Running at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
Ever since I moved back to Colorado…I have been wanting to shoot at Garden of the Gods. Its way south of Denver….maybe an hour and half, but it seemed so far away. Anyway I had some pressure to get back out and shot some sportrature, so this was at the top of my list. I went out and scouted the location a day before the shoot, and was blown away by these amazing rock formations. It was breathtaking to say the least. I drove every road in the park, and looked at every view point on the map. I drove around, hiked a few trails, and then went up. Straight up in fact,…..walked off the road and went up the side of the mountain….and there it was…a great spot to shoot at!!!! This was one of the only locations from the positions I wanted to shoot at, that worked for my needs. Most of the land around Garden of the Gods has thick scrubs and its difficult to see through them, so this was truly one of the only clear spots.
Call time for everyone to meet up in Denver was 3:30 am. And to me, thats way too early, but to get the shot that’s the time we needed to leave. So once we hit the road, we arrived at Garden of the Gods at around 5:00am. We had to hike up the mountain in the dark, which is always fun. Hard to see anything, freezing cold, but we made it. I set up fast, and got a minute or two to relax before the sun came up. Once it started to hit the rock formations, everything came together and worked out fine.
Shot details: f/6.3; 1/125 sec; ISO 400; 5616×3744 Pixels
Focal Length 34mm; EF17-40mm f/4L USM
Camera Details: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
This was the first time I used some of my new Hoodman gear. It was great!!!! I ended up using the HoodLoupe 3.0 Glare Free LCD viewing loop. For the first time in a long time, I had no trouble viewing the images on the camera. This little tool made a big difference, and will be used by me, for most every shoot. This was a big surprise that it worked so well, and made my life a little easier. Which we all need on photoshoots……so a big hit in my eyes!!!
Another piece of equipment used for the first time was the RAW 675X UDMA 6 Hoodman 8 GB CompactFlash Professional 500,00 Cycle Cards. Hoodman sent out a tons of these cards, and it was used for the first time. So I guess I have only 499,999 more formats on that card…..which will take me sometime to get to….but I’m on my way. I have nothing but great things to say about the cards….and that only seems right. They were fast in the camera, and my download of 8 gigs took no time at all. These little guys are getting so fast. I will be testing out some of the equipment soon, then posting the results as they come in.
Behind the Scenes!!!!!!
I will be posting a behind the scenes from this photoshoot. It was an early morning….3:30am call time, and we did a cool video to go along with this shoot. I should be posting it soon, within the next week. The video was completed by Deanna Washington Photography located in Georgia. Link to her site. Its around 3 minutes long and shows what goes into my shoots : )
Model: Kari White- What a pleasure it was working with her. Nothing was impossible….and I look forward to working with Kari again!!!