

As you can imagine along with all the wildlife that I see in the Marsh there are also lots of flowers to enjoy along the trails as well. Here is another angle I tried with this flower shooting up to bring the sky and clouds in as the background notice the dramatic feel this gives the photo.
I was just playing around in photoshop (PS) with different frame designs and liked the look of this one.

Birds

2008-09-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well what can I say I spend alot more time in the Horicon Marsh Wildlife Refuge than I would like to admit.But upon viewing these images that show what I see everytime I am out walking the hiking trails can you blame me. Here are various birds I come across on my frequent trips.

Soccer

2008-09-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

My son played U10 soccer this year and with lots of help from a few great action sports photographers I think my level of shooting sports well soccer anyways has improved greatly.

Fireworks

2008-09-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

This year I thought it would be neat to try and photograph fireworks. I must admit I didn't think they would turn out as well as they did seeing this was the first time I had ever attempted to photograph them.