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cheers

Brad

Church with the 5d2

I got to test out the 5d mark 2 tonight at my church's easter vigil mass. My first vigil was when i converted to Catholicism 9 years ago, and ive gone to every one since (mostly because my dad is part of RCIA and he has to be there). Last year i took photos, and this year they were excited to have me back. It was harder then i expected, it was very fast paced and people were in my way alot, thus not so good pics. The camera works great too. ISO 6400 is the greatest invention ever, and everyone needs to invest in a camera that can do it.

Panorama

ISO 6400 FTW!!!

*All images copyright Brad Meyer

4 days until full frame goodness

India Night

Tonight i shot Vinay performing at India Night tonight. It was part of his gift for a GD project we had to do. His performance was really cool and interesting. I was shooting at iso 3200 (NOISE) and now there is a ton of jpeg artifacting these pictures, but oh well. I wish i had my new camera for this shoot, it would have come out so much better, but ill have to wait one more week.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer

Ebertfest fanatic

I went out to Urbana today to take pictures of this 90 year old lady who has been to every Ebertfest. She was extremely nice and it was fun to shoot her and bust out some off camera lighting. Sadly, the story is not gonna run in the paper, and it seems whenever i take portraits of someone with off camera lighting, it flops, argh.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

Concert from friday

Last friday night on break i was bored and decided to go to the Rosaline show. It was pretty good, im kinda bummed i missed the first few bands. I shot Rosaline, Cadence, and Dorians Decay. All of em were good and you should check em out. Im happy with my results considering the show was in a cafeteria.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer

Trip to Chicago

Me, Ned, and Dean went to Chicago for the day to shoot. We walked around for 8 hours and my ankle is now paying for it. We walked 3 miles to Calumet, payed 8 bucks for a mediocre burger, hung out at the bean, and road the subway. It was a good day, im just mad the sun never made it out.

A shot i took first then Ned and Dean proceeded to steal the same shot. Im indecisive on the color balance of the photo, and/or whether it should be Black and White.

American Gothic statue

Bean shot with some off camera flash

Using the Bean as a reflector for my flash so i could light Dean from the side.

Ned suggested we eat at the Billy Goat Tavern. The burger was not worth 8 bucks.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer

Track Practice

I stopped by the high school today to shoot some track practice. Weather wasnt looking to good, and the pole vaulters were not gonna jump, but i persuaded the coach to let them so i could get some shots in. I magic armed my camera to a pole to get some over head shots of them planting.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer

Big 10 tournament day 1

I just got done going through all my photos of tonights game. We beat Michigan which means i get to shoot tomorrow against purdue (i just found that out). I set up a remote camera and got alright results, nothing spectacular and hopefully i know what to tweak so i get more and better images tomorrow from that. Also i didnt shoot as well because the first half i was placed in a spot i dont like to shoot from. Now we just gotta find a hotel to stay in for the night.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

Unofficial

Last weekend was unofficial, and it was probably the most fun i have had shooting. I planned to stop shooting around noon to participate in the holiday, but the day just got more interesting taking pictures and i didnt stop shooting. I made it into a ton of parties and met so many people, it was a blast. I cant wait for next years to take more photos.

*all images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

last basketball game of the season

i shot the last regular season Illini basketball game tonight against Michigan State. It was a bummer we lost but our score was really close to them most of the time, hopefully in the tournament we come out on top. I set up Trevor's camera remotely underneath the hoop. The shots came out extremely soft and i think its because i wasn't shooting raw and the cameras noise reduction screwed them up. I also shot with a tilt/shift lens for a bit, it was sweet but takes some getting used to. Those images didnt come out exactly like i wanted. Im gonna miss getting free food at the games until next season starts.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

Daily Herald here i come

So today i got a call from the Daily Herald saying they want me as one of their interns for the summer. Of course i accepted it. I figured i would not have gotten it because ive only been shooting for the Daily Illini for a semester and a half and that im not a journalism major. Its unpaid which is a bummer, and i have to drive an hour to get their, but im so excited to take photos all summer and hopefully get a lot better. 

celebrating mardi gras with champaign police and not my friends

On tuesday night i got the privilege to join Champaign Police on several bar checks through out the mardi gras night. Riding around on the Patty-Wagon was great and the cops were hilarious and never stopped cracking jokes. The night was really interesting, i got threatened a couple times and called an asshole quite a bit. I felt like a bit of a jerk, but its part of the job i guess. This was probably the toughest shooting conditions ive been in, shooting at night in terrible lighting. Auto focus was not working well that night.

A slideshow consisting of mine and Brennan's, a fellow photog a the DI, can be viewed here.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

wrestling

I shot wrestling for the first time last night. It seemed a lot less interesting and face paced to when i wrestled in 7th grade. I got kinda bored towards the end because its really redundant, and there was only 1 pin out of the whole meet. I really need to keep on on posting everything i shoot, but ive just been so busy with work its hard to keep up.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

Rosaline promo shots

I made it up to Chicago saturday night to shoot some promo shots for Rosaline. The guys were really cool and were pretty good models (the best ive had). I wish i had a little bit more space to try some more lighting set ups out, but those will be for another day. Also, i wish i had some soft-boxes instead of umbrellas, but oh well.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer

Tennis (is not my favorite sport to shoot)

Tonight was my first night shooting tennis, and after a couple minutes of being their, i was not having fun. The 20D was just not cutting it with its 5 frames per second. I really wanted a 1D mark II(I) the whole time. Also, lighting is terrible, but extremely soft because all the lights point UP towards the ceiling? Also i got yelled at by the officials for moving around to much during the games, and for being to close to the "playing area" and had to move 3 feet to my left. I making a mental note to myself to try and retire from tennis matches, or at least untill i have a camera that shoots 9+ frames a second.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

remote camera shooting

I woke up way to early today to get a camera up behind the backboard for the basketball game. I didnt have a magic arm, so my camera position wasnt the greatest, but some random guy let me borrow his extra one. I fired off about 300 shots on the remote camera, and only got 1 useable image. Even though i got only one shot, i am super happy and proud about it. We threw it up on AP and its already been picked up by one other paper, and hopefully a couple others. and i just bought my own magic arm so i can do a lot more of these shoots.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini

protraits and such

Today i had to wake up early to go take portraits of the new dean for graduate students. I was excited for this because i could finally put my off camera strobe and umbrella to use for work. im really happy with how they came out because i did them in about 15 minutes. In the afternoon i got to take a tour of the new (and only) supermarket on campus. It opens soon and they were getting it ready by stocking shelves and assembling some final things.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer the Daily Illini

what a week(end)

This weekend i had to shoot 3 sporting events, Track, Wheelchair Basketball, and Gymnastics. Track was alright, im made i missed polevaulting and all the other field events. I got a sweet picture of a runner crossing the finish line. Wheelchair basketball was probably the hardest sport i have ever shot, its much different then regular basketball. And today i shot inside the power plant here on campus. It was extremly cool taking the tour around everything, i even made it on top of the roof. It was a bad idea wearing my white sweatshirt tho, soot was everywhere.

*All images copyright Brad Meyer and the Daily Illini